From Boredom to Craziness

After the sweet time out with the foreigners last weekend, this last week seemed pretty boring. I think it also had to do with the fact that I'm probably getting a cold, or something else that fucks with my sinuses and throat and makes me feel like crap. Then the weekend came. Ahhh.

Japanese lesson Friday night
Japanese UNO Saturday morn:
This is NOT like American UNO, although you use the same cards and you still try to play all your cards before the other person.

basketball Saturday afternoon:
It turned out I was the only person that actually played basketball "regularly" and everyone just wanted to see me dunk. I got to shoot around for a bit and it was nice to interact with the @ers again. I also helped teach some junior high students how to play. One of the Kobe-@ers took a picture of us and I think it's going in some paper. Yippea! I finished the night with a late dinner with the @ers.

Shinkansen to Tokyo:
I woke up at 6AM to catch the trains from Itami to Shin-Osaka. The Shinkansen is the 'bullet train' for those unfamiliar. It was very comfortable and I fell asleep in no time. I finally arrived in Tokyo at 11AM. The boss' daughter, Yuri, picked me up. When I first arrived I didn't think Tokyo Station was that much crazier than Osaka Station. Then we walked, and walked, and walked for a good 20 minutes in one direction, and were still in the freaking station! And this was just to change trains!

Tour of Tokyo
Yuri took me all over downtown Tokyo, including Akihabara. Akihabara is THE famous electronics town. I was so close to buying a laptop for under $600, but I didn't. I figured missing Egypt isn't worth a 'new' computer. Yuri then took me to her campus. For some reason I can't remember the name of the university, but it is very famous. It's not Tokyo Univerisity and it starts with a W... We finally ended up at Tokyo Harbor. This is a very famous dating spot. The Madison Terrace doesn't come close to this. I was very shocked upon arrival as there is a Statue of Liberty in the harbor. How many more of these things are around? Did France get a deal for buying in bulk? Anyways, the tour turned into a min-date. BTW I think dating in Japan is a lot different than the US, but that's another topic. As we were walking around, my ADD saw a huge tower (surprising, I know). It turned out to be an amusement ride very similar to Giant Drop at Great America. We went on, I crapped my pants and had a huge smile on my face the rest of the night. We finally went to an 'aracade' and took our picture in one of those booth things. Then we went to dinner at a nice Italian restaraunt. I finally ended up at my hotel room around midnight, exhausted.

Tokyo Motor Show

I am too tired to review this grande event. I charged my phone completely the night before and I ran out of batteries from taking so many pictures. It was sweet.

There's an imposter among us

I felt like googling my blogger name and came up with this guy. On the Japanese google I couldn't even find that. It turns out bruhaha is a common german word. I guess I just assumed Burke made it up. Afterall, he did come up with it at like 4AM completely tanked while smoking shisha in a moving car. Wrong again!

AIESEC eXperience

I am subscribed to many forums on aiesec.net, including quality exchange. I have been very interested in quality since going to my first international conference in Venezuela. At the time I was Madison's VPOGX. Madison had 3 exchanges the entire year before I joined. We had no trainees. We were virtually starting from scratch. The main priority, as told to me, was exchange. Afterall, how can an organization like AIESEC survive and be considered legitimate if we aren't exchanging people. No one in our LC at the time, including me, had any experience with even matching someone, TN or SN. I took it upon myself to research what traineeships were available, and who we should start recruiting on campus. At this time, QXB (Quality Exchange Board) was still in the beginning stages of development and the DAAL files were not reliable.

To my astonishent, there were a TON of TN forms that I considered rediculous. The job pay was extremely low, the work was beyond tedious, and the form still required at the person to at least have graduated from a 4-year program. Since I was pretty much the only one that was looking into this, I just steared my LC away from these forms and pushed, what I considered better quality traineeships. We got 4 exchanges in the first half of the year. Then one trainee got the 'token' traineeship in India. Another got a similar one in Brazil. So much for that idea. Then a member of our LC, Bizzo, decided to find his own traineeship. He found an English teaching traineeship in Thailand. It seemed a little sketchy to me, so I told him. I made sure that he knew that it may not be the best work environment, or even job, but that he should make the most of the experience. He just finished his first year. It turned out the job was, a little sketchy, but he had a blast. The AIESECers there helped him and I know he would never trade that experience.

I am bringing this up because a little over 24 hours ago on the quality exchange community, a debate began about whether two traineeships raised in China was worthy of AIESEC's time (TN-In-CN-RU-2005-1004/1003). In this time period over 40 people from around the world have posted. Some people are saying that AIESEC should not take traineeships, such as bag handlers. Others say that the LC is just starting so these traineeships are a first step through the door. I agree with both statements, each under specific cercumstances. Both sides make good arguments, but I belive the bigger debate should be focused on one thing: EXPECTATIONS. That first semester as VP proves that expectations are what determine the quality of the traineeship. If the SN is expecting this awesome job, and they get a good one instead, there's a letdown. The exchange is weak. On the other hand, if a person is expecting the job to be kind of tedious and underachieving and they find out it is, the is no letdown and the trainee is allowed to fully experience their surroundings. The exchange is beautiful.

For me, it really hit home as my LC just went against our members wishes for the last 2 years and switched to common induction, AKA SNs are not called members. To me, as I've said many times, this solves no problems and only creates bigger ones. Quality exchange is not done because a person that calls themself an AIESECer goes on it. The quality exchange is done when the trainee is given the correct expecations of what their traineeship is about AND the company is given the correct expecations of what services AIESEC and the trainee will provide. Right now I am a trainee and AIESECer; they are not the same thing. Great trainees are not always AIESECers. A great trainee just has to be a person that wants to learn about a new culture, spread their own, and do their job. AIESECers take pride in raising traineeships. Why should a person that is already working at least full time in a completely new environment have the responsibily/EXPECTATION to re-raise their traineeship. Should they help, yes. Will they already be helping re-raise the traineeship by just being a great trainee, yes. Also, the trainee is the last line to re-raising the job. If the trainee believes the job should not be re-raised, then gosh darn it, it better not be re-raised. The low REPAR rates have very little to do with trainees being called AIESECers. We are raising bad jobs and giving SNs bad expectations. This is what needs to be changed. Whether a trainee is called an AIESECer or not does not solve either of the two issues.

This also means the switch to Common Induction, yes common induction not common recruitment, is not a step backwars, merely a step to the side. I am still in support of my LC and I believe it will do fine in the future.

copy of a copy of a copy

if these sleep habits keep up, there's going to be a Fight Club Japan in about a month.

Bowling

Bowling
Originally uploaded by mjbruni.

This one's from last weekend's English lesson. The guys are actually my age, so we had a good time. The bowling place made it extra fun by making the bowling alley randomly go pitch black and then turn on black lights. The fun part was that whoever the next bowler is on each lane has one ball to get a strike. If they get it, they win a prize. The guy with the lei on, did just that. We bowled three games and later in the middle of the third game, I got the chance. I also got the strike. The third guy never got a chance. The prize was this little plastic, animated dude that's shorter than my pinky. It's hilarious. I will take a phone pic of it soon. I think it's also funnier because the place makes you wait for like 5 minutes in anticipation for your one throw. You get the strike and you jump up in the air and then they hand you this little kid's prize, put a lei around your neck and make you hold up your index finger for a photo. Somehow, it's not a letdown. Oh, and they had sweet bowling ball costumes that you could put on to take pictures with. Unfortunately, we got yelled at trying to put them on and bowl with them.

is it in the water? No, just the season

Yesterday I decided to get out of work early and visit Kobe University. The @ers invited me to attend a 'party' for all of the foreign exchange students. Since I really have only talked Japanese people since arriving, I thought this would be a good event to attend. It turns out that the @ers really wanted me there to recruit SNs. I didn't have a problem with this either. It turned out it was one of those forced meeting events that some crazy organization puts on so that people can meet other people; you know, the ones that most Americans skip. I decided to make the most of my time and talked to people. It was funny because I started talking to all Japanese people. Afterall, they are foreign to me. ;-) A couple @ers reminded me that in Japan, Japanese people are not foreigners, so I moved on to some other people. I met some guys from Denmark and Sweden who then invited me out to a bar after the 'party.' I also met a guy from Hungary who stopped going to school in Hungary, got a scholarship to study in Japan, has lived here all of last year to learn Japanese, as he knew none before coming and now he's studying at Kobe. Oh yeah, I also found out he was an AIESECer. I introduced him to one of the Kobe @ers and they setup a meeting. Bruhaha-1, world-0.

Then I met an Aussie who, in true Hitchhiker's fashion, I totally blew it with. Bruhaha-1, World-1. I'll live with the tie.

travel half way around the world and land 20 years before I was born

I don't remember how much I've written about this, but i know I've thought about it awhile. To me, Japan is almost exactly like the US in the '50s and '60s. Most families are still supported by one person, most likely the male. As Sakit said, sex is not talked about, but the younger generation is learning about it through the media. Anyone remember Elvis? New J-Pop stars are pushing the envelope the same way. Most people I've talked to always point out the high point of the Japanese economy in the '90s, just like people in the US pointed to the Golden Days before WWII. Variety shows are the most popular television, although I think this may be early '70s USA, but still similar time period. The most popular comedians do very similar performances as Abbott and Costello. Everyone spends ginormous time at their jobs and company pride is highly valued. It's even very common for all employees at every business to wear company uniforms, not just service jobs.

Possible differences:
It is very uncommon for Japanese people to support eachother. there are no neighborhood barbeques or get-togethers. Sports in the '50s and '60s USA were HUGE. Not in Japan, although, baseball is very popular and everyone at least knows a little abit of what's going on with the game. this could be a similarity, except that during this time in the US, sports became apart of every Americans life. With the value of sports, working people became more involved in their communities. also, people in the '50s and '60s USA started getting very involved in politics. It does seem that Japanese people know about what's going on, especially internationally, but they don't seem to get involved. Japan doesn't have a space program.

Possible similarity: The Mafia; I have heard it is pretty large in Japan, although I have not see any activity personally.

Wink, wink

On Friday, my boss informed me that I could not go to the Tokyo Motor Show with the company. He then asked if I still wanted to go. I said yes. He thought about it for awhile, then asked the big guy if I could take a day of vacation to go to The Show. The big guy said yes. So now I'm heading to the show October 30 and 31.

Then, as I'm getting ready to leave, my other big boss, the one with the cute daughter that goes to college in Tokyo, comes over to my desk with a little smile on his face. I look at Kato, my immediate boss, and he has the same smirk on his face. I ask what's up. The big boss explains that Tokyo can be very confusing and that I shouldn't go there alone. OK... He goes on and finally asks if it's alright if his daughter picks me up at the train station and gives me a tour of Tokyo. I figured it would look bad if I turned it down, so I said yes. Kato then booked the hotel room.

I think this blows last Halloween out of the water and it hasn't even come yet.

cultural differences

Yesterday I met with the Toyo Girls+ICX newbie. We went to Osaka for a Kyoto pasta special. The dinner quickly broke into separate gender conversations. I talked with the male ICX newbie about cars and racing; the girls talked about ... whatever it is that girls seem to talk about for ages. One of the gals came up with the great idea of putting together a mini-AIESEC newspaper specifically about Toyo's traineeship. Obviously, I would have to be at least a small center-piece to an article. We started talking about AIESEC, and then, gender differences.

The girls decided to ask me(for the paper, of course ;-) ),"What is the difference between American and Japanese women?" ...... LOADED QUESTION .....

My answer: NOTHING. That's right, there is no difference between American and Japanese women. They act the same. They worry about the same things. They always wear what is fashionable at the specific time and place. They have the same insecurities. I could not think of one difference.

On the other hand, I made some comments on how I thought Japanese and American men were different. The girls thought all of this was preposterous, but had many a laugh trying to understand what I was saying.

Here's my short list of the things that make me, a pretty average American male, different than the average Japanese male:

1. I don't wear a purse. I still have no idea what they carry in these things.
2. I don't flick my wrist limply back and forth to fan myself in public, whether the hand is including a pretty fan or not. I HAVE done this in Japan, but it felt really weird.
3. I don't carry an umbrella everywhere I go. It does rain at least 70% of the time, but the amount of time you are outside without something already above your head is less than 2%. My house is 500 ft from the train station and the restaurant is attached to the next station. No one could understand why I didn't carry an umbrella. 500 FEET!!!

Now, I'm not saying any of this is bad; it's just different. These are the 3 hardest things for me to adjust to in being a male in Japan. OK, now I would like to lay down the next possible difference between Japan and America.

Japanese people are MORE COMPETETIVE than Americans. Honestly. In America, because of all the 'macho men' there are many that counter this competetive attitude. Not in Japan. Everyday at every break, every lunch, every everything, the Japanese play Junke(Rock, Paper, Scissors). I have never seen such exuberance at such a simple game. You have to see their faces; it's like the person just had a hernia, an appendectomy, and a colonoscopy all at the same time. And everyone remembers how everyelse has done for the last forever. It's craziness.

awakening

so i just woke up from my nap wondering why I'm so fucking cold. I look at my alarm clock (which has the room temperature on it) and it clearly shows the room is cooler than I have my air conditioner set to. I stare at the clock for at least a minute. I roll over. CRUNCH. I was laying on the controller that senses the temperature. HA!

The meeting with the @women better go a little better than that.

on a cycle

I've finally got a sleep cycle down; too bad it doesn't agree with the rest of my schedule. I work till 7ish, eat, work out till 10:30ish, eat again, be wide awake till 2am, and finally go to sleep. I need to somehow switch that working out in the evening to running in the morning... i don't think that's going to happen.

The Tokyo Motor Show starts next week Friday. My company has a booth there. I talked to my boss and it looks like I'm going. This will be my first motor show and my first time in Tokyo. I'm a little excited.

it is getting late once again

i found a $2000 ticket from tokyo to cairo. Problem: I live over 9 hours away from tokyo and the train ticke there will add up to too expensive. I think I'll be calling some airlines up personally in the next couple weeks. It'd also be cool to have a traveling buddy....

Warming Up

I think I should write an entire entry BEFORE i publish it. Obviously I could delete it, but fuck it.

Yesterday, I went to USJ (Universal Studios Japan). It was my English lesson. I have never been to the one in the US, so it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of beautiful scenery. The studio looked nice too. I was extra excited because USJ was celebrating Halloween. HAHA. I tried explaining this purely American tradition to some Japanese people before. It didn't work too well. Halloween seems like it should fit in nicely with Japanese tradition, but for some reason, it does not. Also, USJ did not get any help from their US partners. The first performance I witness is a J-pop performance with dancers dressed as traditionally scaring Halloween characters smiling. I tried taking a short video of the performance, but apparently the video is only able to play on my own phone. Next we went Spiderman. We waited in line for at least 2.5 hours. Because of the horrible translations from Japanese to English, I was told it was a small hyper-coaster. WOW. No. You see, roller coasters are called hyper-coasters. The only semblence to a roller coaster was the seating. It was still sweet. It ended up being a 3D movie. To be honest that thing twirled around so many times I had no clue where we were going. This was my first experience with 3D and moving. A couple times it really felt like I was falling, but we weren't ;-). Afterwards we checked out the waiting board and saw that the next coolest ride had another 2.5 hour wait. I made the decision to let that one go till later and go for the less traveled route: Peppermint Patty's Stunt Slide.

Peppermint Patty and her Slide
Originally uploaded by mjbruni.

The one person who has been to USJ before said she's never gone on the slide and that it's for little kids. I am a little kid SO we went. It turned out that slides were semi-water slides. You were provided a tube, but the ride was propelled by water and many signs said,'Beware You May Get Wet.' It was late, as we entered at 3PM to get discounted tickets, and we were all wearing normal clothes. Everyone else started worrying, but I didn't care. I'm never coming here again, so live it up. My enthusiasm for the kids ride finally caught on and all of us ended up trying it out. It was sweet; more for the fact of doing it, though, than the actual thrill. I took a picture of my wet pants. It doesn't do justice. We ended the night on Jurrasic Park the Ride. It is just a simple waterfall drop in a 'wooden boat' that makes a huge splash. This was my first time on one of these rides. It did scare the shit out of me at night as I could barely see anything as we plunged down right before a T-rex ate us.

The night didn't end there. Since the company was helping pay for the trip, one of the guys thought it would be a good idea to go to the Hard Rock Cafe. Good call. There was a wedding going on upstairs so I got to see a little bit of what it's like to get married in Japan. Also, unlike USJ, the HRC knew what Halloween was. All of the wait staff were in sweet costumes. I took a video of them singing Happy Birthday to someone. I was very impressed. I also washed down the Mt. Fuji double bacon cheeseburger with an AL slammer, Jameson on the rocks and a Jack and Coke. Great ending to a great day. This is probably the reason why today has been so hard for me to function in the morning. ;-)

busy

i have been thinking way too much this last week. It's been 10 days for an entry. I'm learning some Japanese and am comfortable speaking what I know. I still feel weird going somewhere by myself though. I don't know enough to talk or understand enough while listening. So this leaves a lot of time by myself. I've been trying to be productive, but it's short lived. I am missing the craziness in Madison. Last semester in school, all i wanted was to get a break from it. Now i have a huge break. It feels wonderful to be able to get back in shape, work 40+ hours a week, learn a foreign language, etc, but somehow I still feel bored. I've also been living on a maximum of 6 hours of sleep and am feeling fine. I guess that means I'm over mono.

I think my hardest part is wanting to do what I used to always do when I got bored: help the Madison LC. I'm even participating in fantasy sports again to pass the time. The problem with this is that I'm staying pretty connected with the US. My sleep schedule on the weekends is still rediculous because I stay up watching college football till at least 6am, then go to my english lesson in the afternoon for 6+ hours, come home and 'watch' the nfl. Now hockey started and I'm following this. Alsok, partially because of working on Toyo's racing team, partially because I just love racing, I have been following NASCAR and the NHRA. Notice how none of this is Japanese. In fact, the local baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers, you know the team that Ichiro played for, is in the playoffs.

I forgot how to relax. I'm going to a 'hot spring' this next weekend; I have to.

Days of Thunder

I loved that movie. Does anyone have it on divx or avi or anyother good format? The real point of this entry is because I finally remembered what the hell I wanted to say. Last night I had a great entry going in my head. Then I came home, ate, turned on Gone in 60 Sec and was out like a light.

Japan is awesome. I don't think I've said that yet, so I will repeat: Japan is awesome. Reason number one: hot tubbing naked. That's right, Japan is great because after a hard work out I can take off my clothes, rinse off and then go in a hot tub nude. The locker room at the gym reminds me of HS. No one cares. Everyone walks around nude or partially nude. Oh, and the great part is that the gym also has a sauna, so you don't even need to bring a towel. You work out, rinse off, hot tub it, clean off, sauna it, go home and sleep. It's beautiful.

I had more comments but I forgot them. OH!

So Reason number two why Japan is awesome: I'm living in the '50s. I might have written briefly about this, but I will extend this analogy a bit more. Friday I cut my hair. Guess how I could tell there where a barber was? That's right, all barbers have barber shop poles out front. Same as the old ones we used to have in the US. Next, I just wanted a trim, so I paid the normal price. I got a trim, and then some. They also shave your face and massage your scalp.

PS the lost hair feels great. I'm saving the 'fro for Madison.