Halloween

Today is one of my favorite holidays.  Sadly, it is not celebrated the same way as in Canada.  Here, there are no kids going door to door to pick up candy and none of the houses around me have any kind of decorations for Halloween.  This feels weird for me, since I have gotten use to seeing costumes and decorations at this time of year.  Furthermore, I enjoy  seeing all of this.  The only signs that this day is different from any other are the few signs in some stores announcing it and the news that appears sometimes from the States.  Still, tonight I will celebrate this beautiful holiday in my own way, by watching a scary movie.  Usually, I see one I have not seen before, but this year I chose one I have not seen in a while.  It is named Kairo (or Pulse).  It has been remade as an American movie, that has nothing to do with the original and from the images I have seen and the reviews, it sucks.  The original is scary.  When I watched the first time, I thought good ambiance, but not scary.  My opinion changed halfway through the movie when my skin started crawling.  This happened, because of a certain noise that comes up when the ghosts appear.  To scare the audience, the director achieves his goal through the ambiance and the slowly creeping dread that the characters face.  Kairo is a part of the Asian horror movie genre, that has been in effect for a while now ever since Ringu.  But, it is one of the earlier ones and one of the best of this style.  Some of my friends have seen his later work, Séance.  So, they know that the director has talent and can creep you out.  I highly recommend anyone to see this movie.  For myself, I can’t wait to see it again and see if it scares me again.

Last week-end

On Saturday afternoon, I went to the 1st international Kodokan kata competition.  This was the first time that I saw a kata competition.  In the past, I only had the chance to see the ones that consisted in fighting and not the technical aspect of Judo.  In a kata competition, each team of two people demonstrates a specific kata to the judges.  There are five of these judges at the table, but only 3 of them pass judgment.  The team that ends with the best score wins the gold medal.  It was nice to see this, since I have been thinking of doing this kind of competition someday.  I prefer the technical side of judo over the fighting, that is why I am interested in this.  But first, I have to go rejoin my club and start practicing again.  That will be done when I return home.

On sunday, I went bowling with sister and some of her friends.  This occasion was different than the ones I have had in the past (when it comes to bowling), because I played with the big balls.  Before sunday, I had never ever played with the big ones, only the small ones.  This was apparent in my final score and lack of any strikes.  I am not a great player, but I am not all bad either.  I am more of your average player.  Still on my team there were two good players and one of them was not playing with his good hand.  He had no choice, since his right hand is broken at the moment.  It was impressive to see him playing so well with his left hand.  In the end, I prefer the smaller balls, because I have more control on them and they do not hurt my fingers or slip when I am about to throw.

It was a nice week-end, hope the week will be the same.

Nova or the company that fell from grace

I have talked about this company a few times before.  Today, Nova officially filed for bankruptcy protection.  Like I have said in the past, the company has been having monetary problems for a while to the point where they are not paying their employees.  From what I have read the troubles started when they were caught lying in their commercials.  The company promoted that students would be able to learn at any time that they wanted,  such a promise is impossible to keep of course.  So, the government forced to halt operations on some of their franchises.  Nova replied accordingly, but the damage was already done.  Now, students did not trust them so much and started dropping out and asking for refunds.  This led to two consecutives financially losing years.  Nova has been losing money for the past two years now. Therefore, it’s not surprise that they fell.  The sad thing about it, is that around 4,000 foreign teachers are not out of a job and have not been payed for about two months now.  This will need to a flooding of the market of people just like me looking for a job.  At the same time, some of these people will have no other choice but to leave the country, since their visas will expire or be void.  This royally sucks for all those people.  I am just glad that my girlfriend and a close friend of my sister warned me not to apply to this company or even think about it.

The problems at Nova are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to financial or company scandals here.  Other companies have been caught putting false information of their product, like meat.  Another one, sold unfrozen sweets to its clients and made them believe they were fresh.  The problem for them went worse, when it was discovered that they even resold, unsold merchandise.  This company has been around for many years and has grown a faithful clientèle, which has been shattered by such horrible lies.  This shows that corruption is not only limited to the United States or Canada, it is all over the world.  But here, to save face the important people will ask for forgiveness on camera and bow to apologize for their actions.  This is not something you would see in Canada.  This shows the importance of ones image.  If someone does not this, he is looked on in shame, until he apologizes.

Hopefully these scandals will stop happening so frequently.  Also, that the job market for a teacher position will not be flooded for too long, so that I can find a job someday.

Edo Tokyo and Sumo museum

Today, I decided to do something different from my usual routine the past few weeks and go out a bit and visit some of the many sites of Tokyo.  I decided to take a gander at the Edo Tokyo museum, which has a permanent exhibit that consists in a recontruction of certain structures from the Edo period.  This era lasted between 1603 and 1868.  It is one of the most well known periods of Japanese history, since the samurai were around in this time.  Near the museum is another one,  which is the Sumo museum.  The nice about it, is that it is free to visit.  The museum in itself is small and not very informative about the sport.  More importance is given to the document that lists the athletes for the tournament and how far it dates back.  This is interesting, but not when it is the only thing on display.  Still, you can, also, see pictures of all the Yokozunas up till today.  The surprising thing was seeing two of them having a muscular chest and not just fat.  Like I saw on tv a month ago, sumo is mre than just being fat and pushing people around.  There is a martial art underneath it all.

After visiting the Sumo museum, I went to the Edo one.  It was much bigger than the sumo one and you had to pay to be able to see the exhibits.   But, it was worth it.  When I went to ticket counter, I saw that there was a price for the permanent exhibit and the special one.  Also, they had a combined price, which I decided to take.  The special exhibit consisted as a collection of memorabilia of Japanese autheur, named Natsume Soseki.  He is known as Japan’s first modern novelist.  Before visiting the exhibit about him, I knew nothing about the man.  I found it to be interesting to see a man who became a great novelist in a world of change.  In addition, he was not just fond of Japan, but also of the English language.  He died young at the age of 49.  Still, he left an oeuvre that has stood the test of time.  I have to try reading one of his books one of these days.

Then it was time for the permanent exhibit.  This one was more to my liking and was the reason I came to the museum.  I wanted to see what Japan used to be like and I got my wish.  The rebuilt structures were beautiful.  The information was numerous and in English, which was a blessing for me.  Still, sometimes I found some errors in the writing.  It was funny to see, but I appreciated the fact that there was some English explanations of the pieces being displayed.   One of the things that struck me was the fact that the small apartments were already a standard during this period.  I once thought that the smaller living spaces came from many years of overpopulation.  It seems, it started earlier than I believed.  I was able to see also, some other aspects of tokyo, like the entrance of westerners into the culture and its influence on the houses.  All in all, it was a visit that I do no regret doing, since I got to see more of Japan through this museum.

No reservations (the movie)

Yesterday, I went with some friends to the movies.  They wanted to go see the chick flick No reservation.  I had no problems with that and I was curious to see a movie in a Japanese theatre.  The film in itself was ok, I will probably have forgotten most of it in a few weeks.  The cinema in itself was not what I expected.  First let me explain a few things, the cost for a ticket here is about 18$ a movie, so I expected one very nice theater.  Also, the building is located in the red light district of Tokyo, Kabuki-cho.  The people who dwell in this place are not the kind of people you want to be around with.  These include bums, girls who look like hookers and most probably are.  Also, you can find guys who wear cowboys underneath clean pants and have spiky hair dyed brown.  They are a lot of these kinds of guys around here, it’s ridiculous.  They try to talk to girls and entice them to go with them to certain places to become famous or visit the bar where they work at as hosts.  So you can see that this is not my kind of place.  During the day I don’t mind, but I would not go there alone at night.  Especially, since I heard Yakuzas also hang around here.

Ok, now back to the cinema.  Like I said it costs 18$ to see a movie. So, you would expect something nice for the inside.  It was the complete opposite, I have not seen such a theatre that looked so cheap.  It was not a hole in the wall, but I expected more, like the ones you can find in Montreal (AMC for example).   Still, the seats were very comfortable and it was weird to see Japanese subtitles on the bottom of the screen.   The weirdness comes from not being used to seeing this.

The film was ok, but it was fun to simply hang out with people and get a chance to see a movie in theatres here.

Getting lost in the streets

Today on my way to study at McDonald’s, I decided to take some of the smaller streets that surround me instead of the main one.  Usually, I don’t take such paths, since they don’t inspire confidence in me.  You see, they are small, maze like and feel cramped.  The main one is larger and straight.  Still, I wanted to see more of the places that surround me.  I started walking in a direction that I believed would lead me in the area I wanted to go to.  When I came out of the maze, I found myself not too far from where I started.  The weird thing was that I walked around for a bit to get there.  If I had taken the main road, I would have gotten to the same place in less time.  But, the surroundings were peculiar.  Once you take these small streets, it feels like you enter a different world.  These areas look poorer than what can be seen on the main streets and the houses or apartments are crammed into each other.  You really get the sense of over crowdedness when you go here.  Also, you can find some stores, but the ones I saw did not inspire confidence in me.  I would not take any path that would lead me in these areas at night and alone.

In the end, these small streets show a different side of Japan.  Not the one promoted in travel ads.

Update on me

Finding a job in Tokyo is not easy, when you Japanese level is at basic.  There are jobs out there, but the majority of them ask for conversational level or higher.  The only ones that are less demanding are the teacher jobs.  The problem is that schools are being more demanding on the experience side of things.  I heard that they did not care about that, looks like the information was sadly wrong.  I guess over time the companies have become more demanding and they know that they set their standards higher now with the arrival of more gaijins to the country and the business companies asking for more people who can speak English.  I want to reassure all my friends that I am not giving up the search for a jog or the hope of finding one.  It’s just harder than what I had expected.  I just need to continue to improve my Japanese, which I am doing by studying everyday and talking in Japanese whenever I have a chance.  The listening part is no problem, since I hear it all the time.  Furthermore, the fiasco with Nova ( the company I withheld the last time)  there are more qualified people with experience looking for the same jobs as me, which does not help.  Still, I am looking at jobs that are not related to teaching and hope to find something good on that front.  If anybody has any suggestions, I am opened to you advice.  For now, the search goes on.

Weird video

I saw this the other day on tv, I could not believe my eyes.  You will never think of Spider man the same way. http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=uV4ZZcrLBIU

TV personalities or talentos

Ever since I have in Japan, I constantly see funny and weird people on the television.  They appear in all kinds of shows.  Some of them are funny, while others I am still wondering why they even are on television and have not simply disappeared back into obscurity.  The ones I like have more then one gimmick to their arsenal.  These are: HG (hard gay), a guy who does shows with him sometimes but I don’t know his name, since it is written in kanji.  Also, a female comedian who has a dominatrix with a child like voice.  At first, I did not like her, but over time I noticed that she has some extra levels to her shtick compared to the ones I dislike.  I like Hard gay, because he has charisma and does not do the same thing over and over again.

The one who does this is Kojima Yoshio, he always appears only wearing a speedo and thrusting the air.  You can see his act very easily on youtube, where there are a ton of videos of him performing.  He constantly appears and always always does his routine.  The first time I saw him, I thought it was funny, but after umpteenth time I started getting sick and tired of the same joke.  Hopefully, his 15 minutes of fame are up or he will find something different to do eventually.

The other personality that I have enough of seeing is Gal Sone.  Her talent is eating a lot and I mean a lot of food.  The thing that makes her stand out is the fact that she is tiny.  She only weighs 95lbs, but eats like a sumo.  She, also, participates in eating competitions, but she is not the best, since she enjoys eating too much.  Still, she has added another level to her popularity, she is a part of a girl band.  I have seen them and they make the spice girls sound good.

When you think about it the same thing happens in North America, what I mean is people who do anything to be popular.  There are so many people who want their 15 minutes of fame and will think of all kinds of things to stand out from the crowd and appear on tv.

Takashi Miike

As most people know, he is one of my favorite directors and who is a workaholic.  The proof has been seen countless times by just going to the Fantasia film festival in Montreal, where they usually show two or three of his productions.  In the past two months, 2 of his films have been released with a third one by the end of October.  I always knew he made many movies in one year, but I never thought that they would be released in such a short period time and so close to each other.   Still, only the first one and the last one have or will be released in theaters, the middle one was straight to DVD.  You have to appreciate a man for not turning his back on his roots, which is the video market when he is able to make movies that are played in big cinemas now a days and has bigger budgets to work with.  The only problem at me seeing them is the lack of subtitles.  But, the first one that was released was filmed with the actors speaking English, the title of the picture is Sukiyaki western Django.  I have to see it one of these days, just gotta wait for DVD, since cinemas are so expensive here.  It’s 18$ to see one movie, compared to 3,30$ if you rent it at the video store.  So the choice is not difficult to make.

On the personal side of things, I continue to look for a job in the hopes that I will find something eventually.  I am not giving up.  At the same time, I continue to study my Japanese so it can improve and not stagnate.