Stay Classy

SO I was looking through FACE magazine (a free magazine that's distributed in many different cities here on Kyushu, each with their own edition) and I saw that there was a photo section on the Isahaya Nonoko, a festival celebrating something or other where they sold a bunch of fried chicken (or at least that was my experience with it). A lot of the photos were pretty much the same formula; either a dude in a tee jus' lookin' tough or two or three girls flashing the peace sign. Then I came across this picture:

WHAT A HUNK. Seriously, this dude looks rad. He's probably famous or something. And really strong. But yet he manages to keep himself down-to-earth and approachable (ladies, take notice). If I met this dude on the street, I'd probably give him a high-five and a hug.
yes mom I will keep a copy for you

But uh yeah, normal stuff. I been holding back on this for a little while because I'm a pretty lazy dude, but I just wanted to share a couple of photos of the first language book I read when I came over here. I decided that I should get at least a small understanding of the Japanese language before my actual lessons started, so I took out a book from the high school library. Mostly it is pretty normal, but it has a few gems hidden in the pages. Most of the time it is just teaching you how to say stuff like "I visited a Shinto shrine" or "Does this train run to Tokyo?" It also teaches you some things that you would be more likely to use in your everyday life like "How much does this cost?" or "I've seen several UFO's and have even talked with a Martian."

I find myself saying that almost everyday over here. I'm really glad it was in this book, or I'd be struggling with my pocket dictionary all the time. However, the book is a little strange with the topics it brings up at times, especially with the way it presents them. One moment you're talking about buying a camera and your new pad, and the next you're talking divorce. Does this seem a little abrupt to anyone else? I mean, you were just talking about moving to Kamakura together. Aren't you guys gonna try and work it out? (this came up at least twice in the book. I got no idea why they seem so fixated on the subject)

But probably the best part of the book is the pictures it uses for the lessons. I'll post a few favorites. And by "a few" I mean three. Because I am lazy and it's not worth going through the book again to find good examples. First up is their depiction of foreigners in the book. Notice the Japanese man is always pretty normal looking; his eyes are composed of an iris and pupil with the whites surrounding it, and his face is in a pretty normal position. The white foreigners, however, always seem to have trouble with their hair when they arrive in Japan, and their irises seem to turn all sprially in their eyes. Also I guess they got less oxygen over in Japan because the foreigners who are unused to the environment are constantly gasping for breath.

This picture here almost made me laugh out loud in the middle of class. LOOK AT HIS FACE. LOOK.
Oh yeah and uh I started classes at the college. It's better than spending my whole day either reading things from Fark in the library or doing nothing in classes I can't understand. I met some english-speaking people in my class too which is good because basically for the past two months all my converstations have just been WHERE ARE YOU FROM DO YOU LIKE JAPANESE FOOD DO YOU LIKE JAPAN HOW ABOUT DEM JAPANESE GIRLS HUH HOW TALL ARE YOU DO YOU LIKE GREEN DAY WOW YOU HAVE SOME BIG FEET HEY LET'S ARM WRESTLE CAN YOU SPEAK JAPANESE DO YOU LIKE PUDDING. And before any of you are all "oh ho ho, how humorous, Jeremy" I would like to say that I have actually been asked all of those questions, including the pudding.