Misadventures in Translation

It’s been another interesting week.

By the way, I’m not getting married any time soon. Nor, do I have a girlfriend. Yet…

This past weekend, I hung out with Tomita-sensei (the young guy with 1500 CD’s) on Friday in Kofu City. We ate some delicious ramen, played ping-pong and darts, and harassed the Japanese waiting in line for the PS3 over here. The PLAYSTATION 3 launch in Japan sucked. Japan only had 80,000 units. So, many people were disappointed. Americans will complain about their measly 200,000 units, but Japan had it worse. The Japanese are more loyal to the Sony brand than Americans. Why did Sony feel the need to give their most loyal customers the shaft?

Saturday evening (11/11) was spent hanging out with a girl from Yamanashi City. We had some Italian food, went to Don Quixote (a large shopping/play center), and a book store.

Sunday (11/12), I played tennis with Hatano-sensei from Akeno Elementary School. We met up with a few of her friends from Minami Alps City. We played tennis for five hours. One of the Minami Alps City boys gave me the name, “Dynamite Sexy Adam.” I was flattered. After tennis, we all ate dinner and talked for around 4 or 5 hours. It was a long day.

This week has been teaching teaching teaching and trying to hook-up Tomita-sensei with the hot librarian from my elementary school. Trying to figure out when many people are free can be a difficult task.

Friday (11/17), I ate dinner with Tomita-sensei again. Then, we meet up with one of the older teachers from my school. I walk into the restaurant to find him drunk and reading a freshly-minted smut magazine. The initial conversations went a little like this:

• “You like this girl?”
• “Yeah, she’s nice.”
• “How about this one?”
• “Yeah, her too.”
• “You want to !#$!@#$???”
• “Of course.”
• “You’re a smart guy. I like you.”

Thanks to him, I now know of various “fun-time establishments” where I can lose lots of money. He also conferred his great wisdom in “the way of happy-fun-time-make-with-woman.” I am now a much wiser person thanks to Sensei’s great knowledge in this field. I would post the actual contents of the conversation, but that would make this site rated XXX, hardcore, dominatrix to the nth power. If you really want to know, send me an e-mail.

Tonight (Saturday, Nov. 18th) will be spent hanging out with the other ALT’s in Yamanashi at Addiagios Italian Restaurant in Ostuki. When you get many foreigners in one place, you get many stares from the local Japanese.

I have no plans for Sunday. I will probably study Japanese.

Monday, I have no school! It’s Prefectural Day.

Wednesday, I will go see The Mars Volta at Zepp Tokyo in Tokyo. I’ll spend the night in Tokyo since Thursday is another day of NO SCHOOL. Labor Thanks Day! I plan on hitting up Akihabara, Asakusa, Shibuya, Ginza, and Roppongi.

I apologize for the lack of pictures this week. I’ve done nothing really that picture worthy. After being at Tokyo this week, I’ll have many more to show. I’ll also post some good pictures of Mt. Fuji and the surrounding mountains soon. It’s capped with snow and is very beautiful now.

Now, for your Japanese Moment of Zen.This video is a mockumentary on Japanese culture. Everything is false or grossly exaggerated. These comedians are pretty popular here.

If you can’t see the video, click this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIb6ZSqal64