You are now required to be my friend...

... or How I Became David Bowie


When last I posted on this quaint little forum, I promised to talk at length about Contractual Friends, Carbs, Extra-curricular Time Fillers, and Aural Glory, and I am nothing if not a man of my far too many words. Going back through the murky depths of time, we come to about my second week. I sincerely want to talk about all the interesting places I walked by every day for about three weeks on the way to school, but that is the fodder for a later entry (by which time I should have many more photos). Keeping that aside, towards the beginning of the term, before homework and studying and reading really presented a problem, I saw that all of my friends had already signed up for Japanese Speaking Partners, an opportunity I had at first ignored in the rush of anticipation towards actually getting here (below is a picture of Caroline's positively adorable Speaking Partner, Ayano, and myself looking dignified as always). Now that I was at the school (and at a loss for what to do with myself) I set about applying for one of my very own, and my wish was granted pretty quickly... but with a catch. Because I had signed up so late my Spipa (the frankly adorable abbreviation of Speaking Partner), a one Ayane Wakimoto, got herself an arubaito (Part-time job, and Baito for short) at a Department Store to make a bit more money during the Valentine's Day rush, and therefore couldn't meet with me until Valentine's Day had come and gone. For the uninitiated, Valentine's Day is done a bit differently in Japan and is frankly a much bigger deal. 

The Japanese version of Valentine's days has two components to it. On February the 14th Japanese girls give chocolate to boys that they have a romantic (and peripherally sexual) interest in, as well as to friends both male and female. I love this because it is one of the only examples I can think of in any culture of an occasion where young women are allowed and indeed expected to be forward romantically towards men (aside I suppose from a Sadie Hawkins dance in the States, but I think that's gone out of fashion as of late). Anyhoo, the man then has a full month to deliberate as to whether or not he wants to reciprocate these tokens of adoration, and on March 14th (known as White Day) he gives said girl a gift (usually more expensive than the one received), and I believe it is generally something white. No one gave me any chocolates unfortunately (aside from some Tomo-choco, or friend-chocolate), but regardless I want to do the White Day thing. There is a delicious beverage prominent in Japan something like a yogurt-milk concoction known as Karupisu (kalpis would be how we would pronounce it). In the states it's called something different... say it out loud a few times, you'll see why. I only mention this because I think this would be the most hilarious and disappointing White Day gift I can think of, and I am probably going to become the Karupisu Fairy come March 14th... so if you're in Japan on that day, watch out!

(Not my photo)

And here's a little Valentine's Love, a bit belated...

(Definitely don't own this photo)

Moving on. My Spipa Ayane and I finally met (along with her pal Dina and her Spipa's Patrick and Nicole), and after watching the lot of them eat our favorite Okonomiyaki (as shown below by your ever so handsome writer and Ayane herself) and doing some Purikura (also shown further below), we Oke'd (my pet name for Karaoke) hard for a good two hours. 

Now, for the even further uninitiated, Purikura is one of the most bizarre and fantastic things Japan has produced since every other bizarre and phenomenal thing Japan has produced. Imagine some out of work computer designer, on the rocks and barely scraping a living, who walks by your standard picture booth and decides he wants to take a picture to capture his sorrow, only to be shocked at how much they were charging him for the crappy four photos he got. Inspiration proceeded to tackle him, and in a daze of sleeplessness, sake, and programming code he does a David Bowie on what was once such a mundane and commonplace thing. This is Puricura (although the photo below isn't pericura, and isn't mine).

In laymans terms, Puricura (which stands for Print Club) is much like a photobooth, except the technology makes your eyes as big and beautiful as Elijah Wood's, without the weight of the fate of Middle Earth on your shoulders, and smoothes out your facial features. How, you ask? Hells if I know. But the best part of Puricura is that after you are done snapping the pics, you get to go to a touch screen outside the booth and write messages and stamp graphics on the pictures, to the extent that it truly becomes your own experience. As it was my first time doing it, I got the honor of being one of the illustrators, and proceeded to make what was already silly much sillier. Below is just one of many many many photos, and happens to be one I did the illustrations on. Unfortunately I kept my glasses on. I hesitate to bore the by now brain-dead reader.

For the effect if nothing else, here is an entirely different Puricura I did with other friends on a trip I will chronicle later at great length.

Scary, right? I actually tried to open my eyes as wide as possible in that one to add to the effect. At karaoke we all sang some great tunes, and Patrick ( a level 7 [?!?!?!] Japanese student from Norway) introduced me to some hilarious songs which I would like to now share with you. There was a hilarious song called "Panty Dorobo no Uta", which means Song of the Panty Thief and includes the lyrics "The Panty Thief runs away on the bike, the Bike Thief puts the panties on his head like a hat" (in Japanese, mind you). The other great song was an older seeming one, also in Japanese, called "Chichi wo Moge", which literally means Fondle Breasts. A heart touching ballad, I assure you.

And that's not all...

And who could forget...?

I should add that it is because of Ayane's friend Dina that this Blog is called Majide?! (which means Seriously?!), because she teased me about the way I said that particular word that entire night and then every time I have seen her since then. It was also with her that I started to be known as Sanda... that name has now grown to Creeper Sanda Pooh-san (Pooh-san being what they call Winnie the Pooh). With any luck I'll come back with enough names to wrap around my body like Chewbacca's Belt ( and I IN NO WAY OWN THIS PHOTO).

Aside from the Speaking Partner Program, I have since become a part of the International Advisory Program, which pairs up Gaijin (which is what class..? That's right, foreigners) with Nihonjin (Japanese folk) that are going to either the same region or the same college as the aforementioned Gaijin. As luck would have it, I was grouped with only one other person, who is to be Bennington's very first Japanese full exchange student from Kansai Gaidai. Her name is Mami Tsujino, and she is nothing short of delightful. The night of the inauguration of the program, Mami and I and some friends with their International Advisees went to get some preposterously cheap Gyouza (which is... yes, that's right Susie, dumplings) and afterwards some surprisingly good and even more surprisingly cheap Crepes (I kid you not). Below you can see Mami laughing at me pretending to be a Bald Eagle (we were told to do it, don't judge).

And here I am with a lovely chap named Stephen at the Crepes joint.

I know I promised to talk about cooked yeast, and I'm part of yet another program, but I've a paper to write, so... (cliffhanger)


ご親切にありがとうございます,
Alex -..-