T O K Y O & L I F E: October 2009

Just another random update

I have an updated schedule:

Monday: Japanese Language
Tuesday: Korean Culture and Society, Japanese Language, Japanese Culture and Society
Wednesday: Japanese Language
Thursday: Asian Politics II, Japanology
Friday: Japanese Language, Cell Phone Culture
Saturday: International Management

Basically, I took out the early morning advertising class, and replaced Game Theory with this Cell Phone Culture class. Me and Mike had no idea that Game Theory was a hard class (even for Japanese students). I at least want to have some kind of general idea of whats going on in class...

Also, Mike, Stephen, and myself are currently taking Shorinji Kempo, which is some insane martial art. A small little innocent Japanese girl can basically throw a Sumo 20 feet in the air. We spent a few hours training with them. I haven't been able to see the Powerlifting Club but I will check it out next week.

The Cell Phone class I am taking is taught by this nerdy, but informative teacher. He knows whats going on with the world of cellphones...

Some of the futuristic crap that Japan has made include:

QR Codes - Basically, they are square bar codes that can be as small as a stamp, to as big as being on a billboard. You turn on your QR Code function on your camera. It scans the code, and brings to you a website. Usually, it just contains information about whatever the advertisement is about, or has some kind of sweepstakes. Either way, it is something I would like to see in the States.

World Camera - In Japanese, they call it Sekai Kamera. It is a killer application for the Iphone. You turn on your camera, and walk around, holding it up as if you were taking a picture. Point your camera anywhere, and you get feedback, reviews, pictures, and videos that people previously left. For example, if I am walking around a shopping district, point it at a certain store, it might give me 5 reviews left by other people. It is able to do this by using the GPS technology in the Iphone. Just another way to socially connect people electronically. Again, something I want to see in the States.

Augmented Reality - I think they have this in the States. This one is kind of hard to explain, so here is a link to the video. Check it out here. About 3 minutes long. You basically whip out your camera, point, and start playing a game. It actually super-imposes images on your camera, and you play various kinds of interesting games. I don't know how people think of this, but this application is definitely my favorite.

These are the kinds of things we are learning about in the Cellphone class.

My International Management class, besides being on Saturday, is probably the class I am going to learn the most from. The teacher is from Ireland, and has a lot of knowledge and information. He definitely knows how to keeps things interesting, and also enjoys kicking sleeping students out of his class. He kind of acts as a guidance to us exchange students, giving us the reality of Japanese culture and society. Lots of things he says aren't pleasing to the ear, as far as work in Japan, life in Japan, a woman's role in Japan, etc.

I got a job working at school as a "Chat Leader." The job is pretty basic - I make conversation with Japanese students. I will be working with kids of all ages... from Elementary to College level. First day starts on Tuesday so we will see how things go.

Since I am going to school 6 days a week, I feel like time just flies by. Today is Sunday, and it is my relax day. Laundry, homework, scholarship essays, and whatever else I should get done.

165 days. Yeah, a long time away. But me and Steph are staying strong, day by day. Thank God for web video chat. Email after email just wouldn't do it for me. We have been watching Avatar lately (DO NOT SPOIL ANYTHING) and just sharing our day by day life, awaiting March. She's gonna come visit for a little over two weeks during the Sakura Blossoming season (Hanami, in Japanese. Literally means Flower Watching). It is basically the most beautiful time to come to Japan, and I can't WAIT, since both of us have never experienced Spring in Japan. I love you Steph.

I'll throw up some pictures of some stuff I have been up to lately.