King of the Monsters

Today at lunch, I watched Godzilla 2000. This is, in my opinion, one of the best Godzilla movies ever made.

A friend and I had a long discussion about Godzilla while at work. This is not unusual, as our daily discussions regularly involve Ultraman, Godzilla, Evangelion, Gundam, and the like. Both of us agree that Godzilla '54 is our favorite Godzilla design, but he is much more enthusiastic about Godzilla 2000's look than I am. I love the look of his spikes, but I just can't get down with the flattened snout and goofy overbite.



See what I mean? Maybe not.

I am a huge Godzilla fan, and have seen most of Toho Studios' films. One of my only regrets about my trip to Japan is that when I was in Kyoto, I ran out of time, and was unable to visit Toho Studios proper. Next time, I guess.

Re-learning the basics

When I was in Japan, I came to a realization. It was something that I always believed to be the case, but couldn't prove until now. You never know how much of a language you really know until you have to use it all of the time.

Turns out I know more Japanese than I thought I did, but not nearly as much as I'd like. So, I made a decision to actively pursue knowledge of the Japanese language. This involves some spending, and hopefully will yield not only further mastery in the language, but maybe some Japanese friends, too.

The first step I have taken to reach this lofty goal was the purchase of a few new items to add to my repertoire of Japanese learning material. First, a book called Genki I. Apparently, it is one of the very best Japanese language learning books available. It teaches hiragana, katakana, and the first 145 kanji. I know hiragana and katakana, but I don't know the kanji so well. Plus, I hear it's never bad to go over the basics again. Second: a first grade kanji chart poster. How awesome is that? It is a fairly large poster showing the first 80 kanji Japanese children learn.

I would like to imagine that in only one-year's time, I will know vastly more Japanese than I do now. I guess we will just have to wait and see. I'm sure you'll hear about it here.

Japanese & Anime

I just purchased a copy of Bleach: Heat the Soul 3.

This game is awesome. I have played the previous two, but this is the best by far, in my opinion. I have taken a lot of time translating the instruction manual, but I am not even close to completing it. Kanji is definitely not easy to translate. しがたがない。

I can generally breeze through the hiragana and katakana, but most kanji I come across begs to be looked up in my massive kanji dictionary. Soon, I will know the important ones. The day I can read an import game's manual, I will truly be on my way to fluency.

New toys...

This weekend, I had a chance to visit my favorite local anime & manga shop. While there, I acquired a few new toys. That's what I do. I found an awesome trading arts figure of Tetsuro from Galaxy Express 999, two maid cafe figures (based on real maid cafes like Amusement Cafe in Akiba), an SD Ikkaku phone strap from Bleach, and a new Ayanami Rei trading arts figure. Anyone who knows me knows that I can't have too many Rei figures...

Two of my photographs have been featured at Plastic Bamboo as their most recent "Sunday Snapshot." Check it out. It's one of my new favorites.

Continuum...

I have decided that, while I am no longer in Japan, I still feel like writing about it from time to time. Most of my favorite daily web trollings are blogs that deal with Japan. Why shouldn't I?

I don't actually have much to say today. I do, however, have some previously unpublished photographs from my trip. Hope you dig...

Toji Temple

Himeji Castle

Pallets of Gundam models

Home

Well, everyone, I'm back home. And I wish I wasn't.

Don't get me wrong. There are people that I love here, and people that I would miss, were I to move away. But I can't stop thinking how much I want to live in Japan. I would love it so much.

Getting home was an ordeal. It was a total of over 17 hours of travel, and it was not fun. Tram to train to train to airplane to bus to bus to bus. Then a walk. Bleh. I am not looking forward to doing that again.

Jet lag is hitting me like a time-travelling bat in the face. I am exhausted. I'll post more photographs soon. Now, I have to catch up with the past...

Onsen time!

Nicole and I had such a great time in Kyoto.

Two days ago, we boarded the early shinkansen and landed in Kyoto in the morning. From the ststion, we headed south to To-ji Temple. It is one of the oldest wooden pagodas in Japan. In one of the halls adjacent to the pagoda, there is a collection of 21 statues of dieties, all life-size or larger. In solid gold. It was rad. After To-ji, we went over to Kiyomizu Temple. It is this completely amazing temple built on stilts up on the hillside overlooking the city. It was beautiful. And it's been nominated as one of the new seven wonders of the world.

That night, we stayed at a backpacker's hostel for about $25 each. It was cheap, and I had never stayed in a hostel before. Not bad, for staying ten minutes from the station.

In the morning we went to the southeast corner of Kyoto to a place called Funagi-inari Temple (I think). It is a temple at the top of a hill. To get there, you have to pass through, literally, over 1000 orange torii gates. It was a spectacular sight. Then we sped across the city to Kinkaku-ji Temple. That's the famous Golden Pavillion. That was a sight, too.

We came back to Okayama briefly, then headed to Takebe and the onsen. Basically a giant hot spring resort. We were 11 strong, so we rented the whole place. We bathed, drank, danced, partied, and generally caused a ruckus. Got up this morning and bathed again, then promptly fell asleep on the bus ride home. It was great.

Now, movie time and relaxing time. I'm wasted from this weekend. It was fun, though...