these are a few of my favorite things: when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when i'm feeling sad

today is our last day in Matsue and i am rather sad.

I have met people with nice majors here: Agricultural Economics (Misako and Amiko), French(Yu), Comparative Culture?? (Minako).

I learned a dance called "henna o-jiisan" and it is rather nice. You move randomly while saying "hen-na-o-jii-san," which means "strange old man."

Also, I heard a mother goose verse from Yu and it sounded like this:

Josie Posie, pudding and pie
kissed the girls and made them cry
when the boys came out to play
Josie Posie ran away

Which the explanation of: Josie is actually Georgy and then what about this Georgy?
Or Josie is a woman.
Anyway, I have met several people highly skilled at Mother Goose.

My trip to Tokyo is prefigured by two impressions:
1. the videogame Shin Megami Tensei, which takes place in a post apocalypsey sort of world and is centered on Tokyo,
2. Abe Kobo's novel Kangaroo Notebook, in which there is an episode where the nameless male protagonist is in a department store with an IV hanger with squid genitals hung upon it andhe enters some subterranean cavern ...

Supplemental Materials #2

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38702939@N03/

Matthew's

Photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35053858@N08/

these photos are Pate's, who is also on the trip.

pretend they are mine!

5 (I know I skipped a couple of days)

In Matsue (the city where we are, in Shimane Prefecture) the parking tickets use the word "Itadakimasu," which you say when you eat and means, "Let it be received." Fukuhima-sensei was saying how funny this was because it is a very humble way to get money out of people, "If you park incorrectly, may Matsue (we) receive 10,000 yen."

I bought gorilla-no-hanakuso, which means gorilla snot, which is made out of azuki beans and is a candy with a texture...

I had okonomiyaki (tako/octopus) for supper, it was a cabbage/mayonnaise/&c. omelet. It was pretty tasty. The women who was the server and cook (it was cooked in front of you on your table) was very busy and tired looking. Yumm!

Whoops, time to shave!

SATYpurikura

SATYpurikura, originally uploaded by a〜i〜u〜e〜o.

SATY purikura

SATY purikura, originally uploaded by a〜i〜u〜e〜o.

ファイル0027Arcade Purikura

ファイル0027Arcade Purikura, originally uploaded by a〜i〜u〜e〜o.

this is purikura

4 {magical list of things i did (in no particular order)}

1. saw matsue castle inside and out
2. took numerous pictures
   
3. ate ramen and mochi dumpling
4. bought an Abe Kobo novel I had never heard of and a word puzzle book at the mall SATY and also a yukata at SATY
5. drank a grape shake jelly drink (yum!)
6. rode on a boat around matsue castle and listened to songs sung by the operator (he had a tremolo nice vibrating voice)
7. heard an old drunk man complain at the hotel front desk at our hotel and yell "baka" while the attendant quietly said "sumimasen"
8. played pachinko at the arcade and got photos in a booth
9. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10. drank nice umeshuu
11. had a nice breakfast
12. had karee for supper
13. added new friends on facebook!!!
14. stretched in the morning by the edge of the lake with midgettosan
    

3

there is a bidet in the bathroom

Japanese lawsystems are now implementing the jury system because the conviction rate by the current system is 99.99 percent and one reason this is bad is because pregnant women will not issue the death sentence for fear of a curse on their progeny. I think this is kind of a farce and maybe the focus on pregnant women is just partially true and a projection of the society at large &c. &c.

All campaigns cannot beheld on the internet at all.
All campaigning is government paid/held.


bye

2

Dear Reader,
LET me begin from OHare airport where I had mango green tea 2% boba. First, that happened, then we left. I had a window seat and sat beside a woman who just graduated from an Illinois graduate school with a complicated math degree, her name was Soojin. She did not warm up to my fidgeting nervous conversation until she had slept for about 10 hours. She was on her way to Korea where her parents live. I did not sleep but 20 minutes on the 12 hour flight. My eyes were very frightening when I laid my head down last evening. I think I got in the area of 5 or 6 hours of sleep. On the plane I read for class and the pilot at one point when requesting donations for a charity, mispoke and said "Malaria kills 1 African-American, I mean African child every [increment of time]." This is not a mistake. Also, I was reading by natural light in my window seat and one of the male attendents reached into my seat and turned the reading light on and exclaimed, "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh,"which was creepy. Also, I only learned how to recline my seat once we landed. When we landed everyone was scanned with a camera on the plane by Japanese health officials for the flu. In Tokyo we went under a giant tunnel and ate at a restaurant and I spent something like 273 yen on pickled eggplant and natto+raw fish+tempure bits+raw egg. It was pretty yummy. I didn't really enjoy walking on the street in the dark, though. I took pictures of Sapporo and Siberian wastes from the airplane. Allinall I enjoyed the plane. We fly again today to Shimane in Matsue Prefecture, which is rather rural. I am going to like this. I also read a nice passage in our book, which is pretty orientalist at times and it described a painting of the Buddha that had nice shadows and the shadows were actually sutras written very minisculely. Also, the word "punch" comes from Sanskrit and refers to a combination of five oranges, originally. Fukushima-taught us this. He shares little informational bits like that that I feel I ought to remember.

Bye.

1

here i shall deposit all of my entries, entreaties, treatises, and entireties that i compose while in japan (as part of the 'unfamilar japan' study/tour/trip) from may 20th 2009 to june 17th 2009. (capitalization is pending and punctuation is tenuous.)