Pro Wrastling!

PSA: Some content in this entry may be too extreme for young audiences.
So I've been in Japan for about 2 months now (almost typed 2 weeks lol) so you might think that I have a pretty good idea about what Japanese people do for fun. Well turns out they do some pretty funky stuff. And I don't mean weird funky, I mean, EXTREME PRO WRESTLING!! RAWR!!

But really, last weekend I went back to the ever dirty men's dorm (keiteki) where they were hosting a pro wrestling match. It was pretty cool. They had constructed their own ring, rigged up a sound system, and had a projector on, showing clips of from videos and such. It was pretty well done.

The leader of this whole shabang is a senior who has lived in the men's dorm all 4 years, and I guess he created THE OFFICIAL Hokkaido U. Pro Wrestling Club last year. Everyone that was in the club was running around wearing purple sweatshirts and such, so it seems like they were pretty organized, AND pretty serious. After a pre-game talk, everyone was set to go, and the killed the lights, and cued the first video. I say first video because there were 5 fights, and each one had a video ranging from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, with some pretty spiffy special effects. It was super cool.

The first video showed the results of the last session, where this one guy won, and this other guy lost. But the guy that won gets assassinated, but in the process of burying his body, it suddenly...DISAPPEARS!!! That video was about 10 minutes long, and was actually really well done. I was so surprised.

That video ended, and then a new one began. This one depicted 2 guys camping out in a tent, and then a giant gorilla starts chasing them and messing with them. It was pretty funny. The video ended and the Mario and Luigi came running into the room and jumped into the ring. The gorilla followed shortly.

The match began with mario and luigi back slapping the gorilla whilst making all the mario and luigi (wha-haaa) sounds, which was really funny. Then the gorilla picked one of them up and threw him, which ended up actually killing luigi. But mario ran over to a bag, grabbed a mushroom, and fed it to luigi, thereby reviving him, just like in the games. win! lol. After a couple more minutes of fighting luigi whipped out a 100 ton hammer and smacked the gorilla, and then mario and luigi grabbed a gun and kanata (???) and went to work, chopping and shooting the gorilla, only to have him get up in the middle of all of this and once again throw each of the mario brothers, and win the match lol. pretty epic

The next battle was a 2v2 tag team match. The video and characters were all from some Japanese show, and the fight itself was pretty terrible. That's enough of that lol.

The third fight's intro video was pretty crazy. They showed some nazi videos and such, and yeah pretty crazy things in that nature. And then cut to a scene with 2 kids sitting on the ground in the middle of a forest and several nazis standing around them. They were saying things and I could only pick up a little bit of the Japanese (I think the 2 on the ground were brothers), but after 2 minutes, one of the guys on the ground got up and walked a couple of yards away, where he was given a gun and then he shot himself in the head (insert crazy special effects). The other brother then goes crazy and the video ends, leading to the match. Pretty..um...ridiculous to be honest.

The 4th fight was a 1v1v1 between 3 girls, and the intro vid was pretty epic. I couldn't understand too much of what was going on, but it seemed like a Lord of the rings parody, where 2 of the chicks represented each of the 2 towers (sauron and saruman) and then the third chick was like...some random chick yeah I didn't catch that part. But they had crazy shots of like this one chick standing on a roof looking into the distance with the 2 towers actually in the distance and the sky looked like the sky in the real world of the matrix, it was actually a really well done. Their fight was super boring though.

The final fight would have another video that extended on the first one, showing the guy who disappeared training in a rocky sort of manner which was pretty funny. Then the fight began. These 2 guys were really the founders of club, so the things they did were way more extreme than anyone else. They flipped each other, kicked each other, threw each other into the corners of the ring, picked each other up, jumped OUT of the ring onto each other, and the one guy threw the other guy off a staircase lol. Pretty intense.

I've got a bunch of pictures up on facebook, but I will add some here, the first is the ring itself that they made. And the second is the best picture of the night, from the final fight.

I will also be uploading videos onto a youtube channel so that I don't have to worry about how much room I have left here on the blog, the channel is:
http://www.youtube.com/user/escaflenix36#p/u

Grocery Shopping

So the nearest grocery store to me is called Jusco, and it has a decent selection of goods. All of the basics, for the Japanese that is, but really it has a pretty good selection of goods. So this morning I watched a cool little video online about grocery baggers, and so I will describe how the system works in Japan.

In Jusco, you walk up to the register, where you have a little basket of what you plan to purchase, shopping carts and the like are of course available as well, but mostly everyone just uses the little baskets. Once at the register, the clerk scans all of the items, while placing them into another basket.

Once she is done, she asks if you would like to purchase any bags (5 yen a pop). And while this is totally an option, everyone just brings their own bags to use so they don't have to pay, I like to use my backpack. So now that you've payed and you have your basket full of groceries, what happens next? There are large table at the end of the each of the check out lines that everyone just huddles around, while they pack their own bags. Pretty different from the system depicted in this video:

http://campbellbrown.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/20/best-grocery-baggers-compete/

I must admit that I prefer this system to the American one. It is nice having someone do the work for you, but at the same time that requires the time and space for that person to work there, while they could be doing something else. Thus the number of check out lines in Jusco is around 25 or so I think, and sometimes the 1-10 lines will have 2 clerks per line to make things go even faster.

Now I think that if you were in an American grocery store and you asked someone to pack their own bags, they would probably be appalled at the idea. But I also think that Americans tend to purchase much much more when they go to the grocery store. If you have more space to store things (2 fridges + 2 freezers etc) then you can 'stock up' which means less trips to the grocery store. This is definitely a necessity if the nearest grocery store is 20-30 minutes. However I think it's safe to assume that most Japanese do not have 2 freezers and 2 fridges, and thus they must go grocery shopping much more frequently, however during each trip they only purchase a small amount of goods.

This is definitely a result of the density of Japan. You have 20-30 thousand people living within 5-10 square blocks of the same grocery store, and they obviously won't have the same storage space as Americans so stocking up really isn't an option.

I would also like to ad courtesy of my girlfriend, that in Germany, the only way to get a shopping cart is to pay for one. So you drop a euro into the machine and it releases a cart for you. The catch is, if you put the cart back into the machine when you are done, it gives you your euro back. This really needs to be implemented into American grocery stores. Seeing some poor chap going around the parking lot wrangling in the shopping carts is pretty useless in my opinion.

You get what you pay for

So there is one thing (usually) that accompanies age, and that is wisdom. When the time to choose a dorm came up, there were 3 options. The most expensive, was a building built in 2008, that was close to campus, and had individual bathrooms and cooking areas. The 2nd was a dorm 30 minutes from the international student center, that was renovated in 2008, and had common baths and such.

The final option was the Keiteki-ryo, which means men's dorm in Japanese. Now the rent for the most expensive dorm was listed around 200 dollars per month (already 1/3 of what I pay at OSU), however the cheapest dorm (keiteki) was only 70 dollars per month!! That is crazy cheap.

So I was thinking, save 200 dollars, live in the cheap dorm okay! But, the old man knew better. And now I know why.

This past weekend I had the privilege to visit the keiteki-ryo, and man, that place is out of control. I didn't have my camera so I will be sure to get pictures next time, but what an absolute dump. Just the smell of the place when you enter hits you in the face like a brick. I'm pretty sure it hasn't been cleaned since the 1700's, and hasn't been renovated since it was built. It is in fact so dirty and disgusting, that when I googled it I found that some grad students had written songs about how dirty it was awhile ago, and now the dorm itself is infamous for being a dirtball.

there are 6 wings and then the main lobby, which is actually pretty big. Big enough, to hold a...PRO WRESTLING MATCH YEAAH WCW!!!1 ok but really, when we go there, there were several guys practicing their wcw moves on each other. This involved throwing each other (they were using old dirty mattresses as padding), hitting the other guy's head on lockers, and jumping off the stairs onto each other. They are having an epic match this friday night, I will be sure to get some great pictures.

So like I said there are 6 wings, and the F wing is for the FOREIGNERS. lol. But I've heard that the things the Japanese guys do in this dorm are ridiculous. One of the Americans said that he saw the song book for the dorm, and it was almost 2 inches thick! Pretty cool that your own dorm has a song book. We heard a lot of the songs, because people would randomly sing them from a hallway, and later in the night there was actually a Japanese drinking part in the lobby next to ours.

As for the rooms themselves, I never actually got to see one, but I heard that the Japanese guys use a sort of common share system when it comes to the rooms. They designate one room for sleeping, and hang hammocks and whatever else you can sleep on in that one room for all 10-16 of them. Then they have 1 room for studying, one room for clothing and such. Pretty different from the normal system eh?

Once again words cannot describe this so hopefully on Friday I will get some great pictures.

As for the picture above, that is Kenji's family, and their 2 dogs. They are pretty funny dogs. And they are a super nice family.

YAY!!

So today I found out I got accepted to this cool program where I am going to go to a small Japanese town about 2 hours away, meet a bunch of the faculty of the school district, spend the night in a ryokan, and then the next day I get to hang out with Japanese children all day yay!!

In case anyone didn't know, I am not the biggest fan of children, but Japanese children, are hilarious.

For some reason writing this reminded me of this video I saw a long time ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlHHsjQ7D9Q&feature=PlayList&p=CE8DB19B4EA94589&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=11

Pretty lame actually I know, sorry for wasting your time.

Anyway, the best thing about this trip is that it's all free!! Totally cool right? And I get to stay in a ryokan, which is a really traditional style Japanese inn. So all the rooms have tatami mats on the ground, and you have to kneel down and stuff, and I think they make you wear traditional Japanese clothing...sweet!

I will be sure to take my camera and get some cool pictures and stuff. It happens in about a week and a half. yay!!

Also, just a little bit of random information:

Currently the largest problem within Japan is the fact that it's society is aging very rapidly. This is actually happening all over the world, however in Japan the speed is much more rapid. Japan is losing between 500,000-1,000,000 people every year from its total population, and the birth rate is currently below 2.1 (the minimum required to sustain a civilization).

The government is also in really big financial trouble. They are nearly 9 trillion dollars in debt. This is less than America's 10 trillion, but when you combine this information with the fact that Japan only has 130 million people, as opposed to America's 300 million +, the problem is obviously much more extreme.

Japan's welfare system is also being put under severe pressure. Their pension plans fall under 2 categories, public and private. I'm not exactly sure how the system works, just that I am under the public health insurance plan, and it's 18 dollars a month roughly. If something were to happen, the government would cover 70% of the cost, and the last 30% would be left for me. This actually changed some time in the 90's, it used to be 80% was covered, but since Japan has been in recession since the 90's (also called the lost decade in Japan), the government has had to relocate money etc.


Also the brand name Logitech, in Japan, is Logicool

I would also like to point out that classroom etiquette is obviously different for people of different countries, and people from the same country. It's very actually extremely surprising to hear what some people will say or do in class.

I also saw a pigeon today rock on!

Honey Bunches of Info

Walk This Way

So...when you are walking down the sidewalk and someone is walking towards you, you automatically move to the right side of the sidewalk right? And when you are walking up stairs and someone is walking down, you move to the right side right? And when you are riding a bicycle and someone else is, and they are coming towards you you move to the right right?

Why do we do these things? Because you drive on the right side of the road. Thus the instinct to break right becomes very natural.

...yeah this doesn't exist in JApan, and it's REALLY annoying. I'll quote my friend on this: Japanese people are the worst decision makers in the world.

Watch this video, it's super awsome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN5BubxKtOI&feature=related

Now I swear, that if you tried that in Japan, you would have a crash within 10 seconds. I can't tell you how many times I have broken left (the way they drive on the street), only to have the person coming in the opposite direction break right aka we almost crash. So annoying.

Like today, this ancient Japanese would is coming towards me. There is a tree on the right side of the sidewalk. And the way the timing works out is that i will pass the tree before her, by about 10 seconds. So I go, pass the tree, and at this point she is on the left side of the sidewalk, (my left her right), which is the same side I am on. So I switch to the right side of the sidewalk, but so does she.

This ends up in us both having to put on our breaks, me dodging her to the right, and her getting so close to the tree that she now has to back up in order to go around it. Absolutely pathetic. I know that explanation wasn't the best, but trust me, it wasn't pretty.

My friend said that he was on his bicycle, on a path that was only wide enough for two bikes. He said that two Japanese guys were coming towards him on their bikes, side by side. So he went to the right side, and he expected them to drop into a single file formation so that they could each pass freely. Well that wasn't to be. He said that they the two Japanese guys crammed together when they past and that my friend almost got knocked over...

The soccer team had its last game on this past saturday, and we won 4-0. It was really important for the seniors and the team because that win determined which league the team would be placed in for the following year. Because we won though, the team remains in the highest (premier) league for college clubs. Pretty cool eh?

Great Day

So today was awesome.

One of the Japanese emperors was born today so I didn't have school. SWEEEETTTT!!!

So I spend the morning vegetating, which in Japanese I found out is goro goro btw, and in the afternoon I met my friend at macdonalds to spend the afternoon talking about Japanese.

So we met at macd's and it was super crowded so we didn't stay for long, but before I left for Japanese I bought this book called "dirty Japanese" which is actually the best book ever. Like any language Japanese is filled with dialects and slang so i've committed myself to really getting into the grit and dirty japanese slang.

The book itself has all kinds of sayings, from moron, slacker, idiot, to well some things that aren't really appropriate for this blog, but we went through most of the book and Kenji (my japanese friend) told me which phrases and such people actually use vs. the ones they don't. It was a lot of fun. At the same time he was writing down all the english sayings and such as it was as much of an education experience for him as it was for me.

After we were done we were on our way out of Sapporo station when he asked if I wanted to go to his place for dinner, so naturally I said yes. I've never been to a Japanese house before and it was really awesome. I'm not going to lie, my first thoughts of Japanese houses are these super traditional buildings where the insides are made of pure bamboo and everything is from the 1600's yadda yadda yadda, when in reality his house was pretty much the same as any American's house. It has a nice entrance, kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom etc. and 2 dogs. They were pekingese dogs, and they were pretty funny/cute.

His mother and father were also super nice and it was a lot of fun. So we ate Kimuti Nabe (one of my favs), rice and pot stickers. This is actually really funny because kimuti nabe is a korean dish, and pot stickers is chinese, so we didn't really eat any Japanese food at all.

After dinner we checked out some photos and stuff on facebook and it was a lot of fun. Kenji is actually a really good skier. His main picture is him, upside down on a mountain lol.

Anyway, it was a super awesome day.

We also talked a lot about college too. He said that in Japan, companies don't care about your GPA at all, only what school you attended and your experience. He also said there is no system to evaluate professors. He said that almost all of the professors he has had in college (he graduates in spring) have been really crappy.

I found this so surprising because I had always thought the Japanese education system is top notch, but I guess that ends at high school, which is what he said as well. I found this all pretty shocking.

Oh yeah. Another thing. Almost every single car in Japan, has the ability for its side mirrors to swing in and make the car more narrow. Japanese cars have been doing this for awhile i guess...

Snow

So today, it snowed all day long. It wasn't really a hard snow, just a steady flow of soft flakes even if you could see blue sky. It was really pretty actually. The downside to this however was, the fact that it's cold outside!! To be expected in November, but it still always feels extra cold until you get used to it.

So let's talk a little bit about my zemi, the Japanese class that I attend from 2:45-well, apparently I am the only one who cares when this class gets out (supposed to be 6) because we got out at 6:45 tonight YAYY..

I missed a soccer meeting because of that actually, so I'm rather upset atm. Anyway, let's read a passage from a book, and then sit around and discuss it. Sounds good right? Maybe? Ok not really? I don't think so. The class is structured so that every week there are 2 passages and thus 2 students reside over the zemi, each one leading the discussion over their assigned passage.

So they have to write this report, which they read to the class at the beginning (all in Japanese again I might add), including quotes from the passage that they also choose to talk about. Boorringg. So after they are done we just sit there and they talk, and talk, and talk. Any every once in awhile the professor will pipe and and mention some important fact or enlighten them on a question they aren't able to answer themselves (meanwhile i am going crazy), but other then that he doesn't do anything.

If I was a senior in college taking a class taught by students I would be rather angry, and would start to wonder where my money really goes. I mean come on, half the time the students are discussing terms and things of that nature, it's soo frustrating. There is absolutely not reason for this class to be scheduled from 2:45-6:00, when we don't even get out at 6. What a waste of time in my opinion.

ON TOP of that. Some have voiced their opinions that it is good to immerse myself in a class and be surrounded by the speech and such. Imagine, reading the journal of someone from the 1600's on economic theory, while wearing glasses that make everything out of focus, and then make sure that it is written in another language, that will be a little bit closer to the text that we are using.

We also start a new book next week, and the professor wants me to read it. Yay. Now I have to spend 30 dollars and a Japanese textbook, that will take me probably 2 years to read. I am so stoked!...

I also just had to turn on my heater :(

Also, Japanese students love this stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q7s4E94-No&feature=related

You have to watch that video, it really is sweet. Most students I have talked to have a half decent ability at that, I can barely hold a pencil without dropping it once in awhile...

MEDIA TIME!! Ok the picture is of Ginkou Avenue, its sooo pretty isn't it? The camera/picture do not do the colors justice. It's really famous street at the University, people from all over Hokkaido come here just to see it yay!

Also, the video. It's 50mb so it is a large video, but I swear it is totally worth the load wait...Please watch it!!

Also sorry for the negative post, today was just a bad day because of that zemi...