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...