Tuesday, June 3, 2008

This is really a short post when you realize that it covers a full four days of material. To all those who dislike long posts, be grateful.
After what was supposed to be a second weekend exploring Tokyo, I find myself sitting here in front of the computer with not a whole lot to type about, but that’s just fine. I needed a bit of down time and some sleep, so even though my weekend wasn’t packed full of happenings, I am satisfied with it. But, since there is a little bit that is noteworthy, I shall continue with the post.

Saturday, May 31st
My original plan for today was to go into Tokyo again, this time to visit a museum. But, after this last week of going to bed after midnight and waking up at 7:00, I was a bit tired. I hadn’t really slept in since I got here, and my body decided that it was going to do it even if my mind didn’t want to. I ended up sleeping until 10:30. When I got up I went through my usual routine of showering, brushing my teeth, finding some clean clothes to wear and sitting down in front of my compy to chat a bit. I ended up chatting longer than anticipated, and after my lunch I looked at the clock to realize that it was 2:00. It’s an hour into Tokyo and the museum closed at 7. Now, a museum is an all-day thing and since I still wasn’t exactly sure where it was I figured it best to delay my trip. Thus, I spent the rest of the day lounging around my room, watching television, reading, and figuring out things to do with my time while I’m here. At 4:00 or so Chieko-san showed up at my door to welcome me back and offered to drive me to get groceries. It was like she read my mind because I had just finished off the last bit of my food. We went shopping, I got some foodstuffs (not enough though, if you were to ask Chieko-san) and returned to my room. I went to bed around 11:00 so as to have enough sleep to be ready to leave by 8:00 for church.

My largest discovery of the day was the live house schedule on Tokyogigguide.com. Live house, for all of you who haven’t seen (but should see) Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, is the Japanese term for music club. Basically, they’re establishments whose sole purpose is to provide musical entertainment seven nights a week. Amazing if you ask me. The prices aren’t terrible either! Most concerts start around 6:00 or 7:00 and go for three or four hours and charge between 1500 and 6000 yen. Most of them fall in the 2000 to 3500 yen category. That’s 20 to 35 dollars for a full night of good entertainment! I couldn’t in my right mind pass that up, so I browsed the Tokyo Gig Guide until I found a couple shows I wouldn’t mind seeing. A technopop band called Perfume looked pretty good, but their price was a bit high, 42000 yen. I saw that in two weeks the Pillows would be playing at a live house for 3300 yen and figured I had to try to make that show. When I went to get tickets I was confronted with the horrible fact that the show was sold out already. Bummer. But I’m actually glad the show was sold out because I’m going to go see a band that looks even better than the Pillows! A Japanese band called Afterpilot (you can listen to some of their music at www.myspace.com/afterpilot) is performing this coming Thursday night. They call their genre powerpop and I like it. They’re performing with two other bands: another Japanese band called Totos and a Swedish band called Dreamboy. Dreamboy is the headliner act, but I’m going for Afterpilot. I hope the show is good! (I also pray I can find the place and still make it by 7:00 ^_^)

The following video isn’t of a band that I’m going to be able to see, but I would pay quite a bit for the chance to see them in concert. The band is the one whose CD I bought a couple weeks ago called Beat Crusaders. Their gimmick is that they never show their faces. In all public appearances they wear pieces of paper over their faces with poor quality printouts of their actual faces on them. Genius if you ask me. They can safely walk around in public without being mobbed and the whole gimmick actually works for their style. Anyway, instead of the pieces of paper, for this concert they decided to go with a different but similar approach. I strongly suggest you watch all the way to the end, there is something very much worth it in the last few seconds. The music is in Eglish anyway, so it’s not like you won’t be able to understand them. ~_^ Watch and enjoy!

Sunday, June 1st
Church was good this morning, but not the best of Sundays. I really have fallen in love with this church. The church is the number one thing I was looking forward to about my return from Nyukawa. I just love the community and the pastor is a great guy! My first Sunday there and he took me out to eat! Granted, I had to pay for my own food, but nevertheless the gesture was nice. I would have insisted he let me pay regardless. Anyway, this Sunday the pastor, Stan, didn’t give a sermon. Rather, a long-time member of the church, A Norwegian guy named Vidar, gave a talk about his past year serving in China. It was a nice talk and definitely kept me interested through the whole thing, but I was hoping to hear Stan.

After church I went out to lunch with David and Chieko-san. We ate at a place called Ootoya. It was good food and not that high of a price either. Chieko-san wouldn’t let me pay though. She says New Life League is paying for it, but I’m not sure I believe her. If the poor woman is paying for my food out of her own pocket I’ll feel horrible.

David went off back to New Life League, the man lives in the room next to mine, and Chieko-san gave me a choice—she’d take me to do anything I wanted as long as we were done by 4:00. The decision was a difficult one but I decided it best to use my time to get a haircut. We found a place that was advertising 10 minutes of hair trimming for 1000 yen. Clearly geared towards the male populous. We had to wait about 20 minutes, but the haircut was speedy and it came out looking nice. I got the curl cut off the back of my neck and trimmed up the ends. I like this look better. Longer hair makes my face look too round.

On the way back to New Life League we stopped to let me buy my ticket for the concert on Thursday, thank Heaven it wasn’t sold out. When I got back, I popped in a Firefly episode and headed to bed.

Monday, June 2nd
Today was my first work day back at New Life League. It was a good day. As I had predicted, they didn’t have any work for me to do quite yet. I needed the day anyway to get started on laying out the activity book in InDesign. I spent the whole day working on it and have come up with an effective layout. I got three pages completely finished and the rest should not be hard. I’ve established the template so it’s basically a drag and drop process at this point. It’ll still take longer that it would normally since I’m working on a Japanese interface, but it still won’t be a terribly long process. I should be able to get all the story pages laid out in one day of work at most. I’m still waiting on the email from Kelly-san with the pictures in it. I need her pictures before I can start laying out the activities portion. Iwaoka-san gets back from a trip to America either this Thursday or next Tuesday, I hope to have something impressive to show him by then.

That’s really all I have regarding Monday. Everybody seems happy to have me back and I’m happy to be back. I’ve got three more weeks working here at NLL and I can’t see it getting dull anytime soon. ^_^

Tuesday, June 3rd
I didn’t think the Tsusumi-san would have anything prepared for me to do today either, but she surprised me. As it turns out, I had a call to Chicago scheduled for 10:00 to talk to a man named Josh about laying out the English text in the newest manga NLL is putting out called Manga Mutiny (they seem to have a naming trend going ^_^). This manga is the story of Genesis and it was drawn by a new artist. Well, she’s not new, by the artwork she’s clearly been drawing manga for a very long time, but she’s new to NLL. The artwork is the most beautiful manga art I’ve ever seen in my life! As is the trend with NLL, the entire thing is in color, and the drawing style is amazing. I’d buy this manga for the sake of the art only, I don’t even care what it’s about. I’m actually honored to have been given the chance to work with it. I didn’t end up talking with Josh until 11:30 or so, he had forgotten about the call and never turned on his Skype. My task is quite simple. I’ve been given the English translation and I am typing it into the bubbles. I’m also going through and editing out the mild Engrish. The translation is pretty good, but every so often there is a sentence that just doesn’t feel right. I don’t know how long I’ll be working on this, but they’re having me go through the entirety of the manga. I don’t know when I’ll get the chance to work on the activity book again, but if the work on the manga goes too slowly tomorrow, I may end up pulling some after-hours work to get the book finished.

Caesar1280's Anime Ticker

.hack//Legend of the Twilight, Air, Air: The Movie, Akira, The Animatrix, Appleseed, Aquatic Language, Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror, Beck, Black Lagoon, Blame!, Blood the Last Vampire, Bokurano, Burst Angel, Castle in the Sky, Cowboy Bebop, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express, Egao, FLCL, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala, Gankutsuou, Gatekeepers, Genshiken, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, Gin-iro no Kami no Agito, Grave of the Fireflies, Grenadier, Haibane Renmei, Hellsing, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, Hikaru no Go, Howl?s Moving Castle, Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Jyu Oh Sei, Karas: The Prophecy, Last Exile, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Midori?s Days, Milennium Actress, Mushi-shi, My Neighbor Totoro, Naruto, Naruto: The Movie, Nausicaa, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death And Rebirth, Ninja Scroll: The Movie, Other Worlds, Paprika, Perfect Blue, Pet Shop of Horrors, The Place Promised In Our Early Days, Prétear, Princess Mononoke, Read Or Die, Read Or Die: The TV, Samurai Champloo, Samurai Seven, Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal, She and Her Cat, Spirited Away, Steamboy, Tide-Line Blue, Tokyo Babylon, Tokyo Godfathers, Trigun, Voices of a Distant Star, Witch Hunter Robin, Wonderful Days, Wrath of the Ninja, X

Anime I've Seen - .hack//Legend of the Twilight - .hack//Sign - 5 Centimeters per Second - Air - Air: The Movie - Akira - The Animatrix - Appleseed - Aquatic Language - Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror - Baby Blue - Beck - Black Lagoon - Blame! - Blood the Last Vampire - Bokurano - Burst Angel - Castle in the Sky - Cowboy Bebop - Cowboy Bebop: The Movie - Digimon Tamers: The Runaway Digimon Express - Doorbell - Egao - FLCL - Fullmetal Alchemist - Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shambala - Gankutsuou - Gatekeepers - Genius Party - Genshiken - Genshiken OAV - Ghost in the Shell - Ghost in the Shell: Innocence - Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society - Gin-iro no Kami no Agito - The Gokusen - Grave of the Fireflies - Grenadier - Haibane Renmei - Happy Machine - Hellsing - Highlander: The Search for Vengeance - Hikaru no Go - Howl's Moving Castle - Innocent Venus - Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade - Jyu Oh Sei - Karas: The Prophecy - Karas: The Revelation - Last Exile - Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi - Midori?s Days - Milennium Actress - Mushi-shi - My Neighbor Totoro - Naruto - Naruto: The Movie - Nausicaa - Neon Genesis Evangelion - Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death And Rebirth - Ninja Scroll: The Movie - Other Worlds - Ouran High School Host Club - Paprika - Perfect Blue - Pet Shop of Horrors - The Place Promised In Our Early Days - Prétear - Princess Mononoke - Read Or Die - Read Or Die: The TV - Samurai Champloo - Samurai Seven - Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal - Serial Experiments Lain - Shanghai Dragon - She and Her Cat - Spirited Away - Steamboy - Tekkonkinkreet - Tide-Line Blue - Tokyo Babylon - Tokyo Godfathers - Trigun - Trinity Blood - Vampire Hunter D - Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust - Voices of a Distant Star - Witch Hunter Robin - Wolf's Rain - Wonderful Days - Wrath of the Ninja - X Total: 93

Anime I Haven't Completed - .hack//Roots - Ah! My Goddess - Angelic Layer - Avenger - Baccano! - Bamboo Blade - Basilisk - Binchou-tan - Black Cat - Bleach - Blood+ - Boogiepop Phantom - Case Closed - Le Chevalier d'Eon - Chobits - Chrono Crusade - Code Geass - Coyote Ragtime Show - D.Gray-Man - D.N.Angel - DearS - Death Note - Dennou Coil - Desert Punk - Digimon - Dragon Ball Z - Ergo Proxy - Eureka Seven - Excel Saga - Fighting Beauty Wulong - Final Fantasy Unlimited - Flag - Freedom - Full Moon - Gantz - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Gintama - Glass Fleet - Great Teacher Onizuka - Gundam Seed - Gundam Wing - Hayate the Combat Butler - Hellsing OVA - Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Ikki Tousen - InuYasha - Jigoku Shojo - Kage Kara Mamoru - Karin - Kino's Journey - Love Hina - Loveless - Lovely Complex - Lucky Star - Makai Senki Disgaea - Marchen Awakens Romance - Meine Liebe - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Mononoke - Monster - Moon Phase - Mr Stain on Junk Alley - Naruto Shippuuden - Negima?! - Negima! - Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion - Nerima Daikon Brothers - NHK ni Youkoso - Night Walker - Ninja Nonsense - Noir - Peacemaker Kurogane - Pokemon - Prince of Tennis - R.G. Veda - Ragnarok - Rec - Red Garden - Robotech - Romeo x Juliet - Rosen Maiden - Rurouni Kenshin - Saikano - Sailor Moon - Samurai Deeper Kyo - Sci-fi Harry - School Rumble - Scrapped Princess - Shin-chan - Shingu - Shion no Oh - Shuffle! - Shrine of the Morning Mist - So Long, Mr. Despair - Solty Rei - Sousei no Aquarion - Speed Grapher - Spice and Wolf - Super Milk Chan - Tales of Phantasia - Tenchi Muyo - Tenjhou Tenge - Texnolyze - The Third - Tsubasa Chronicles - Urusei Yatsura - Venus Versus Virus - Welcome to the N.H.K. - Winter Cicada - X-1999 - Xenosaga - XxxHolic - Yu Yu Hakushou - Yume Tsukai - Zero no Tsukaima - Zipang Total: 116

Manga I've Completed - Cowboy Bebop - FLCL - Manga Messiah - Manga Metamorphosis - Q*Ko-chan - Saiyuki - Shirahime-Syo Total: 7 Manga I Haven't Completed - .hack//Legend of the Twilight - Black Cat - Blame! - Chobits - D.Gray-man - Darkside Blues - Death Note - The Demon Ororon - Desert Coral - Disgaea - Eureka Seven: Gravity Boys and Lifting Girl - Fruits Basket - Getbackers - Hayate the Combat Butler - Kamunagara - Legal Drug - Love Hina - Loveless - Megatokyo - Naruto - Negima - Read Or Die - Rurouni Kenshin - Tactics - Trigun Maximum - XXXHolic Total: 26

Anime I'm Currently Watching
Samurai 7, InuYasha, Samurai Deeper Kyo,
Boogiepop Phantom, and Shrine of the Morning Mist

Manga I'm Currently Reading
Read Or Die, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Megatokyo.hack//Roots, .hack//Sign, 5 cm per Second, Ah! My Goddess, Angelic Layer, Avenger, Basilisk, Binchou-tan, Black Cat, Bleach, Blood+, Boogiepop Phantom, Case Closed, Le Chevalier d'Eon, Chobits, Chrono Crusade, Coyote Ragtime Show, D.Gray-Man, D.N.Angel, DearS, Death Note, Dennou Coil, Desert Punk, Digimon, Dragon Ball Z, Ergo Proxy, Eureka 7, Excel Saga, Fighting Beauty Wulong, Final Fantasy Unlimited, Flag, Full Moon, Gantz, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Gintama, Great Teacher Onizuka, Gundam Seed, Gundam Wing, Hayate the Combat Butler, Hellsing Ultimate, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Innocent Venus, InuYasha, Jigoku Shojo, Kage Kara Mamoru, Karin, Kino?s Journey, Love Hina, Loveless, Lovely Complex, Lucky Star, Makai Senki Disgaea, Marchen Awakens Romance, Meine Liebe, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Mononoke, Monster, Naruto Shippuuden, Negima?!, Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion, Nerima Daikon Brothers, NHK ni Youkoso, Night Walker, Ninja Nonsense, Noir, Ouran High School Host Club, Peacemaker Kurogane, Pokemon, Prince of Tennis, R.G. Veda, Ragnarok, Rec, Red Garden, Robotech, Romeo x Juliet, Rosen Maiden, Rurouni Kenshin, Saikano, Sailor Moon, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Sci-fi Harry, School Rumble, Scrapped Princess, Serial Experiments Lain, Shingu, Shuffle!, Shrine of the Morning Mist, So Long Mr. Despair, Solty Rei, Sousei no Aquarion, Speed Grapher, Super Milk Chan, Tales of Phantasia, Tenchi Muyo, Tenjhou Tenge, Texnolyze, The Third. Trinity Blood, Tsubasa Chronicles, Urusei Yatsura, Welcome to the N.H.K., Winter Cicada, X-1999, Xenosaga, XxxHolic, Yu Yu Hakushou, Yume Tsukai, Zero no Tsukaima, Zipang

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