Entries this day: Jen_Shoko_pool Lesson genki_II_core_samples languages movie

Jen Shoko pool

4:25pm JST Wednesday 18 August 2004

Shoko called up to my room this morning, thankfully getting me off my computer. Damn I'm such a nerd on this thing; it's an addiction of sorts, though I judge it's not all bad; just need some moderation.

Jen joined us, and I chatted with her in English about OM and her being my new boss (haha) and stuff like that. Also talked to her about her friend who goes bicycling long distances. Cool.

For the first couple of laps, I was with Shoko; Jen was on her ketai sending text messages to someone. This time in the pool the novelty of swimming had worn off, but it was still quite cool and enjoyable. Shoko paddled around the ring-river on the inflatable Pooh ball, and I floated along beside her.

When she joined us, Jen grabbed my leg from behind in a sneak attack type manuever, but I wasn't startled, knowing that she was "out there" in the pool area.

- - - -

We stayed for an hour, half of which Shoko spent working on her tan. On the way out, I looked for 100 yen coins left in the lockers, but found none.

Lesson

6:23pm JST Wednesday 18 August 2004

Lesson with Akiko was cool; she brought a paper and I helped her with a lot of vocabulary. I wrote more this time than last time, but not too much; both sides of one sheet. She translated a phone message that I received during the lesson. As I suspected (after a little consideration) it was the store where I was able to buy a binder for my Genki I book (and get it hole-punched); they had received the second binder for my Genki II book, which I went and picked up after the lesson and had hole-punched.

Met briefly with Akiko after the lesson and hole-punching festivities; she had scoped the used bike shop down the street and reported they receive a few mountain bikes per week, or per month but right now they had none. Thanks to her research, it seems that I won't further pursue buying a bike from that shop.

During the lesson I defined words like "reclusive, declaration, dismantling," and others I don't remember. These were in an article about China "appealing" North Korea to engage in talks to dismantle their nuclear weapons program.

This, while Bush is having nuclear "bunker busters" developed. Nightmare.

genki II core samples

7:51pm JST Wednesday 18 August 2004

During the lesson, the binder place called, so I headed out there after the lesson. I talked to two people with my best Japanese trying to explain that I want to borrow their hole punch. I don't know a word that means borrow, but I know "give," as in "give me a hole punch" but I didn't think that was the right tactic to use.

I was a bit worried for a bit that my plan of punching the book here (and my two workbooks) was simply not going to happen. I was at a complete loss for how to explain what I wanted to do. Fortunately, an employee who could speak pretty natural English showed up and got me hooked up pretty quickly.

I sat at their little desk and punched Genki II and the pages of my two workbooks. Awesome. Cleaned up all the holes, many stacks of which were compressed together like layers of rock in a core sample.

On my way out of the store, I showed these to the woman who had translated for me, and she was duly impressed, but not impressed enough to keep them in her personal box of knick knacks, nor even impressed enough to take a picture for her scrapbook.

I'm not even that impressed; the miniature paper core samples have been discarded into the depths of my bag, to be cleaned out when the time is right.

languages

8:06pm JST Wednesday 18 August 2004

On my way home from making mini core samples, I saw an interesting English T-shirt, then suddenly noticed the woman wearing it was speaking Spanish. I only recognized "por la" in the middle of some sentence that could have been about stock market prices or the latest broadway musical or her son's pet rabbit.

I only mention this because a moment ago, here in Roppongi Hills, after telling Hitomi in my wack Japanese about my day, a few people walked by and I recognized they were *not* speaking Japanese. I immediately decided they were speaking Chinese, but that could easily be incorrect. Even were it correct, I don't know what dialect. But it flat was not Japanese.

I enjoy knowing different languages. To that end, I should study a bit.

movie

6:31pm JST Wednesday 18 August 2004

Hitomi and I are going to see I, Robot tonight. I hope it's cool and gives me stuff to think about.

6:43pm

Make that King Arthur. I hope it's cool and gives me stuff to think about. (pppbb yeah right.)

1:27am JST Thursday 19 August 2004

Okay; it wasn't completely without intellectual requirements; I didn't understand all of Arthur's decisions.. like why he ordered the just-released people back into the dungeon at the bishop's house. And why Merlin wanted to help him. And how Merlin's archers were so precise in their arching.

I liked the scariness of them trying to cross the frozen river, and I liked the underwater filming in those scenes, but I don't understand why stuff would be falling from the ice. How would heavier than water globs be trapped under the ice, ready to sink when the ice was shaken?

Good movie; I liked Guinevere.