I learned this new vocabulary “ニューハーフ” — pronounced “New Half” — which means transgender. In this case, the guy- that looks like a girl- is just in drag mode… she said she spent 0 yen, so no sex change (see one of the photos in the first part).
Looking at the game interface again you can see that the bottom area shows half long-hair and half short-hair on the head icons.
I didn’t expect the show’s topic to be about transgenders, but caught on around the 5th image of the first part when he asked again if 男の子！？（male?)
Anyway, the more important thing Rob pointed out in the last post’s comments:
So, this past weekend I happened to glance at the TV when I saw a show with some very cool graphics. The sound effects and on-screen graphics were reminiscent of old final fantasy games so I whipped out my iphone and started taking photos while thinking “my friends in the US would like to see this.”
Thus, I began taking photos while completely oblivious to show’s topic until halfway through my photo shooting frenzy (from first to last photo about 1 minute passed).
Any idea what those three are talking about? I’ll post the last photo on Friday…
Ok, so it appears that I’ll consistently forget to post on Fridays for the next 3 or 4 weeks since I travel to the in-laws early Friday evening. Instead, I’ll try to post on Thursdays starting this week.
Today, a big bunch of photos I’ve been saving up:
Traditional Izakaya, the type that is big enough to fit 8 people and not one person more.
Practically hidden to the foreigner’s eyes, it’s a side street place that gets it’s customers by word-of-mouth only.
Shinjuku’s Golden Gai (pronounced “guy”). Lots of tiny bars and a karaoke place or two.
The groceries I bought last week. The empty apartment requires easy-to-cook foodstuffs.
So I made enough egg-salad and ham sandwhiches to last 3 days. Yay for home economics and saving money by taking a lunch box to work occasionally
Then again, why should I when I often make and eat great food at the office like these burritos.
Or this bacon-wrapped honey mustard chicken I put together for lunch one day.
Many special thanks to my coworker Kanako-san for this great baby present. Colorful shoes that I’m sure Mia will love!
The maternity hospital room we stayed in the first night. It had tatami mats. The rest of the nights were spent in a more western looking room.
Daddy’s girl and mother are doing great! I can’t stop daydreaming about her when I’m at work
未絢（みあ）Mia Kristen Abbott
Mi ->未 (future)
A ->絢 (to spin variety, colorful, and beautiful silk = making and spinning beautiful patterns)
She was born on December 1st at 4:13PM weighing about 6.7lbs (3000g)
“Hm, it’s strange out here in the real world… ”
“What are you doing, papa?”
Cute little baby toes… so tiny!
A little slow writing this post, it’s been a busy busy week! Sunday I took the JLPT N3, I’ll get the results by mail in about 2 months (slow), but I think it went well.
Thanks to Amanda for pinging me - or else I might have easily forgotten to update here until tomorrow. Hannah also had a good question about citizenship which I’m sure some of you out there might be wondering too:
Amanda: hannah wants to know if you are going to file for dual citizenship for Mia. that’s what they are studying in history.
me: I’ll take her to the US embassy sometime early next year and get her passport and apply for her SSN. She’ll have both US and Japanese passports until she is 20
when she turns 20 the Japanese government will require her to choose one nationality. Although the US supports dual-citizenship, Japan does not.
Mia will have to decide which to choose, I’m sure it will be a very tough early-adulthood decision.
Amanda: Wow! That will be a very hard decision. I guess it will depend on if ya’ll choose to stay in Japan or live in the states.
me: or maybe she’ll be rebellious but i hope not
we plan on living in both countries for a while, but you’re right - it will probably depend on where she feels at home
I’ll be at work during the week (working late) then heading back to Gunma early on Fridays to see Ayako and Mia-chan… can’t wait for the weekend
Wow, I missed my post on Friday, but I have a good reason… we thought the baby was going to be here Friday night! So, I rushed to Gunma to be with Ayako, but her regular pains subsided after about 8 hours. The doctor said she’d definitely have the baby this week, and we have an appointment for Wednesday (baby pics in my Facebook account when the baby finally arrives!).
Unrelated note, I was looking at the calendar for next year trying to plan a few things when I found a note about the “Happy Monday System” in Japan. Apparently, there is an attempt to move national holidays to “x Monday of x Month” in order to make more 3 day weekends.
You get to the office and put your stuff at your desk, sit down, log in, open your email then decide it’s a good time to get a drink before reading everything. You take your empty mug and walk into the kitchen.. OMG, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!???
Your mug shatters on the floor. Welcome to Japan, where giant alien looking things just hang out in the kitchens of your not-so-average company.
In some countries, hanging a dead animal up is like signaling that someone is mad, people are going to fight, or you shouldn’t trespass. Reminds me a bit of that dead rabbit scene in Gangs of New York (one of my top 3 favorite movies, Daniel Day Lewis was amazing in that) when Leo hangs that rabbit pelt in the square as a sign he’s out for revenge. The scene after that has a great use of the not-so-pleasant vernacular (children cover your ears) that i’ve always found funny:
But I digress. Upon closer inspection, this was no “beware,” instead it had a kinder more gentle meaning:
Eat that squid! Eat it all!
Actually, I think i’ll have a bite or two (I actually like dried squid now, 4 years ago I would have been very afraid to try stuff like this).
I live around what some might consider as the best place for ramen in or near Tokyo. In fact, there’s even a ramen museum dedicated and a home page dedicated to all the ramen in this area: http://ramen-museum.jp/
And today, for dinner, I had a great big bowl of amazing miso ramen:
So Goooooood! I really need to explore all the ramen shops around here.
