best friends

Growing up in the States, I've gradually became used to the idea of making "best friends". This "best friends" philosophy is something that doesn't seem to exist here in Japan, where everyone band up together, no matter how deep their friendships are.

Some noticable events seen in my school include people, wandering around, searching for people to go to cafeteria, stationary shop, or even bathroom during break time. Also, there are people, waiting hopelessly for someone to go home with after school, when in my opinion, it's way better off going home alone and not waste time just...waiting. Why do Japanese people group up together, even if he/she doesn't even like that person or have a loose relationship with him/her?

My mom's cousin's husband who is a Swiss and is very fond of Japan, said he disgusted this habit of Japanese, which matches my opinion. Yes, there are 237 students in the same grade, but I would just love to forget about the remaining 232 and make an unbreakable, trustful relationship with 5; a relationship I classify as "best friends". Even if I make an attempt to construct a relationship like this here, it never realizes because the whole idea of "best friends" doesn't exist in Japanese minds.

If I'm asked the 5Ws of my "best friends", I'd still say they'd be JG, OZ and SK of elementary school in Livingston, even though 5 years had passed since my return to Japan. But, I think I'm about to accomplish this objective in my school here though. I mean about to...hopefully.

bayshore line

I love highways. Its existence runs through my veins, probably because I've lived in the States. We used to use Route 280, New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway to make visits to Japanese weekend school on Saturdays and cram school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My parents still are heavy users of highways here in Japan.

Japanese highways, in comparison with American highways are narrower and more expensive, which lowers it's value as a social infrastructure, but I love the way how things are built more neatly here. Roadside lights are installed with even intervals, making a fantastic chain of light during nighttime. This effect was seen from the bus we took on the snowboarding tour on Kanetsu Expressway and it was quite beautiful. My favorite route to drive on is Bayshore Route of Metropolitan Expressway. It's new, clean and smooth and its width reminds me of New Jersey Turnpike.

My mom and I used Yokohama Yokosuka Road and the Bayshore Route of Metropolitan Expressway to visit Yokohama Sogo today to purchase gifts for my friends and their families in the States. It's only a week more to go until I visits my fellows in New Jersey.

We did buy some food in Sogo's "depa-chika" too along with few other things. There, most of the confectioneries were putting up kiosks for Valentine's Day with crowds of women surrounding it, competing each other to buy chocolates for whoever she's planning on giving. This sight really disgusted me.

Here in Japan, Valentine's Day is recognized as a day where girls give guys gifts(mainly chocolate) to show her love towards him. Not only that, but women here are "moderately" enforced to give chocolates out to all of men around her, which is an act we call "obligation chocolate". These acts are really weird and confusing in my opinion.

I'm not going to explain the whole story behind St. Valentine's Day but orignally, it's a day where you show your true feeling to your love, whether you're a guy or a girl. Since Valentine's Day is established as a day where girls give guys gifts, there's another day made on March 14th, a month after Valentine's Day we call "White Day", which is basically the opposite of Japanese style Valentine's Day: a day where guys return girls with gifts.

Girls here attempt to get expensive branded goods, in return of chocolates. What a shame...

admission

237 students, including me, gathered in front of 2A classroom today for the faculty announcement. I was admitted to the Department of Law in the Faculty of Law, which was my 1st choice ever since I got into the high school I go to now.

Rumors were right. Departments in the Faculty of Law had a lot of applicants, which means that competition was tough. I was able to find a lot of people who were unable to make it into the Faculty of Law, based on facts I've heard prior to the announcement.

When we look at the Faculty of Law as a whole, more than half of the students are from the Alpha class which is a really high ratio, considering the fact that Alpha students consists of 25% of the grade. This "Alpha" preference was also one of the famous rumors related to faculty recommendation. Also, high ratio of girls were noticable in the Faculty of Law departments. Did this phenomenon occur just because Alpha students do better on English proficiency test or are we actually being treated with preference? We may never know, but...curious.

Headmaster's talk really was memorable. "The chosen ones..." I'm definately going to meet the desires casted on all of us Department of Faculty students. I promise.

Last but not least. Whether you are going to spend another 4 years together with me or not, keep in touch!

ringmotion

Ever since I've changed my cell phone handset, I've been making original "chaku-uta"s. "Chaku-uta" is a musical data(mainly on chorus) you can download off the internet, that takes place of what ringtones did in the past. The sound of ringtone is generated from digital scores, but "chaku-uta" is the music itself, compressed enough to make downloading possible on cell handsets.

Anyway, since it costs 105 yen a piece to download these "chaku-uta"s from official sites on i-mode, I decided to make them myself. So far, I've made "chaku-uta"s of

Seether feat. Amy Lee - Broken
Linkin Park - In The End
Daniel Bedingfield - Nothing Hurts Like Love
Dido - White Flag
The Rembrandts - I'll Be There For You
Daft Punk - Something About Us
Evanescence - Taking Over Me

With further research, I've found out that it's possible to attach video on to "chaku-uta" files and make them "chaku-motion", which is basically a "chaku-uta" with graphical data attached on. So...today, I've made a "chaku-motion" of the Original FRIENDS' Intro(The Pilot)! Now, when someone calls me, 6 of my favorite fellows begin dancing on my cell screen, front or back, depending on its position.

It's awesome! Copyright? Within private use, right? lol

returnees

I've started this blog as an assignment from Mr. Kringle in alpha class of my school. In 2nd term, URLs for every single "alpha blogs" were given out, meaning that every alpha student in my grade should know where this blog is located on the web. Some may even be reading this blog. I have a question I want to ask to all you returnee students, in case you people are reading this crap on a daily basis.

As I've written on my introduction, I lived in New Jersey. New Jersey indeed is a state heavily populated by Japanese people, but I lived in a town called Livingston, which was a municipality with a Japanese population of 4: just my family. This is the reason why I was isolated from Japanese culture for 6 years.

In New Jersey, most Japanese prefer living in Bergen county in towns such as Ridgewood, Englewood, Cresskill and Fort Lee, just as in New York, most Japanese prefer living in Westchester county, in towns such as Scarsdale, Rye, Harrison and White Plains. Greenwich in Connecticut is also known for high Japanese population. Same thing applies to Los Angeles, where a lot of Japanese live in Irvine.

Is there anyone in my grade, who's lived in a town with no Japanese population besides your family for a certain period of time? I did visit Fort Lee often to get Japanese specialities once in a while, but I've never interacted with any Japanese element in my school during my life there.

I would like some comments, although I believe no one continues to check these "alpha blogs" out. It's worth a try though.

life

I've learned a lot about reality and life today from this person at work, who used to be a president for a certain company, but went bankrupt. He's making his living, cleaning houses now. This is reality...isn't it?

bye for now

Although I signed up for work again today, my company was unable to place me anywhere because it was a Sunday. An unexpected day off work, with nothing to do.

When I visited amazon.com yesterday, I found out that they started taking pre-orders for Season 9 DVDs of FRIENDS, which were bound to be shipped on March 9th. So I ordered it, along with Roswell Season 2 DVDs. Since I have gotten a guaranteed continuation of FRIENDS now, I decided to finish FRIENDS' Season 8 today. Boy, they sure are entertaining! lol

Speaking of American dramas, my local cable television station is beginning their broadcast of FOX from March, which is something I've been waiting for, ever since I've found out about their lineup. Unfortunately, it's available only on digital broadcast and it costs 10,000 yen to change the current terminal into the one that's compatible with the digital broadcast. I'm going to beg for it...when my father comes home next time. I'll get it.