<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197</id><updated>2011-04-22T09:43:26.814+12:00</updated><title type='text'>あぁ、勘違い！</title><subtitle type='html'>Life in Auckland</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>27</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-115009914527706282</id><published>2006-06-12T19:59:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2006-06-12T20:02:19.353+12:00</updated><title type='text'>Offering Booze to a Deity in Kowloon: Protecting Human Rights is Dangerous!?</title><content type='html'>This is an interesting examination of a racist Japanese comic. Almost the equivalent of Chick tract. As westerner who spent many years learning to speak Japanese and finally studying at Waseda University in Tokyo I understand the frustration of trying to live in Japan and being discriminated against. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There's already huge hurdles for foreigners trying to get housing in Tokyo, you need a Japanese person to co-sign on most apartments. This is something that most Japanese are very hesitant to do, even for close friends. Also there's the issue of "Key Money" which raises the price of entry into new housing even further. Some places will secretly, or even openly, reject foreigner's applications for apartments. The problem many times worse if you're black, Chinese, or any other non-white foreigner.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many foreigners will speak of the "gaijin bubble" when on trains or in restaurants, the space that surrounds you even on full crowded trains. Most of my friends explain this as being a consequence of Japanese people being embarrassed of their English skills. Even if this is the case it's incredibly alienating for someone trying to live in a new country.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bars (izakaya), restaurants and hot springs are notorious for foreigner discrimination and the further you get from Tokyo or Osaka the worse it gets.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Newspapers frequently play up the threat of foreign crime when the in fact statistics show that most crime is caused by Japanese and the percentages mostly follow the population percentages. Fortunately the newspapers Asahi and Mainichi have gotten better over the last couple of years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The last thing to remember is that Japan doesn't offer the same services many other nations provide for the poor. Homelessness and mental health aren't supported in the same way they are in other nations. Anyone who has been to either Yoyogi or Ueno park in Tokyo have seen the results of this in the blue tarps and homeless communities without any formalized shelter or mental health services. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;-&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That said many Westerners come into Japan with notoriously insulting attitudes and it's important to stand up to them and tell them how stupid they're acting. The attitudes of "Otaku" that come to Japan only equipped with knowledge of out of date manga and anime who speak Japanese gleamed from these sources often come off purposefully sounding gangster like. Many gaikokujin men's attitudes about Japanese women are appalling.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-115009914527706282?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://libationkowloon.blogspot.com/2006/06/protecting-human-rights-is-dangerous.html#links' title='Offering Booze to a Deity in Kowloon: Protecting Human Rights is Dangerous!?'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/115009914527706282/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=115009914527706282' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/115009914527706282'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/115009914527706282'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2006/06/offering-booze-to-deity-in-kowloon.html' title='Offering Booze to a Deity in Kowloon: Protecting Human Rights is Dangerous!?'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-113787807976687785</id><published>2006-01-22T10:08:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2006-01-22T10:14:39.766+13:00</updated><title type='text'>pocari sweat</title><content type='html'>I've got a job with working on a commercial for Pocari Sweat here in Auckland. I'm pretty excited having a chance to work on something that reminds me of Japan. I'll be doing some translating and driving. Making a list.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Things I need to do today:&lt;br /&gt;find a way to get a form notarized&lt;br /&gt;mail drivers license info request back to utah&lt;br /&gt;seriously, clean the apartment&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-113787807976687785?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocari_Sweat' title='pocari sweat'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/113787807976687785/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=113787807976687785' title='1 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/113787807976687785'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/113787807976687785'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2006/01/pocari-sweat.html' title='pocari sweat'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-110636455973862605</id><published>2005-01-22T17:27:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2005-01-22T16:29:19.740+13:00</updated><title type='text'>劇</title><content type='html'>ヴァ：どきどきするわ！&lt;br /&gt;マ：ワクワク！&lt;br /&gt;ア：今日は五つ結婚式をあげた。つかれた。もう一つ結婚式あげよう。つぎ！どうぞ！&lt;br /&gt;ヴァ：このしゅかんをまちこがれてた！行こう！&lt;br /&gt;マイ：本当にこれをしたい？&lt;br /&gt;マ：どうしたの？&lt;br /&gt;マイ：悪いしらせがある。相手はどういうひとか知ってる？&lt;br /&gt;マ：エー？おしえてくれ。&lt;br /&gt;ア：じゃあ、始めましょう。&lt;br /&gt;マイ：ヴァサが前のご主人を殺したらしいよ！&lt;br /&gt;マ：マジで？&lt;br /&gt;ア：本日、お忙しいなか、私たちのためにおあつまりいただき、ありがとうございます。&lt;br /&gt;マイ：本当だよ。&lt;br /&gt;マ：だれから聞いた。&lt;br /&gt;マイ：ヴァサのお母さんから聞いた。それに、ヴァサのお母さんはべつにきれいじゃないそう。&lt;br /&gt;マ：へー&lt;br /&gt;マイ：今、ヴァサはブスじゃないけど。。。&lt;br /&gt;ア：おくさんさんはいかなるときもごしゅじんをあいすることをちかいますか。&lt;br /&gt;ヴァ：はい、本当にちかいます。&lt;br /&gt;ア：ごしゅじんはいかなるときもおくさんをあいすることをちかいますか。&lt;br /&gt;マ：いいえ、ちがいます。&lt;br /&gt;ヴァ：アレ？ナンデ？&lt;br /&gt;マ：一人目のご主人をころしたそうだよ。&lt;br /&gt;ヴァ：しばらくころさなかった。&lt;br /&gt;マ：行かなくちゃいけない。&lt;br /&gt;マイ：じゃ、僕と結婚しないか。&lt;br /&gt;ア：じゃあ、さいしょからけっこんしき。やりなおそう。&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-110636455973862605?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/sets/29195/' title='劇'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/110636455973862605/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=110636455973862605' title='3 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/110636455973862605'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/110636455973862605'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2005/01/blog-post.html' title='劇'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>3</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-110419915168921180</id><published>2004-12-28T14:59:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2004-12-28T14:59:11.690+13:00</updated><title type='text'>tokyo gothy fashion show</title><content type='html'>&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/2570341/" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://photos2.flickr.com/2570341_7c8af3c336_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="light" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/2570341/"&gt;light&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/yuutamichael/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;The other day Lisa was in a, well... er... lolita fashion show. The term is used a bit different in the Tokyo cosplay circle than it is in the west. It really has nothing to do with Nabokovian lust but is something more akin to goth culture in the states. Floofy skirts do make an important contribution to all of it though.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, here are the pictures of the event, it was odd. There was a duo that performed some vaguely Eastern European sounding sounds with Japanese lyrics sung in an operatic voice. There was a lot of time wasted in the set up of things. Also, the audience, by far, had the better costumes.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-110419915168921180?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/110419915168921180/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=110419915168921180' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/110419915168921180'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/110419915168921180'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/12/tokyo-gothy-fashion-show.html' title='tokyo gothy fashion show'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-110419595594272445</id><published>2004-12-28T13:57:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2004-12-28T14:05:55.943+13:00</updated><title type='text'>mobbed</title><content type='html'>Yesterday, I was walking around Nakano taking pictures for a manga that I'm working on. When I made my way towards the train station I was accosted by a man in a suit who began shaking my hand really hard. I was momentarily stunned, my brain not capable of thinking what to do in such a situation having lost it's street based cynicism in the cushy safety of Tokyo. The man looked me in the eye and said "I love you, my favorite star!" I stumbled for something to say but all that came out was "arigato" at this point a small crowd of maybe twenty people began to form around me. I tried to pull my arm away and leave, but he was holding on very tightly. When I made a break for it a I heard some girls scream "Honto?!" (Really?!) and hands were suddenly reaching out and pawing at me. Someone's finger nail scratched my cheek a bit and I managed to stumble away muttering in Japanes something about being in a hurry to meet someone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was bizzarre. I still have no idea who these people thought I was. I was tempted to think that it was some sort of weird performance art piece where people find a foreigner and make fun of them but the variety of age of my adoring fans seemed to great.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Any ideas on who I might be?&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-110419595594272445?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/110419595594272445/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=110419595594272445' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/110419595594272445'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/110419595594272445'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/12/mobbed.html' title='mobbed'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-110355664054519894</id><published>2004-12-21T05:30:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2004-12-28T13:57:07.286+13:00</updated><title type='text'>japanese santa</title><content type='html'>&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/2369248/" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://photos1.flickr.com/2369248_94bb42c2c1_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="japanese santa" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/2369248/"&gt;japanese santa&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/yuutamichael/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;The holidays are upon us and I thought you guys might appreciate this picture of a Japanese santa I saw in Shinkjuku yesterday. Note that the Japanese santa suffers from elephantitis.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This holiday season is particularly hard for me because it's the first time I'm away from my family. I hope everyone's doing okay and that you get cool presents.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/2369236/" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://photos3.flickr.com/2369236_db2608caf0_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="japanese santa suits" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/2369236/"&gt;japanese santa suits&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/yuutamichael/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;The random suits that you see laying around Japanese department stores are yet another example of something that I can't tell if it's weird or not. People are always asking me to send home pictures of "crazy Japanese stuff" but I have a hard time telling if something is unique to Japan or would be just as likely to be found in an American costume shop.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/2569989/" title="Photo Sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://photos3.flickr.com/2569989_f39a149074_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="creepy ad for christ" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/2369272/"&gt;creepy ad for christ&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/yuutamichael/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;This is an ad I saw in the subway station at Takadanobaba. It seems like an odd parrallel between the process of Christmas gift shopping and the cross that Christ supposedly had to carry. I'm assuming an ad like this wouldn't fly in the states.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-110355664054519894?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/110355664054519894/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=110355664054519894' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/110355664054519894'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/110355664054519894'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/12/japanese-santa.html' title='japanese santa'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-110320745399836940</id><published>2004-12-17T03:14:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2004-12-17T03:30:54.000+13:00</updated><title type='text'>やっと、いい東京の友達とあそんだ</title><content type='html'>今晩、泳ぎに行ったの後で、雅美とダイスと誕生日のパーチィに行きました。本当に楽しかった。このパーティでたくさんおいしくて、アメリカ的の食べ物がありました。このグループは色々な人がいます。みんなさんはスポッツをできます。だけでなく、みんなさんは技術がすきです。歌える人やおどれる人がいます。すご面白かったです。&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-110320745399836940?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/110320745399836940/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=110320745399836940' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/110320745399836940'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/110320745399836940'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/12/blog-post_16.html' title='やっと、いい東京の友達とあそんだ'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-110276039853516720</id><published>2004-12-11T23:03:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2004-12-11T23:19:58.536+13:00</updated><title type='text'>忙しかったから。。。</title><content type='html'>最近忙しかった、ごめんなさい。早稲田大学が好きです。僕の日本語のクラスはたくさん面白くて、親切な人がいます。授業の友達はソフィはフランスから来ました。昨日、新しいフランスの音楽をくれました。今、MC Solaarというミュウジシャンを聞いているところです。いいですよ。&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;明日、マチィスの展覧会に行くつもりです。楽しみにします。&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-110276039853516720?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/110276039853516720/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=110276039853516720' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/110276039853516720'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/110276039853516720'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/12/blog-post.html' title='忙しかったから。。。'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109962452255658977</id><published>2004-11-05T15:58:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2004-11-05T16:16:58.946+13:00</updated><title type='text'>いつも選挙の後で幽閉ですね。</title><content type='html'>アメリカの選挙は終わりました。友達のゆやは「うさばらしして不満ぶちまけなきゃね！」と言いました。ゆやに賛成だ、しかし今沈んだんです。もうすぐ考えて、書くつもりです。&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109962452255658977?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109962452255658977/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109962452255658977' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109962452255658977'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109962452255658977'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/11/blog-post.html' title='いつも選挙の後で幽閉ですね。'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109930609310591178</id><published>2004-10-22T23:15:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2004-11-01T23:48:13.106+13:00</updated><title type='text'>absentee ballot</title><content type='html'>Thanks to my mom, I was instilled with a since of civic pride and duty. More than anything I'm grateful that my mom instilled in me the most liberal quality of all: the need to contantly question the world around me, contemplate and deduce for myself. I'm sure at times it contributed to me being a difficult child to be around. In High School I was troublesome to many as I tried to work out situations around me, sometimes quite poorly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now I'm an adult and I'm voting. Even absentee voting which if you think that it's tough to drive down the street to the Presbyterian church that's your polling place I'm certainly not the one to bitch to. I managed to get my ballot request form into Salt Lake County through air mail, an expensive process. When my ballot arrived I was surprisingly excited, I called my friend Megan who used to work at the Pentagon in the voter registration services. She expressed her encouragement and was impressed that I had a punch card, not just a write in ballot. I'm kickin' it old-school, punch-card style. Then I called my mom to get some info on the local races that I didn't know much about. I ended up voting straight democrat but I wasn't going to let any straight party option keep me from poking out all those little chads for the individual canidates. Are you kidding me? Those guys are the bubble wrap of democracy. So soothing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyways then I caught the train and the two transfers necessary to get me to the US Embassy. Once there I was searched twice and had to pass through a couple of metal detectors. Then I through my ballot into a FedEx envelope and they sent it off for free. A nice service to provide a lowly expatriate like me.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109930609310591178?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://www.tellanamericantovote.com/' title='absentee ballot'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109930609310591178/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109930609310591178' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109930609310591178'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109930609310591178'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/10/absentee-ballot.html' title='absentee ballot'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109811505190743271</id><published>2004-10-19T05:57:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2004-10-20T11:49:03.580+13:00</updated><title type='text'>ikebukuro matsuri</title><content type='html'>&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/931410/" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/931410_fb89f6f35a_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="ikebukuro matsuri 4" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/931410/"&gt;ikebukuro matsuri 4&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/yuutamichael/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Tonight as I was riding my bike home from school I lost my direction a bit. In the distance there was the dischordant banging of chimes and drums that resembled something from a frightening anime movie. Up ahead, like noisy jelly fish, came a festival parade. To say that any one experience in Japan is surreal kinda lets all the others down, but this one definitely had something going for it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I've posted some pictures &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/sets/23973/"&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;and a movie &lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/Movies/iMovieTheater25.html"&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109811505190743271?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109811505190743271/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109811505190743271' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109811505190743271'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109811505190743271'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/10/ikebukuro-matsuri.html' title='ikebukuro matsuri'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109748861769882967</id><published>2004-10-11T22:56:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2004-10-11T22:56:57.700+13:00</updated><title type='text'>kinkakuji</title><content type='html'>&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/362246/" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362246_d8068f573a_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="kinkakuji" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/362246/"&gt;kinkakuji&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/yuutamichael/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;In Kyoto, a place of numerous sites, there's a castle/shrine/temple called kinkakuji. It's remarkable in that nearly the entire top half is covered in gold. Perhaps one of the most famous of Kyoto's tourist locations, Japanese tourists flock to this site.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The original Kinkakuji was actually burned down in the 1950s by a monk that became obsessed with it. There's a book with the same name that's supposed to be one of the masterpieces of modern Japanese literature. Hopefully one day my Japanese will be good enough to tackle those kind of things, for now I'm stuck with "Watashi no Petto no Yaggi"&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109748861769882967?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109748861769882967/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109748861769882967' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109748861769882967'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109748861769882967'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/10/kinkakuji.html' title='kinkakuji'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109748498451537647</id><published>2004-10-11T21:56:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2004-10-11T21:56:24.516+13:00</updated><title type='text'>sumo karaoke</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuutamichael/814441/" title="sumo karaoke"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/814441_f02ccdca99_m.jpg" alt="sumo karaoke" class="flickrEmailImage" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Through the magic of flickr.com I can now post photos directly from my phone. Finally the last barrier between my foot and my mouth has been removed: time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here's a picture of some Sumo singing and preforming extemporanious haiku.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109748498451537647?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109748498451537647/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109748498451537647' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109748498451537647'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109748498451537647'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/10/sumo-karaoke.html' title='sumo karaoke'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109703000782789296</id><published>2004-10-06T15:33:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2004-10-06T15:33:27.826+13:00</updated><title type='text'>daikakuji monks</title><content type='html'>&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503077968@N01/362239/" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362239_962b618cf7_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="daikakuji monks" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503077968@N01/362239/"&gt;daikakuji monks&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/49503077968@N01/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;In Kyoto, on the northwestern corner, there's a somewhat overlooked Buddhist temple that I fell in love with. It holds a lot of the little touches that make other places fascinating. On top of that it feels like it has a real living, buddhist comunity that takes part in the life there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When I first arrived at Daikauji it didn't realize that on the same night there was a festival. I wandered around for a little while and watched a high school band practice. I met a young buddhist monk named Reiko who was excited to talk to me. Then as the sun began to set things started to happen around the lake that sits on the east side of the temple. People started to gather, there was some traditional dancing going on near the shinto shrine that sat to the north.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Later there was a household item raffle and I manged to win some sponges. A little later, in the center of the lake some monks placed some thin wooden cards that people had been buying earlier that day. Then a bonfire was lit and the wonks returned to the pier and continued chanting.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109703000782789296?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109703000782789296/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109703000782789296' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109703000782789296'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109703000782789296'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/10/daikakuji-monks.html' title='daikakuji monks'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109697358348994101</id><published>2004-10-05T23:53:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2004-10-05T23:57:21.226+13:00</updated><title type='text'>cocoon world</title><content type='html'>&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503077968@N01/362233/" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362233_65d33ceb5e_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="cacoon world" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503077968@N01/362233/"&gt;cacoon world&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/49503077968@N01/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Kyoto was a bundle of miraculous small things bundled together in a place that's stupefying modern. I've heard a lot of people complain that Kyoto is too tourist is, which I'm sure it is when you stay in the wrong areas. My Lonely Planet though pointed me towards the northeast corner of things, where I was nuzzled into what felt like a really calm area.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;One night as Simon, an English tree surgeon I befriended, and I were wondering around we came across a small shop looking thing with a lady who strong armed us into coming upstairs and listening to a young man playing a traditional Japanese flute.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The tea was a little thick but the entire shop was populated with a full world of small white animals assembled entirely of silkworm cocoons.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Afterwards we returned outside to see a display of an entire village (see picture) that was created with the same cocoons, including tiny samurai and farmers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109697358348994101?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109697358348994101/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109697358348994101' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109697358348994101'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109697358348994101'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/10/cocoon-world.html' title='cocoon world'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109660009520270411</id><published>2004-10-01T15:08:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2004-10-01T15:08:15.203+12:00</updated><title type='text'>todaiji and art</title><content type='html'>&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503077968@N01/362250/" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362250_e4af061680_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="nara art" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503077968@N01/362250/"&gt;nara art&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/49503077968@N01/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;While trecking around Japan I managed to spend a day poking around Nara. Nara is the original center of power in Japan, before the emperor moved to Kyoto. It's home to Todaiji, an amazing buddhist temple, along with a huge selection of early Japanese architecture and a lot of deer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While poking around Todaiji I met an artist who had manged to fulfill his life dream by placing an exhibition of metal sculptures in the pond that sits in front of the temple. He was a very soulful man who had obviously managed to have a long love affair with Japan and buddhist culture.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He told me to come back that night and see the sculptures lit up before the temple. He was right, it's an incredible sight. Apparently it had taken over a decade for him to convince the authorities to allow him to place his art there and they only allowed him about two weeks. The art was three giant flowers fashioned growing from the pond surrounded by nearly 250 small anial statues that represent different countries around the world. It was easy to spot the one from New Zealand which, I learned later, was where his wife is from. She also studied at the University of Auckland.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109660009520270411?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109660009520270411/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109660009520270411' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109660009520270411'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109660009520270411'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/10/todaiji-and-art.html' title='todaiji and art'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109628042957061112</id><published>2004-09-27T22:20:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2004-09-27T22:31:45.606+12:00</updated><title type='text'>they're called 'capsule hotels' for a reason</title><content type='html'>&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503077968@N01/362236/" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362236_6d1b43666a_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="capsule hotel 'room'" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503077968@N01/362236/"&gt;capsule hotel 'room'&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/49503077968@N01/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;While in Osaka I had the chance to experience the Japanese oddity of a capsule hotel room. To describe the experience briefly I'd probably just say "dehumanizing."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There's more to it than that of course. This capsule hotel, like most, was a men only affair and once you're given your locker key and room number you fined yourself in a world of men wearing tiny, revealing bathrobes and vending machines that provide too varied a selection of food.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The capsule itself is small, and although the TV has a slot for coins you actually have to pay beforehand. The showers also pay, 100 yen (about a dollar) buys you 5 minutes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362237_e3cbb711fc_o.jpg"&gt; &lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362237_e3cbb711fc_t.jpg" alt="capsules" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;You tread around this place ill-fitting sandals and associate mostly with Japanese business men and occasionally foreign ruffians like myself who are there more for the experience than the neccessity.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The bed itself is small, definately not as long as I am tall. They're piled two or three high and there's a little ladder on the side. There's something like a pull down window covering on the front that gives you an approximation of privacy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The main advantage being though that when you walk out the door of the hotel, and in this case bath house/massage parlor, you're in the epicenter that is Osaka night life. And it bears noting that Osaka, a city that puts the 'butt' in 'butt-ugly' during the day is a site to behold at night. Many of the main thoroughfairs are walking arcades that are surrounded on all sides by buildings with monstrous artistic growths depicting clinging lizards or crashed space ships. The population is loud and every ten feet there are well dressed men inviting you into one type of club or another.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Kinda makes going back to a 2 meter by 1 meter room kinda gloomy. It only makes sense to think that you get nothing that approximates natural sunlight but the reality is much more soul starving than that. I could almost feel myself getting paler when I woke the next day, sometime near check out time at 10 o'clock. You check out every day regardless of how many days your staying, which for me was three. I stored my baggage at a nearby coin locker and moved back into my confining abode every night.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109628042957061112?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109628042957061112/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109628042957061112' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109628042957061112'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109628042957061112'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/09/theyre-called-capsule-hotels-for.html' title='they&apos;re called &apos;capsule hotels&apos; for a reason'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109624735673763777</id><published>2004-09-27T13:03:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2004-09-27T13:09:16.736+12:00</updated><title type='text'>putting a damper of my prolific... uhm... -ness</title><content type='html'>At least three times while I've been trying to write something long, involved and, I'm sure, interesting I've had my post be deleted through some browser error, mistake on my part or trouble with Blogger. The same happens fairly consistantly with e-mails that I write. I'll get something written out, give it a quick read through for grammer and spelling and then something goes wrong.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The worse is on my mobile phone, where writing an e-mail can take forever on those little number pads without predictive text. That and the DEF ket is so close to the END key that it's easy to give END a double tap and quit out of an e-mail you've spent half an hour on. I would just suggest that every mobile phone company in Japan give your phone to an English speaker for a week and let them try sending e-mails on it. I'm sure you'd get some valuable feedback.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109624735673763777?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109624735673763777/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109624735673763777' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109624735673763777'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109624735673763777'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/09/putting-damper-of-my-prolific-uhm-ness.html' title='putting a damper of my prolific... uhm... -ness'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109608032786878548</id><published>2004-09-25T14:45:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2004-09-27T13:00:17.873+12:00</updated><title type='text'>oosaka crab</title><content type='html'>&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503077968@N01/362255/" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362255_e82be750a2_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="oosaka crab" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503077968@N01/362255/"&gt;oosaka crab&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/49503077968@N01/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;This is a famous crab building in Osaka. It's kind of funky area, like most of Osaka is really.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Osaka is in the heart of the kansai region of Japan, south of Tokyo and Nagoya but North of Hirsoshima and Shikoku. The people that live there speak a dialect that was difficult to wrap my head around most of the time. Japanese dialects can seem rather radical at times making it insanely difficult to communicate even basic things taht you though you'd spent a couple of years perfecting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Osaka is also an incredibly ugly city. Like many cities in Japan it was decimated and had to be rebuilt during the architectural eyesore that was the 1950's through on to the 1980's. That being said the people are really out going, more so than in Tokyo and the image that a lot of Japanese have of Kansai people is that they're salt-of-the-earth, hard workin' and loud.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My friend Tsubasa lives down in Osaka and it was fortunate to have her there to show me around becasue I would have been desperately lost. I stayed in a capsule hotel while I was there, which I'll post a picture of here shortly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I also met Tsubasa's mom and dad who were an amazing pair. Tsubaba's father was so incredibly nice to me, during the intense heat of August he gave me a Japanese folding fan and sweat hanky. He didn't even know that earlier that day I had lost my own folding fan in a telephone booth after I set it down to tend to my recently cut toe. Each time I was invited into a Japanese family's home there was a sense of excitment, shared by both me and the family.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At this time my speaking Japanese was still pretty weak (still is, really). It'll be nice when I can travel back again at the end of the year and actually communicate with all these people I learned to adore despite the language barrier.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109608032786878548?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109608032786878548/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109608032786878548' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109608032786878548'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109608032786878548'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/09/oosaka-crab.html' title='oosaka crab'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109607988935803508</id><published>2004-09-25T14:38:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2004-09-25T14:42:55.366+12:00</updated><title type='text'>squid on a stick</title><content type='html'>&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503077968@N01/362221/" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362221_89db23087b_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="squid on a stick" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49503077968@N01/362221/"&gt;squid on a stick&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/49503077968@N01/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;I remember that once I heard that Americans will put any food on a stick. Squid on a Stick is a popular matsuri (festival) treat. Everytime I walked by his stand this man offered to lower the price for this squiddy treat. Eventually I managed to talk him down to 100 yen, a price that out-weighed my appetite's better judgment. It wasn't half bad, but a little chewy.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109607988935803508?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109607988935803508/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109607988935803508' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109607988935803508'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109607988935803508'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/09/squid-on-stick.html' title='squid on a stick'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109487514453413155</id><published>2004-09-11T16:59:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2004-09-25T14:31:20.556+12:00</updated><title type='text'>Making Soba</title><content type='html'>&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=362219" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362219_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="rolling soba" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=362219"&gt;rolling soba&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/49503077968@N01/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Put on the rediculously small green slippers and the tiny apron.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=362257" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362257_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="mamiko's mom soba cutting" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=362257"&gt;mamiko's mom soba cutting&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/49503077968@N01/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Create oddly spirtual metaphors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=362258" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362258_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="mamiko focusing on cutting soba" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=362258"&gt;mamiko focusing on cutting soba&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/49503077968@N01/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Focus.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=362259" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362259_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="soba eating" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=362259"&gt;soba eating&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/49503077968@N01/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Eat. Make a mess.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109487514453413155?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109487514453413155/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109487514453413155' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109487514453413155'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109487514453413155'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/09/making-soba.html' title='Making Soba'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109453934699368978</id><published>2004-09-07T18:42:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2004-09-13T22:30:30.560+12:00</updated><title type='text'>Peace Memorial in Hiroshima</title><content type='html'>&lt;style&gt;.flickr-photo {	border: solid 1px #000000;}.flickr-frame {	float: left;	text-align: center;	margin-right: 15px;	margin-bottom: 15px;}.flickr-caption {	font-size: 0.8em;/*	color: #666666; */	margin-top: 0px;}&lt;/style&gt;&lt;div class="flickr-frame"&gt;	&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=362247" title="photo sharing"&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/362247_t.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="koizumi" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;	&lt;span class="flickr-caption"&gt;		&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=362247"&gt;korizumi&lt;/a&gt;,&lt;br /&gt; originally uploaded by &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/49503077968@N01/"&gt;yuutamichael&lt;/a&gt;.	&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;So far the most influential day I've had in Japan was August 6th in Hiroshima; the anniversary of the atomic bombing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mamiko took me to the anniversary rememberance early that morning. Even in the morning the day it was hot. We listened to many people speak, including the mayor of Hiroshima whose annual duty is to request the annihilation of all nuclear weapons.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Children spoke and an eerie, Vader-esque song was played. There was a moment of silence that lasted several lifetimes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And Koizumi, prime minister of Japan spoke.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was an odd experience. I was quite a ways a way, barely able to make out what is, quite honestly, a nice head of hair. I couldn't understand most of what he was saying, my Japanese isn't good enough. I caught a few words, but then he was finished and no one applauded.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At that moment I knew that I was experiencing something signifigant. After every other speaker there was applause. After the Mayor spoke you could feel the energy of the crowd. But when Koizumi stepped off the stage the entire crowd sat there quietly, silently prostesting Japan's involvement in Iraq.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There's a signifigant element to Japan being part of a military force, the Peace Constitution that was set up after World War II put strong limits on the Japanese military. It's supposedly only for defence and many Japanese people feel very strongly about this. Especially Hiroshimans.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At this point I realized that Koizumi is on the way out because of his support of the Iraq war. I have a tendancy to speak politics to a lot of people as I travel, it's a subject that comes up a lot when you're an American, and not one person that I've spoken to, regardless of their age, has said they like Koizumi. And every single one of them has said that amoung their reasons is the war.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Afterwards we walked through the museum which is such a heavy journey that I couldn't speak coherrently until we were out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We went to the Children's Shrine which is a monument dedicated to a little girl who died of leukimia ten years after the bombing. For some reason she believed that if she could fold a thousand paper cranes her life would be saved, she didn't and it wasn't. The memorial is flooded with chains and chains of paper cranes from children around the world.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109453934699368978?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109453934699368978/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109453934699368978' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109453934699368978'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109453934699368978'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/09/peace-memorial-in-hiroshima.html' title='Peace Memorial in Hiroshima'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109195761550694086</id><published>2004-08-08T21:28:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2004-08-10T02:01:23.680+12:00</updated><title type='text'>torii and river</title><content type='html'>A couple of days ago we went out to Miajima, a sacred island to check out a really cool shrine there. Then that night we went to Iwakuni in Yamaguchi to visit a festival and watch the fireworks. It was an amazing time and packed in some of southern part of Japan's sights into a really amazing day. Mamiko has taking such great care of me the past week that I worry that I must be wearing on her nerves by now. She's still as kind and happy as before though, I'll just plan on taking advantage of her stewardship for the next few days and that hope to pay her back in kind one day in the states.&lt;table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="4" cellpadding="4"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;tr&gt; &lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td width="120" align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/deer.jpg"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/deerth.jpg" width="90" height="120" border="0"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td align="left" valign="top"&gt;Miajima, which is a sacred island in Shinto is full of these beautiful red deer. They incredibly tame as long as the don't smell the little food-nut-beens that they give out in the dispensors. They also remind me quite a bit of that one deer on Princess Mononoke, but I fear saying so makes me a dork.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;tr&gt; &lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td width="120" align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/floatingjinja.jpg"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/floatingjinjath.jpg" width="90" height="120" border="0"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td align="left" valign="top"&gt;On the island of Miajima this is the famous floating torii, the gate into the shrine. From what I gather in my broken Japanese and Mamiko's friendly interpretation, Miajima was considered so sacred ground that commoners were not aloud to set foot on. This is no more, but those wishing to pray at the shrine (which itself is like a dock, would enter through this torii and never set foot onto actual land. &lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;tr&gt; &lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td width="120" align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/floatingjinjaalone.jpg"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/floatingjinjaaloneth.jpg" width="120" height="90" border="0"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td align="left" valign="top"&gt;Another photo of the torii looking all picturesque. I gathered that most of the time people see the torii at low tide, surounded by mud. Sucks to be them because my pictures totally rock and there's probably look kinda dumb.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;tr&gt; &lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td width="120" align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/wedding.jpg"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/weddingth.jpg" width="120" height="90" border="0"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td align="left" valign="top"&gt;At the shinto shrine a wedding was taking place while we were there, another rare treat. I took this picture only to, seconds later, translate the sign behind me and realize that I'm explicitely not to take photos of this sacred room. I'm sure this happy couple appreciates my using there sacred moment of unification as tourist street cred. &lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;tr&gt; &lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td width="120" align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/fivebridge.jpg"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/fivebridgeth.jpg" width="120" height="90" border="0"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td align="left" valign="top"&gt;Iwakuni is famous for this amazing five span bridge. It dwarfs the river, on this day beneath the bridge and behind me, out of the photo, is a huge fair filled with booths serving food and beer.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;tr&gt; &lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td width="120" align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/nightriver.jpg"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/nightriverth.jpg" width="120" height="90" border="0"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td align="left" valign="top"&gt;A night picture of Iwakuni's river I took on a tripod. On top of the mountain is a castle and that ghostly blurry thing near the river is a woman in a kimono.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;tr&gt; &lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td width="120" align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/nightfair.jpg"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/nightfairth.jpg" width="120" height="90" border="0"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td align="left" valign="top"&gt;The fair beyond the five bridges, a hectic place full of greesy food, weak beer, yankee punks and women in kimonos. &lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;tr&gt; &lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td width="120" align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/hanabi.jpg"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/miajima/hanabith.jpg" width="90" height="120" border="0"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;    &lt;td align="left" valign="top"&gt;The fireworks that night before the long bus and train rides back to Hiroshima.&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/tr&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109195761550694086?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109195761550694086/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109195761550694086' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109195761550694086'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109195761550694086'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/08/torii-and-river.html' title='torii and river'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109184264940210257</id><published>2004-08-07T13:07:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2004-08-08T02:40:57.546+12:00</updated><title type='text'>the midday shinkansen to Hiroshima</title><content type='html'>I caught the shinkansen down to Hiroshima on Thursday and it was a really really fast train; &lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/shinkansen.mp4"&gt;at first almost nauseatingly so. &lt;/a&gt; My first encounter with a Japanese style toilet was also on the train, which added an element of daring adventure to the experience.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I also had ekibento, on the train, and for some reason I've decided to include a picture of it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/ekibentohiroshima.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/ekibentohiroshimathumb.jpg" border="0" title="Little box of food." /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hiroshima is a decent city, even considering the difficulty I've had finding resources for foreigners. Mamiko has done a great job of showing me around and has shown an incredible amount of patience. When went to the Peace Memorial yesterday, which I'll write a little more about tonight, for the 59th Anniversary of the bombing. When Japanese people ask me what I thought of the memorial and the day the only thing I can say to express myself is "kanashiin desu yo" which just means, "it was sad."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Later we went to the floating lanterns, every year on this day the people of Hiroshima float lanterns down the river in rememberance. It was really interesting watching the preperations, the gentle placing of the lanterns in the water followed by a prayer&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/startdourounagashi.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/startdourounagashithumb.jpg" border="0" title="placement" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;the river slowing filling with lanterns&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/daytourounagashi.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/daytourounagashithumb.jpg" border="0" title="floating" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;but of course the real treat was coming back later that night and seeing the river filled with glowing colors.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/nightdourounagashi.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/nightdourounagashithumb.jpg" border="0" title="just like a fairy land" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;that night we went and ate okonomiyaki, which Hiroshima is famous for. There's kind of a okonomiyaki district with three buildings right next to each other that are full of little okonomiyaki shops like this:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/okinomiyaki.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/okinomiyakithumb.jpg" border="0" title="umakatta" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;each of them competing with eachother. The vege-noodle pancakes are cooked right in front of you while you speak with the chef and waitress. It was delicious.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh, and here's a picture of Mamiko pretending to be a cat.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/mamikoneko.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/hiroshima/mamikonekothumb.jpg" border="0" title="meow" /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109184264940210257?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109184264940210257/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109184264940210257' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109184264940210257'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109184264940210257'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/08/midday-shinkansen-to-hiroshima.html' title='the midday shinkansen to Hiroshima'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-109153652403334822</id><published>2004-08-04T00:30:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2004-08-08T02:41:27.306+12:00</updated><title type='text'>First Day in Tokyo: pictures</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/tokyo/squarewatermelon.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/tokyo/squarewatermelon.th.jpg" border="0" title="It's square!" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;Proof! The square watermelon!&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/tokyo/shinjukushrine.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/tokyo/shinjukushrine.th.jpg" border="0" title="jinja" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/tokyo/entranceshinjukushrine.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/tokyo/entranceshinjukushrine.th.jpg" border="0" title="exit to shinjuku" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;br&gt;In the middle of Shinjuku, &lt;i&gt;the&lt;/i&gt; craziest place in Tokyo, there's a quiet little shrine, eerily peaceful.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/tokyo/monzennakachoubars.jpg" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img src="http://homepage.mac.com/michaelnz/yuutamichael/photos/tokyo/monzennakachoubarsthumb.jpg" border="0" title="side street" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;Tokyo is full of little side streets that are full of small pubs, at night they light up in a way that's much more humbling that the neon of Shinjuku&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-109153652403334822?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/109153652403334822/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=109153652403334822' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109153652403334822'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/109153652403334822'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/08/first-day-in-tokyo-pictures.html' title='First Day in Tokyo: pictures'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-108815185496283428</id><published>2004-06-25T20:22:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2004-07-03T21:55:38.286+12:00</updated><title type='text'>あぁ、勘違い。</title><content type='html'>あるとんでもない勘違いについて、話をしたいと思います。二、三年前に私は小さくて青いトヨタの車を持っていました。それはとてもすてきで、便利な車でした。いつも私はその車を運転するのを楽しんでいました。ぐうぜんに私のフラットメイトは同じような車を持っていました。りょうほうともトヨタで同じ色で、同年がたのものでした。&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;ある夜、もうねようとしていたら、大きな音が聞こえてきました。それで窓の外を見たのですが、何も見えませんでした。交通事故だと思ったので、下の階に走っていきました。駐車場の中で私の車はとても大変なことになっていました。そこで乱暴者がバットで私の車をたたいていたんです！「オイ！」とさけぶと、その男は何か文句を言ってきました。そして私は「たれに向かってもの言ってんだよ！」と言い返したら、その男は逃げ出しました。私はその男を行かせることにしました。&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;ボンネットが破られて開けてありました。車のやねの上にいっぱいガソリンカンが置いてありました。あのバカが車を燃やそうとしたんだと思いました！フラットメイトがかえってきた時、仕事で職員をくびにしたと言いました。あの男は私のフラットメイトをおどそうとしていたそうです。私の車をフラットメイトの車と思ったんでしょう。けいさつはその男をたいほしてくれました。保険会社は車を直すのにお金をはらってくれました。この話の教訓が分かりますか。一人で住みなさい。&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-108815185496283428?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/108815185496283428/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=108815185496283428' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/108815185496283428'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/108815185496283428'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/06/blog-post_25.html' title='あぁ、勘違い。'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6906197.post-108742585912960621</id><published>2004-06-17T10:39:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2004-06-17T10:44:19.130+12:00</updated><title type='text'>わせだへいく！</title><content type='html'>こんにちは！早稲田大学に呼び入れました！&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6906197-108742585912960621?l=yuutamichael.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/feeds/108742585912960621/comments/default' title='コメントの投稿'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6906197&amp;postID=108742585912960621' title='0 件のコメント'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/108742585912960621'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/6906197/posts/default/108742585912960621'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://yuutamichael.blogspot.com/2004/06/blog-post.html' title='わせだへいく！'/><author><name>米栗 - Michael Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/08694998035955544515</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='24' height='32' src='http://photos6.flickr.com/9652646_f176a9e160_o.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>
