Hello my faithful friends,

You may have noticed that I didn't reward you with a blog entry last week. For that I am really and truly sorry. On the upside, you are getting one right now. In fact, you should be reading it just as you are reading this sentence! Lucky you! I am promising you right now that I'll get back to the weekly updates. We just pinky-swore, which makes it eternal.

Oh me? Well thanks for asking, I'm fine. The reason I haven't written anything is because any time not studying Japanese is time that I am not learning Japanese. And I've gotten really motivated to learn it that much quicker. I am finally able to quickly do some tense changes in my head and make it sound almost fluid, so I'm using that to motivate myself forward.

Some things that have happened.

My car and I...not on the best of terms. He seems to think that it's cool to randomly break disks and leak oil on my breaks. He then, this week, also thought it was cool to run out of his "Shaken," which is a required thing in Japan to allow you to drive your car. It's sort of like a bi-yearly check, except it costs around $1200. Yeah, between that and the break problems, I'll be spending the equivalent of 1600 USA, AMERICAN, BONA-FIDE, 100% REAL, IT'S COSTING ME A LOT, dollars. But hey, I'm not angry. Much.

Ok, since we are on cars, we'll also talk about Japanese drivers. Their faults are many, but there are a few things I will laud them for. First of all, I think there are no safer drivers to be found. Ok, now onto the "Cultural Differences." One thing they do is run red lights consistently. If it's yellow, it means speed up. If it just turned red, it means, speed up more. Not only have I seen drivers go through just-turned-red lights. BUT, I've also seen drivers go through red lights that have been red for awhile, if they don't see anyone else coming from the other way. Next up. They will stop their cars and put on their "triangle lights" (ok, I can't remember the name of the lights that you press, they have a little triangle shape on the button you have to press, so henceforth, they are triangle lights), and then talk on the phone. Oh, and this is in the middle of any street or freeway. If it's a one lane road, they'll put on the lights and try to pull over as much as possible. If it's two lanes...well, you're stuck behind them until you can get one lane over.

You think it's over. Nope, not yet. They are incapable of turning at more than 10 km/hr (and note the kilometer, which is equal to 1.6 miles). This means that someone turning ahead of you will come practically to a stop before turning. This can be frustrating to the driver who is not used to stopping for a simple right turn.

Phew, ok that feels good.

So, I've noticed something interesting in my classes. In America, when you raise your hand for the answer, that's all you do until the teacher picks on you. In Japan, apparently you scream "HAI!" (YES!) at the same time you raise your hand. It's even funnier in America-Class (ok ok, English Class, whatever), because they teachers all make them say "YES!" and assume that is exactly what we do back home. It's really funny.

Ok ok. 5 minutes until work gets out, and what else can I type.

The snow festival in Sapporo was a lot of fun. There were ice sculptures maybe 4 storeys tall and extremely detailed. They had sculptures of ever anime/manga/cartoon character ever. They even had a 4 storey tall Disney 60th Anniversary sculpture. It was the place to be. We drank warm sake on the snowy, cold nights.

On the ferry ride back (yep, we took a ferry there and back), Weldon, Crystal and I, the unlucky 3 who couldn't get nenkyu so we could go skiing at the world famous Niseiko, made new Japanese friends. A pachinko-addicted construction worker and his stylish brother who worked for some company. If only I could describe the...aura of these 2 guys. They were very friendly. They also spent...I'm still not sure if I believe this, but the translation is correct...the equivalent of $6,000 US on a bar with 8 of their friends. Ok, when you break it down, it's not as ridiculous at 600/head, BUT, that's still 600 per person! Not to mention, there are places that are "all you can drink" for just 20-30 US dollars.

Ok, time to get off work. Maybe if you are lucky, you'll get another little update this weekend. Flattery might work...

-Greg