The Big One

Okay so This is whats been going on with me recently.  Try to keep up:

So I hit my halfway point a while back and I was moved out my first building and into my second.  This is a big deal to me because I spent a long time getting used to how things worked in the first company and meeting everyone.  I had started making friends with some of the people in my office, like Kenta who spent a few years in Canada and was pretty fluent.  So I get moved the new building and find out that no one understands any english at all.  None.  So the last two weeks have been a battle trying to figure out what I needed to be doing.

The first week I spent in the editing dept.  I worked with some of the VTR people, some of the editors and directors, and a the special effects team, who by the way are really cool.  One of them worked on two of the old Resident evil games.  Both of them used programs that I knew how to use so we had a good old time swapping ideas with each other.

The second week I worked in the sound dubbing office and the journalism dept.  The sound dubbing was pretty slow work for most of the day up until the live news program came on.  Everyone would come running in there to get their programs finished before airing.  One clip finished literally 2 minutes before it had to be aired.  It was amazing watching the runner take off and the rest of use watching the clock and the tv hoping he would make it in time.  I also got to work as cd checker, which basically was me litening to cool music and writing my opinion about it for future use.  About 2 or 3 of us were working on that most of the time.

The news dept was by far the most nuts.  Because it was just a bunch of people sitting around for a news event to happen.  And when it did the whole place would explode.  Sounds interesting but my boss wanted my cell phone number in case I had to get to work early the next day  to cover and event.  He called me 3 times that night: 10, 12, and 1 oclock in the morning.  The conversations went like this “Andrew, we need you here by 8,” “Andrew, don’t worry we don’t need you here until 10 so sleep in” “My mistake get here by 8″.  When its 1 in the morning and your boss calls to tell you to wake up at 6 when you were supposed to wake up at 8,  you are filled with a rege that won’t let you go back to sleep.  That and it was about 90 degrees in my room.  I have not been able to get a good night sleep since the weather turned humid.  Another reason I was so mad.

But good news is that my company took me out for a nomikai on wednesday.  A nomikai is basically a big party for a group of people, either in a class, group, or company.  So I had my fill of Japanese food and beer that night.  Have to say it was pretty fun except even though no one knew what I was saying half the time.  This wasn’t because of the language barrier it’s because after 3 beers most of my co-workers were completly drunk out of their minds.  I’m not saying I’m an Irish harbor worker but I held my drinks better than everyone there.  Which was good because I also had another nomikai on thursday and friday.  Like I said it’s been pretty fun.

WOW That Really Happened

Okay that was messed up. I know I haven’t written in a while but this is a interesting one. The tale begins with me taking a jog around the neighborhood last night. I had just finished when I went behind my hosts family’s house to do some stretchs. I finished up and headed into the house but stopped short of the driveway to feel a cool night breeze as it blew by. All of a sudden I hear a loud THWACK and some guy yelling. I turn around and the neighbor is walking up between the two houses holding a large bat. He looks extremly angry and starts looking around and then finaly spots me standing there. He starts to give me a serious eyeballing with his bat perched on his shoulder. I thought that maybe I made a noise and this guy was angered by it. I really wanted to just turn around and walk into my house but I felt that if I walked away then the dude would know it was my fault. That in one way or another it would prove I was wrong. To hell with that, it is my alley too. I didn’t scream, I didn’t yell, I didn’t even talk. So I stood there and eyeballed him right back. Eventually the guy took the hint and went back into his house, swatting at everything inbetween.

So I thought that was the end of it. Kinda interesting but not really. Ladies and Gentleman that was just the setup. Bring the curtain up….

It’s around one a.m. I’m asleep and I haven’t had alot of that recently. Its quite, its peaceful, its sleepy-time. Perfect time for crazy neighbor to bust his window out. Yeah you heard me. Dude threw a toaster or something threw his 2nd story window. He then preceded to bust up everything in his house. I am just guessing it was everything because he was dropping things for like 20 minutes. He kept chucking things out of the hole in his window too. The whole time his wife is yelling at him to stop. Just yelling and crying at him well he tears their house to pieces.

At this point I am freaked out. There is no way I am going back to sleep with this going on next to me. And if the guy is crazy enough to destroy his house then he might just be willing to take a swing at his wife. So I get out of bed and head downstairs and outside because there was no way I could let that happen. I really didn’t have a plan but at that point I wasn’t going to really wait and see how things went safely in my room. I step outside and I see that my host family is already there and the guy has taken off already in a huff. We check out the damage and find all kinds of things thrown inbetween our houses: clocks, phones, part of an answering machine, you name it. All chucked from a broken window two floors up. And the clock by the way was broken so that it would constantly beep so I had to deal with that for the rest of the night too. The wife had up and left too so we decided that there was nothing more we could do so we went back inside.

I found out later from my host father that the guy and the step son don’t get along so well and that was probably the problem. One long scary night.

Just when I get out they drag me back in

So this is my post.  Nothing exciting but it amuses me.  I had to do somemore location shooting at this high school.  Now I have been to this place once before for a little while.  ONCE.  We had taped something for a promotional video and by we I mean MY TEAM.  It`s me and a couple of the old boys here.  So the first time around I got into a little trouble because I talked once too often with some of the students there.  I can`t help it if they wanted to talk with me.  And if anyone knows me they know that I can`t ignore someone trying to talk with me.  That and I burn faster than any human being on earth but I`m spoiling the ending.  So anyway we get there and start setting up for the athletics day at the school.  Everyone is outside and ready to compete in weird and wacky races.  As soon as I step outside I am assualted by highschoolers yelling my name.  It`s safe to say that I remembered NONE of their names so it was a little ackward for me.  That and the fact that I had 400 high school girls swarming over me.  There is not a word in japanese for jailbate but that doesn`t change the fact that it`s still illegal.  All I want to know is WHY wasn`t I that popular when I WAS in High School?  Immediately my co-workers start eyeballing me and yelling `Andrew, DAME`.  In Japanese that means BAD or don`t do it and is pronounced DA like the russian word for yes and ME like may as in may I have some tea.  So I am trying to be on my best behavior.  I even offered to buy everyone drinks because it was so hot outside(hint).  On my way to the vending machines I was stopped to take a quick group photo.  So I said sure why not…WRONG…1 turned into 13.  13, and that is not an exageration.  Everyone in that group wanted a photo with me and even a couple of people who weren`t in the group wanted a photo of me with the group.  So after 10 minutes of posing I try to find a way inside only to find that every door and entrance has been locked and baracaded.  And by lock I mean with chains it was the biggest fire hazard I had ever seen.  So I return to explain to the group why I don`t have any drinks.  While I am explaining a couple of girls run up behind me.  Take a picture in front of me like I`m a statue and then run off.  My team turns to me and starts yelling `Andrew WHAT did we tell you?` and I`m trying to say `It`s not my fault` in Japanese.

So to wrap up about 8 hours later we start packing up to leave and I take a good look at my arm and realize that I am about 10 shades redder than I should be.  The rest is just a painful blur that I rather not go into. 

Go Hanshin TIGERS

Fantastic. Thats all can be said about the game. But for those who don’t know let me give you a little background on the Hanshin Tigers. I was watching the travel channel a while back (when I still had television) when they had a special about Japan. I thought “hey, this looks up my alley” and decided to give it a gander. The show was alright, it was some guy going around and doing stuff I thought I would probably never be able to do (ha, I showed me didn’t I). He ate octopus balls and talked with Japanese people but the thing I remebered the most was when he went to a Hanshin Tigers game. It was one of the most interesting things I had seen in a long time and I swore if I ever made it to Japan that I would see a game. Fast forward a couple of years and I’m in Japan studying abroad. I am thrilled that I can now see a game. I check out tickets and find out there are only three games left in the season and they are all sold out……..DAMN IT. “Well that was a trip to Japan wasted. Now I’ll never see a Hanshin Tigers game.” Fast forward some more to this trip. My company scores me some tickets to a game and I am thrilled to death. But of course it gets rained out (To those who read my last blog you know the story). Okay now that my whole saga of trying to see a game is over lets get down to me actually seeing the game.

Oh and what a game it was. It was supposed to be me and some people from my company but it turned out everyone was busy so it was me, my host brother, and two of my friends from Webster. We get into the stadium and it is just packed. I mean every seat has a butt in it and every butt is cheering for the Tigers. Except for like this tiny section for the other guys team, the Kobe somethings, I don’t remeber they’re not important. So before we go in there one of the girls at my company who was showing us the way, gave us a bag of Hanshin Tigers….uh, geez…whats the word I’m looking for… crap, that’s it.  She gave us a bag of Hanshin Tiger crap, but in a good way.  In it was some hanshin tiger ears, the classic Hanshin tigers noise bats (it’s two colorful bats that you hit together when you want to cheer), and some hand clapper things we didn’t really use.  The only complaint I have was that because she was a female fan all of her memorabilia were pink.  But that didn’t stop us.  Remind me to show everyone the photos of me in the pink ears and, YES, I did wear them the whole game.  So the game was alright but the fans, oh my stars and garters, if you can go just for the fans.  They are all crazy about the tigers.  I have never seen an entire stadium cheer in unison.  And I don’t mean every one was like “Yeah tigers”.  I mean every player had their own song and everyone in the stadium knew it but us.  I think the total count by the end of the game was 45,000 fans.  It was an amazing sight to see.

So when we walked in the score was already 1-0, tigers losing.  Thats the set up for the rest of the story.  After we sat down we started getting eyeballed by all the people around us.  We scared a whole lot of people.  But you know us, we started talking with everysingle one of them.  We had some old ladies behind us that turned out to be super sweet and even held an umbrella over us when it started to rain.  My friend Brian talked with the people in front of him and almost hooked me up with their daughter (not a good thing).  Apparently she thought that I was very handsome and cute with my pink ears on and started asking questions about me.  I guess she really thought I looked good.  Then there was the couples in front of me who were die hard hanshin fans.  The  two girlfriends also thought I was very cute with my ears.  The boyfriends, not so happy about that fact.  But by the next inning we were all laugh and having a good time.  I was actually able to carry on a pretty long conversation with all of them.  I know I have only been here for three weeks but I am kinda surprising my self with how good I have gotten.  I was doing a little better than my friends who were studying there for the whole year.  Anyway, everyone around us was just happy to hang out with us.  The crowd was loud and rambunctious and the game.  Of all the games to see we got a great one.  Like I set up before, the tigers were down by one, in the bottom of the seventh they had a guy on and one out.  The batter pops a foul ball strait up and the catcher goes for it.  On his way he trips over the batter and both of them go rolling.  The ball lands and the batter is called out.  That was the angriest crowd I have ever seen in my life.  Angry Japanese people yell the funniest things even if you don’t understand the language.  The coachs came out of the dug out and started yelling at the umpire for 20 minutes.  It was so intense.  They didn’t put it up on the big screen for a replay and it took me a while to figure out why.  EVERY FAN  had taken out their cell phones and were watching the replay live on T.V.  45,000 people all looking at their cell phones.  By the end of the whole ordeal the manager was thrown out of the stadium.  Awsome.  But that didn’t keep the fans down.  As soon as the inning ended they did their traditional 7th inning stretch.  Every fan took out these giant balloons, blew them up, and let them go at the same time.  I have it on tape and it was one of the greatest experiences I have had on this trip.  The entire sky was just filled with ballons.  I will show everyone when I get back.

After that the 8th inning went on with out anyone scoring.  Then in the 9th the Hanshin tigers pitcher struck everyone out.  And then we experienced one of my best sports moments ever.  It started to rain hard, the tigers got a man on, got another on first and him to second, walked him to third, and then the next guy had himself a full count with one out, bases loaded.  And THEN, they walked the guy home.  Kinda anti-climactic but still it got a guy home to tie the game.  Then the next guy came up and they hit him and that one the game.  It doesn’t sound cool but you should have been there.  When they came from behind to win the whole stadium exploded.  All the people around us started giving us high fives and screaming.  Then we all sung the Hanshing theme song.  IT WAS EVERYTHING I EXPECTED FROM THE GAME AND MORE.

Following schoolgirls in the rain

Well I know why they call it the rainy season here in Japan.  Having to ride my bike 10 minutes is starting to become a problem.  But thats not a story, this is.

I was supposed to go see a Hanshin Tigers baseball game, which I have been wanting to see for more than a year now, when I got the weather report.  According to the local weatherman it was supposed to rain.  I arrived at work and recieved the bad news that we couldn’t go to the game.  I was so heart broken.  Thankfully we got tickets to go another time(It’s supposed to rain that day too).  So I am finished with work and going home and the weather looks fine to me and I’m mad.  Then, an hour later, I arrive at my home station and the sky looks black and its lightining.  I’m happy again.  I pick up my bike and as soon as I start to leave it rains.  I’m angry again.

When it rains,  IT RAINS.  I was soaked after the first block and I have to go another 7.  I can’t see at this point because my glasses are covered in rain.  And in case your wondering NO there are not any places to stop and wait it out on my way home.  So I’m starting to get worried with the downpour and the lightining.  When sudenly two schoolgirls come peddling down the street screaming like a couple of asian school girls(and yes that is a correct metaphor, because nothing on earth screams louder than a couple of asian schoolgirls).  So I figure “Hey it looks like they are headed the same way” so I decide to follow them.  I am naming my next book “When in doubt, follow the schoolgirls”.  Thanks to them I made it back safely and we even got to talk briefly.  Though the conversation was mostly them giggling.

I made it home completly drenched to the bone.  My host family takes a look at me and whisk me to the bathroom before I drip all over the tatami mats(which are expensive and ruin easily).  I get out of the shower and guess what my family is watching.  THE HANSHIN TIGERS GAME.  They said that it only rained for about 20 minutes before stopping.  I looked outside and sure enough the sky was clear.

And that is why the rainy season sucks.

I want to watch Bambi so bad right now

I know its been a while but I have been swamped with work.   THey really don:t want me bored so they are loading on the work.  The other day I was up at 5 oclock to make it to work on time and I didnt make it back untill 11.  Today is saturday and I am in Nara.  I am to help out on the live studio news program.  Probably just helping set up chairs or something but I did get to go check out the temples in Nara so that is a plus.  But get this, we went to nara park where they have live deer running around.  Remember how I talked about the……..

sorry about that but I had to go work and now it is like two hours later.  I got pulled away and boy have I been busy.  I had to go step up the stage.  And I dont mean chairs I mean the actual set that they will be using.  Then we grabed some really good lunch of ramen and chinese dumplings.  After I meet the cast and they were all really friendly.  The weather lady is kinda crazy but she speaks great english.  The main news caster is an american.  His wife went to high school in Brentwood.  When I was introduced to him he started to speak english with me and shocked the hell out of his makeup department.  Aparently in the 38 years he has worked there he hasnt spoken english at all.  So I got to hang out with the main news team.   Anyway back to what I was saying before…

remember when I saw those wild monkies, well this was like 10 times cooler.  It was like a giant petting zoo.  The deer where all over the town.  People would play soccer in between a group of deer.  They were like big dogs really.  You could pet them and you could feed them.  That was the coolest part because there is a special way to do it.  You bought a deer cracker and then the suckers just flock to you.  But you cant just toss it at them.  When the walk up to you you hold the cracker over your head, say something in japanese that I think translates into `respect for your god` and then you are supposed to bow to the deer.  Here is the kicker  THE DEER BOW BACK.  It is so cool.  I wouldnt believe it unless I did it and caught it on tape.  The deer bow.  How cool is that.  It is so funny to see.  Its not even like a kinda thing with some of them.  All the deer bow if you do this.  They told me that the deer god from the mountain taught them to do this so that is why you are supposed to show respect to the deer god when you feed them.  Anyway,  after walking around and seeing a butt load of temples with deer hoping around them we went to see the daibutsu.  That is the giant buddha statue that they have in Nara.  It is the biggest in Japan.  Then I had a melon soda float at the top of a temple on the top of a hill that overlooked everything. 

That has been my day so far and it is not yet finished.  I Will let you know how it goes tommorrow as well as tell you about what happened when me and my old roommate meet up the other day.

later