my supervisor, f-san, took me along with his friends to the festival in matsushima to watch the fireworks there. matsushima, besides being about an hour away, is one of the nihon san-kei, that is, one of the three famous views in japan. and it truly breathtaking...idyllic waters and islands with nothing but trees make it extremely scenic. i played _pet sounds_ by the beach boys and _dosage_ by collective soul for the gang on the way over, but i don't think either made much of an impression. once in matsushima, i saw some of the miyagi-ken jet crew, so i stopped and paid my respects before rejoining my group. the fireworks, like those in sanbongi, consisted mainly of random bursts, with as much as a minute and a half between spurts. it lasted a lot longer than the sanbongi fireworks, though, and were more impressive, really. f-san said that the fireworks in matsushima are the biggest and baddest in all of miyagi-ken. interesting.
work was exciting as always...i did get to use the work computer to e-mail my mom. i read a bit from my japanese textbook, fell asleep, and then worked some on the civil war narrative i'm in the process of hacking through. i feel bad, because i'm pleasure reading at "work", but it's the only way i can stay awake, besides commandeering the internet computer for the entire morning...oh, everyone around seemed rather impressed by my typing skills. bizarre. i told them that, for anyone who spends any amount using computers or the internet or programming, typing really is a necessary skill, but i don't know whether i got my point across or not...then f-san and i ordered sushi. pretty good, but i really do prefer the pre-packaged rolls at the convinience store...mmm...i bought some crab and salmon at the supaa monday for sushi purposes, btw. i slogged through a bit more of the tcp/ip book i'm working on during the trip to matsushima (traffic was an absolute nightmare), and managed to understand what i read, for the most part.
24 hours later...one of the things i hate hate *hate* is when i find out the truth about a person/group of people for whom i previously had a world of respect. a good example of this phenomenon is when i found out about the whole burakumin issue in japan a few months ago. i still was excited about coming to japan, but damn if that didn't suck some of the wind out of my sails. but that which does not kill me will only make me stronger, no? the reason i bring this up is because i've just had a lovely evening with a couple of alts from furukawa, and they let me in on the truth about someone i know for whom i previously had a world of respect. and it sucks. i'm not really a people person, at least i'm not the best interpreter of subtle verbal and non-verbal clues, and thus am not always the best judge of personality, so i tend to put people in two groups, friend or foe. when i can classify someone as neither, cognitive dissonance occurs. simply put, when it comes to people, ambiguity scares me. so it's hard for me to face up to someone's true nature, especially when it conflicts with what i've come to expect. and it's hard for me to put up a protective shield, to carefully guard my words. but now i'm gonna have to around this person. again, that which doesn't kill me, right? but i've asked God for protection before, and now i ask Him for wise counsel and guidance...
regarding my night out in furukawa...well, it was very pleasant, and a lot of fun. another first year jet and i were taken around furukawa by a veteran of the region. we went to a used goods store, which has some speakers i lusted after, but all the used guitars had the strange trait of being completely wrapped in plastic. i mean, what if i wanted to test drive one? bizarre. so then we proceeded to the local liquor/imported goods shop. there were large jars of spaghetti sauce! i was so glad to find 'em...i bought three, as well as a big sack of noodles. no hard cider, though. i think i'm gonna have to import it or something, or just go without. then we happened upon a new music shop, with oodles of guitars and stuff, and i conspired for my impending guitar purchase once i get my first big paycheck. there an ovation acoustic that i was looking pretty hard at that had pickups, and a pretty cool design. it goes for 58 thousand yen, or about 560 bucks. what do y'all think? this would be a guitar that i would be taking back with me to america, if i lay down that kind of dough. there was also a fender strat for 370 or so bucks...but if i go with the ovation, i can buy an amp at my leisure, whereas a strat purchase would mean i would need an amp to really start playing. we'll see. there were also some effects pedals that were giving me that lustful look...
after the music shop, we went to the respective homes of the people escorting/showing me around furukawa, and added another member to the party. after visiting the maxvalu supaa on the northern edge of furukawa (198 yen for 1.5 liters of diet coke! that's the cheapest i've seen around here...) we all went to a local chinese restaurant. pretty tasty...i had what seemed to be chicken meat fried, almost like sesame chicken without the sesame. after more touring of furukawa, my gracious chaperones brought me home, and we conspired to have a monty python viewing party...(i've brought an extensive collection of monty python dvds with me). friday is yet another gathering of the local alts, and it should be a lot of fun. the days are just packed...
been listening to: evanescence, eternal tears of sorrow, mark heard, mineral, garbage