My Manly Hat

 Japan, Japanese Language, Travel  Comments Off on My Manly Hat
Nov 242011
 

Two of my classmates, N-san and the other N-san, mocked my 1000 yen gloves. They told me that I should have bought them at the Daiso, the local 100 yen shop. Of course, they pride themselves on getting the absolute best bargains, no matter what.

But I’m a little leery of buying 100 yen clothes, because I’m afraid I’m going to get some kind of awful rash or something. “It’s 100 yen for a reason,” is how I see it.

That said, tonight was extra cold, so on my way to ZigZag, when I stopped off at the Daiso to look for light bulbs (mine have been dying off at an alarming rate), I found a great 100 yen 男前 otokomae, or “manly” hat.

I couldn’t find any decent light bulbs, though.

The hat itches like hell, and looks like a 100 yen hat. But it keeps my head warm.

No rash, either. Not yet, anyway.

It’s black, so it makes me look like a burglar in one of those Hollywood “heist” movies.

In other news, D who runs ZigZag says he’ll take my excess supplies. That’s good news. It would be awful if I was forced to throw them away when I leave in a few weeks. I’m sure he can make something delicious out of them.

I managed to find a hotel for Kyoto… for Friday night. No luck at all for Saturday night. The whole town is booked solid. I’ll probably just stay at an Internet cafe. It’ll be an adventure!

Feeling the Heat, and the Cold

 Japan, Japanese Language, Travel  Comments Off on Feeling the Heat, and the Cold
Nov 232011
 

Today was the real deal interview test in JBPP. That was pressure I could feel.

The interviewers were a couple of our teachers, but it was still stressful, because they were asking hard questions, and I not only had to answer in Japanese, I had to answer in the proper degree of polite Japanese.

That’s enough to make my brain melt a little.

I also had to remember to knock, open the door, bow, stand, sit, etc. all in the proper fashion.

It’s a lot to remember, but I think I did okay.

Family Mart Rocks

After class, I went to Domy to get some groceries, and got some good deals on the various stuff on sale, like bananas.

It’s been really cold these past few days, and I’ve been miserable. I really underpacked for the weather, and the lack of American-sized clothes here is killing me. I can’t find anywhere around here that sells anything larger than a medium.

Japan’s XL is America’s M. Well, slightly larger than M, but effectively M, because it’s smaller than L even. Japan’s XXL is just about an L. I’m an XL guy, so it’s been an exercise in futility trying to find anything that would fit me.

Even if I drop 20-30 pounds, it won’t change the fact that I have big lungs, big shoulders, and a large rib cage.

But on my way out of the Family Mart tonight, I got a reprieve. I saw that they were selling Thinsulate gloves for 1000 yen. That will help a lot. They even offered to cut the tags off for me at the register.

That was pretty awesome.

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