My internship has been over for about 2 weeks now, I’m back to the big city, Urasa… I have many things to blog about, i.e. what I did until now, but to keep some logic, I’m going to start by the end, and will finish with posts about the beginning of summer. So… Most recent thing that happened, I went for the first time to Lotteria (ロッテリア). It’s a fast food chain in Japan, much smaller than McDonald’s. It’s not coming from Italia, not from Japan, but it is a Korean burger fast-food chain. Even in Tokyo, there are not many Lotterias, I can remember one in Shibuya, one in Harajuku and one in Takadanobaba.

So during my intership I got a coupon for a discount on their newest burger (don’t remember the name, and don’t know these kanjis (although I could look for them, but laziness has me):

So after getting my Japanese driving license (details in the next blog post), I saw a Lotteria near the Driving center, and I still had the coupon, and it was lunch time, and I thought why not? So I entered Lotteria for the first time…

First thing you notice when you enter, the design of the the restaurant is not as nice as a McDonalds. McDo has more stylish restaurants, looks kind of cheap, but it’s “design”. This Lotteria looked old inside, no music, no people…

I get to the counter and order the burger with the coupon and get my discount. Fries are about same as McDonalds, but when I received the burger, I thought, wow it’s kinda smaller than the picture… Size is about the same as a Quarter Pounder, except that I thought the bread/meat ration is bigger than in McDonalds, I got the feeling of eating bread with a small steak. Secondly, this burger had nothing special, it’s like a Big Mac but smaller.

Since it wasn’t enough, I wanted to try another burger, so I tried the Cheeseburger. Result: better than McDonalds, but a much higher price. I finished my meal with a milkshake, or should I say, melting vanilla ice cream. Nothing compared to McDonalds milkshake, one of the best in terms of quality/price ratio (100 yens!).

It’s good to have a change once in a while, but… It’s not like when I was in England and I discovered Burger King (XL Double Bacon Cheeseburger, aaaaahhhh I miss u!), Lotteria won’t replace McDonalds as long as I am in Japan. Anyway, the closest lotteria from my university is more than a 100km away, so I guess it does not really matter…

Game was over about 3 hours ago.

1,

2,

and 3-0:

Post-game interviews:

Better luck next time! Also I don’t know why the Japanese TV shows height and weight of Japanese players each time they touch the ball…

I think I have heard somewhere that they have the objective to be finish at the 4th place of the coming 2010 World Cup.

“It was a good experience” said a wise man

I am currently in the middle of packing since I am leaving for Tokyo tomorrow (I mean today) and I have to check out from my room in IUJ. The Open Day DVD was out two weeks ago, and I spent a couple of days ripping it and uploading it. Some performances are really worth seeing:

The European performance.  French guys will have immediately recognized the Claude Francois’s classic, Alexandrie Alexandra. Second part is some german/russian song, but don’t ask me what the title is.

In Open Days, Team America’s performance is always something you should not miss. This year, even though the quality was a bit behind last year remake of Evolution dance, it was still the case.

Japanese locals performance: aerobic dance? That’s kind of impressive. Is that the Japanese parent of jumpstyle?

Notice the creativity of Japanese students… Plus they don’t hesitate to dress as women for the show, the GSO-EC president (student organization) is dressed as a girl in the middle at the beginning. And they finish with Run to you (DJ doc) or its Japanese version DJ ozma. Visualy it’s great, and I think it will stay in memories as the best performance of this Open Day, setting high standards for next year Open Day…

You can check out other performances here: GSO-EC youtube channel

Ok, back to packing!

I find that always amazing to see Japanese driving French cars, especially in the countryside. In Tokyo, I’ve seen a couple a 206 (Peugeot), one Renault Kangoo, one or two 2CV by Citroen. Of course in Tokyo you see far less french cars than German or American cars… In the countryside (well at least in the area where I am living), I’ve seen more than in Tokyo. And people have less german cars, because of the lack of money I guess.

Again I’ve seen a couple of 206, 306 and 307. Only Peugeot. But I was even more surprised when I saw this car on the parking lot of the local hospital:

That’s right, a 406 Coupe with custom wheels. Maybe in Tokyo I would have been less surprised, but in Minamiuonuma, it was kind of a shock…

Notice the Peugeot Japan sticker, and the “Musketier” series.

Thanks to Fanta, now Japan knows what we really like to drink, Muscat Fanta. Not to mention they already have Fanta Grape in Japan. Didn’t try Fanta France, but I am not a huge fan of Fanta Grape…

These are two songs that have been for a while in my winamp playlist. Not that amazing, but that sticks in your head and soon you become obsessed…

It quickly becomes annoying.

My favorite.

Remix is far better than original, but that’s not the true reason why you listen to the music. You listen to this because you have watched the clip at least once.

Apparently a big hit in 2008, I am listening a lot to this one atm… Wait Universal disactivated embedding for this videoclip…　Ok found another one. Wait it seems it’s from a drama, Rookies (and a manga I think). Looks cool, maybe I should give it a go.

This is just dynamite:

Dear IUJ students

Today, around 3pm, there was an exhibitionist on campus.  He left the area, and we don’t think he will come back.  But if you see a Black Prius car, license plate 3*-*7, on campus please report to the SPSC or the Guardman as soon as possible.

Please take care.  Thank you.

G****

for SPSC Team

The Carpenters. Never heard of them before coming to Japan. I had already heard some of their “hits” though. Their music aged badly, it sounds old and it actually is. Almost 40 years-old. Don’t get me wrong, the music is nice but…

Ok. Get into the mood, click on the link:

The Carpenters

Now imagine you are in a cafeteria, poorly decorated, old chairs, yellow light, and very few people inside. You feel like you are in the 70s. But no you are in 2009. And in Japan. And in my university.

For almost 6 months every night, speakers of the shokudo played The Carpenters, and only the Carpenters. Maybe they had only the “Greatest Hits of The Carpenters” CD, I don’t know. At first, this is fun. After a month, it becomes depressing. We students guessed it was maybe the chef’s favorite band.

But things become more bizarre when you go to the dental clinic, and what are they playing?? The Carpenters of course… A global conspiration? Japanese love for the Carpenters?

Google Japan returns 8 million links for 50 cent, 582 000 for Green Day and 319 000 for The Carpenters, so popularity might not be so huge after all, at least on the Internet (I guess the hardcord fans might be a bit old for internet now :p ).

All I can say is, now, wherever I go, I get a strange feeling when I hear the Carpenters… The music sounds like these old songs in horror movies…

Last but not least, the mega-bonus for the Carpenters fans, The Carpenters singing their hit “Sing” in Japanese:

It’s always good to have basics: grammar, vocabulary, kanjis… But many people studying Japanese actually wonder why what they hear in the drama they are watching and their japanese book is so different.

Don’t look further, I got the perfect books for you. I saw them at the last floor of Tower Records, in Shibuya.

True Japanese Books

Ok, first, the best-seller for gaijins: “Making Out in Japanese“. Available here for example. Actually this book covers the “making out” part but also daily situations. Pretty interesting, and quite different from any of the textbooks you’ve ever read.

Then you have “Outrageous Japanese“. Available here for example. Funny. Apparently some parts are outdated but I’m no expert.

Last but not least, “The Real Japanese You Were Never Taught in School“. This one might actually be the most outdated.

The point is you don’t read these kind of books because you actually want to learn something, but because it’s funny.

In these books, there were sentences of the “Take it, bitch!”-style, or “Please hurry and come in me, I have a date with my boyfriend”. “Oh Johnny, you’re so great. I’m like the Niagara Falls down there.”

Things you will never use when speaking Japanese or that you will never use before asking a Japanese friend “Is that correct?”.

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