Point of post is P.S.P

Sorry I know I haven’t blogged in a long time but things have just been really busy around here. I have a really big blog about Korea that I haven’t finished writing but it should be up soon. But I thought you guys might want to what’s going on since then.

After we got back from Korea my parents went home. After they left Krystal and I were talking about how weird it felt after they had been there for two weeks. I guess we just missed the apartment being filled. Of course after they left we did some cleaning up trying to get our lives back on track but it wasn’t as easy as we thought it might be. First of all Krystal got sick. She got sick on the way home from Korea and it wasn’t really getting better. But luckily I brought some “American” medicines from back home that seems to work a lot better than the stuff here. Anyway she was taking some medicine and the cold seemed to be getting better but she was starting to lose her voice. She had been coughing a lot which made her voice scratchy but her teachers still made her do lessons and talk louder than she had to so her voice has been shot for the past week or so. She went to the doctor and she gave her a sick note for a week. I think she’s fine health-wise but her voice is still kind of messed up. How can one teach if one can’t use the voice?

Well it just so happens that we had a presentation to give last week during Krystal’s non-verbal ability week. We were asked to give a presentation of Hawaiian Culture to teachers in the Kyoto city area to broaden then understanding of “Hawaii”. We talked about Hawaiian Monarchy, plantation period, and even WWII and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I was expecting to get a reaction when we talked about Pearl Harbor but the biggest reaction came when we talked about pidgin and where it came from. We did a small activity where we gave them definitions and they had to guess which pidgin word fit the definition. They were really surprised and eager to learn more pidgin. Good thing we had a local girl from Kalihi to give us the pidgin breakdown.

We’ve been waiting to play kickball for the past three weeks but the weather is not really agreeing with us. Three times we have scheduled it but it never happened. And it’s the rain. Why the hell is it raining so much?! The messed up thing is that it only rains on THE DAY we deicide to play. All the other days are at least cloudy if not sunny. Plus the autumn passed in like three days and its really cold here. When my parents were in town the weather was nice. Bright sunny days in the high 70’s, totally manageable. But as soon as they left the temperature dropped and we’re looking at 65 degrees high in the mid day and in the low 50’s at night. WTF!? It got cold too fast. I can already see my breath in the morning on the way to school.

Well on Saturday we decided to go to the Jiraya Festival here in Kyoto. They have three really big festivals here in Kyoto and Jiraya is on of them. It’s the festivals of Ages. They have this huge parade that goes from the Old Palace grounds to a temple and everyone is dressed as people of the past. So you have your shoguns, samurais, geisha, and etc. It was pretty cool except we decided to go just before it started so we were on the side of the street where they were re-directing traffic. So we got a nice look at the parade but when I was taking pictures I had to time it between the moped riders and buses. We almost didn’t go to the festival because we wanted to sleep in after the really stressful week planning that presentation I talked about earlier. But we decided that we should do as much as we can this year since it is the “last of everything”.

I’ve ignoring blogging for two reasons:

A: I haven’t found time to do it in school like I usually do.
B: I have been totally stuck on Lumines. (PSP game)

Oh yeah if you didn’t know I got a PSP a month or so ago. Anyway the game is knd of like Tetris but in a club. The music in that game is really cool. Not to mention cool visuals and of course the age old dilemma of trying to clear away as many rows as possible. If you haven’t got a PSP you should get one and Lumines should be your first game. Every time you get to a certain level you get a new skin/background/music. This is what has me playing PSP from after dinner until I have to go to sleep. The game is so addicting. It was so addicting that Krystal went out and bought a PSP too! She got the white one. She seems to be in a white/Apple mood recently. All the gadgets she’s bought have been Apple or white. Anyway the PSP is cool and its wireless so you can browse the internet if you wanted too. And another cool pro is that the hackers of the world as finding ways to hack into the PSP and therefore games can be downloaded as well as movies. I even hear you can play Nintendo Game Boy games off the PSP. Pretty cool huh? If you don’t have one, get one! ‘Cause Dooku Said SO!

Break it Down

Meet the Parents

T’was a long, long, long weekend. If you didn’t hear my parents came to Kyoto last week Friday. At first I just thought of it as my parents coming but the days just prior to their arrival I started to feel… nervous. It’s the first time that my parents were coming to my house. I‘ve been away for over a year and I bet that they were really curious to see how me and Krystal have been living our lives. I know that Krystal was pretty nervous because she knows my mom and she also knows that she would be under constant monitoring. Most of last week was spent cleaning the place and making it look presentable. I knew that once my mom came over she would be looking in the corners and crack of the apartment to find dust bunnies and areas of negligence. So I guess I was relieved when she came and said, “This place looks like a doll house.” I guess she was referring to everything being small and compact size since Japan is not a place with open spaces. The comment wasn’t negative so I believe that we passed the test.

On Friday I waited for them downstairs because I was afraid that I didn’t give them all the information to get upstairs to my apartment. Eventually they came, about 20 minutes ahead of schedule and was reunited with my family again. It hasn’t been too long since I last saw them nevertheless it was good to see them. We dropped off their bags and headed straight for dinner. Of course it was Denshichi. The best sushi place in Kyoto! How could we not go there on the first day? I had lots of funny watching my dad drop his potato over and over again saying how the sushi tasted different because everything was fresh. He also got pissed drunk after 3 “Nama Biiru-s”. Which is three mugs of beer. Actually I got pretty buzzed myself and knew that the weekend was going to be fun.

On Saturday Krystal cooked everyone breakfast and we headed for Kinkakuji. I’ve only been there once before but Krystal has been there about 4 times now taking all guests up there. But she was a trooper and made the trip again. The leaves were just starting to turn red but not really. Then after that we went to Nijo Castle. We got to go into another part of the castle grounds that we usually bypass. I think the first time we went there the area was blocked off so when we went back again we just skipped that part. Anyway it wasn’t that great just another nice garden with a high turret looking plateau that gave a nice view of the west side of the castle. After the castle we took my mom on her first ever subway ride. She called it the Choo Choo train. But it was only two stops and I think she was a little disappointed because the ride was so short. Then we took them on a walking tour of downtown Kyoto. We went south on Teramachi and watched my dad drop his potatoes again because of all the small little shops in the covered market. Up until now all the shops we ducked into were mostly for my mom and sister so we decided to take my dad someplace special. We took him down the Nishiki Market which is like a giant covered walkway of seafood, produce, and small novelty shops. Where he again, dropped his potato. He even got yelled at by a vendor because he took a sample of tsukemono without using the tongs. The place was like his dream. Ever since I was little I watched him watch those shows like Soko Ga Shiritai on KIKU and now he was finally living his dream. And just by chance there was a show being taped as we were walking through the market place. For lunch we took them to KatsuKura which was a big hit with Denyse. After lunch we headed to Shikyogoku and walked north taking in all the shops and stuff. Then we walked back south down Kawaramachi where we even stopped to take a family purikura. Then we went to Gion where we were fortunate enough to see some Maiko. (apprentice geishas) Actually there were a ton of them running around the side streets of Gion. I guess the night shift just started because we saw about 20 or so that day. But the day did have to come to an end so we caught the train back home. We had a two hour pit stop and went to Kushihachi for some yakitori and sticks. Denyse couldn’t handle and totally passed out at the restaurant not even eating one bite. The girls went home early because Dad wanted to try pachinko. We had some trouble starting but was able to get some help. I ended up losing around 50 dollars and my dad about 20. He actually hit the jackpot once but played it all away. What’s a Japan experience without going to a pachinko parlor? We were all pretty pooped when we came home and it was a real slumber symphony.

Sunday was a slower day where we all got up a little later and took our time to get ready. We stopped by the local mall to get some good udon for lunch and some minor sightseeing. We planned to go to Fushimi-Inari shrine but were side tracked by Latone, our friendly relaxation center. Krystal and I got regular shoulder and neck work but we got my mom a full body massage. And in an hour everyone was feeling good. Then it was off to the shrine. When we got there it started to rain so we bought those 100 yen umbrellas for 200 each and went up the shrine. It was pretty quiet and peaceful but before we reached the lookout my mom couldn’t handle the steps so we ended up going back down. The main part of that shrine was all the gates and they got to see that so the trip wasn’t a total loss. Well since we were in Fushimi we ended up going to Kappa Country which is where they brew some of Kyoto’s original beer and sake. We had dinner in their restaurant and sampled the beer and sake. Luckily my dad was able to make it back home on his own accord.

The weekend was pretty packed and I had lots of fun hanging out with my family. But since they came I did realize one thing… that my parents are pretty dorky. At least I know now where I get it from.

Break it down