Another little Japanese oddity are these roaming salesmen. I think the basic idea is to load a bunch of goods in a truck and then slowly go from block to block with a microphone saying what you have to sell. Ive heard them try to sell everything from food, to tatmi. Its like having a telemarketer outside your house with a microphone at random hours of the day. I think the earliest I have heard them at was at 7-8am and the latest I have heard them at was 6-7pm. I guess it would be more annoying if I could understand what they were saying so it would be harder to filter out.

 
I finnaly played some Arcade games yesterday. Seb and I went out to the Namco arcade in Sumiyoshi. The Arcade(Or 'game center') in Japan are pretty cool. Most of them that I have seen have slots and crane games on the first floor and the real games up on the second. Most games here cost 50 or 100 yen to play, which is a little expensive if you arent good at them. This is also the arcade with the Capcom Gundam game(And Zeon flag). Someone needs to port a 4-player version of that game to a game console. The only really bad part about the whole arcade experience is that smoking is allowed inside the Arcade. Ugh :(

I spent most of my time playing Capcom Vs. Snk 2. Seb and I played a few games then I finished my game Vs the computer. I managed to get 2nd place on the high score list which seems kinda sad. Especially because I was rusty, and using K groove. I really wanted to play some Japanese players, but no-one there was playing CvsS2.

I also played a little Metal Slug 4. Metal Slug games are contra like games but have a more Rambo feel to them, instead of the aliens in Contra. They are always fun to play.

I also tried a top down shooter which was kinda interesting. I dont think I understood how to play the game fully, but a large part of the game was about switching between black and white shields.

Finnaly, I still want to play KOF 2k2, and Soul Caliber 2, to actually play someone other than Seb in CvsS2.

 
This last weekend I went out to Mark Tiedemann's house for the sports days festival and for a little party.

The sports day festival is actually a nation holiday, so this was actually a three day weekend. Most of the sports festival seemed to be different team sports events, with some cultural events mixed in. There were lots of baton races. There was also some interesting drumming, and some chearleader like tricks(Including one huge human pyramid). Most of the sports events were also all age groups. Different parts would be done by people at different ages. So you would see some 20-30 year old run really quick, then some grandparents get along as fast as they could. They were also divided into neighborhoods and kept a running tally of who won how many events. We also had a nice Japanese style picnic. And I bought some shaved ice cream. Which had a really mediciny like taste to it.

They also gave out prizes to everyone who competes in a event no matter how you do. The thing is all the prizes are off the really practical variety. Like a bag. Or something to hold soap in your bathroom. Not something that I would consider a prize. I guess I want my prizes to be impractical.

 
Well I have had two flower arranging classes as part of my Japanese traditional arts classes. We did the same thing for both classes. Basically the teacher shows us what is a good way to arrange the flowers that we were given, and the students did their best to copy. We seem to get 4 types of flowers to arrange as well. Usually something more like wood. Which you try to bend with some water and place at the outside of the arrangement. We usually also get some rose like plants which are placed in the center with some ferns. We also then usually get a distinctively oriental flower, which is usually placed somewhere to draw the eye.

The teacher is really good at this as well. She showed us a brochure from the flower arranging school she comes from and there are some really nice arrangements there.

I have also taken pictures of all this....

 
I have also had a limmited exposure to Korean food while in Japan. My basic impression of what I have seen so far is that its kinda like Japanese food but much spicer. What I have had so far has been Korean romen, ground beef wrapped in cabbage, and what I really like Kimuchi.

The best way to think of Kimuchi is a Korean version of sauerkraut mixed with a hot sauce. It is usually eaten with the cabbage dish mention above. It is also not cut up like sauerkraut into small chuncks but there are visible leaves in it. Ben, another American study abroad student, said that it also comes in a variety of styles in Korea. From ungodly spicy to red sauerkraut. It makes me really want to explore Korean food some more.....