Those of you who know me from America, know that my room has never been very clean. However things changed when I went to college and then furthermore when I cam to Japan. Yes, small shared rooms forced me to change my ways. Plus, there are always less interesting things to do then cleaning your room when you’re in college; like studying or doing homework.

But as I also said yesterday, I’ve got lots of tests, papers, and final projects due shortly. Right now I’m working on a report about ‘Design and Politics: Propaganda’ for my politics class, and it’s keeping me really busy. It doesn’t help that it’s due next Tuesday and was assigned last Tuesday. Now I’d much rather clean my room then write this paper, but it’s just too big of a load under too tight of a time schedule. And my room has just taken a beating since I go to school at 8am and come home at 9pm every day. Scattered art equipment buried in piles of clean?/?dirty clothes are what you’re seeing. Notice the clear walkway from the door to the computer area.

I have no desk, so I sit on the floor to compute, and on my bed to write my paper. I can’t wait until the semester is over. The problem is I feel like I haven’t done good work or learnt anything at all really, so at the same time I wish it wasn’t going to be over so soon so I could clean up my act…

Technorati Tags: japan, college

Yes, summer is almost here. And with summer, comes summer vacation. Unfortunately, before summer vacation can start, us students have testing.

I’ve been super busy as of late finishing up projects, completing new ones, writing papers, and studying for tests. It’s put a lot of stress on me and causing keeping me from sleeping at night as well. So, there haven’t been many posts as of late, and their probably wont be for a while. But once the semester is done, I hope to pump out a lot of information I’ve had running through my head on both this general blog and the political blog as well. But until then, don’t expect too much from me.

As for today. Well, today, being Thursday, I have 3 classes. 1st Period German, 2nd Period Psychology, and 4th Period Economics. Psychology was canceled so I came home to do some laundry and work on a paper before I go back to school for Economics. German was brutal. It was so freegin’ hot. The classroom technically has air conditioning, but the air coming out wasn’t any cooler then the room already was. I mean, it’s super hot here. Check out the dashboard:

If you’re unfamiliar with Celsius, I also took a shot of it in Fahrenheit as well.

Yea, 281 degrees. I thought I was going to die.

Now, you’re probably saying to yourself, “self, 81 isn’t all that hot.” But it’s not the heat that kills you, it’s the humidity. It’s the same in the winter. It doesn’t really get all that cold in the Tokyo area in the winter, what kills you is the wind when you’re going down hill on your bicycle. What kills you is the paper thin walls that all the heat escapes out of meaning your room is just as cold is it is outside.

And for all you Mac users, just go to your dashboard and put another weather widget on. Set the location to Tokorozawa to follow my weather more closely if you like. I have one open for Madison as well.

Technorati Tags: japan, summer

So Japan is out of the World Cup (that soccer tournament, never mind, it’s really not important.) Not many people outside of Japan, or even those outside of sports casters in Japan had high hopes for their team, so I don’t think many people are that surprised. It’s not that the Japanese team isn’t any good, they just aren’t good enough, especially when they have to play teams like Brazil. The coach (a Brazilian national and former Brazilian soccer star) is going all around talking smack about his players and how “some of them lack the skills and strength” — which, I have to say is no one’s fault but the coach. Lots of people get caught up in the games and get really into it, but they forget that international sporting events are not about national pride, not about the sport, not about the fans.

No, it’s all about commercialism. And look what I found yesterday.

Oh yea, now I smell like a true Samurai Samouraï I’ve always wanted to be. Look, I even have the official “so cheesy I couldn’t not buy it” totally bad-ass keychain. As well.

It’s okay, you can be jealous, I won’t tell anyone.

Technorati Tags: japan, world cup, soccer

I was out to take money out of my American bank account and then deposit into my Japanese bank account so my rent money could be deducted. My station has a Post Office ATM in it so I can just run and get money out really simply. But my Japanese bank doesn’t have an office here, so I have to go over to the next station AND cross the tracks too (a major hassle that takes you all around and is just a big fiasco.) Well I was tired after all this work when suddenly, I saw a KFC. Yummie I thinks to myself, and away I go. I notice a new “Asian Spice” chicken and figure, “why not” and order one piece to go along with my Southern BBQ Twister (which is now back by popular demand so says the sign.)

A 10-15 minute bike ride later and I’m back home enjoying my Twister. Now, time for that “Asian Spice”. BUT THERE IS NONE! I double check my receipt to be sure that the order got taken right, and sure enough, there it is.

220Yen, wasted. It’s too far to go back, and calling wouldn’t do any good because I’d still have to go get it. So depressing.

Technorati Tags: KFC

Yes, economics teachers in Japan are just as dorky as their American counterparts.

I personally don’t like my economics class at all. If I have to sit through another hour and a half of examples using apples and pears, I’m going to loose it.

Today was really something else though. Today we talked about, or rather he talked and we listened about probabilities of something happening in any given situation. Yes, that’s right, we first started by learning how to effectively gamble. Next week I’m hoping for his recommendations about which pachinko parlor is the best. The next example was even better. Enough of the frivolous things like gambling your life away, now it’s time to learn how to make important decisions in our lives … using probability and the expectations theory.

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