For inquiring minds (comment/question from yesterday)... Otaku is like being geeky or nerdy, into anime and stuff like that. From what I can gather, its like a pretty general state of being, so not only tied to being into anime, and I guess its used like if we were to say 'you are such a nerd! (geek/dork/etc) in English. My student was telling me that 'otaku' people generally have trouble forming social bonds and can be found playing DDR in street front arcades. Take what you want from that :). I think if used with friends it can be like a more friendly thing, and otherwise can be an insult, which is exactly how it works in English... Anyone who actually knows what the story is, feel free to pipe in with a comment if I'm wrong here!

Maid cafes are cafes where everyone who works there is dressed up like a maid, I don't really know the details, but I'll probably have to check one out at some point, just to say I have. I have no idea if girls ever go to them, but I'll go with someone to make it look a little bit less weird (possibly?) Thanks to wikipedia, I've just discovered that there is also a version for women - the 'butler' cafe. I guess they're popular in otaku culture, and they're supposed to make the guests feel like 'masters of the manor' coming home.... Incidentally, here's one in Toronto of all places! Also, CNN's take on it (via youtube)- I love how the private room you can get comes stocked with comic books and figurines! Classic! Clearly, I'm not an expert, so people with more info, feel free to chime in!

In other news, this story is pretty amazing! Imagine being a hang glider who gets picked up by a wind tunnel, sucked up to 35 000 feet (that's higher than Everest), and floating around up there for awhile with no oxygen, and clearly not enough clothing for that sort of thing, and then eventually getting dumped back to earth 60 miles from where you started! With only a bit of frostbite on your face! Amazing...and she wants to keep going in the world hang gliding championships later this week, crazy lady!

Anyway, taught this morning at ten, it was a bit of a sloshy walk down to Shibuya as it was pouring when I got up, rather depressing! I wasn't so much looking forward to the walk, but it ended up not being too bad, yay for umbrellas and all that :) It's weird, because to get to Shibuya on the train really isn't that convenient, esp. since I was teaching at this end, away from the station, so I probably didn't walk any more than I would have if I'd gotten on a train...

I got there a few minutes before my student, so finished my Margaret Atwood book, I have one other one I got out of the library, so I might start that tonight, if I'm completely unproductive tomorrow I could finish it, but that might be a little extreme, we'll see what goes on between now and 6:15 tomorrow! Anyway, I managed to successfully steer the conversation away from town cars for the first time in about five weeks today, much more interesting! I found out he went to university in Kyoto to study religion (his parents are Buddhist priests), so since I'm looking into this MEXT scholarship thing, I grilled him on the Japanese school system, it was pretty interesting, and a good 'culture exchange' since I could explain the Canadian system to him, and answer lots of questions which began with 'in your country....' He seemed a bit surprised that the church hadn't given me my middle name, but I was a bit surprised he'd ask that, so there you go ;). (Yea, we moved off schooling a bit somewhere in there!)

Finished up at about 11 and then I headed off on a half hearted search for pants, I've been destroying mine recently! First I looked in GAP which wasn't so inspiring, and then I went around the corner to UNIQLO, which is supposedly the J equivalent of Old Navy. It was a surprisingly successful! I ended up getting these jeans, in like a dark grey wash (it looks like a black/blue) I even managed to organize hemming, which was free, and only took thirty minutes! I was very impressed, and will definitely be keeping them in mind!

Wandered home and had some lunch and chilled with Peter for a bit before we both headed our separate ways again - he went to a Mardi Gras party in Roppongi (he's claiming it was actually quite tame, though at 3pm on a Sunday perhaps that's what you would expect, hosted by Sohan's restaurant/bar I think), and I went to play soccer.

Luckily, the weather had become gorgeous, so other than the turf being incredibly soggy - we all looked like we'd been slip 'n sliding (wait, we were!) it was good... I like my new cleats, it is sooo much easier to play in cleats than runners! Especially on a day like today where the turf was that incredibly wet and slippery. Of course, I couldn't get away without my shins being stupid, especially since we had no subs, so it was 2 hours pretty much straight, however, there was another girl there, and she offered me some spray stuff she had with her. I thought it was just ice in a can like they'd given me in the little physio room the week before, but I tried it out and it was amazing! (there was an analgesic in it i think!) Instant pain relief and my muscles untied themselves a little bit. I have the name, and will definitely be getting some ASAP! As far as I can tell, it's pretty similar to this stuff. I was still pretty careful, and definitely didn't push 100%... For the same reason I never take cold medication, I like to be able to tell what's going on - there's a reason we feel pain, but since I don't think I can make it any worse by playing on it, it was basically amazing! I figure if I can use it while I'm getting back into shape, then I should be able to stop using it, but in the meantime, WOW!

I got home at about 7:15, and beat Peter home, so I made some pasta and corn for dinner (so good but I ate too much haha), and watched Friends while I worked on icing myself (I think I've used up my 'we better be careful with her because she's a girl' time, I bit the dust a few times today, but then again, I also sent one guy to the locker room early after a tackle, and uhh gave another guy cause for reproductive concern *oops!* so it all works out, I'd way rather this than them not playing properly with me!)

Peter came back at 8:30 or so and I looked through his pretty tame pictures from the party, and then we caught up on our TiVoing, and just hung out for awhile... I'm hopefully chatting with Navina tonight, but that requires waiting for the time zones to line up, which isn't for another 2 hours or so... Maybe I'll study some Japanese or something, maybe something will stick eventually!

mata ne,
D