The Buffaloes won!

This was a pretty uneventful weekend.
After our saturday trip to Akihabara nobody had plans … except me.

On Sunday afternoon I went to see my new teammates play against another college’s team … the Buffs (my team) won by a messy 21-5 (three TD runs against 1 FG and a safety). While my team didn’t show any spectacular individuality, I was impressed by some players in the other team. Like the number 80 who is an exceptional 190cm tall WR with good route running (and a very inaccurate and panicky QB) and who is also a wicked punter (3 coffin corners or within the 5 yard line punts … and one from his 30 yards).

My team showed a good outside running game and a promising options use … unfortunately too much turnovers and fouls … they need to discipline their offense. The defense just overpowered the other’s team Offensive Line, unfortunately they don’t seem to have much technique … which is bad as they already faced all the team with smaller personnel and now they will encounter the BIG guys from what I understood.

BTW … too much training kills the training. They still went on with intensive mourning training for 5 days from Monday to Saturday … before a match = 6 injured players (3 for more than 1 week) and a lot of cramping and puking on the sidelines. Tokyo is a really moist climate … just don’t make it easier to be tired by doing unnecessary things.

At night we saw a band of tanukis visiting our dorms. They seem to live nearby. We already saw them 2 times … while a lot of our Japanese friends admit to never have seen one. Lucky.

Here is my roommate’s blog (you can see the tanukis) : http://sebule.tumblr.com/

Those F***ing midgets!

Ok … people know that I am not the one to make racial puns. But I am really pissed off about something.

You can not find size 30 in Japan (europe is 46 and US is 12). Just today I found THE pair of shoes for me (a Lee casual leather moccasins like shoes) in a Shibuya store … but they stop at 27.5! Then my roomy found this post : “How to find shoes that fits you in Japan”. So I will try to find those shoes again and order them through  the store.
I mean for fuck sake … the biggest pair they had, was Timberland and it was a 29! … I’m not a lumberjack!

I went to Akihabara yesterday. Well you will enjoy it only if : A) You need a PC or any other electronic gadget (not because it’s cheap but because there is everything) B) You are a GEEK or a hardcore Otaku (and you like small girls dressed up as maid or another kawaii culture classic uniforms) C) all of the conditions above.
As I am not A, B nor C … I just LOLed myself the whole afternoon with the idiotic stuff you can find there … even though I found an interesting handheld camera … if someday I want to start a video blog.

That’s it for today here is a photo of my dorm comrades (real bodies and no tricks).

Trainings, laboratories and shopping.

I went to my first training of American Football. The only way to describe efficiently the pain I fill now in my muscles is : Static Squats. I will leave the rest to your imagination.

Me and my roommate have been hard pressed to find kitchen equipment. So far the 100 yen shop have saved our lives for plates, forks, and chopsticks, but we still need the “real” stuff. Like frying pans, pots, and kitchen knives. It’s incredible that in a country so food oriented and so famous for its cutlery it would still take you so long to find that kind of stuff.

My awesome tutor will help me out (yet again) on this after lab hours.

About labs … well the main principle is : “Look around and choose what you would like to study.” I just love my supervisor for this, and my tutor is way overworking himself by helping for the 8000 yen/months he received to assist me.

I just have one question for you : “What would you do with a mouse force feedback?” That’s basically what most the research around here is about right now.

(no photos because I’m in the lab and I have no internet in my room for now)

See ya

First “true” day at lab.

It is time for an update on my situation.

So far I live with a pretty cool German guy that should be genetically programmed to hold his booze. We survive thanks to a Suihanki and a water boiler we got from Ishimaru. We are searching for cheap cooking equipments (pans, pots, cutlery, …) and a cheap supermarket where to buy veggies and stuff.

Dorm life is relaxed but courses have not started yet (which doesn’t mean I am not busy with administrative stuff).

Today I wanted to go to my first practice with the american football club … but unfortunately I got to go to a seminar. Well it was interesting … or it could have been if I could understand that much japanese all at once.

I only know one thing : the title of my research subject … “Haptics interaction System and its applications”. If anyone want to guess what that could lead me to then be my guest. It is just too vast a subject for a 1 year project. Well I guess I will have to ask my supervisor.

Anyone has things that they want me to try out and post about?

PS : Sorry sis, no pics today.

Touchdown!

I finally arrived. I am safe, sound and really really happy!Anyway on the very first day my stay looks like something between a gaijin tonic adventure and a Robert-Gilles reportage (which really fits my personality actualy).

Yesterday morning I went to visit my football club … WOW that`s some organization! I think I will like it here. And my 3rd day looks like it started right.

Anyway I think I will write more once I will have internet in my room (writing from a netcafe now).

See you all later.

Goodbye Europe!

Tomorow I’ll wake up at 6:30AM to catch my plane to Tokyo.
Wish me luck.

Goodbye Old world!

————————

I’m currently waiting for my correspondance from Helsinki to Narita.
Well from above Letonia and Finland seems to be two very beautiful countries. Too bad I don’t have time to stop and visit.

I also grabbed something to eat at the airport … the thing they dare serve us in those planes … *burk*

My journey continue … see you my readers (all two of you).

Uneventful … yet stressing!

Preparations for the big departure is ongoing. I noticed now that I had nowhere near enough room in my luggage to carry my football helmet. So why the fuck did I spend a whole week painting it to near NFL perfection? Last chance : FedEx.

Yesterday night we went to eat a pizza in a restaurant. Again if you are around Monza in Italy you should check out “La Pizzeria“. Only pizza and awesome deserts. Nothing else.

Today was a day full of tension in our household. My sister have an exam for tomorrow and like always the best way she has found to relieve stress is … to scream at my mom and dad for just existing. And naturally my parents are not intelligent enough to learn that the best way to win that fight is to not fight at all. Whenever someone randomly take it out on you the best way to humiliate him is to ignore him like the lowlife he/she is.

Question : do you have someone in your life that is an irrational fucking lunatic? Me it’s almost all my family … everyone in its personal and unique way… that’s why I prefer hanging out with my friends better.

that’s it for today

Possible next post : NFL and NCAA Football surprises?

Italian are dishonnest people? I agree …

I’d like to write something short about this : “More Japanese Tourists ripped-off in Italy“

You have to know that it’s now 18 years since I moved to Italy, and to me this kind of story is daily life … almost. I just spent one year in France studying and I must admit that the overall honesty and good-will of people just 490km up north was relaxing and quite new to me.
This kind of scams are very frequent. Italian people’s main rule is : “Survival of most cunning.” Everyday they find new way to earn money- dishonestly or not – as long as it’s with the less effort possible. Scamming on foreign people is just one of so many ways they do (be especially aware of taxi pretending to bring you from the airport to the city with a forfeit price … 99.9% is scam and 100% is illegal even if it’s a bargain price).

It’s been at least 10 years since I stopped counting the number of time someone tried that on my mom (she’s the only one in our family speaking Italian with an accent … so she is the only one they mistake for a tourist). So follow those rules :
1 – Check the amount on the check before paying … don’t accept verbal confirmation of the count. Try to read it yourself on a screen, machine or note.
2 – Try to pay in cash … Italian shops are not always equiped with credit card terminals so sometimes they use manual paper machines … dangerous IMHO.
3 – Always be 100% sure of the type of bill you gave … and never back down if they say you gave them something else. This is to avoid the “change scam”.
4 – If you have to pay by CC … never let anybody disappear with you card. And verify the operation yourself (you can pretend “I must type the code”). Don’t forget to check the amount on the CC terminal before confirmation.
5 – Try using travellers checks. And don’t expect honesty from Italian merchants toward tourists. SORRY

All this is really a big shame. Afterall Italy is always one of the most beautiful countries in the world in terms of art and culture … and food.

Young 60, moving and things in JDoramas

First of all : Yesterday it was my father’s 60th birthday. So Happy birthday ‘pa!
We went to an awesome restaurant : “Profondo Rosso” … If anyone is near Monza or Milan I’d recommend to check it out.

I spent all day dismantling a dressing so that we could throw it away tonight. I’m really tired and my hands are hurting. Now that the biggest piece of mobiliary in my room is gone I start to realize that once I go to Japan I won’t see this house any more and that I won’t see Monza for a long time. It will never be my town anymore. Do you get what I mean?

I’ve been watching Buzzer Beat since yesterday, there is something that always bothered me with Japanese TV Dramas : the kisses. Why is it that a light lip-touch qualifies as a kiss in Japan? I mean if a girl would kiss me like that I’d be offended, that’s the way I kissed my cousins when we were childs for saying “hello”. Really! I understand that Japan is a much more prude society but what really ticks me off is the “guiltyness” that is lurking behind this “pseudo-biggotery” : love, kisses, and sex are not bad nor indecent! It’s just some people wanting us to believe that it’s not beautiful or acceptable. What do you think about that? Does it irritate you too? Do you have a theory about the why of the above mentioned situation?

That’s it for today.

See ya

From winless to undefeated!

No I’m not talking about the Detroit Lions (that just got destroyed by Drew Brees and the Saints BTW)

With this short post I’d like to celebrate not only my first season with a win but my first season undefeated in American Football. In fact in the previous (disastrous) two years I’ve spent in Italy I’ve played in 2 different teams (the Daemons and the Rhinos) and in those two years I must admit little if nothing was though to me about football and the coaching was so abysmal and full of ego that we never even managed to win the games that were “winnable” for us.
I’d like to especially send resentful “F*** YOU” – why am I censoring this? I really meant “FUCK YOU” – to the Daemons Coach that told me in my rookie year, “I can’t make you play now … we still can make a play and come back.” while we were 48-0 with 5 minutes to play in the 4th quarter against the best team on the league.

Anyway! This only makes me really happy to present you the 2009 Minotaure highlights. If you want to know where I am on the vid : I’m one of the guys in the D-line and O-line doing the dirty work. I’m #61 when we are in beige and blue and #51 in Blue-orange-white … I’m the only one with a ruined Black to grayish helmet on my team.(BTW I was a starter on both defense and offense … <– me proud)