Bon Jovi Wins in Any Language

Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen (GALAG!!!),

I present Elliot Eaton and his rhetorical prowess as demonstrated by the speech he gave during our Japanese Culture and Language Program's annual speech contest.

It's entirely in Japanese, so for everybody who is not Michael Thornton, just bide your time until (2:00-2:15ish)--it'll be well worth it =). You can totally pick out the words "ABBA" and "Money Money Money" too a little before that.

Also, apologies for the bad quality, my camera fails, which is also why you miss the first 5 seconds of his speech because it wouldn't start recording.

A Lemon Party

So one of the most popular bands in Mongolia is called the Lemons. They basically sound exactly like the Strokes except they sing in Mongolian. But they're quite good. Here's a little sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPlEGM3MObU

So anyways, I've seen them play a few times because there are only like 5 bands in Mongolia and they all put on concerts every week. And naturally, I've become bros with them. Because this is Monbrolia. The lead singer's name is Odnoo and he's a G. He never takes off his sunglasses. Some say it's because he has weird looking eyes. Most say it's because he's really freaking cool. A few days ago I went to a birthday party and the Lemons were there. So I guess it was a Lemonparty. Sorry. And then I told the birthday boy I was from Milwaukee and he asked me if I knew his friend Charlie Villanueva and I felt out of place. And long story short, I cockblocked Odnoo. As a bro, I felt terrible. As a protector of blackout girls, I felt chivalrous. I fear it may have irrevocably damaged our budding brolationship, but I guess I can deal with that.

And now for a shameless plug to support my summer's labors: check out this super groovy website! http://mongolia-institute.org Isn't it cool?!?!?! And look, there are links to Facebook and Twitter at the bottom of the page!!!!! Wowee!!! How cool would it be to follow/fan those things!!! Go for it!!!~!!

nekobusnekobusnekobusnekobus

Dear YPMB,

The Studio Ghibli Museum is the greatest place ever.


End of every discussion ever.

-John

I'm famous!!!

...well...not really. So my host brother, Yoshihisa, age 24, in addition to being really badass and being able to speak English (THANK GOD), is a DJ. Last night while I was diligently doing homework (no, really) he came to my room and asked if I could spare a moment. Seems he and his buddy are working on a new remix and they thought it would be cool to have a real English speaking person read a few lines as an introduction. I think you can see where this is going...

つまり, in a few days/weeks/don't know how long it'll take for edits, if you happen to be clubbing around the wonderfully exciting town of Hakodate, Japan, you can listen to yours truly introduce Yoshihisa & friend's reggae mix with the following lines of epic English (with special audio effects and a trance Europop-esque echo added too!):

"Hi! We are O. D. D., Out of Dance Hall. Original ragga session. This style is the one and only. We are the future. Listen and knock yourselves out. Let's break it down!"

...FAIL.

Yoshihisa's in the top left with the dreadlocks (although he doesn't have them anymore). Also, I'm not sure why he's OBT here and O.D.D. elsewhere...Meh.

I SAW HARRY POTTER

It was entirely in Chinese.

BUT I SAW IT.

Midnight showings here, unfortunately, are not a big affair (at least not for Harry Potter), but it was fun wandering the streets of Harbin while we waited for the movie to start. It was also fun/kind of head-hurting to hear all the Harry Potter vocabulary in Chinese. One of our Chinese friends told us the name of one spell that pretty literally translates to "put a frog in your shoe." My particular favorite was "Maerfo" - Malfoy - who was looking unexpectedly very handsome in this latest installment, having thought he always looked kind of awkward before. I also enjoyed how McGonagall kept calling Harry "Pot", making the "e" in the Chinese-ified "Potter" very silent. Oh, oh, and you know how Madame Maxime always calls Dumbledore "Dumblydore"? That IS his Chinese name. Ahaha.

Anyway. Homework time. I can't wait to see it again/in English.

You're Hot, Then You're Cold

Shower, must we do these things on a degrees per second basis?

(And since for some reason I can't post comments, Elliot, there's a Dreamcast game out there called "Typing of the Dead" which is House of the Dead 2, but you type phrases quickly to kill zombies.)

Worst idea ever?

Yes. I think so.

The photo's not great, but look closely. This is a DS videogame called "English of the Dead". Like the House of the Dead series. But educational?

As far as I could tell from reading what I could of the case, this game is like a point and click adventure, where you use your brains to select the appropriate English grammar before the zombies can eat them. Your brains, that is.

Musing

Dear China,

Ponder this: alphabet. I'm just saying.

Yours,

yi(2)-ge Zhong(1)wen(2) xue(2)sheng

There is a God

My office has a new intern. She's a 6-foot-tall Swedish model.

That is all.

Sunday Night at a College in China

So I'm sitting here trying (failing) to do homework and I hear some loud, male voices whooping and shouting outside. I wasn't really interested - there've been a lot of graduations at the school the past few days (I think different majors graduate on different days?), and a lot of celebrations - but then another voice shouted at them a few times. I went to the open window to see if I could decipher the Chinese equivalent of "shut up, you damn kids!" and was afforded a Rear Window-like view of all the rooms with lights in the buildings surrounding mine.

Because of the weird echo effects in the courtyard, I'm still not sure who was making all the noise. I'm thinking it might be connected to the room across the way full of naked boys flinging water at each other, though. Um. 好玩儿吗？

Finally found a proxy that will let me post here.

Not much to say now, though.

Reason # 6.022 x 10^23...

...why I love my host mom (okaasan).There was an open house today where our host families came and sat in for the last hour of class and had a chance to see us all fail spectacularly at Japanese. Anyway, today after dinner we went to "31" (more commonly known as Baskin Robbins in the USA) for ice cream and the following conversation took place:

Okaasan: ターインの友達。。。あのう、右隣の男の人。。。インド人ですねえ？いつもカレーライスを食べている?
Me: ....

Or, in English:

My amazing host-mom: Your friend, that is, the boy who sat on your right side...he's Indian, right? Is he always eating curry rice?
Me: ....

Somehow, I managed to mostly keep a straight face, although it was pretty hard. And...that's what she said. That's all folks. Over and out.

Tokyo? More like Pokéyo

Hello, YPMB. I am theoretically a member of you. I played with you. And our friend Thanh invited me to contribute to your blog.

Yes, we all know that Tokyo has awesome Gundams (well, just the one), but perhaps more important is the fact that it's actually Pokemon. Where else do you have high speed rail, ubiquitous convenient stores that sell basically everything, ridiculous multistory department stores, lots of people walking around in underground pathways, aggressive cyclists, and big 'ol mysterious temples and shrines? Saffron City is in Pokemon's Kanto, Tokyo is in real-world Kanto (also, Goldenrod City is clearly an analogue to real-world Osaka). I'm living the Pocket Monster dream.