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Pictures of the new Rider show (starting late Jan 05) are slowly starting to be released. Oh man I can’t wait to watch this show. The Rider, Hibiki (Drumbeat Demon) is supposively based on the Japanese God of Thunder and has a demon inside of him or something like that. Looks cool.

Last night I finally got around to watching the movie “Zebraman,” which I rented and burned nearly a month and a half ago. It’s directed by Takeshi Miike, who is famous for a bunch of freaky horror films like Ichi the Killer, Gozu, and the Dead or Alive movies. Well Zebraman isn’t a horror film, but instead a comedy/parody of superhero movies.

One of the trailers summarizes things up pretty well: “The mother is having an affair, the daughter is a hooker, the son gets bullied, and the father…saves the world?” The movie’s about a teacher named Ichikawa (whoa! big coincidence? i think not), whose life really sucks for the previously mentioned reasons. His whole family hates him, and his only comfort at home is in his Zebraman costume that he makes, modeled after a crappy TV show he watched when he was a kid.

One night he goes out into the streets dressed in his costume, and runs into a pervert wearing a crab helmet. The two end up fighting, and Ichikawa discovers he actually does have superpowers (of course he uses the “Zebra Screw Punch.” Turns out this Crab man is the first of a bunch of aliens that Zebraman has to beat.

Awesome movie. Some parts are just so retarded that you have to love it.

Starting tomorrow, I’m beginning work on a short movie. It’s technically supposed to be for my Japanese class, but I’ve got too much of a video/TV itch right now to let it just stand at that. It’s going to be a parody of Japanese super heros (like Kamen Rider and Power Rangers), with a recycling theme (have to have that for class).

Final Cut in Japanese might be interesting…

Well the last few days have been fairly boring. People around me have a lot more drama in their lives than I do, which is good for the most part. Being a つまらないやつ has it’s advantages indeed.

On Sunday, I thought I had the whole day planned out. I was completely wrong. Ended up not going to the Tokyo Motor Show, since Bryan went first and c-mailed me saying it was mostly cars for the handicapped and stuff. Not the race car and booth girl festa that we were expecting. So instead, Ari and I found a Chinese buffet in the Plena mall next to the station. Reminded me of Chinese Buffet back in B-town, but more expensive (1200 yen). Eventually, we went to this department store in Kemigawahama, and boy did they have some weekend sales (割引). I ended up buying the Kamen Rider Lengel belt for half off, and Ari got a Tokima watch on clearance. Good sale for dorks.

Rented the Cutie Honey movie and watched it. It’s a goofy movie, definitely worth seeing. It’s like a parody of itself and the original anime (which I’ve never seen much of). The movie is honestly so stupid you can’t take it seriously. Ah well.

Tuesday (tonight) was pretty uneventful. My life is a lot more boring than others, which like I said, can be good. I’m not at liberty to talk about what people are going through, but it’s a tough situation. Anyways, now I have to go to sleep and wake up tomorrow around 5 or 6AM to go to my Field Placement at the high school. If this weren’t my first time back in 3 weeks (because of the Nagano Trip and then a national holiday), I would totally call in sick. It’s not bad once I get there, but it’s a pain in the butt up until that.

This is where I went today, with Mikey and Ari. For a dork like me, it was awesome. Had the “Character World” exhibition, where they had models and cases full of toys from all the Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Mazinger robot, and Super Sentai shows. Oh man it was awesome. Actually since it’s Bandai’s museum, the main thing they had on display was toys (as opposed to real props, etc), but it was still great. They had the 1:1 scale, die-cast metal Faiz Gear, which was cool to see. You could buy it for 31300 yen ($300) if you really wanted it, but I definitely passed. If I was a billionaire, I would have picked up a few though. Also, at the Sentai part of the display, where they had clips and toys from every Sentai (Power Ranger) show since the 70’s, it was interesting to see a shelf of robot toys where I had every single one of back home. Embarrassing and awesome at the same time. Kinda.

Afterwards, explored the Matsudo area with Ari and Mikey. A lot more to do there than I would have thought. Like Funabashi city, it’s pretty generic of Japanese cities, but it was cool for a change of pace. Had some awesome miso ramen, found a cheap arcade, and met up with Elida (who lives there). She’s been here for a few months but we never got around to meeting up.

That was my day, pretty laid back and fun. Bandai Museum is awesome. Tomorrow I might be going to the Tokyo Motor Show (car convention) at Makuhari Messe.

Let’s see….yesterday, Saturday, I did absolutely nothing. That is slightly overexaggerated, but not by much. I woke up around 9 or 10 and bummed around. Got my TV that I rented here at the dorm, and got that all plugged up (it’s only a 14 inch screen, but I can watch weird Japanese TV now). Actually, weird Japanese TV probably deserves it’s own blog post.

I decided to not go on the “Tokyo Tour” with the other IES kids and the e-pals (have I explained that these e-pals are Kanda students who are basically supposed to lead us around? We each got “assigned” to one a little bit before we left, and conversed via e-mail. Mine was at the airport the first day, but haven’t seen her since. I guess I’m just that great.) So, instead of going on the tour to places like Harajuku, where I’ve been several times, I decided that I would be better off on my own. And what did that amount to? Why, taking a nap in the afternoon that lasted until around 4 or 5PM! Bryan came back to the dorm, I had dinner here with him (first and only meal of the day), and that was about it. I fell asleep before 10 while watching バイオハザード (Resident Evil).

Sunday: Woke up today around 7, nearly in perfect time to watch Dekaranger and Kamen Rider Blade on TV. After that, slept for another hour. Finally showered and got out of the dorm by noon. I was really bored so I decided to go to Akihabara. And lucky me, by the time I had left it had started raining. Actually, despite the slight drizzle, it was nice. The weather was about 10 degrees F cooler than normal, which was a welcome change. Made my way to Akihabara, AKA dork’s paradise. Didn’t buy anything except for 2 little keychains which costs less than 300 yen. Spent a few hundred yen in arcades, which netted me an old-school Super Mario Bros hand towel. Yippie.

After a bunch of emails and cmails on the ol’ 携帯(cell phone), I coordinated a few people to get together for dinner. Note that I am seriously going to STOP using my phone as much as I have been, particularly in downloading stupid stuff (ie, Kamen Rider ringtones), as my bill is going to be ridiculous. I actually spend a good portion of the evening worrying about this. Here on Japanese cell phones, you get charged by the “packet,” some unknown, mysterious unit of data. I have no idea how many bytes or kilobytes a packet is composed of, but I DO know that I’ve transferred a buttload of them. Yarg…..

That was about all that happened of even remote interest to me this weekend. It’s about 10:30 now, I have to write a 6oo character paper for tomorrow (less than a page), and on top of that, I also have to wear a shirt and tie for tomorrow’s 入学式 (New Student Ceremony). Note that it’s even worse, since it’s not the big, all-school event that these things usually are. Japanese schools start the year in April, not September. So now is the beginning of the second semester at Kanda. So the only kids who are going to be here tomorrow are the foreign exchange kids. What fun is that?