I’m sure most of you have already heard but two days ago, the beautiful people at Blizzard Entertainment have announced that Diablo III is currently in production. All I have to say is: come to mama!
Man, I am so excited because I have been waiting almost half of my life for this game to come out and finally the wait is almost over (well…what is another year of waiting compared to the eight years I have already waited).
Just counting down the months now, hooray!
Once upon a time, there were four silly gaijin (foreigners) that suddenly developed a craving to eat the cheese burgers at Freshness Burger in Malera.
Problem 1: It takes about a 30 minute bike ride to get to Malera, on a good day.
Problem 2: It was not a good day. It was a terrible weather day. It was a non-stop-pissing-rain kind of day.
Problem 3: The craving was really, really strong.
Solution: Geeky raincoats, umbrellas, thongs and clothes that dried fast.
Sigh!
Of course we ended up biking that half hour in the rain to go eat burgers. How could we not after the urge was implanted into our brains? I know you are thinking that we are crazy and a few marbles short but people who haven’t tried Freshness Burger’s single or double cheeseburger cannot imagine the delicious lure it possesses. I swear it is the best burger I have ever tasted bar none!
In the end we hardly did any shopping at this mega shopping mall, we only stayed long enough at Malera to eat the burger. Hahaha, it seemed like such a good idea at the time!
Tip of the day: It is around this time of the year that Japan experiences its rainy season so it can sometimes rain non-stop for days. Total bummer if you want to do things especially since we only have bicycles to get around. Not only that but the rain seems to fall more frequently on the weekends when you want to go out and have fun after days in the classroom. Make sure you bring things that can provide endless entertainment on days like that, future ICS Gifu kids!
This was one of the other songs that I’ve always wanted to learn how to play on a string instrument. It sounds totally awesome on my new uke which I’m deliriously happy to have. I even kissed it the other night after I perfected the tuning and my baby was playing wonderfully. Groan, you know you’ve gone over the deep end when you start kissing inanimate objects. But I’m too far gone to care! LOL!
This was a fairly easy song to play except for one little tricky part in the pre-chorus but once you get it down pat, it sounds pretty cool. The chords can be found here.
I know you might be thinking, “Didn’t she just buy one?” but I really couldn’t help myself from buying a new ukulele. They even have a grammar structure for this expression in Japanese: ～てしまう (“lack of premeditation or control over how things turn out”). Yup, that sounds exactly like what happened to me!
店の中に新しいウクレレを買ってしまいました！ (I inadvertently bought a new ukulele while I was in the shop!)
That is my story and I am sticking with it. LOL.
Anyway, my new Hanalei HUK-70/TRD is such a sexy beast! The body is made from mahogany, stained a rich vibrant red and then glossed. It has a white inlay around the body and the neck is made from nato. I would have preferred if the entire thing was made from the same wood but that usually increases the price by a lot.
As you can see and hear by the video, the sound is a lot clearer and crisper than the first cheap ukulele I bought. Besides the body being made from better wood, the new strings are a better quality as well. So far it has been a pleasure to play and last night I even played until my fingers on my left hand started hurting. They are still hurting as I’m typing away on the keyboard. Haha…I’m quite obsessed!
I certainly hope next year’s ICS Gifu kids get to experience ukai fishing because it was one of my most enjoyable experiences so far. It totally blew my mind! Now this is the whole point of coming to Japan – to learn and actually do their cultural activities – because in all honesty, you can study their language anywhere in the world but you can only experience real Japan while in Japan.
Basically, this process uses ukai (cormorant) birds to catch ayu which is a type of fish found in the Nagara River. The pine wood bonfire is used to attract the fish as well as to illuminate the water so the birds can see and catch them. The birds can’t eat the fish because of the ring around their neck which prevents them from swallowing. I know it sounds a bit harsh but actually the birds are well-cared for by their fishing masters; their lifespans are more than double of the wild cormorants so I guess they must be alright.
The international students were invited by the Soroptimist International Gifu Society which are made up of elderly people wanting to meet foreign people. It was a really fun night; we got to sail on this fantastic boat, they fed us delicious bento boxes, we played with fireworks, watched the ukai fishing, and lazily sailed down the river. It was awesome! I felt kind of bad when I found out how much this experience was costing them though (we didn’t have to pay for anything)…it was at least $1000 because there were about 40 people altogether. Ouchie!
A very big thank you to the Soroptimist International Gifu Society!!
