bettyx

ocean11 -any plans to hit nagano? i'll try to be prepared. i asked a year 6 teacher today, right at 10am, 'what's the time, sensei?' & he nearly had passed out from the stress. i think rather than concentrate on primary school english, the government should focus on middle/high school/university english, & just what the hell is wrong with the system. how do you get through university (& life in general?) without knowing 'it's ten o'clock?'

misorano- thanks for yr advice. but.. how do i apply for the happo/shiga pass? & is the all nagano pass the mt6 or the snowlove? i'm confused & can't remember which i applied for. if anyone is nice enough, can they please post the URLs in a list? my question about the happy7 was whether it was a lotto system or not. are there any passes for happo where you can just pay money & get one straight up? or is it all by lotto? & just how much do you need to invest to become a shareholder? my friends all get tix through their parents being shareholders in the lift compa

just watching devon aoki on tv with 2 japanese girls. at the end of the day, one of the japanese girls commented on how lovely devon was, how 'gaijinsan nanoni, gaijin-san pokkunai.', because she was so sweet & has nice manners, & listens really well. would it be okay to say, 'he's japanese, but he doesn't seem japanese as he's so well-mannered... etc' ?

fattwins- thanks for yr private but i can't send private messages yet. ocean11 - interesting point. gaijin hasn't been a term of racial hatred? i guess not. but as fattwins showed, it is/has been used as a very unfavourable term related to race. what is a 'rentogen'?

is the happy7 available to anyone or is it a lotto system too? also, if fattwins is reading, do you have the goods on cheap condos/longer-term accommodation in hakuba? not sure where to post this question, sorry.

somehow, most of the time i don't think they're joking.

foolishly, i did buy my drink. coming from the country, i tend to forget that there is a convenience store on every corner. misorano, yeah, i think it's the same for 'nigger', as it is 'jew', 'wog', etc. . my gay friends throw the word 'fag' around all the time, but it definitely wouldn't work for a straight person to use it. different question: do any americans take offense at 'yank'? or canadians at 'canuck'? i read earlier protests at 'seppo', which is kinda understandable.

maybe.. good is an adjective being positive/desirable. so 'i'm good' sounds a bit stuck-up? whereas 'well' describes a state of health? not sure. now you've got me thinking!

ha! you guys are talkin' bout me, aren't you? i'm an elementary aet, damn local government realized it had to implement english lessons in classes but didn't know how, so decided one person (hai! watashi desu!) would do for over 20 schools in one city. it's tough. it's currently part of the kids' 'sougo/sougou' (?)study & i go to a different school every day of the month, teaching all levels. i've got a master's but not in teaching, so was terrified when i first began. soon realized that 99% of teachers cannot (will not?) speak any english, and are pretty happy no mat

am struggling with an early70s fujica (before they dropped the -ca) 35mm. struggling because it's so frickin heavy & cumbersome, and doesn't have a flash. really want to update but the guy in yodabashi camera was totally trying to get me to go SLR digital, but they're so expensive, & kinda defeat the point of having a manual camera (i want to possibly develop the photos, whether by myself or at a shop, & not just leave them in my computer like the thousands of shots i've taken with my digital camera)

i'm confused. is pilot a native english speaker ? &gamera, your english always amazes me. but.. Do you think you pronounce good? this sentence would make my mother (a grammar freak) and my high school english teacher go crazy. americans (& increasingly australians etc), say 'you did good' but for some reason, we were always taught that this is a definite mistake. i'm not sure why. i just recall many occasions of being reprimanded with 'you did well. not 'good'.' just like we were taught never to say 'i'm good', but instead we must say 'i'm well'. i

went to am/pm in shibuya the other day, finally in tokyo after so many months in the countryside. a girl in front of me was trying to buy a certain international phonecard but didn't speak much japanese (nor english, she was speaking spanish so i couldn't help) & got really frustrated as the clerk didn't even try to help her. so she left & the clerk started cussing about stupid gaijin, and how they're all the same and whatever. & i was standing there with my little box of soymilk looking at him, & just couldn't believe how he was going on. so the other clerk pushed h

my elder bro had it done. our other bro asked how he felt after the surgery, he said, 'well, i wasn't going to run home, that's for sure'. other than that, no complaints from him nor his wife. o-daijini

sunflower- you're thinking of nasu dengaku. hakuba & the shinshu (nagano) area are famed for oyaki, these little buns with assorted fillings, kinda like chinese steamed buns but way better. you can get all types, including miso eggplant, local pickles, pumpkin, sweet red bean, etc. highly recommended, especially if you can go to a place where they make them onsite. (or the microwaved versions they sell at the cafes on the slope are great for eating on the lifts) i remember going to niseko &the only food i could eat on the slopes was 'milk ramen', ramen noodles in a really thick m

is that snakewine?

kamemushi are evil! thought i was being smart when i rounded up a heap of them in a plastic bag, only to find they stink even more when dead & my entire lodge soon reeked. the stink beetles we collected as kids were really pretty, these japanese ones are just gross.

hey snowflower- how strict is yr vegetarianism? i've been vegetarian for almost ten years but the only way i've survived here in japan is by eating 'dashi' the dried bonito fish stock. if you don't, it becomes VERY hard to eat out as dashi is used in almost all japanese cooking - especiallly the good stuff like soba noodle soup, agedashi tofu, tempura dipping sauce, etc. most probably if you like vego japanese food abroad, they're probably using dashi there too. and even if you go to an italian restaurant, they'll probably put chicken stock in your sauce. if yr totally against fish (

catch sleater-kinney if you can. their live show is amazing. the drummer is so cool, and all my guy friends were very impressed (eg. wow, she plays pretty good drums for a girl) & if you like to dance, go see cut copy. i hadn't enjoyed dance music in a long time before i went to their show. i'm not even going to mention the fact that iggy pop is going to be there.

wow! thanks. a friend in yokohama offered me a futon so i think i'll crash there - but that capsule hotel sounds like the article i read. thank you. i'll be sure to check it out if i can't get outta tokyo this weekend.

yeah, i remember niseko's run is really long & windy, with fresh powder falling all night.. goryu was quite windy & the visibilty was almost zero some evenings.. but they did have free chocolate fondue on white day!

hey, a little while back i read an article in the japan times about a new 24-hour ladies only beauty/massage salon, i think with onsen etc. apparently it's cheaper than a hotel & has resting rooms, plus heaps of other girly stuff to do. does anyone know where i can find this place? i tried looking on the web but all i can find are soaplands & places like that for guys.. (sorry to disappoint all the guys who may have misinterpreted the subject) or anyone know a reasonably priced place to stay in tokyo? i've always stayed with friends but everyone is busy, away, etc..

tokyogigguide.com is not bad, pollstar.com sometimes has the main shows, or creativeman.co.jp, or metropolis magazine (they have a site too..) i know there's a page i used to use but i can't remember the address, will post when it comes to me. you know they chose a new site for the BDO this year? i think they're using optus oval? & who's playing?

ha. i grew up on the sunshine coast, where the pineapple lives. whenever people come to visit, we (&every other family on the coast) would take a drive to have a look. i went back about two years ago to take a japanese friend (y'know, most japanese like those kinda kankou supotto) & sadly, the ol' pineapple just wasn't as big as i remembered. the surf film 'endless summer II' has a classic montage of australia's big monuments.

happy bday. i dropped a heap of hints for the nara clock (it's an old school , pre-digital one where the numbers flip over) but no one took the bait. maybe xmas?

goryu in hakuba has night skiing, and the run is longer than nakiyama at happo. but i think the pass costs 2000yen? it's nice but only one run, good if you want to practice on a long straight run (there's very little elevation). they had some little jumps at the start of the season but they got worn down by march.