That's right, 10 days left... I could swear I just recently made a post stating I had 42 left... oh, well.  For all of you not paying attention, I changed the title of the last post as the name of the area near the Aquarium is apparently different than I thought it was...  And now, in addition to my second day "out west", I also have the JLPT I want to talk about (which apparently led users here through a certain google search o.O).  First, there's something else I'll put out there...

     I wanted to get a good night's sleep before the JLPT, but apparently that wasn't going to happen.  It's somewhat difficult to describe, but think of a nightmare where every bad and traumatic thing that ever happened to you in life decides to pop up in your current life to continue its rampage in some crazy way...  not too fun.  I got up the next morning and made it to the test on time and everything, but I was still rather drained.  Heading back to the dorm after arriving at the station, I noticed a little crowd gathered in the nearby supermarket area.  I remembered seeing signs for some kind of Christmas Concert, but I didn't really feel like watching it and just kept going on to the dorm.  I got about halfway up the hill on the other side when I heard the group that was standing on the stage start singing.  To my surprise, the song they were singing was one I had heard in church many times, and in English, at that.  I immediately ran around the other side so I could have a view from on top of the stairs, and got a few recordings of the other songs.  I wasn't exactly prepared for this, so unfortunately one of the cameras was back at the dorm and the other was low on batteries and didn't want to do anything.  I had my trusty RCA Small Wonder with me, but even it was unable to continue recording all the awesome.  I'm posting what it did get right on the front page, though.  Enjoy.



     Hearing some of those songs really put a smile on my face.  I believe the name of the group is "The Shout".  For your "LOL, Japan" pleasure, the announcer asked how many people in the group are married, which is most of them, according to the pianist (and soloist?  I'll have to get the one at my church to do a solo...).  I don't want to hear anything about the camera work...

     Well, enough about that.  I should talk about Osaka before I forget.  After "breakfast", we set out to begin the next adventure.  We figured it would be better to go to Osaka Castle first, as that would probably be more likely to close earlier.  It turned out to be a great decision as we got to go there during the most beautiful part of the day (lots of sunshine with great scenery), allowing us to take awesome pictures and make great memories.  There are actually at least two main buildings once you cross the moat (part of it's a dry moat!) into the enclosure, one being Osaka Castle, and another being a museum of some sorts... I don't think I saw anyone enter into the museum, but it might have been closed on that day.  The castle itself is technically also a museum now, showing the history of the castle (been burned down a lot over the years...) and providing gift shops on the 1st and 8th(top) floors.  I of course got some souvenirs there, which should make pretty cool gifts.  They also had an area where you could try on parts of a samurai outfit... I didn't do this, but I got a picture of some other people doing so.  When we were done there, we rode on the same train you can see in the pictures to get back near the entrance.

     After our adventure in Osaka Castle, we made our way to the aquarium (which was actually on the other side of our base station).  One of the first things you can see before getting there is yet another giant Ferris Wheel...  I guess they really like those things.  What we saw after that, outside of the aquarium and surrounded by a pretty big group of spectators, was yet another performer... only this one wasn't Japanese.  Nope, this one was a white guy doing pretty much the same juggling act as any other performer.  I think the crowd mostly enjoyed him speaking in Japanese, though his... extreme personality (All the noisy children come sit near me while I juggle these sharp knives!) seemed to be the real winner for them (and prompt the children to talk back to him even more).  I have videos... that I'll get uploaded at some point.  Video upload seems really slow for me for some reason.  I know, I know, "It are big file, DURR", but compared to how fast the pictures upload, it still seems weird.  I was under the impression that whatever transcoding stuff they did took place once the file was finished uploading.
     Aaaaaaaaanyway, beyond the loud gaijin, into the aquarium we went.  A number of their employees were dressed in santa suits... but I'll lay off that.  I have to say that I am really curious how cleaning works around there.  I'm pretty sure in the first exhibit we were in, that one of the animals was dead on the wall... maybe it was just my eyes, though.  A lot of the exhibits did appear to be somewhat self-contained, though;  No feeding time or anything like that.  For these ducks in this one exhibit, a couple of the smaller ones were diving into the water and chasing fish.  I guess it keeps them from getting too used to being taken care of.  At this point, I don't really feel like describing every animal I saw, but there were a LOT (about 6 floors or so, with one tank in the middle spanning 3 floors).  There's a picture of this one weird-looking turtle in the photo section that I don't think I've ever heard of that just looks plain weird.  And the crabs they had near the end were huge (King Crab legs anyone?).  I also had this "New York Chicken Pita" sandwich there, that I'm pretty sure has nothing to do with New York... but that aside, it was indeed a fun day.  Outside, we got to see a few things lighted up, some things for Christmas, others mainly for the aquarium.  It was nighttime by then, so we headed back to Osaka Station and said our goodbyes as we went our separate ways.  I, of course, was going on another overnight bus to get back to the dorm.  Thankfully, THIS one came on time, and the person I asked about its departure actually knew where I should go.  Leaving at about 10pm on Sunday, I made it back to the other station around 5am on Monday.  I think the trains start running again around 4 or 5, so I was just in time to catch one back to the station near my dorm and drop a few things off before getting ready for work.  I actually wouldn't mind having to do things like this more often, if it meant I could be up that early and not be so tired... and get some kind of breakfast... I don't know how I'm going to wake up on time for work when I get back home, but I'm hoping that sleeping on a pillow that's not filled with beads will help.

     I guess I'm not feeling so wordy right now, so those shouldn't have taken too much space.  I took the 2007 Level 3 JLPT this past Sunday, which was definitely an experience to remember.  It's kind of hard to believe it was more than 4 years ago when I took my last standardized test.  This one was a lot longer than  I remember the SAT I being (the last one, not the latest version), as Level 3 had to stay from about 945 to 1435 (Level 1 is worse, as they stayed until 1515).  For the different sections, you have one part where you must choose the correct reading of a word's kanji, the proper kanji to put in a blank or the correct word for a sentence, then there is the listening... I hate listening... and finally, the reading/grammar section, where you must choose the proper particles to use in sentences or the proper conjugation for a word and read passages and answer questions about them.  I found the first and last sections to be fairly easy, but listening... I hate listening...
     There were tons of people there to take the test as well, many appearing to be Southeast Asian.  I wish I could find some statistics on how far people travelled to take the exam, but it's hard to believe they all came from a small surrounding area.  I think the results don't come out until around February-March.  I need to give them the proper address so that they send the results to the right place, though.

Enjoy the long post... could be my last one here >.>

     Meh... titles.  I had to be different and find something without "Thanksgiving" in it.  They don't actually celebrate Thanksgiving over here, but they do have a holiday that conveniently falls in the same time frame.  Fun Fact:  I'm now posting on the 22nd, with 22 more days left... yay.  Anyway, I'm now near that dreaded point of more presentations.  The basics for the application are finished and now I need to do a design review (mainly for the user interface) which keeps getting postponed, and soon after it will be time to give a presentation on the overall internship.  There also may be some going-away party somewhere in there... we'll see how that goes.

     So, yep, my first Thanksgiving away from home... home being any kind of family.  Thinking about that food I'm gonna miss is a little depressing... and the family I won't see, too, of course >.>  You all enjoy your Thanksgiving dinners and make sure to pack away a little extra since I'm gone.  Just make sure you're ready for Christmas...

     I don't want to make this post too much about Thanksgiving, though.  Everyone else knows what day it is.  The topic title might have most of you thinking about the U.S., but it actually refers to a trip I'll be taking this weekend.  I have a friend who came here to teach as part of the JET Program back in August, so we're going to meet up and explore Kyoto and Osaka over the weekend.  My friend actually lives out closer to that area, and the reason I haven't gone to visit yet is because it is quite expensive for a humble, handsome young intern such as myself.  But this weekend is the perfect (and last) opportunity to do so, and we are making it happen.  I'm wondering if I can pick up some souvenirs during this trip, but that's just going to make the trip back that much more painful.  It'll be a rare chance, though, so I'll do what I can.

     Very random site note, likely from your points of view:  What is going on with all these weird footsteps on Xanga pages? (Ok, this is mostly for other Xanga users)  I've had visitors from China, South Korea, Vietnam, India, Great Britain, France, Italy, Pakistan (PAKISTAN), and a number of other places show up in the history.  And as if that wasn't weird enough, they are ALL going to the same page (the house guest one a while back).  Is this at all related to Xanga sometimes claiming it can't access a link (even to your own page or profile or something) you've clicked?  AAUUUGGHH, Xanga, you anger me so.

     Next random note, for anyone thinking of visiting Japan soon, prepare to be fingerprinted and photographed or turned away!  If you disagree with this policy in any way, then watch this video to have all your doubts removed! Watch
...That's all I'll say about that.  I got here while the gettin' was good.  Guess I won't be gettin' back any time soon.

     For food people, I had my first もんじゃ [monja] and おこのみやき [okonomiyaki] last weekend.  Pretty tasty stuff.  The description I was given for it was as some sort of Japanese pizza, but I look at it more like pancakes... even if you put meat into the batter.  I'm too lazy to write a description of how it's made right now... and I probably never will.

     I recently rediscovered Gunbound.  I forget what it is that turned me off from it originally, but I think they had removed access for people outside Korea or made it no longer free or something.  Whatever it was, this is no longer the case!  That has got to be one of the best free, online multiplayer games ever.  If anyone actually remembers Scorched Earth, it's like that.... but more lively.  You also get a bunch of different tanks to choose from, though that also determines what your attacks are.  Apparently all my account information was still around as well... awesomesauce.

Yes, Yes, not a Thanksgiving post, but a couple things I'm thankful for in relation to this trip...

-Not being injured in any natural disasters (I don't know if that includes all typhoons/earthquakes by default, but for the record, I'm including them)
-Friends I've made since being over here.  They're mostly outside of work and in the church, but I'm glad to have known them, and they've made my stay here a little brighter.
-My Supervisor not forgetting who I am.  Note:  This refers to my future supervisor.  I guess plenty of people go to interviews and give some later date at which they can begin working, but 6 months after graduation... and for working as an intern at some other company... whew boy.

Allright, enjoy your Genocide Appr-..  I mean, Happy Turkey Day!