Seaside Train, Coastline Ferry

Posted on February 18th, 2007 in Customary Drivel, Media, Video by Deas

No matter what form of transportation I take, the ocean is never far from me. It struck me over the end of last week that I am perpetually at the water’s edge. I don’t mind, however. I feel like my buddy James much of the time - uncomfortable, irritable, and a touch faded when removed from my natural habitat. I come from a seaside city, and came to a seaside city. Good match, if you ask me. The cool thing is, living out here, I get the joy of seeing huge mountains right next to the deep. It’s cool. Here are 2 videos of me traveling right next to or right on top of the water. Watch if you like.

This is a video of the ferry ride back to Hakatajima from Imabari. The water was a bit choppy. These videos are really just meant to give an impression of what I spend a lot of my time here doing…riding around in boats. From island to island, and from school to school. I’ve come to really like ferries as a method for commuting.

This is a video of the train ride into Matsuyama from Imabari. You pass the shore for a nice long time during the trip. It’s gorgeous. Especially around the Hojo area. Anyway, this video is much longer than the video above, but is really intended to do the same thing: give a vague impression of what my commuting looks like. I really enjoy it sometimes, and I am really frustrated by it sometimes. Either way, I get a lot of reading done in between destinations. Hope this entry wasn’t too boring. :-)

Can Wii Be Friends?

Posted on February 18th, 2007 in Customary Drivel by Deas

If you own a Nintendo Wii, and you think I am ridiculously cool, then I think we should be Wii friends.
(Yes, I realize that if you create a Venn Diagram including circles for people who own a Wii, people who think I’m cool, and people who want to associate with me, that it is indeed a minority group in the shared section, but hey - I’ve gotta try.) So…any JETs, any kids in the US, any random strangers? If you want to be my Wii Friend, please post your Wii number, or shoot it to me by email at deas (at) rockinginhakata (dot) com, or another one of my email addresses. Yay for Miis! 8-)

Deas’ Wii: 6967 1406 3772 0289

PS - I considered all kinds of cornball titles with obvious puns, but got lazy and thought this was better than the…um…dirtier ones. See? I can behave. As my students will readily tell you, I am a “nice guy.” Ha ha.

PPS - I finished the book I was reading. The Japanese Mind is now listed under my Recent Reads links. The last couple of essays were on the following topics:

- 先輩／後輩 Sempai-Kouhai (seniority in relationships)
- 集団意識 Shuudan Ishiki (group consciousness)
- 葬式 Soushiki (funerals)
- 内と外 Uchi to Soto (”in” and “out” dichotomy)
- 侘び／寂び Wabi-Sabi (simplicity & elegance as “beauty”)
- 贈答 Zoutou (gift giving custom)

It was an interesting book. Was psyched to see that I’ve read some of the source material listed in the bibliography. Most notably Nakamura’s Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples: India - China - Tibet - Japan. My senior seminar class at Furman tackled that one, and I even knew it was Nakamura before I checked the citations. Awesomeness. (Or is that a sad thing? I don’t know.) :-P