Lifeslices

Pictures explained in the bottom of the post! As usual, they have zilch to do with the text next to them.
EDIT: 18th of May, I added some more stuff, do read! Oh, and don't forget to vote on the right.

STILL TAKING REQUESTS FOR WHAT YE WANT PICTURES OF. THINGS HAPPEN A LOT QUICKER WHEN SOMEONE ASKS FOR EEEEET. Just leave a comment of what you want pictures of!


Here're some short stories about funny events that's happened since I came here.

The WEB
The very first gym lesson I had, two months back. I hadn't received any gym shoes yet, so I had to run around the school with my teacher and search for some.
I always take off my glasses during sport, except softball tennis, I have -2 (I can't read stuff from afar), which makes it hard for me to see people's faces without them.
So, I got my shoes, which were a number too small, and I entered the (HUGE) gymhall. A bunch of students were lined up in a long line in front of me. At this time, I hardly knew anyone, mind you. Was like, my 4th day at school.
I was trying to tie my shoes, when my teacher (Same I'd been running around with) said "Go over there.", so I ran to the end of the line, and continued tying my shoes. Until a girl next to me poked me and pointed to the other end of the hall. I'd lined up with the girls.
So, I stood up, and looked to the other side of the hall where all of the boys were, thought it a good chance to show off my running speed, and boosted off at full power.
Neeow... Oh sh- *Crash*
There's a HUMONGOUS green net set up in the middle of the gymhall, which was too thin for me to see or react to at my speed. I looked like some surprised fly that'd flown right into the net of a spider.
Quickly recovered, and slipped under the net. Everyone in the hall was laughing, and though I was a bit embarrassed, it surely made an impression on people! I regret nothing.

"Embarrassment" is not a word where I come from
I love being a gaijin. I've been taking the train more often, because there're a lot of nice and talky students on it. Two particular I usually sit with in the morning, Yuka (I know about 10 Yukas) and Mao, 3rd years. Yesterday, I was sitting in the end of one of the train's cars with Mao, waiting for Yuka to arrive. She did, right before the doors closed. Mind you, this car was stuffed with students, some standing up.
So, no seat left, and a girl is standing. What is a guy to do? Offer her his seat, of course!
Now, this kind of courtesy between male and female teens is quite.. uncommon, however, I'm a gaijin, and I can do whatever the **** I want, without anyone raising an eyebrow, right?
Well, something like that, sure as hell did raise some eyebrows, and Yuka was looking like a boiled crab after I almost had to push her into the seat. Haha, blushing girls are so cute.

Now you see me, now you don't
Right now there're midterm exams, so there're no club activities. Meh, bored.
A week or two back, I was walking around school because I didn't want to go home yet. The brassband which has some 60ish members practice EVERYWHERE, 6 days a week, IIRC. You can find them in the bicycle parking lots, gym hall, classrooms, unoccupied random unknown rooms, etc., it's pretty funny to hear a tuba blowing from what seems to be the toilet.

I was walking over the walkway that connects the head/teacher's building to the classroom building. It was the top floor one, so there was no roof or anything.
In the window of one of the head building's rooms, I hear music. Well, not really, I think they were practicing different melodies individually, so, yeah.

Walking a bit closer, I see a girl looking out the window, blowing into a harmonica, or some other flute-like thing. I immediately halt, and stare at her (Yeah, she was cute, I didn't think she'd notice me though), which kind of surprised her I guess. She proceeded to turn around, and laugh uncontrollably, the other girls in the room coming over to her to see what the matter was.
I quickly duck behind the wall-like fence that surrounds the walkway, out of sight. Kind of like a reflex.. I could hear them talking and also opening the window a bit.

After a few seconds, stand up, to see her resumed to blowing into the flute-thang. *Stare*, and combo! She breaks again. Man, I really enjoyed that.

GIRIGIRI
"Girigiri" is kind of half word, half onomatopoeia Japanese, and means "just barely". Today, the last lesson was off, so we got to go home one hour early. However, it was already too late to miss the next train, so I just walked around the school and talked with clubs like I usually do. Oh! And I found the article where Nyuu and I are with the mayor of the city. I'll upload a picture soon.
After some 30ish minutes I'd returned to the classroom to talk with some of my classmates who were still studying.
I was staring at the clock.. staring.. staring.. (Yeah I stare a lot huh?), until I suddenly realize the train doesn't leave at 16:15, but 15:55, and it was 15:45. There's a good 20-minute walk to the station from the school. OSHI-
I'm damn glad I got those [awesome shoes] for my birthday. Perfect for sprint. My bag is also meant for mountain climbing, so I strapped it on as tight as I could, and sped towards the station.
This place is quite countryside, so there's no fence around the railroad, and only those bars that come down at the crossing places.
Right as I made it to the crossing, seeing the bunch of students standing by the station, the alarm-thing that rings when the train arrives starts dinging. The first bar almost hit my head! But damn, that was close. Had to limbo under the next bar, too. Was pretty uncool to arrive all steamy, buttons unbuttoned, shirt out of pants. "Fu-kun no yankee(delinquent)!"

When the fat lady sings, at 12 and 18
EVERY day. I can't imagine how you can get used to this CRAZY air-siren. Tsukasa hates it too, and will cry like it's being eaten alive for 3 minutes.
Really sucks on weekends too, when I try to sleep in. It's supposed to be some kind of "lunch time" and "go home time" alarm. I'd more than once choked on my drink thinking we were getting bombed or something in the beginning.

The kanji for my name means "sneeze"
嚔, read as "Fu", but normally it'd be read as "Kushami". Maybe because I can sneeze without sound? Feels like I'm blowing snot out of my ears every time, though.

A left hand makes for a great notebook
I'm serious. Even the ALT at my school does it.

Okay.. Oh wait! Okay... Oh, wait! Okay, okay. Oh, wait.
Jonas, from my old class, just told me this little story. I've translated it as well as I can.
A woman was picking corn in the field. Then, she saw a straw of gold amongst the corn, and dropped the corn to pick it up. Behind that straw of gold though, was another golden straw. Behind that too, was another. She picked up all of them, until she had her hands completely full. She continued to follow the trail of straws, and eventually arrived at a plain of golden straws.
When she finally returned home, the gold was frozen, and she was starving because she didn't pick the corn.

This is kind of how my love life is right now. I settle on one cute girl, and think "Okay, let's get 'er.". However, with 1000 students at school, it's inevitable for me to suddenly catch an even cuter girl sending a look when I pass her in the hallway. Then I have to go through the process of finding her name, class and what club she's in. This has happened three times now.
Either I'm too picky, too stupid, too impatient, too damn lucky, or all of the mentioned, but I've set the goal that I'll be bringing a set squeeze along for the Obon in August.

Volleyball GOD-LEG
What I'm missing in ball-control and leg motor-coordination, I make up for in reflexes.
In the recent gym lessons, we've been playing a lot of volleyball, going from throws, to delivering, serving and passing, etc. Damn, it really hurts the underarm to do under-hits.
There're no students in the school who outright dislike or are hostile towards me, so I have no fear in whatever I'm doing, at any time. If I fail, which I -have- done, many times, at something, they'll just laugh it off like the net-event.
This week, we were playing a match, boys from my class versus each other, two teams. However, no rules. Just "try" to play.
I was in the back, and every time the ball came over to me, someone in from would back up and take it. In fear of hitting them, I'd also back up and let them take it.
However, Yuuji, the pervert, wanted to try serving, and that guy's nuts. So, he smashes it at full power TOWARDS ME (I bet he did it on purpose). It was JUST out of range for me to use my hands and send it back safely, so by reflex, I literally threw my leg at it, which it bounced off of, hit my left hand, and flew back where it came from.
This happened two more times, every time it was right out of reach, I'd just throw my leg infront of it, and with a little luck, it'd bounce upwards, if not fly to the other end of the hal. The others tried it too, but it was mostly luck when it was successful. I love no rules.

EDIT: 16th of May

My kingdom for your iPod
It's not allowed for students to use an iPod when riding a bike, which kind of sucks, but is understandable because there's normally only one side that has a road for bikes, or none at all.
I was fiddling with my iPod in class (It's also against the rules to use it in school, but I was just fiddling), when the guy next to me, Yuusuke, asked if he could see it. I always have a black rubber-leathery cover on it, but I pulled it down to show a dragon "tattoo" I'd put on to it back when I was in Kyoto with my dad.
He was like "Woah, how much did it cost?", I mistakingly replied "600.000", because in Japanese, you count hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hyaku, sen, man. I said "Sixty man", "Sixty ten-thousands", for some reason, was kind of tired I guess. 600.000 yen is 30.000 DKK, 4,663.08 EUR. They actually believed it though, probably thinking it was because of the dragon. It's in gold and silver, so they may have thought it was -real- gold and silver, haha. A few minutes later however, when they were going "For real?? 600.000??", I wrote down the intended number, and realized my dumb.

Way of the potato
For some reason, a new craze is going on with the boys in my class. It's called "Denmark kenpou (martial art)", which involves weird hand movements and unecessary footwork, as well as flicking ears. It's quite interesting to watch, though.

Karma sucks
A few weeks back, I was in the bathroom, and saw a big, nasty cockroach on the floor.

You enter bathroom.
You see sink, toilet, door, window, cockroach and two slippers.
>>Examine cockroach
You examine the cockroach. It is hostile towards you.
>>Pick up slipper
Which slipper are you trying to get?
>>Pick up slipper 1
I don't see slipper 1 around here.
>>Pick up one slipper
There are two slippers.
Which slipper are you trying to get?
>>PICK UP FIRST SLIPPER
You pick up a slipper.
>>Equip slipper
You put the slipper on your foot.
>>Equip slipper into hand
You don't have a slipper.
>>Unequip
What are you trying to unequip?
>>UNEQUIP SLIPPER
You unequip the slipper from your foot.
>>EQUIP SLIPPER INTO HAND
You put the slipper in your hand.
>>ATTACK COCKROACH
You strike at the cockroach!
You MISS!
The cockroach escapes under the sink.
You sense bloodthirst in the air..
>>QUIT
Thank you for playing!

I swear, I could -HEAR- it going "I'll get revenge, you filthy hairless monkey!". I quickly ran up to my room, closed, blocked, locked and sealed any entryways to my room, and the second floor.
The next day, I was going to school. Half way down the road from my house, I stopped, because there was a rock in my shoe. Or not. As I shake it, bottom up, a very dead cockroach falls out of it. Guaaaaarh. *Shiver*

Sport is bad for your health
A good while back now, I was with the first-year students' "club orientation", where all of the clubs talk a bit about themselves. I mostly didn't understand who were who, even with a list of clubs, unless they brought like, a football, or a koto, or something.
The kendo club brought a guy in crutches. Wow, is that bad advertisement. I told him that afterwards too, but I guess it also kind of sieves off the weak and afraid.
A week ago, I was walking down the first-year's corridor, when there was another guy on crutches. "Kendo?" "No." "Volley?" "Uh, no." "Then what?" "Basket." "Guh.."
And just yesterday, outside the teacher's room, a girl, on crutches. "Oh, ouch. What did you do?" "I'm in the dance club!"
Strange Japanese culture.

Shake shake
On the topic of the dance club. About the time of the club orientation, I was walking around the school with the ALT, Anna (Real name Angharad, Welsh). We were at the kyuudo building (Japanese bow art), when some first-year girls came out of it. They were looking at clubs to join, so I asked if I could come along. They were pretty good at English, especially one named Momoko. She looks JUST like a Danish girl I know, Anne, but Japanese.
Eventually we arrived at the dance club. Dance club is all girls. The first-years were the ones who wanted to go, okay? I didn't ask to sit and glare and a bunch of girls in bloomers shakin' it to music. Got kind of awkward after while, but the girls of the dance club have since then been greeting me quite openly.

Strange foreign language
Being a gaijin has many, many good points. One being your name and language. Okay, it's all subjective, but still.
I really wonder how it sounds to people who don't understand Danish when I speak it. Like randomly moving your tongue around, while trying to produce the deepest sounds your stomach can make? I have no idea.
I'm generally known as Fu-kun, but some ask my real name, and for the lulz (Internetspeak for "fun"), I add some of my parents' middle and last names, so it becomes "Frederic Birger Tungboon Briansin Udengaard Pedersen". Japanese really like the sound of "Udengaard" for some reason.
Nyuu too, real name "Vannarin Intasamakul". Thai too, is completely incomprehensible to Japanese, and it's too funny when she says the full, Thai name of Bangkok.

Boredom is a beautiful thing
I have a lot of free time. That is, lessons where I'm not being overly productive. So! With an electronic dictionary and a BUNCH of Japanese stuff around me, what does one do? Find strange, cool and unorthodox kanji of course!
I can write them too, correct stroke order and all!
永, 門, 千, 代, 主, 紫, 炎, 花, 縁, 山, 土, 露, 死, 角, 音, 無, 東, 青, 龍, 南, 朱, 雀, 西, 白, 虎, 北, 玄, 武, 特, 別, 暗, 殺, 部, 隊, 者, 解, 獣, 体, 闘, 魂, 伝, 承, 帝.　

These are just my favorites. It's not so hard to write them when you understand what they're "made up of".

*Deep breath*
Ei, mon, sen, dai, shu, murasaki, honoo, hana, en, yama, tsuchi, tsuyu, shi, kaku, oto, mu, higashi, ao, ryuu, minami, shu, suzume, nishi, shiro, tora, kita, gen, bu, toku, haka, kura, koroshi, tomo, tai, mono, kai, juu, tai, tataka, tama, den, shou, tei.

Eternity, gate, thousand, years/etc, lord, purple, flame, flower, destiny/bonds between people, mountain, earth, dew, death, corner, sound, void, east, blue, dragon, south, vermillion, sparrow, west, white, tiger, north, professional/expert, warrior, special, distinction, dark, murder, division, squad, person/perfomer, release, beast, body, fight, spirit, a life/lifetime, tradition, emperor.

Uhh, yeah. They're read in many ways, too, for example "特別暗殺部隊者" (From "toku" to "mono"), instead of being read as "Tokuhakakurakoroshitomotaimono", it'd be read as "Tokubetsu ansatsu butaisha", to be correct. Meaning "Special assassination squad member".
What?


Here, taste! It's FOREIGN!
Third week or so of school, I brought some real Danish candy along to share with my classmates. I'd received a bunch on my birthday from some boys from my old class (Tak for det, Lasse, Joachim!), so there's plenty to go around.
Now, liquorice, and Japanese people...
They didn't trust me initially that it was actually edible. And they didn't change their mind after putting it in their mouth. I tried to explain how it's made from that.. tree, and whipped something up about it being a "manly taste" back in the old times of Scandinavia.
Was pretty funny when I'd been around the whole class, and the teacher entered the room. A guy told me to give her some, so I did. As I handed it to her, the whole class went DEAD silent as she slowly and cautiously put the little black piece of candy into her mouth..

I guess adult Japanese have had more time to train their facial muscles than high schoolers, oh well. I handed the rest of the bag to Anna in the teacher's room, and asked her to pass it around. Surprisingly, when I returned in the afternoon, all of the teachers were still alive and healthy.

That was two bags.. Third time's a charm.




The pictures: Top to bottom!

From the sand dune in the prefecture next to the one I live in. People from all over the world had made sand sculptures like there, I was invited to go by Nyuu and her family. We weren't overly amazed, but it was pretty cool. A gaijin thing I guess.
This.. I forget, but it's mochi (molded rice) in sweet red bean "soup", with some tea, and salted seaweed. Tastes GREAT. The seaweed is like liquorice.
From the shrine in my city. The while stuff are fortunes that people have bought, which they tie on to parts of the shrine after reading. I forget the reason.
First picture of me and Nyuu with our families in the airport, back in March.
Tsukasa sleeping. That tongue..
My alto recorder, no, it's not wood, that'd be adding an extra decimal to its price, and it's already 4000 yen.
When we went to meet the mayor in the city hall.
Badass picture from one of my favorite manga.
Two girls working hard in my class.
My room! Tiny, but I love it.
Front of my house, yeah, it's big.
Entrance from the side.
The Sonoyama clinic, which my father is the head of. It's right next to the house.
This one's from back in March, but please, do click it. The pink stuff in the mountains are sakura in full blossom. Pretty, right?
The ALT at my school, Angharad, AKA Anna. She's 24, turning 25 this Friday, happy birthday! She's English, and is pretty much the only other person around who has the same level English as me, so I always come visit her in the teacher's room just to chat or whatever.


Note: I've noticed some pictures won't enlargen if you click on them, this is a bug that happens when I move them around. It can be fixed easily however, so if you notice one, don't hesitate to say something! I'm too lazy to click on all of them.