Adventures in Voice Acting

So had a particulary interesting adventure today. The script I was translating for work is being used as a flash animation, and they pulled me to be one of the voice actors.

Keep in mind, this is the script where I was translating words I don't usually use everyday and wanted to wash my mind out with soap afterwards.

So between me, the two really chill american guys who have live here for longer than I have been alive, and the French gent from my work... we recorded a monstrosity that I don't think I can actually show anyone for fear of making their ears smoke.

I mean literally... my one line part turned into a 10 minute rant of some of the most profane hick vocabulary I could think of...in fact I was drained after a minute and had to get help from the guys. Needless to say, I was using language I would prefer my mother not know I knew... so the joke is we were making a film that we can't show our parents or children. Maybe I can use a pen name?

The not so Kawaguchiko

So while we had planned to be up early to head out to Kawaguchiko to see mount Fujii.... we ended up getting a 10am start. This heralded an absolute Quest to get the kawaguchiko before dark. In between poor timing and sparse trains, we finally rolled into town about 2:30... an hour and a half before dark... next time I'm picking up bullet train tickets.

Being totally clueless, we finally hopped a bus and, with some help from a random, quirky Japanese couple sitting behind us, decided to hit the Fall Leaves Light Up festival being held on the lake. Mt. Fuji was gorgeous if a bit cloud covered by the time sunset hit, but we did get such delicacies as "wild boar" soup. Also found these crazy mini mt Fuji's to take back to work for "souvenirs". Wish we'd had a full day to spend there, but now I know. Was not NEARLY as cold as I expected.

I did spring for the rapid train on the way back, and we made much better time coming home.

Thanksgiving Chaos

Got a call from Nabe in the morning nailing down details... which was probably a good thing considering that he had assumed we were having T-day at my place and I had thought we were having it at his. SO after a mad scramble and some negotiation with my roommate, whom I had some akwardness the night before over laundry, we somehow opened up the possibility to have it at either place. In the end, I went and picked up Dai at the station since she was coming in from Kobe, and in the end we decided to have it at Nabe's place.

So we finally got everything together after running around Seiyu and started cooking around 4... keep in mind we had to be at Nabes by 7. So Dai looks at the Stuffing, Corn Bread, and Pumpkin Bread she wants to make, each avg 45 minute cook time, and becomes a whirlwind. Meanwhile I'm sitting on the floor peeling potatoes because that Japanese do not seem to believe in usable counterspace... I mean seriously here.

Which is where we ran into brick wall 1... I had no can opener to open the pumpkin...... so we flee to the local convenience store only to find that the Japanese don't believe in canopeners either.... right. So we hop a bus back to Seiyu to have me realize half way there that we hadn't killed the gas to the stove. (Cue me silently panicking). So the hour long trip that Seiyu usually takes took a round trip of about 20 minutes.... this includes such gems as two white girls pelting through the multi-story Japanese Walmart equivalent (with supermarket) at full tilt. How we beelined for the can opener... I would be happier not thinking too much about...though I suspect some diety or another out there now owns about a year of my life.

My coworker, Nami, showed up about halfway through and met us at my place. We then walked the three of us, the half hour to Nabe's where his two coworkers, Ushi and Mura, showed up shortly afterwards.

So, in tradition with the holiday, we had good food, good friends, and about three days of sheer chaos crammed into a 9 hour period... feels like the holidays to me.

Corrupting the youth of Japan

I have officially accomplished my entire reason for being. I have corrupted the youth of Japan. Ended up with a fuller day than I was expecting when I had the Yomikikase (reading books in english to little kids) almost back to back with seeing 2012 with some coworkers.

The kids seemed to enjoy it... maybe? Goodnight moon is not the most riveting of books, but they seemed to like Brown Bear Brown Bear and Very Hungry Caterpillar. We had better success with the kids participation when we asked the parents to join in. I was surprised when Kuri came to watch, and doing random horse neighing noises at a room of 10 adults and about as many kids is an experience I'm not sure I can repeat again. Still, it was fun, albeit nerveracking. Though it is hard to deal with know-it-all kids too. I just happened to get two of them.

2012 was disturbing in the fact that the places they happened to pick getting destroyed on big screen were places I had been to and or lived in. The movie is NOT worth paying $20 for... but $13? Sure. Luckily, working in an entertainment company meant that Manami, Fang, and I got ours for free. Oh and Krispy Kreme taste the same in Japan, for those who are curious.

...Oh god.

I’m bowing to the phone to the person I’m talking to on the other side.... It is officially the end of sanity as I know it.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The Good: The leaves are starting to change color and got a package from Derek containing Pumpkin stuff, instagravy, and ... of all things... lime jello. Reading to little Japanese Kids is this Saturday (yay! corrupt them when they are young! Bwahahaha!), Thanksgiving sunday, and Kawaguchiko/Mt. Fuji monday. Am I really going to have a weekend? O_o?

The Bad: Inevitably living in a foreign country, you are going to get homesick. I just wish my co-workers would stop asking me if I am, in fact, Homesick. I mean seriously people. Just because I love Japan doesn't necessarily follow that I'm going to love my own any less (ok, the government I'll give you, but you have to love the mixing pot factor!). It isn't like being homesick is unbearable, and since I've only been here for 3 months, it isn't incredibly noticable... or constant like it'll probably be in ... oh, about 9 months. Are the Japanese fascinated by the concept of homesickness or something? I mean jesus!

The Ugly: 10 deg weather with rain. Relaxing if you are inside with the heater on. Seriously nasty if you are actually out in it. And a windy rain so it gets into f'king everything. For you Californians, rain is that water that falls out of the sky one day a year... usually when you wash your car. Here all you have to do is even think about doing laundry and... gooosh! Going out when you are starting to catch a cold doesn't help.

George Carlin’s Views on Aging

Something I got from a co-worker (seriously) and decided to share it with you.

George Carlin’s Views on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

‘How old are you?’ ‘I’m four and a half!’ You’re never thirty-six and a half. You’re four and a half, going on five! That’s the key.

You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. ‘How old are you?’ ‘I’m gonna be 16!’ You could be 13, but hey, you’re gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life... you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There’s no fun now, you’re Just a sour dumpling. What’s wrong? What changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you’re PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away....

Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

BUT WAIT!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn’t think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50, and MAKE IT to 60.

You’ve built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that, it’s a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You GET INTO your 80’s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; ‘I Was JUST 92.’

Then a strang thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. ‘I’m 100 and a half!’

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1) Throw out the nonessential numbers: This includes age, weight, and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That’s why you pay ‘them.’

2) Keep only cheerful friends: The grouches pull you down

3) Keep learning: Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. ‘An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.’ And the devil’s name is ALZHEIMER’S

4) Enjoy the simple things.

5) LAUGH often, long, and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6) The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7) Surround yourself with what you love: Whether it’s family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. YOUR HOME IS YOUR REFUGE

8) Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9) ...Don’t take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next country/ to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10) Tell people that you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breaths away.