Expect Me When You See Me

Had a dream where I was adopted by the youngest of a dragon clan (mother and daughter and son) who lived in a canyon full of abandoned Elven machinery. I lived... hmm, somewhere far away but there was a magic portal shortcut or something to get to the canyon and I'd visit and stay with them. I heard that the elves would be starting up mining again so I high tailed it to the canyon and found the mother lurking on the cliffs (they're brown so they blend in). She told me that they had hidden deeper and it was unusual that the elves had restarted their mining but she wasn't as worried as I was. She had me write down my... draconic family tree I guess so I knew who I could claim sanctuary with if something did happen to her and her children.

Fun dream. Means I finally got enough sleep last night lol.

So I went to Bujinkan training last night, and I'm happy to report that I found a solution for having bruised knees after every class. Namely, I wore a knee pad on the knee I normally use to get up and voila, no more bruised knees. Training on a hard floor like that is a bitch on the knees.

But my training was not a lot of fun otherwise since I had the training partner from hell. He was friendly, I'll give him that but had so many bad habits, it was a nightmare to train with him. First, he couldn't shut up. He would narrate what he wanted you to do while you were doing a technique. It was insanely distracting especially to me since it takes more of my concentration to pay attention to someone giving me orders in Japanese and I can't exactly ignore him since my mind automatically tries to translate. So I was not operating at my best and him treating me like a newbie who needs to be narrated through every technique was not helping at all. Then this asshole gets annoyed because his techniques don't work automatically on me - not because I'm trying to mess with him but because he just tries to power through everything and doesn't consider space and movement, plus he ignored me when I told him how to throw me when he'd get stuck. So somewhere in his little brain, he decided I was deliberately fucking with him so from then on, I was not allowed to do a single technique.

See, in Bujinkan, the whole point is that you and your training partner are supposed to be replicating real life conditions. This means that you react when someone throws a punch at you and you pretend you don't know what they're going to do next. This asshole just decided to pretend he was god and would walk away from me or strand straight up even though he had just been hit by a punch to the stomach etc. so I couldn't do any of the techniques properly. Really frustrating. Even worse, he started to give up on doing anything to me but hurt me. Like, nearly crush my wrist rather than the throw we were supposed to do. Or even tried to strangle me once which wasn't even close to the technique. And he didn't react when I tapped out when he tried crushing my shoulder (you let the person go or at least let up when someone taps... he went for more pain). I was resolved to punch him in the nuts next time he tried that and had started not being so nice (punching him upside the head rather than ignoring the opening, etc.) when I noticed all these smudges on the floor. He goes and pulls off his sock and his foot is covered by a plastic bag that is filled with blood. And it was leaking through his sock so there was blood everywhere that I'd been rolling in (ick). Instead of stopping training then, after he was gross enough to come while actively bleeding in the first place, he just put on another plastic bag and got a new sock.

I took the opportunity to switch partners and trained with a nice 5dan for the rest of class who was about my level of skill so we had fun. But asshole's sock leaked a second time 20min later and he still didn't stop training. I went home and washed myself and all my training gear to get all the blood off.

I am 100% refusing to ever train with that man again. He is very likely to injure me through his lack of skill (more than the bruises and sore spots I already have). It's going to be annoying to explain in Japanese and it may lead to them treating me like glass but I do not need to be put in the hospital while I'm here because some idiot broke my wrist and didn't listen when I told him to stop.

Just had my first Osaka bujinkan class. It's actually quite convenient for me because there's an express train into the city which I can catch to get there perfectly on time. I went early today just to make sure I knew where it was, and so I could stop in and get some plain black t-shirts from uniqlo for training. I brought one with me, but it's always better to have extra, especially since I didn't have room to pack a gi.

So I got there and introduced myself to the guy who I was pretty sure was the sensei. We have a nice chat. I let him know where I live and he says he comes from that area. I think nothing of it, but I'm excited because he says there's no one to train with when he goes to the training hall which is right next to the arch center where I work. I give him my phone number and tell him to invite me because ancient training halls are awesome. I let him know how long I'll be there and by then it's five minutes past and no one else is there so he says let's start. We just do some basic freestyle punches and response then. I think I might have tired him out because he called a break, and then we switched to throwing shuriken. I got a 10 min personal lesson on throwing shuriken and now I know how to throw a spread which is neat! And how to defend against a barrage of shuriken with my short sword. Cause, you know, I live in feudal Japan. lol.

We had switched to training with a sai when someone finally came in, followed by his wife, and two more stragglers came in several minutes later. I didn't protect my face well enough while training with one of them cause when they flailed with their wooden short sword, it smacked me right on the nose. It hurt quite a lot but there wasn't any blood. It's tender to the touch now and swelling a bit, but at least it's not broken. I'm curious if it will bruise. I can add it to my collection then since there's no padding in the room we train in so bruises are to be expected. I ended up training with a French guy who trains there which was good since I could give him advice in English, but I do hope I get to train with the others as well.

We trained for two hours, then I headed back to the station because if you don't get to the express train back early enough, you don't get a seat and then you have to stand for 20min until people get off at the first stop which my feet were very much not up to. So I do the usual rigmarole of transferring to a local train at the last minute because my station isn't on the express line (it really only adds 5min to the journey... it's just a pain), and the train empties out as it usually does since my stop is one stop before the express stop. I go to get off and lo and behold, the bujinkan sensei is getting off at the same time and was in the same car. We're the only people who get off and he does a doubletake when he sees me. He asks how I get to the arch center everyday and I tell him I bike. We keep walking, both going in the same direction. It turns out we live on the same street, just a block away from each other!

So I hope I get an invite to train in the ancient training hall near here eventually. He seemed pretty satisfied with my skill level (how do I know? he paid me the bujinkan 'compliment' of letting me be uke occasionally and get beat up by him).

So I have been having a blast here in Tokyo despite jetlag and the pain of walking up and down subway steps (this is the reason I lost so much weight in Korea... you just have to live with the pain for the first few days). I have been hitting the communal bath on the top floor to compensate for all the aches but soaking in hot water can only do so much.

I went to see Star Wars in 4D and it was utterly amazing that way. Having your seat tilt down following the slow pan of the opening shot was really thrilling, as were all the space battles. They sprayed mesquite into the room whenever there were things burning which I liked but it also made me a bit hungry. It was actually a little weird to have something hitting your legs at the same time as a tentacle monster attacking Finn. Japanese 4D theaters have more seats and they tilt forward more. So much so that if they had gone slightly more angled, I'd have slid off. No wonder they suggest you put your bags in free lockers before you go in. Incidentally, to get the tickets, I had to go to the roppongi hills cinema several hours before the show and buy one of the last four tickets for the 3pm showing. They sold out insanely quickly but this was unsurprising considering the weekend was already sold out when I went on Friday. By virtue of seeing it alone, I actually had a really nice center seat.

I made it to Mandarake in Shibuya to check out the "doujinshi for women" as they put it. There's not a lot of series I'm interested in atm (I already have tons of doujinshi that I've only flipped through at home) but I love to look at the western series doujin because it's rather fascinating to compare to the western fandoms. Usually, the focus of pairings is quite different. So for example, the Avengers fandom is still being dominated by Tony/Jarvis with science bros not too far behind. Stucky was a rare pair and I only saw a few Stony. I have yet to figure out too why the Boondock Saints fandom is still going strong in Japan. Anybody? But much to my surprise The Hobbit fandom was really fascinating because the doujin almost exactly reflected the western fandom. Bagginshield dominated (it was nonexistent in Japan in 2013 when I last checked) and Bard/Thranduil had become popular since the last movie, with a couple of rare pairs and gen thrown in for good measure.

I also made it to Akihabara. I checked out animate first as I usually do but my interests in anime don't currently line up with anything that is showing atm (except One Punch Man), so I headed over the building with the mandarake cafe in it. The lower four floors there have recent doujin, electronics, and an astonishing collection of figurines and memorabilia. There's one shop on the third floor I believe which consistently sells all the figures about 20% cheaper than anyone else so it's worth checking out. I first tried to find a new battery for my lenova pad but I was told they don't make anything like it in Japan so I'd have to get one from the US. Oh well. I then set out to find memorabilia and figurines from Natsume Yuujinchou and Star Wars. I particularly wanted some action figures of Rey and BB-8 but she was almost as hard to find here as in the US. I did get a cute 3-inch figure of Rey which was made for the Japanese market only and looks great but there were no BB-8 figurines to be found, or the larger Rey figurine which the internet tells me exists but I have yet to see. My capsule luck held and I got an awesome looking tengu from a gegege kitaro machine. Turns out it's one of the rarer expensive ones so I was doubly pleased. (You can tell by how they price them in other nearby stores that sell figurines individually. Mine was the most expensive, therefore it was pretty rare.) I picked up some tiny Natsume yuujinchou figurines like one of Madara as a daruma. I then headed out and north to another store which was advertising for Star Wars. They did have a BB=8 figurine there but it came with R2D2 and I wouldn't have been able to fit him in my bag. So I bought a cute set of BB-8 stationary and headed back to my hotel.

I have been eating out on occasion but mostly living on the hotel breakfast (which is quite nice) and convenience store food. The thrill of meat buns and onigiri for a buck will not wear off for awhile. I also tried some famous Asakusa pudding which was amazing until I hit the burnt sugar at the bottom which totally ruined the rest of the pudding for me. I also had some famous maple melon bread and a delicious sweet potato paste thingy.

Today, I headed out of Tokyo to attend Bujinkan training at the Hombu dojo. Nobody told me, but they knocked down the old dojo and built a new, larger one with better facilities. It was a bit difficult to find at first until I started looking for the kanji. The other dojo was quite stereotypical looking so it was easier to find, though I suppose you could always just follow all the foreigners on a Sunday morning. There were a ton of Australians there and I made friends. I trained with one of them, M. who was my height and a bit of a beginner, plus she had a leg injury, so we took it easy. I don't mind teaching someone since it helps me learn as well (it's only frustrating if they're not trying and this was not the case). Despite the dojo being bigger, it was still crowded so when we switched over to sword, there wasn't really enough room to do anything. But it was fun. Hatsumi soke has a wicked sense of humour (that Jack definitely gets from him). For example, he took a guy down, let him go and then when he thought he could escape, put him in an even worse lock, and all with a smile on his face. It's interesting to be able to understand enough Japanese to know what he was talking about. He talked about intent and convincing your opponent that they took a hit, even though they didn't. We then got a gruesome story about Japanese executions and people getting their heads chopped off. Apparently, heads being chopped sounds like a wet towel being snapped so they went down a line and at the last person, they snapped a towel instead and the person died of fright. He's also still talking about things that Jack passed on like spiraling in to the proper point while taking people down and of course, taking the right space and distance and moving. I liked his point of using both sides of the chest to take someone out (catching on one hand, then bringing that shoulder down before taking the space around the opposite elbow and letting the rebound from the shoulder you pressed down send the other shoulder up). I ended up with a few more bruises and tired but I found out where there's training in Osaka and made a lot of new friends. Plus I got some calligraphy painted by the soke.

I headed back to Asakusa afterwards and wandered through the markets looking for a place to eat lunch (it was 2pm by this point). Everywhere I tried had people waiting outside in the cold for a seat so I bought some snacks and wandered out of the tourist areas until I found a ramen place for lunch. I haven't had proper ramen in ages so that was nice. I then headed out, bought some food for my dinner and stopped at a cat cafe near by hotel, Cafe Calaugh. This one was set up a bit differently than ones I've been to before. They served food and drinks and didn't cover anything but the cats seemed to mostly ignore the food. I found a snuggle buddy who huddled next to me for warmth and then inherited a lap cat from someone else. That cat just didn't want to do anything other than sleep in people's laps. I had to pass her on myself after my hour of time was up. She did give me a kiss when she first came to my lap - probably to smell the hot chocolate on my lips.

I head down to Nara tomorrow so I'm getting ready. Ja ne!

I dreamt last night that I was born into a low caste on a massive ship traveling through space who had instituted illegal population restrictions by banishing any non-planned children to a lower cast of servants, so despite being smart and having my talents (in computer programming, amongst other things) being utilized well by the aristocrats I served, I was denied going any further in society (there were a lot of seemingly arbitrary reasons someone could be relegated to a lower caste). This pissed me off and I started searching for ways to change the system (literally by changing the computer system) which drew the attention of the rebellious underground who were made up of various high ranking ninja from Naruto. Tsunade was unsure if she should employ me, but Kakashi persuaded her to give me a chance to demonstrate my skills, so I snuck into the central computer chamber which kinda looked like Darth Vader's meditation chamber only with really low gravity and planted some of the commands they wanted in the computers. I woke up around the time when they were pointing out that there were a lot more rebels than I knew of and it was going to stay that way in case any of us were captured.

Dad and I are off to visit my family in the midwest tomorrow. My car needed to be returned to Wisconsin anyway, so we're combining it with seeing my family who I haven't visited since before I started my Phd.

We had to wake up pretty early to get to the airport which was not the best since I did not sleep well. We woke up to freshly fried dosas (kinda like crepes) with masala dipping sauce for breakfast which we scarfed down before paying for the room and catching our taxi. The flight back to Delhi was interesting only because we were on one of the new 787s and the smartglass on the windows plus the slightly redefined layout were interesting to see. I mostly read the Visni Puri novel and R. read her own.

Once in Delhi we took the taxi back to the Fulbright house and stored my luggage there (though we were later informed we weren’t supposed to do that *shrugs*). We then walked for about ten minutes to the Jantar Mantar which I always wanted to see. It’s a series of observatories which were built in 1724 to examine various celestial phenomenon but it looks like a modern art display. It didn’t take long to visit and disappointingly, you can’t climb up any of the steps you can see. Oh well. From there we caught a rickshaw to do the one other thing I wanted to do while in India – namely, see an Ashokan pillar. I’d been hoping one had been brought to Delhi so I could see one and R. found out where it was. It was over in old Delhi at Feroz Shah Kotla Fort, which was part of a city founded by a Shah in 1354.

We were expecting to explore an old fort and see the pillar. Instead, the place was teaming with people, birds (kites I believe), and smoke. There wasn’t a ticket taker in sight but we were once again the center of attention. I had to hold my breath even to get in since there was a massive fire being burnt right near the front. Once through there, we wandered, admiring how thick the walls were until we found our way to the foot of the building the pillar perched on. It was even more crowded here since everyone had to fit into the ancient walkways and stairs to get anywhere. Opposite it was a mosque which although in ruins was still being used for worship. I had to hold my breath and dash around a lot because in every single alcove they were burning flowers and incense and saying prayers. R. and I were really confused. It also took us awhile to find the steps up to the pillar since they were cleverly hidden. R. bailed out on the lower level so I headed up on my own after actually finding the proper stairs. Once up there, the pillar was amazing to see even if it is a little broken. I liked that someone had carved an elephant into it at some point. The people meanwhile, were tying letters to the pillar, leaving offerings and reaching in to touch it. I was also mobbed by children as I always seemed to be when left alone (kids just really like me, go figure). Once I took their pictures and made my way down, I told R. it was easier to get up then we thought so we went up again. Some cheeky kids kept getting closer and closer to us while we were up there and even poked my bum at one point. *sigh*

We made our way out of there, with me holding my breath and dashing through smoke filled areas, though I figured an asthma attack due to smoke was inevitable at this point (and I was right though it held off until I was on the plane). We headed back to the Fulbright building and in the half hour before my taxi to the airport arrived, looked up what was going on. Turns out my ability to stumble on festivals is ridiculously good. On Thursdays, and only Thursdays, Indian Muslims go to that site to ask the djinn which are thought to inhabit the stones, with the head djinn being in the pillar to grant their wishes. We had a 1 in 7 chance of encountering them but since it was Thursday the 11th, we got in free and got to experience the djinn worship. Turns out it’s a pretty interesting phenomena which only started in 1977 and one of R.’s friend’s friends wrote their Phd thesis on it. Small world, huh?

We said goodbye and I caught my taxi who got me to the airport in good time. Once there, I bought a few more souveniers since I didn’t feel like changing my money and a surprisingly tasty and colourful meal from Curry Kitchen. I managed to get a few hours of sleep on the plane back, which stood me in good stead for the ridiculously long transfer procedure at Shanghai Dupong airport. Our gate was freezing due to improperly closed doors, and even with all my layers just sitting there for an hour and a half waiting for my plane had me shivering. (I couldn’t really buy anything since I only had enough Chinese money left to buy some water.) I watched some of Twin Peaks but kept getting distracted so I was glad when our plane finally loaded. The flight was quick, and I was on the airport train back to my apartment within a half hour of landing. Of course, it was snowing when I got off the subway so I was freezing since I hadn’t been able to pack a winter coat but I rushed home. I took a shower and did my laundry, hoped my sore throat wasn’t an actual cold and went to sleep. Turns out it was a cold (the same one R. got in the last days of our trip, I’d wager) which I am still recovering from, so I’ve spent my time hibernating.

(It took me about two weeks to recover from the cold and the trip in general. Had a great time though.)

So far I have a trip to Busan next week and two museums to visit, with a possible third still pending. I plan to visit the Busan national museum while I’m down there just to see it and, of course, Busan Spa Land (because I am a sucker for jjimjilbang).

Then the next week I visit a museum in Daegu and an archaeological research centre in Gyeongju. I’m really excited about seeing Gyeongju for the first time since it’s got such amazing archaeological and historical sites. I think I’ll stay an extra day or two and see the sights.

Once those are all done, I only have 2-3 more museum visits to schedule and they have to be done after June 15th because the artifacts are not available until after then, so not bad.

I am pleased to say I have had to start my second fieldwork notebook. 75 artifacts down. Who knows how many more to go?

I forgot I wrote a quick fic for Daredevil.
In the Ring - PG - Matt wants to get in the ring.

I had a dream last night that I went to this coastal town to help with some sort of clean up. I was directed by the locals to stay at this boarding house run by a fairly strict middle aged woman. There were a lot of young women arriving and they were with a different group than the one I was supposed to be working with but it seemed a nice enough place to stay. After laying down the rules and socializing a bit, I went to claim a bed. This was rather hard to do since none of the beds were pristinely tucked in so I had to look around a bit before I found one that, although not tucked in, had no belongings around it. I presumed it was free and settled in for a long sleep (I was awake for hours today resetting my sleep schedule so even my subconscious was obsessed with sleep).

I woke up and found an unfamiliar young man sitting on the bed which was next to mine. He complained that I'd slept in his bed and I responded he should have claimed it better. We bantered a bit and he told me he liked me so I should enjoy my present and gestured at a massive thunderstorm out the window which was encroaching on the nearby city. I rolled my eyes and got dressed and went downstairs where I was dragged with all the other young women to a massive warehouse where we were going to practice our duties or something. Once we were in order, the young man appeared again and scolded the woman who owned the house for her lack of respect and that she was lucky he liked me. She then proceeded to tell us that he was a ghost who haunted the boarding house and that anyone who slept in his bed suffered and she probably should have warned us. For some reason I wasn't worried and instead pointed out his present of a storm. Everyone panicked and headed back to the boarding house. Once I got there, I was in a bit of a trance and went back to my bed and grabbed a gray cloak which I only vaguely remembered bringing off a peg then headed outside. The young man was with me and he urged me to imagine the cloak growing larger and covering me from the storm. I did and was suddenly in the heart of the storm, floating and enjoying myself. It gets a bit hazy after that but once the storm passed the young man explained that he wasn't a ghost but one of the fey like Robin Goodfellow and I was one of the fey in disguise with my powers and former life hidden and dormant in order to experience a mortal life. Also, we were going to have a lot of fun now that I was here. I went thoughtfully back to the boarding house to gather my things, finding the bed I'd slept in was gone and the people there hadn't realized I'd been out riding the storm. Then the dream sunk deeper and I can't remember anymore.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I've really got to finish my India diary and post my trip to New Zealand as well but I've run out of free time and have a ton of things to do before mid April. So maybe I'll be able to post more then. Ja ne!

This was my favourite day of the trip. My digestive troubles were gone and we’d seen about half of the main places to see in Hampi so we could take it easy (the travel guides tell you that you need a week to see Hampi but I’m not sure how because even if you go to see the temples across the river we would have managed it in 3-4 days. And I’d suspect your average tourist would get a lot more bored of yet more temples than we did.) We hired another taxi driver for the day and this one only spoke some basic Hindi and even less English.

He took us first to the first of two Ganesha images in the area. It was surrounded by huge boulder so I left R. and her leg to rest and hiked over to see them and take silly pics. After that, he took us to a nearby temple which I think was the Sri Krishna temple. It was uncrowded for a bit until a massive group of school children arrived. Around the corner we walked down a pleasant path beside a stream to see the Ugra Narasimha image which was awesome and impressively intact for something carved in 1528 and left out in the elements. Right next door to it was Hampi’s 3m tall Shivalinga, surrounded by water because everyone needs to see a massive penis and vagina at least once in their life. We took a break then to have some fresh coconut juice (which I don’t like but R. enjoyed it) and get some freshly pressed sugar cane juice. When I was a kid, I once helped harvest sugar cane and make sourgum molasses so I must have tried the cane juice then, but I sure don’t remember it tasting so amazing. Might be the different type of cane too.

From there, he took us to the Hazara Rama temple which was on the other side of the King’s Palace complex. It had some decent sculptures including some black pillars inside, and the Ramayana was depicted along the exterior inner walls, though they were weirdly built over in places. From there, we asked him to take us to the Underground Shiva temple so called because it pretty much sits below ground level at this point. It was still a bit flooded from the monsoon which made it cool to explore, but didn’t have any of the beautiful carvings that the other temples boast.
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