Catchup Entry

first thing's first, the thing that finally got me offa my lazy butt to write the month-long needed update!

YAHOOO!!! I can do what I've wanted to do for a month or so now...ever since I saw Umarete wa Mita Keredo (I Was Born, But..)生まれては見たけれど I have had the idea that I should take public domain Japanese films and translate and put them online. this would of course be legal, be fun, help spread japanese culture, AND would be nice to put on my law school admissions...but i assure you this is NOT the reason...altho i knew that i wanted to put 'translator' on my apps somewhere, and this is how i can do it by being fully truthful and not streetching anything at all, which is good...cuz i don't wanna stretch anything

Two important points for me about Japanese Copyright Law:

1) Cinematographic works, as well as works authored by corporations where the individual author or authors are unknown, are protected for seventy years following publication (or seventy years following creation if the work is not published).

2) Neighboring rights apply for fifty years after the work is performed, transmitted, or put on sale.

This refers to films, and as Umarete was released in 1932, DEFINITELY all time has expired and now it's in the public domain in all but actual words, since public domain is not referred to in Japanese copyright law...

ok so now i can translate the work and torrent it!! w00t!!

so i'll be working on that during spring break i guess...all that is left now is to borrow a copy of i assume the VHS from a professor and ghetto it over onto my laptop to work on...actually that's about 30 GB so really i should make myself a copy somehow and then rip it when i get to my desktop back in the states...i should work on the translation until then...and of course if i understand how it gets handled, and that an author always retains authorship rights, my name will legally be attached to the translation (so i get recognition) while at the same time release my translation into the public domain...which i assume i'm correct about...otherwise someone could take a work of shakespeare and claim he wrote it on his own

oh wait, this is supposed to be a blog about studying abroad in Japan...silly me ^_^

now for the update of things that have happened

so i went to japanese bathhouse (onsen 温泉) and i was so friggin flipped out cuz i mean...naked in public?? that's pretty freaky to me and my self-conscious self...
so i showed up at Zabon ざぼん(the sound you make when getting into the water...God japanese people have sound effects for EVERYTHING! i saw a drama the other day with the sound of the sun setting into the sea:

i can hear it
hear what?
the sound of the sun setting into the sea...like 'zyuu zyuu zyuu' (which can also be transliterated 'juujuujuu' which is still of course incredibly friggin ridiculous ^_^ note: this translation comes from #jdrama@efnet

anyways back to the bathhouse

so i had some curry rice (kareeraisu カレーライス) and then we went off into the bathhouses..of course separated by sex...not all are...my hostmother's son said that you can find unisex nude bathhouses, but they are all populated by old women (which i assure you sounds even funnier when it's said in japanese like it was)

then took off my glasses which made things much better as now everyone was a blob of skintone instead of having a face, and therefor being a person in my view...they were just a blob to me after that, so i wasn't shy anymore...plus lotsa the japanese guys just wanted to talk to me since i was american

anyways, then my hostmother's son got me to try this one hot-bath chair...i sat in it thinking, since there were no jets at this one, that he assumed i was a wimp and needed a place without hot water jets...so i sit and i feel these little prickling feelings...then i realize HOLY CRAP when i read what the sign for the seat says and i get up REALLY fast and leave...電気風呂 (denkifuro - electric hot bath) -- i was being shocked by the place! sucked!!!

so yeah then i went in a sauna where it was 89 C (that is 192 F for my fellow americans) and only lasted like 5 mins or so before i had to leave...my heart was pounding so hard i thought i was going to die -_-;;; but japanese ppl apparently could handle it quite well! i am in awe

so yeah then rested a bit more, then left

another interesting experience is that i finally had octopus (TAKO 'tako') to eat and it tasted like chicken, funnily enough (ironically?)...it was fried and it had an 'i know this taste from somewhere' feeling to it


so i just had Christmas too...i was watching a drama called Last Christmas with Oda Yuji also...it's pretty neato and info be located at JDorama.com's Info about the show

i got loot, but that is neither here nor there about japan..my hostmother gave me some socks and her family was here to celebrate too...and i've mentioned some stuff about christmas eve on my blog already...i'll post a coupla pics soon to the site from the 26th (when we actually celebrated christmas)

also, i was in a christmas play here in my hostmother's church...granted i had 2 lines but it was still fun...i was a biblical scholar to king herod...i'll see if i can dig up a picture from someone at church to put up here sometime...but i doubt it...they're mostly old and prolly don't have digital cameras...i know my hostmother doesn't ^_^

so final thing...new years...i'm one of the 1st time zones to hit 2005 and it was nice...it snowed new years eve here for the first time since i came! i played a leeeetle bit but not much, as i had to go shopping for food with my hostmother (many -- most?? -- businesses are closed for multiple days -- at least 3 -- after new years so we need food to last through those days) then settled in at 7 pm to watch Kouhaku (紅白 -- red and white) which is a competition between male and female teams of popular singers from the past year...the women won this year (i think that sucks, as most of the women performers this year were not very entertaining -- boa was not very entertaining, some of the female enka was but not much, gotou maki and matsuura aya were not that entertaining, morning musume blargh)

4 hours and 10 minutes later with 0 commercial breaks, it ended, and me and my hostmother sat up watching ppl on tv getting ready for the new year at various shrines until it hit 12...then literally i said "happy new year" (明けましておめでとうございます -- akemashite omedetou gozaimasu) then said "good night" (お休みなさい -- oyasumi nasai) then went up to my room

so that is everything caught up to now

peace out until i have some more to write about ^_^