Back on Track

Today is the last day of the Nanowrimo. I'm lucky because, well, I have already finished my novel and I exceed the required word count by 20k.

Title: Bergamoth
Word Count: 71111
Pages: 150

My goal was to make 100k words this year but in the end, I had to settle for a shorter novel. When I first started writing, my idea was to make this story a two book series. Then, about halfway, I changed my mind because I felt like I would be able to fit the whole thing in one book. As I was writing a really important part of my plot on Friday night I realized I still had way too much stuff waiting to happen and to be explained so I had to go back to my original idea. In the end, this works well for me, since it gives me a topic for next year's Nanowrimo and one year to brainstorm (ahah, yeah, right.) My friend Gene, who read me every single time I wrote something new (THANK YOU!!!!,) says she can't (and doesn't want to) wait until next year to read the second part! That's the best compliment she could have made :D She still has to wait, tho.

So once again, Nanowrimo was a lot of fun but now it's time for me to get back on track. I've been slacking up; my study and work out routines have suffered a lot. I intend to modify them a little before I start again, tho, since they were a bit too demanding.

I should start blogging regularly soon, as writing 50k words in one month has stopped being the only thing I think about.

See you all pretty soon!

Japanese Men Should be Afraid

Yesterday Mr. kanmuri showed me something really interesting and I thought I would share it with you. You know how when you enter a word, Google will give you a list of suggestion based on the most popular searches? Well some Japanese person decided to do a test and entered the words "wife" and "husband" to see what suggestions would come up.

First let's take a look at the "wife" results.


So here is what the list says:

1. Wife birthday present ranking
2. Wife birthday present
3. Wife present
4. Wife hysteric
5. Wife how to call
6. Wife depression
7. Wife present ranking
8. Wife bereavement
9. Wife humble language
10. Wife shochu (Japanese vodka)

Looks like those men are trying to please their wives either because they love them or because they cheated on them and got caught. Still, the list looks pretty normal.

Let's take a look at what you get with the word "husband."

So here goes the translation:

1. Husband I want him to die
2. Husband I hate him
3. Husband average pocket money
4. Husband verbal abuse
5. Husband pocket money
6. Husband how to call
7. Husband death paper work
8. Husband lose job
9. Husband depression
10. Husband birthday present

Ahem, is it just me or do I feel a little tension in the air? Interesting to see how what ranked as the number one search item for men (birthday present) ranks last for women's search.

This is all funny to look at but when you think about it, it reflects the traditional Japanese society very well. Man work outside do long hours and often cheat on their wifes; a present is the best to keep the storm from breaking loose. Wives stay at home, raise the children and wish their husbands didn't take them for granted; the frustration is strong enough to want them dead. Of course the Japanese society is changing everyday and it would be incorrect to overgeneralized and say that all Japanese men and women feel like this. Still, this is an interesting window on some Japanese people's inner feelings towards their partners in life.

An Army of Typing Monkeys

Ok, maybe not an army. There was only three of us after all. But still, we worked as hard as one.

Writing a 50k word novel in one month is a strange adventure. I've personally been through many different phases regarding my novel. Sometimes I hate it, sometimes I love it. Sometimes I want to marry my main character and sometimes I want to beat the crap out of him for being such a sissy. The important thing, though, is to keep on writing, no matter what, and to never, NEVER reread yourself and edit. Claire, I'm saying this for you!

Last Saturday I decided to hold my own little write in event. A write in is basically a gathering with writing as the sole purpose (in theory...) Having people writing next to you is a good incentive. Plus when they're at your house, you can't just stop and watch TV. Unless, of course, you have no pride.

Our goal for the day was 8000 words, no small feat. I made us a little chart thingy to record each time we completed a thousand. We also did word races to see who could write the most word in a given period of time (I lost... )

Including our breaks, we managed to reach our goal within eight hours. We might have done it earlier, but we're girls, we have a certain minimum of words to say everyday... The chatting actually helped a lot. We talked about our plots, the problems that had arisen, what we liked in the books we read, etc. It was like a big brain storming.

Here we are, all lost in our little world...

...well except maybe for Keira, who posed for the camera.

I look really surprised, for some reason.

I really enjoyed the experience and will make sure to organize or a least attend a write in in Montreal next year. Maybe, if I have enough money, I'll try to go to the official Nanowrimo write-a-thon in San Francisco!

Now back to my novel...

Saturday Picture Post: Cute Overload in Yoriki

These are snapshots I took of my students last week while they were hosting their School Festival. They're just too cute!

 

Would You Care for Some Salt?

Today I give you my participation to the 25th Blog This challenge: OLD. This new challenge is a photographic one. I went through my pictures and, as I like ancient stuff,I had many photos of old things; it was kinda hard to decide which one to choose. In the end, I decided to go with the strangest one. Voilà!

This is not ice. This wooden cartwheel is stuck in salt. I took this picture last year in South Australia where they have gigantic salt lakes, remnants of ancient inland seas. This wheel was at least a hundred meters away from the "shore" and was found as is, covered in salt. I wonder what it is doing there. We looked around and could find no traces of the cart itself. The only thing we found was the salty remains of an old wooden pier.

What happened? I have no idea.

What do you think?

Zauo: a place where you can have your fish and eat it!

My birthday was on Monday and since I'm still a child I requested from Mr. kanmuri a birthday present and a dinner at a fancy restaurant. As a present, I got a long awaited Nintendo Wii Fit (more on that later, I still have to try all the games) and for dinner, my dear husband took me to Zauo.

My friend Ellie had told me once about this great restaurant where people ate in a gigantic boat. I had found the idea interesting and had suggested that we go together sometime. Just like most plans we make, this one was forgotten and we never ended up going. Then two weeks ago, Mr. kanmuri told me about this great restaurant where you could fish your dinner while sitting in a boat. Remembering Ellie's story, I decided that, this time, I wouldn't let the opportunity pass and so I requested that he take me there for my birthday dinner on Saturday.

Apparently, Zauo is really popular in Tokyo and so they request that their customers make reservations online. They then contact them by phone to confirm. That's what Mr. kanmuri did but after three days (the delay given by Zauo) we still hadn't heard from them When I called them, they told me that they were sorry but that they hadn't received anything. Luckily, there was still a spot for us.

On Saturday, we drove to Morioka, my head pounding with a small headache due to my excitement level. Once we got there, I knew the pain had been worth it. A huge wooden boat throned in the middle of the room and it smelled of the sea. The boat was partially immersed in the water that surrounded it on all sides and we had to cross a little bridge to get to our table. In the water all kinds of fish swam around and around at a crazy speed.

Once we sat down, the waiter brought us a small fishing rod and some bait. Mr. kanmuri was the first to give a try at fishing but he had no luck and his bait was taken away by a hungry fish. So he gave me the rod and I tried fishing for the first time of my life.

 
Within ten minutes I caught a big fish. I don't really remember what it was called (I have zero interest for fish) but what I know is that the sashimi they made out of it was probably the freshest that I have ever had. When they brought it to our table, our catch's fins were still wiggling! Needless to say, it was a real treat!

Now as you can see on the picture, that was a lot of fish for two people and when we were done eating it, we had had our share of raw fish already. So we order from the regular menu which offers all kinds of dishes ranging from friend chicken to spring rolls. I also ordered a few drinks and Mr. kanmuri had alcohol free beer.


All in all this was an amazing dinner and experience but if you feel tempted to go, I recommend you go with a group, so you can try different fish. For those of you of don't eat raw fish, Zauo also offers the option of frying or grilling your catch. Finally, if you intend to go to the Morioka location, make the reservation by phone or just go; the place was literally empty, even though it was a Saturday.

50k Words in 30 days

As you may have noticed on my widget bar on the left, I am an official participant of Nanowrimo 2009. For those of you who don't know, Nanowrimo is short for National Novel Writing Month. Each year in November, people from around the world sit in front of their computers and type away in order to meet the Nanowrimo's goal: writing a 50 000 word novel in 30 days.

I discovered Nanowrimo in December 2007 and was really sad to see that the event was already over. Last year, I was ready to give the challenge a try. I had the names of my characters but no plot and absolutely no idea where the story would lead. I ended up thirty days later with a 70 000 word novel.

I've been writing stories ever since I was in elementary school and even had a 160 pages manuscript going on when I was in junior high school. Unfortunately, whenever I wrote, I would never finish my stories; I always knew how to start and finish the tale but never how to get from A to B. Last year, the pressure from the deadline forced me to write at a madman's speed and thanks to that, I was able to finish my first story, ever.

Of course the final result is nothing I would even dare to send to a publisher but with a lot of editing, I think it has potential. My friend Gen, who keeps me going by reading my new updates daily, surely seems to think so. I must say, tho, that I prefer the novel I'm currently writing.

So far I have 17600 words. I plan to rocket that to 25k this weekend. If you are doing the Nanowrimo, I would love to become your writing buddy. I go by the name of kanmuri and this is my profile page.

To learn more about nanowrimo, please take a look at their excellent website.

Because I like biting bread off a stick

November came and suddenly it's as if the Gods have realized they had left the heater's switch on; they turned it off. It is coooold! Since our house has no insulation (Yay! for Japanese houses) we have the joy of waking up to a nice 10 degrees Celsius... It makes getting out of bed even harder.

We got our first snowfall on Monday night continuing through Tuesday morning but it all melted away. It'll be a while before it stays. I saw pictures of that crazy snowfall in the US and it makes me glad to be sitting at my heated table, inside.

Last Saturday, Mr. kanmuri and I braved the early morning cold and drove to Morioka to take part in the Lalala's International Sports Festival. Lalala is a small international group which organizes numerous activities to promote cultural exchange. You can learn more about them here.

During my career as a teacher in Japan I have seen many Sports Festival but up until last Sunday, I had never taken part into one. This sports event was modelled after the ones taking place in elementary schools. It was tons of fun.

Here are some pictures. I will try to explain the different competitions. If you want to know more about the origin of sports festivals in Japan take a look at this post I wrote a while ago.

Our team, the White team.

Bread Eating Competition

In this activity we had to walk in hoops to reach the pole with dangling bags of bread. Then, we had to bite off the bags with our teeth.

Victory is mine

Caterpillar Walk

For this activity we had to walk in a huge cardboard caterpillar and then push a ball around with a stick.

Pop the Balloon

This game was really simple. We all tied balloons to our legs and then had to pop the balloons of the opposite team.

Throw the balls in the basket

The title pretty much says it all. The first team to finish wins. We won twice because our team had all the tall people :D I don't have pictures of us in action because everyone took part in the game.

Boot Camp

I don't know what this one was called but it reminded be of a military exercise with the net thing. Simple game, we had to crawl under the net, and then take down paper baskets with a ball attached to a string.

Race

I'm sure this game has a name but I don't know it. Ten people of each team tied their feet to two parallel ropes and raced across the gym. We won, two times :D

In the end, our team won by two points and Mr. kanmuri was chosen as the MVP of the event.

Both Red and White teams

And lastly...

I got the sliced bread... oh yeah!