tom's blog へようこそ！ and, an introduction to japanese television

good day, all.

i decided to start a blog because i find myself not updating people of my whereabouts, current health, or existence, for that matter, enough. so here we are, in cyberspace, where i can do all of that stuff without having to devote time to mass emails and skype calls.

whereabouts: saitama, japan.
current health: passable.
existence: confirmed.

with that out of the way, i'll catch you up on what i've been doing and what i'm going to be doing for the forseeable future.

after graduating from st. john's university i decided to venture a few miles down the road to okinawa, japan, where i taught english for a year. it was one of the best experiences of my life. the feeling of helping someone understand something they're really trying to grasp is fulfilling. i got pretty good at japanese, too. i spent a lot of my time studying, translating japanese wikipedia articles into english, renting full albums from a store down the street for approximately 88 cents and putting them on my computer (this is legal. no download guilt. but i still do that too), and watching japanese tv. and lots of it.

one memorable japanese tv moment came when a man touting himself as RAZOR RAMON - HARD GAY (HG), burst onto the screen, sheathed in black leather, and proceeded to entertain his bewildered audience with repeated hip thrusts, ricky martin theme music, and odd catchphrases.

funny thing about this is he became so popular that the japanese gay community started feeling uneasy about the whole thing. what kind of image does razor ramon give the japanese gays who aren't clad in studded biker hats and don't shove their groins at unsuspecting bystanders?

i'll leave that for you to ponder. but seriously, watch the videos. that's way more fun than thinking hard.

now, on to my future. the next 1.5 - 2 years will be spent at sophia univeristy in tokyo. i'm getting my master's degree in japanese studies, and i'm excited. i've found a place to live, and my girlfriend, megu, will be nearby. hopefully i'll be completely fluent in japanese soon. after that, who knows. i'll probably end up translating anime for the disturbingly large horde of anime aficionados lurking in your local bookstore/dimly lit basement. i'll do that if i have to, but if it gets too trying, i might just sign this petition. (note: i don't hate anime. i just wanted to find a way to link to that page).

anyway, school should be fun. besides updating all of you on my dealings in japan, i want to warn you that a portion of my attention will be devoted to the minnesota twins. no explanation necessary.

P.S. the title of my blog comes from the japanese saying サルも木から落ちる (saru mo ki kara ochiru: even monkeys fall from trees), which basically means "nobody's perfect" or "everyone makes mistakes." except for me.