Once again we were sleeping in this morning and missed making lunches. Maybe we are staying up too late at night? It was nice to sleep in a little bit, though. I got to work right on time, with a big list of things to do.
Surprisingly, I knocked out what I thought was a big list in less than 40 minutes, leaving me with two classes in the day and lots of free time to study. The longer I work here the more of a handle I get on how things operate, and I’m able to use my time efficiently. I’m not sure what to do with all my spare time, though. I use most of it for studying, averaging about four hours a day. I’m sure my next job won’t allow me so much free time, so I’m trying to enjoy it now.
The history teacher came by today and wanted to ask me about the TV show “American Idol”. It was broadcast on cable here for the few people that have cable, and the history teacher was following the show religiously. He was puzzled with the end, though. I didn’t watch the show, so I don’t know all the details, but apparently a pretty normal looking guy won out in the end against a pretty good looking girl. The history teacher was perplexed – she was clearly more attractive, why didn’t she win?
In Japan, at least in mainstream music, the appearance of the artist is as important or more important than how well they sing. They need to look good, they need to be able to dance, and then, finally – they should be able to sing. This isn’t all Japanese music, just the most popular stuff that is on the TV and radio all the time. There is an underground music culture in Japan that is less concerned with appearance and more with music, but most people don’t know about this obscure music or don’t care about it.
