I was perusing ye olde Internets the other day when I happened across a rather amusing article about my adopted university. A brief preview, if I may

Of course no one would object to college students getting a part-time gig to earn a few bucks. Should the student be working illegally without work permits, though, that’s a different story. Yet more problematic if the student is playing his trade in the sex industry. Even worse, suppose that the student is actually running a prostitution ring and hiring other students? And here’s the kicker: the college not only knows about this questionable activity, it’s even aiding and abetting the students involved.

I remember hearing about this last year. There was a huge fuss raised over everything, as you can imagine, the president of the university was forced to resign and the school started keeping a much closer eye on its exchange students.

Searching for Sapporo University and illegal activity turns up all kinds of interesting articles. Nothing that you wouldn’t expect from your average university, other than the whole connections with the Triad thing, but apparently a big deal here.

From what I understand, though, the university keeps a much closer eye on us now than what they used to. Every now and then a student slips up, though. Last year a Chinese student was caught working full time on a student visa and we didn’t hear the end of that for a month. They sent us letters and articles, had meetings, all the fun stuff. This year, though, there was a Chinese student that was arrested for breaking into people’s homes and stealing valuables. Didn’t hear a peep from them about that one. It was all over the news, though.

What am I saying? Nothing, really. Just rambling. And talking about the wonders of a modern search engine and someone who is very bored.

Yes, I have to kill some time. Yes, most of the people I know are either in class or not on campus. Yes, I am very bored. And so I bring you the best of Japanese pizza, sponsored by Pizza Hut. (I got a flyer in the mail today.)

Most foods I`m at least willing to give a shot. I love sushi. I tried natto, and the smell from that`s enough to drive away a bear. I even had a piece of horse shashimi. But Japanese pizza is something that makes me more than a little skittish.

The menu starts out normal enough. Gourmet, Bacon Mushroom, Hawaiian, Meat Paradise (meat lovers). But from there it starts to get a bit… strange.

First off we have the Idaho Special, a pizza consisting of: diced potatoes, black pepper, bacon, onion, corn, parsley and, to top it all off, mayonnaise. Looking on, there are no less than six pizzas where mayo is a key ingredient, including, but not limited to, the Queen of Crab and Shrimp, the aptly named Mayo Q and last, but certainly not least, the Sea Urchin Glory. We won`t get into what that contains.

I tend to stay away from American resturaunts while I`m here anyway. If I wanted McDonald`s… well, there`d be something wrong with me, but even if I was dying and the only cure was Pizza Hut… let`s just say that I`d be more than a little tempted just to kick the bucket.

So I wander back from class today, and what is waiting for me but an email from the English department here at lovely Ball State. This, in and of itself, is nothing unusual. Departmental announcements usually go out to the whole student body. The subject of this, however, immediately caught my attention.

New ENG 104 course in MMORPG!

Yes, you can all join me in a collective “What?” at this point. At first, despite the fact that this is a retarded idea to begin with, as retarded ideas go it didn’t seem so bad. There’s still a meeting face to face once a week, then they meet once a week in this game, which appears to be free.

The game itself, Second Life seemed to be fairly normal, and, of course, free. However, thanks to my internet nerds friends, it seems this is not the case.

First off it seems the game itself requires, or at least supports, custom scripting. Which means more hacks than you can count. Secondly, the game seems to be a haven for furries, truckers posing as hookers and other weirdos. Are you still with me? I hope not.

I really just can’t see this working out well. At all. I do, however, look forward to this failing spectacularly and completely in a horrid fashion. Schadenfreude? Perhaps, but whoever thought of this deserves to lose whatever position they might have in the University.

Oh, and apparently there’s a “Poetry Slam Poet Call Out.” You kids should get in on that.

One thing that has always amused me about Japanese culture is how they rely on a person’s blood type to see what personality they might have. It takes what some people do with horoscopes here and takes it a step further. Matsumo did an entry on it a while back, but I forgot about it until I read this article in the Korean Herald. I find it amusing in the same way that I find any single way to try and type a person based on something they have no control over, but I find it very amusing that it seems to be widely accepted in Nippon. The article has a fairly good explanation of what personality you’re supposed to have, so I thought I’d break mine down a bit.

If you are type-A, you are a perfectionist with a strong sense of responsibility. Consequently, you earn the trust of people around you. You always plan things to the smallest detail before acting on it. In relationships, you find it difficult to express your feelings.

Let’s see. Perfectionist with a strong sense of responsibility? Check. People tend to trust me? Check. Plan things out well? Now, that’s just laughable. I tend to be more of a by the seat of my pants type of person when it comes to plans. Don’t express feelings well? Toughie. I’m quiet and reserved, so let’s just give ‘em this one. 3 out of 4 ain’t bad, I suppose. Meatloaf would be proud. There’s a geocities site with a more detailed description, but unfortunately it also seems to be a sailor moon fansite, so beware.

This type of thing, I believe, is really just a representation of Japanese society as a whole. Everything and everyone is supposed to have their own little niche they fit in, and this just seems to reinforce that. (Anecdote time, ahoy!) I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard of how distant Japanese people will act towards outsiders until they can understand their place in the social pecking order. In part this is a function of the language itself and can cause confusion/insult/etc when you use the incorrect level of politeness with someone. I don’t even to pretend to understand the equation, but it takes age, job, who you work for, social status, nationality and a ton of other things into account. I have a feeling that this is gonna cause no end of misunderstanding when I’m over there.

Ran into this via BoingBoing, some of their descriptions had me in tears. I think the Soya Bean Drink is my favorite so far. Just from the descriptions I don’t see how anyone could drink some of this. I remember a few of the Asian concoctions from the Coke Museum in Atlanta that still give me nightmares, but these… Well, it might actually be safer to stick to the water.