pastimes in a foreign land

The things we do. Or don’t, as the case may be.

• MUSIC: A favourite of all and, with the advent of the iPod, personal libraries are never far. Very few people seem to embrace anything local; instead, it’s typically the music of anywhere from three to four years ago to longer. Not even relatively new stuff.
• MOVIES: Not much going on here. We run rentals here at the dorm once or twice a month as a kind of get-together thing, but no one goes out to them. This is probably due to the fact that it’s prohibitively expensive and they’ve never heard of budget- and second-run theatres; a ticket here at a ‘plex will run you at least $15, on average, for any time of day.
• KARAOKE: Balm to some, bane to others. About half the students at the dorm dig karaoke like nothing else, and have literally had six- to eight-hour marathon sessions. The other half is pretty unenthused with it. There’re a few in the middle who are more ambivalent, but karaoke is a polarisin’ thing. Contrary to popular belief, not EVERY Japanese person loves karaoke.
• SPORTS: Not much here, either. There’s no place for pick-up games of anything, and the sports teams/clubs they have are nigh-fanatical and not for the casual game. The best we manage is some occasional bicycle excursions around town or the lake.
• GAMES: Japan, right? Video game central? Not to see us.
• BOOKS: Some meat here. No one really wants to spend money on books at an import shop, so we pass around what things we’ve brought. We usually keep the door to this apartment open so we have a small bookshelf available for those interested in browsing.
• INTERNET: I think most of us probably kill time with the ‘net. Communication AND entertainment, in all its myriad forms.
• HANGIN’: Our dorm lacks a common room, so can’t do much of this here, unfortunately. Out in Kyoto or at campus, sure, but that all requires travel time so it’s less of a pastime and more of a day.