I've been fairly busy since I got back to the States, which is my excuse for waiting so long to post the conclusion to my trip. I've also been dealing with a very strange case of jet-lag, which didn't strike until I'd gotten several nights of sleep. Well, here's what happened.
Tuesday
Nara is far cooler than Kyoto. The weather there was some of the most pleasant weather I’ve experienced in Japan (that may just be because of the contrast with Kyoto. Most of us left our backpacks and other carrying containers in lockers at the Nara station (we checked out of the K’s House, so we couldn’t leave them there). I carried my backpack for the entire day. Why? Because it cost 300 yen to get a locker and they only took 100 yen coins. I I had remembered that I carried more hundred yen coins in a different pocket, I would have gotten one, but I thought I only had one 100 yen coin with me.
Almost as soon as we’d left the station in Nara, we saw deer. The deer in Nara have no fear of man. One of our group, Ashlie, went up to one of the deer to give it some of her drink (I don’t know why) and it took the map she was holding instead. She tried to get the map back, but the deer never let her get a hold on it.
As we walked to the Todaiji Temple we encountered many more deer. Many, as in, I’m not sure if herds in the wild have this many deer. People were selling packs of cookies to feed the deer for 150 yen each. Several of my companions bought packs of them. The deer were oddly polite. Yes, polite, which is not a word often used to describe anything besides humans. It was possible to get the deer to bow.
The Todaiji Temple had a very big Buddha and a decent souvenir shop. It also banned people from using tripods to take pictures, for some reason. About 3 seconds after I saw a sign saying “No Tripods” I saw a woman setting up a tripod. Some people just have no manners.
We returned to the station for lunch. I eventually found my way to a McDonald’s, having decided that I was well and truly fed up with Japanese food. I decided to try out the Mega Mac with its accompanying meal. It was very filling, but the taste left something to be desired. At least I’ve satisfied my desire to give it a try.
It was then time to go to one last temple. No, wait, shrine. Temples (in Japan) are Buddhist, shrines are Shinto. Honestly, it wasn’t very memorable, which is why I had trouble remembering which it was. There were definitely miko attending some of the windows there, so it must have been a Shinto shrine. What I most remember about the shrine are the interactions we had with the deer there. I gave a deer cookie to a deer by holding it in my mouth. I was not foolish enough to be the first one to do it. Another student made sure that the deer didn’t bite his lips off when he did so before I gave one a cookie.
We had to head back to Kyoto after the last shrine. Or so we thought. Turned out that we had a couple more hours than we wanted. When we arrived at the station (and went through the ticket area) we found out that someone had committed suicide by jumping in front of one of the Shinkansen bullet trains. As a result, all of the trains were delayed by around two hours. Bad news for both commuters and anyone who cared about the man who killed himself. Although I was looking in a different direction at the time, my companions said that when one of the Shinkansen pulled up, it had a splatter of red and a dent on the front of it.
When we finally got back to the guest house, it was past 10:00 PM, which is why I didn’t write anything that night.
Wednesday
Our last full day in Japan, and my last chance to get the figurines I wanted.
The weather in Tokyo seemed to be much cooler than it had been before we went to Kyoto. I haven’t checked the weather reports, so I don’t know if it actually cooled down or if it was just because after Kyoto, not much can feel hot to me. In any case, I found movement outdoors to be very easy.
After a quick check-in online in the morning, and sending off an email to my family, I went over to Machida. I wanted to get more figurines, and this was my last chance. I had some trouble finding my way back to the department store with the right machines, but after I found the McDonald’s I’d eaten at on Sunday, it was easy. The machines only accepted 100 yen coins, and I’d decided that before going to the arcade and reducing a bill to coins, that I would try it with the 100 yen coins I’d acquired through purchases on the previous day. Three tries, three of the same figurine which I already had. I went to the arcade, exchanged a 2000 yen note ($20), and returned to challenge the machines again. In hindsight, my obsession seems a bit silly. I received a repeat, a repeat, new-but-not-quite-right, and finally the one I was looking for. To make up for spending money so recklessly, I decided that that would be the last bill I spent while in Japan. I visited Yodobashi Camera one last time to say goodbye, and left Machida for the second-to-last time.
By the time I got back, there wasn’t really time to get online again before a meeting scheduled for 4:30. I spent most of the time between my return and the meeting packing my things. A lot of the people were missing when the meeting time came around; they had gone to the Studio Ghibli Museum and most had not yet returned. In truth, the meeting was nothing important, just Kazuko again telling us about how we’d have to be packed and ready to go early on Thursday. It would have been easier for her to give the information to those of us who’d been to Kyoto and have us pass it on the previous night. It amounted to about two sentences’ worth of information.
We didn’t have as much involvement in the planning of the Sayonara Party as we’d been led to believe that we would. Yes, it was Kazuko’s doing again. I’ve been rather hard on her, but I must soften it with the fact that this was the first time the trip was done. Presumably she’ll know better next year. Back to the party. Poor, poor Sam 1. He’d been alarmed at the thought that we might have to do something big (there had bee mentions of a song and dance number), so he wrote a speech instead. By the time he found out that we didn’t all have to do something, Kazuko knew about his speech and he had to give it. Angela also spoke, and Billy sang a song while playing his guitar. There was some food and a few pictures, and that was mostly it.
Most of the group went out after the party. Some of them were talking about staying up all night so that they could sleep on the plane. As one of the first people up each day, I can say with certainty that not one of them succeeded. I didn’t go out, since I’d decided not to spend any significant amounts of money, which I would have had to do. The only other people in the guest house at the time were Billy and his Japanese girlfriend (I know her name, I just think it more respectful not to mention the names of our Japanese guides). As he was serenading her upstairs, I spent the time downstairs. Ended up falling asleep down there, before Billy and his girlfriend came down and I went back upstairs.
Thursday
The day we left Japan. Or most of us did, anyways.
I woke up just as early as normal, which left me quite bored for a while. I’d packed my laptop the previous night, and had no desire to dig it out of my backpack. I was able t finish packing in a matter of minutes, while a lot of the others needed all the time they had. The greatest difficulty I had was when one of my figurines lost a part, and I had to search underneath my bed for it. Those of us who weren’t packing were also doing a bit of cleaning.
We had one more meeting, this time with many of the local students and some of the teachers there. They helped us out in getting the refrigerator emptied and stuff like that. Kazuko was constantly alternating between telling us “That isn’t their job! Clean up!” and “Everybody, come in for the meeting!’ At times, I think she even did the two within the same minute. The meeting was pointless, anyways, as we’d gone over everything the previous night.
We went to Machida one last time, where we caught a bus after a considerable wait (and Kazuko drafting two of the guys to carry her luggage, even after she told us to pack light). The bus ride was around two hours long, and I might have caught a few minutes of sleep on it. Finally, we made it to the airport.
Remember how I said most of us left Japan? Well, Ryan (the guy who I said should have insurance taken out on him so long ago) lost his passport. He had to make his way to the US Embassy in order to fix his problem. We had thought that a copy of his passport would be enough, but it wasn’t. Make a note of that: real passport only. I just hope he didn’t use any of the ways Sam 1 suggested to get deported. Without a passport, they wouldn’t know where to deport him to.
Not much to say about the plane ride. I spent about four hours of it talking to Sam 1, next to whom I had been seated. The other four or five hours were mostly spent listening to music, trying to watch fragments of movies, and playing my DS.
Finally, we arrived back in America. Most of us managed to stick in a group until we parted at the pick-up location. We managed to stick together through the initial screening, baggage claim (where Kazuko left us), customs, and the subway trains that took us between the arrival area and the main part of the airport. Quite impressive, I think.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Bad to Good
7-4-08 Cont. (6:28 PM local, 2:28 AM back home)
The Fourth of July has finally started in proper. We were originally planning to have some celebrations near the river, but those seem to have been put of until tomorrow, when it won’t be the Fourth in either America or Japan, which makes no sense. Well, I wrote “we” but really meant some of the others. I haven’t had anything to do with any planning.
Okonomiyaki was a disappointment, to put it lightly. Actually, it was the worst of the many disappointments I’ve faced in Japan. It tasted terrible. It might just have been the stuff added to the batter, none of which am I known to like. I remember the basic principles, so I can try to make better stuff when I get back to the States.
Kazuko does not know what the hell she’s talking about. The woman is a, to borrow a term from The Simpsons, “craptastic” tour guide and planner. We had a choice between a very scary movie that came recommended by the local students, but was entirely in Japanese, and what she called a moderately scary movie with English subtitles. I could have sworn that we voted on the very scary movie, which is what we were originally supposed to watch anyways, but she had us watch the moderately scary one. It was not scary. It was a joke. A bad joke. Nowadays, when you tell people that you’re going to show them a Japanese scary movie, people expect something like Ringu (original version of The Ring). What she showed us must have been a joke, even when it was made back in the fifties.
Then there was the Japanese music. Kazuko said that it would probably be with traditional instruments, not J-Pop (Japanese pop music). I was hoping that her track record of being wrong would continue. No such luck. I’m trying to have as much fun as I can over here, but it really isn’t easy with such a lousy and bossy tour guide. I came over here because I enjoy certain parts of Japan’s modern culture, not Japan’s traditional culture. Turns out that I’d have an easier time experiencing those aspects back in the States than I’m having when I have to deal with Kazuko.
I’m not having fun with Kazuko. My Top Three Fun Things in Japan are: calligraphy, visiting the Yodobashi shops (multiple times), and using my laptop. She planned exactly one of those things. Her track record is not good. Tomorrow we visit Kamakura, which is where the anime Elfen Lied was set (unless that was a different Kamakura). It has a chance of being fun, but I’m not counting on it. Nor am I very optimistic about the last trip on Monday and Tuesday at this point. Or the Sayonara Party (I hate parties). Yeah, Japan has been very disappointing so far. I blame Kazuko for planning lame activities. Not many college students are actually interested in traditional culture, now are they (incidentally, the stuff the local students have led has been more fun that what Kazuko led)? No, if someone is interested in Japan enough to go there nowadays, isn’t it more likely that the pop culture is what drew them here? From what I’ve heard, Akihabara is the place that would most match what I want, but with the shootings that have happened there, we didn’t go.
Fortunately, we didn’t have to go to judo tonight. There were scheduling issues, and I’m not sure of the details, but we couldn’t see it. So much the better, that gives me more free time. Unfortunately, we only found this out after spending 15-20 minutes standing around in the rather hot sports building. To get to the area where we waited, we had to take off our shoes and put on some slippers that we set up for just such a purpose. They were nowhere near large enough for my feet to fit inside, but I still had to wear them (I forgot to mention that we had to do the same thing when we visited the elementary school, so I spent the visit with my heels hanging over the edge of the slippers).
Most of the others have gone out to one place or another. I think there are only three of us in the guest house right now, with one being someone who recently returned. I’m the only one in the main room right now.
Bah.
7-4-08 Cont. Again. ‘Bout 8:17 PM here, so 4:17 AM back home.
Thank you, Tokyo, and Happy Fourth of July! There’s an absolutely awesome lightning storm going on outside right now. I took a video of it. Ryan, Andrejs, and I were all out there together, behind the Taiwan students’ house. We were getting eaten alive by the bugs, and I was the first to come in. Mostly because I was satisfied with what I got before they were. Maybe the coolest natural phenomenon I’ve ever seen.
7-5-08 (6:06 PM Saturday local, 2:06 AM home)
Japanese class in now over. Kazuko gave us our last extra credit quiz today, and we turned in our last extra credit written conversation. Do not ask me what I wrote on mine; it was the product of late-night discussion about how to translate certain phrases into Japanese. I was so shocked that I new the answer that I had to use it in my conversation. It was nothing too bad, and might and up making Kazuko laugh, even. Speaking of the written conversations, I think that one place where Kazuko and I differ is in the level of formality we think should be in them. I use characters that I already know when I write, so they speak in a more casual way than might be usual. It doesn’t seem odd to me because I know them, but she probably doesn’t so… Anyways, I don’t think that some of the points she marked off on my second-to-last conversation were technically wrong, just more casual than she might have wanted. Doesn’t matter, since my score in her class is better-than-perfect thanks to extra-credit.
My slight faith in Kamakura was rewarded. We visited the temple of the Giant Buddha and a couple of Shinto shrines (actually, the first shrine might have been a Buddhist temple as well, I saw signs of both faiths), and all were fun.
I went inside the big Buddha’s belly, which wasn’t actually that impressive, but allowed me to use the phrase “I went inside the big Buddha’s belly.” I also bought a few charms there. The second sacred place we went to had a cave we could go inside. There were hundreds of tiny statues in the cave, and it was lit only by candles. In order to get through the cave, I had to bend over double because the cave got so small. At the same place, there was a very large series of stairs that I climbed up. I thought it would go all the way up the hill, but no such luck. That was quite disappointing, but it still went about halfway up the hill. I should mention that it was very hot today.
After we visited the first two holy sites, we had to go back to the train station and catch a short ride to another location in Kamakura, closer to the final shrine. While waiting for the rest of the group to show up, I went into a 100 Yen store and got a new bag to replace the one my mother sent with me. Last week I damaged the carrying straps ( not sure how I pulled that one off) and then today I couldn’t find it. Yeah, people should not trust me with their stuff. I also bought a Mountain Dew there, since I couldn’t carry my water bottle around for hours at a time in a practical manner without a bag to carry it in.
When we arrived at the last station, Kazuko set us free to get our own lunch. Most of the group went to have okonomiyaki, but five of us (myself included) went to McDonald’s. I had a hamburger from the 100 yen menu. Apparently they serve Mega Macs over here, which have four meat patties and three buns. They also have Happy Books to go with the Happy Meals.
Shortly after we ate, one of the other students who ate at the cheap location found a shop that focused on the works of Hayao Miyazaki. For those who don’t know, they include but are not limited to: My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, Princess Mononoke, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. There was some neat stuff in there, but nothing I really wanted to buy.
Wandering down the street the Miyazaki shop was on, I realized that there were a few things about shopping in Japan that I hadn’t yet mentioned. Shopping streets in Japan are three-dimensional, not two-dimensional like streets in America. You have to pay attention to all the little nooks and crannies because some of the stores are located below street level and some are on the second floor of buildings. The Miyazaki shop was the most interesting place I found on that street.
The third holy site was the first one I was sure was a Shinto shrine. How was I sure? Because it was the first place where I saw a miko, a Shinto priestess. The structure wasn’t as impressive as at the second, but it was interesting to see the bazaar-like atmosphere that sprang up below the shrine’s staircase. There was a wall of masks that felt very out of place: some were Pokemon, some were from Hello Kitty, some that looked like they came from a Sentai Rangers series, and others that I can’t describe. Interesting note about the bathroom at the shrine: There was no toilet paper. None whatsoever. I noticed it before I needed any, fortunately.
I don’t think we’re going to be doing any Fourth of July celebrations today either. Even if we were, I decided that if I had a new blister today, I wouldn’t go. Turns out that I have a new blister; this time on my left big toe, matching the one on my right. Just going to rest for the rest of the night.
Before I go, I should mention that the local students were the guides for the day.
7-6-08 (9:08 AM Sunday local, 5:08 PM Saturday back home)
I used up the last of my real food yesterday. All I have left is candy. I did that purposefully, so that I would have to set off early today in order to get something to eat. I’m planning on heading off to Machida today and spending most of the day shopping. I’ve heard of a taiyaki place over there (although I just know the general area), and can probably find a place that will serve gyuudon as well.
I’m washing my things for the last time in Japan right now. The washing machine was giving me a surprising amount of trouble that it hadn’t given me before, but I managed to get it to work.
I’m seriously tempted to try to make my way to Akihabara today, since I’ve heard so many good things about it. The odds of the shootings happening there again today are vanishingly small, after all. This is probably a case in which my curiosity would win over my caution except that I have no idea how to get there. I’d probably have to switch trains and even lines in order to get there, and I have nowhere near the understanding necessary to find my way there alone.
7-6-08 (5:01 PM Sunday local, 1:01 AM back home)
Finished my shopping in Machida today. Well, finished for now, anyways. I’ll probably end up going back there on Wednesday. I wasted quite a bit of money on figurines. Now that I actually stop to think about it, I blew over $20. Not good. I didn’t even manage to get the one that I really wanted, either. Moral: Stay away from the coin-operated toy machines in Japan.
It was quite hot today, but I managed to spend most of my time inside where there was air-conditioning. That was what determined a lot of where I went with my day. I saw one place that looked like it had air-conditioning, went in, browsed, and went out a different exit.
I stopped by a 7-11 in Machida. That was the first time I went into a Japanese 7-11. There weren’t any slushies or the sorts of things Americans are used to, but there were meat buns, Makoto’s food. Since I’ve already had one, I didn’t buy one there. I did, however, finally get some rice balls to eat while I was there, as well as something for either dinner tonight or breakfast tomorrow morning, depending on when I get hungry.
I don’t like nori. Nori is dried seaweed. The Japanese use nori in a lot of their foods, including rice balls. The pack I bought had two rice balls in it, with different fillings. I could identify less than half of what I ate. I knew the rice and the nori, but neither of the fillings or the little bunch of extra stuff I was given along with the rice balls. That’s one of the reasons why I wouldn’t be able to live over here: I don’t like Japanese food. Sure, there have been a few good-tasting food items over here, but I wouldn’t be able to take them being the entirety of my diet.
Went into a Japanese arcade, I did. Shouldn’t have done that. I blew 300 yen trying to get a large figurine from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzuki (which was actually only two tries), and it allowed me to get the 100 yen coins that I later wasted in coin machines.
When I say “wasted” I don’t mean “used to get figurines.” I mean “the d@mn machine ate 600 yen and I don’t know enough Japanese to explain the situation!” I should have stopped with that machine after it ate the first 300 yen, but I thought that another try might clear it up. No such luck. Still, I do like the figurines that I managed to get.
I’d like to reiterate that I like Yodobashi Camera. They didn’t have the sort of coin machine I wanted at the one in Machida, but there was a coin machine that shocked me. Not so much that it existed, but that it was somewhere where children could get to it. It also surprised me that that machine was nearly empty. I took pictures of it, but I’m not sure that those are enough to get people to believe me about it.
Apparently, in Japanese McDonald’s ice cream is called a “soft twist.” I’m not sure why. I didn’t plan on going there today; I wanted to find taiyaki and a place to get gyuudon, but at the time I couldn’t find either. The ice cream was very refreshing on such a hot day.
I also saw some kittens in a store. OMOCHIKAERI (wow, my word processor says that word is okay. Did I overload it?)! That is, I WANNA TAKE THEM HOME! But I have my own precious kitties, and the ones I saw today reminded me of them. It was so sad to see them in the store windows. The kittens (and puppies, and bunnies) were all alone in their sections and they couldn’t play with anybody else. SADNESS!
I finally gave up on my attempts to find taiyaki or gyuudon in Machida and went back to the station. I had earlier had a difficult time getting out of the station because I’d wandered into the station’s attached department store and didn’t know how to navigate out. I went back to that department store and made my way through every level, eventually ending up on a floor where I finally found some books I recognized: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya light novel series. I was seriously tempted to buy Volume 9, since it’s my favorite of the series, but held off.
I then traveled to the very bottom floor of the department store, and found the place where they sold food. I walked through the various stands, and found one that sold taiyaki. やっと見つけった(Yatto mitsuketta! I finally found it!). I bought one, since I didn’t know how it would taste.
Which brings me to something that I need to address: the Kanon food mission. I set out in Japan on a mission to eat all five of the favorite foods of Kanon’s characters during my time here: taiyaki, nikuman, something with strawberries, gyuudon, and ice cream. Shiori, Nayuki, your foods are okay; the ice cream and the strawberries were fine. Mai, I still haven’t managed to find gyuudon. Ayu, Makoto, we need to talk. Taiyaki and nikuman are not yummy. Stop acting like they are. You are misleading people. Stop it. Diversify the food you eat, and I’m sure that you’ll find something that actually tastes good.
That is all for now.
7-7-08 (8:20 PM Monday local, 4:20 AM back home)
If the reader would please imagine the next sentence in a Ricky Ricardo voice, I would appreciate it. Mai, youse got some ‘splainin’ at do! Thank you. The reason for that sentence is that I have finally completed my Kanon Food Mission, and eaten some gyuudon (or close enough). Mai, you are adorable, but you do not have good taste in food. If it’s just because that was how you became friends with Sayuri-san, that’s fine, but you should specify that that‘s the case.
Where did I finally find gyuudon? In a restaurant that me and four of the girls on the trip found. Why was I traveling with four of the girls who came on the trip? Because I didn’t know where to get food in Kyoto either. Why am I in Kyoto? Maybe I should back up a bit.
Today was the first day of the optional Kyoto overnight trip. Eleven students signed up to go on it, but one dropped out literally as we were walking for the train station, so there are only ten of us, plus Kazuko and her friend, who is acting as a guide.
Kyoto is very hot. I’ve used that to describe Tokyo, but Kyoto takes it to another level. I brought two water bottles filled with ice with me when I left the guest house today, and I was glad that I did so. We visited three temples today, and by the end we were all exhausted.
First up, we visited Kiyomizu’s Temple. The main feature there were three streams of water (streams in the sense of falling in streams, rather than along the ground) that you could drink from. The three streams represent health, wisdom, and longevity. People are only supposed to drink from two of the streams, as to do otherwise is to invite misfortune. I drank from the first and second streams. I have no idea what they represented, as my research has turned up nothing.
The second temple we visited was an accident; Kazuko led us into the wrong one. We got some incense and put it into a burner in front of a gigantic statue, and then went to the proper second temple.
The proper second temple was not very impressive, to tell the truth. The best part of it was that parts of it had air conditioning. The worst part of it was that it had a lot of stairs that were not air-conditioned. Really, though, the Kiyomizu Temple had more stairs just to get to the temple. Actually, the worst part was that my camera’s battery ran out during the visit there. At least I got to have a sluchy-like drink that was tasty even though it gave me brain freeze.
We had to take a taxi to the third temple. It was the Golden Pavilion, a building covered in some form of gold and its surroundings. I really wished that I could take pictures there, but with my camera’s battery depleted… There were also some small places off the path that people could try to throw coins into. I’m not sure why. At the end, Kazuko decided to treat all of us to kakigori (shaved ice). Very nice.
We then returned to the hostel where we had earlier dropped off our stuff. It’s pretty nice here; this is the first place in Japan where I’ve had a comfortable time connecting to the internet. There aren’t any three-pronged outlets as far as I can tell, though, so I’m on battery power. There’s a breakfast buffet, but we’ll have to leave tomorrow before it opens. Pity, as my mouth was watering when I read the description.
And the topic of food leads me back to being in a restaurant with four girls. I spent the time listening to their girl talk, which I am not allowed to repeat under threat of chopstick assault.
Tomorrow we’ll be visiting Nara. We expect to see a lot of deer. And that is all for now.
The Fourth of July has finally started in proper. We were originally planning to have some celebrations near the river, but those seem to have been put of until tomorrow, when it won’t be the Fourth in either America or Japan, which makes no sense. Well, I wrote “we” but really meant some of the others. I haven’t had anything to do with any planning.
Okonomiyaki was a disappointment, to put it lightly. Actually, it was the worst of the many disappointments I’ve faced in Japan. It tasted terrible. It might just have been the stuff added to the batter, none of which am I known to like. I remember the basic principles, so I can try to make better stuff when I get back to the States.
Kazuko does not know what the hell she’s talking about. The woman is a, to borrow a term from The Simpsons, “craptastic” tour guide and planner. We had a choice between a very scary movie that came recommended by the local students, but was entirely in Japanese, and what she called a moderately scary movie with English subtitles. I could have sworn that we voted on the very scary movie, which is what we were originally supposed to watch anyways, but she had us watch the moderately scary one. It was not scary. It was a joke. A bad joke. Nowadays, when you tell people that you’re going to show them a Japanese scary movie, people expect something like Ringu (original version of The Ring). What she showed us must have been a joke, even when it was made back in the fifties.
Then there was the Japanese music. Kazuko said that it would probably be with traditional instruments, not J-Pop (Japanese pop music). I was hoping that her track record of being wrong would continue. No such luck. I’m trying to have as much fun as I can over here, but it really isn’t easy with such a lousy and bossy tour guide. I came over here because I enjoy certain parts of Japan’s modern culture, not Japan’s traditional culture. Turns out that I’d have an easier time experiencing those aspects back in the States than I’m having when I have to deal with Kazuko.
I’m not having fun with Kazuko. My Top Three Fun Things in Japan are: calligraphy, visiting the Yodobashi shops (multiple times), and using my laptop. She planned exactly one of those things. Her track record is not good. Tomorrow we visit Kamakura, which is where the anime Elfen Lied was set (unless that was a different Kamakura). It has a chance of being fun, but I’m not counting on it. Nor am I very optimistic about the last trip on Monday and Tuesday at this point. Or the Sayonara Party (I hate parties). Yeah, Japan has been very disappointing so far. I blame Kazuko for planning lame activities. Not many college students are actually interested in traditional culture, now are they (incidentally, the stuff the local students have led has been more fun that what Kazuko led)? No, if someone is interested in Japan enough to go there nowadays, isn’t it more likely that the pop culture is what drew them here? From what I’ve heard, Akihabara is the place that would most match what I want, but with the shootings that have happened there, we didn’t go.
Fortunately, we didn’t have to go to judo tonight. There were scheduling issues, and I’m not sure of the details, but we couldn’t see it. So much the better, that gives me more free time. Unfortunately, we only found this out after spending 15-20 minutes standing around in the rather hot sports building. To get to the area where we waited, we had to take off our shoes and put on some slippers that we set up for just such a purpose. They were nowhere near large enough for my feet to fit inside, but I still had to wear them (I forgot to mention that we had to do the same thing when we visited the elementary school, so I spent the visit with my heels hanging over the edge of the slippers).
Most of the others have gone out to one place or another. I think there are only three of us in the guest house right now, with one being someone who recently returned. I’m the only one in the main room right now.
Bah.
7-4-08 Cont. Again. ‘Bout 8:17 PM here, so 4:17 AM back home.
Thank you, Tokyo, and Happy Fourth of July! There’s an absolutely awesome lightning storm going on outside right now. I took a video of it. Ryan, Andrejs, and I were all out there together, behind the Taiwan students’ house. We were getting eaten alive by the bugs, and I was the first to come in. Mostly because I was satisfied with what I got before they were. Maybe the coolest natural phenomenon I’ve ever seen.
7-5-08 (6:06 PM Saturday local, 2:06 AM home)
Japanese class in now over. Kazuko gave us our last extra credit quiz today, and we turned in our last extra credit written conversation. Do not ask me what I wrote on mine; it was the product of late-night discussion about how to translate certain phrases into Japanese. I was so shocked that I new the answer that I had to use it in my conversation. It was nothing too bad, and might and up making Kazuko laugh, even. Speaking of the written conversations, I think that one place where Kazuko and I differ is in the level of formality we think should be in them. I use characters that I already know when I write, so they speak in a more casual way than might be usual. It doesn’t seem odd to me because I know them, but she probably doesn’t so… Anyways, I don’t think that some of the points she marked off on my second-to-last conversation were technically wrong, just more casual than she might have wanted. Doesn’t matter, since my score in her class is better-than-perfect thanks to extra-credit.
My slight faith in Kamakura was rewarded. We visited the temple of the Giant Buddha and a couple of Shinto shrines (actually, the first shrine might have been a Buddhist temple as well, I saw signs of both faiths), and all were fun.
I went inside the big Buddha’s belly, which wasn’t actually that impressive, but allowed me to use the phrase “I went inside the big Buddha’s belly.” I also bought a few charms there. The second sacred place we went to had a cave we could go inside. There were hundreds of tiny statues in the cave, and it was lit only by candles. In order to get through the cave, I had to bend over double because the cave got so small. At the same place, there was a very large series of stairs that I climbed up. I thought it would go all the way up the hill, but no such luck. That was quite disappointing, but it still went about halfway up the hill. I should mention that it was very hot today.
After we visited the first two holy sites, we had to go back to the train station and catch a short ride to another location in Kamakura, closer to the final shrine. While waiting for the rest of the group to show up, I went into a 100 Yen store and got a new bag to replace the one my mother sent with me. Last week I damaged the carrying straps ( not sure how I pulled that one off) and then today I couldn’t find it. Yeah, people should not trust me with their stuff. I also bought a Mountain Dew there, since I couldn’t carry my water bottle around for hours at a time in a practical manner without a bag to carry it in.
When we arrived at the last station, Kazuko set us free to get our own lunch. Most of the group went to have okonomiyaki, but five of us (myself included) went to McDonald’s. I had a hamburger from the 100 yen menu. Apparently they serve Mega Macs over here, which have four meat patties and three buns. They also have Happy Books to go with the Happy Meals.
Shortly after we ate, one of the other students who ate at the cheap location found a shop that focused on the works of Hayao Miyazaki. For those who don’t know, they include but are not limited to: My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, Princess Mononoke, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. There was some neat stuff in there, but nothing I really wanted to buy.
Wandering down the street the Miyazaki shop was on, I realized that there were a few things about shopping in Japan that I hadn’t yet mentioned. Shopping streets in Japan are three-dimensional, not two-dimensional like streets in America. You have to pay attention to all the little nooks and crannies because some of the stores are located below street level and some are on the second floor of buildings. The Miyazaki shop was the most interesting place I found on that street.
The third holy site was the first one I was sure was a Shinto shrine. How was I sure? Because it was the first place where I saw a miko, a Shinto priestess. The structure wasn’t as impressive as at the second, but it was interesting to see the bazaar-like atmosphere that sprang up below the shrine’s staircase. There was a wall of masks that felt very out of place: some were Pokemon, some were from Hello Kitty, some that looked like they came from a Sentai Rangers series, and others that I can’t describe. Interesting note about the bathroom at the shrine: There was no toilet paper. None whatsoever. I noticed it before I needed any, fortunately.
I don’t think we’re going to be doing any Fourth of July celebrations today either. Even if we were, I decided that if I had a new blister today, I wouldn’t go. Turns out that I have a new blister; this time on my left big toe, matching the one on my right. Just going to rest for the rest of the night.
Before I go, I should mention that the local students were the guides for the day.
7-6-08 (9:08 AM Sunday local, 5:08 PM Saturday back home)
I used up the last of my real food yesterday. All I have left is candy. I did that purposefully, so that I would have to set off early today in order to get something to eat. I’m planning on heading off to Machida today and spending most of the day shopping. I’ve heard of a taiyaki place over there (although I just know the general area), and can probably find a place that will serve gyuudon as well.
I’m washing my things for the last time in Japan right now. The washing machine was giving me a surprising amount of trouble that it hadn’t given me before, but I managed to get it to work.
I’m seriously tempted to try to make my way to Akihabara today, since I’ve heard so many good things about it. The odds of the shootings happening there again today are vanishingly small, after all. This is probably a case in which my curiosity would win over my caution except that I have no idea how to get there. I’d probably have to switch trains and even lines in order to get there, and I have nowhere near the understanding necessary to find my way there alone.
7-6-08 (5:01 PM Sunday local, 1:01 AM back home)
Finished my shopping in Machida today. Well, finished for now, anyways. I’ll probably end up going back there on Wednesday. I wasted quite a bit of money on figurines. Now that I actually stop to think about it, I blew over $20. Not good. I didn’t even manage to get the one that I really wanted, either. Moral: Stay away from the coin-operated toy machines in Japan.
It was quite hot today, but I managed to spend most of my time inside where there was air-conditioning. That was what determined a lot of where I went with my day. I saw one place that looked like it had air-conditioning, went in, browsed, and went out a different exit.
I stopped by a 7-11 in Machida. That was the first time I went into a Japanese 7-11. There weren’t any slushies or the sorts of things Americans are used to, but there were meat buns, Makoto’s food. Since I’ve already had one, I didn’t buy one there. I did, however, finally get some rice balls to eat while I was there, as well as something for either dinner tonight or breakfast tomorrow morning, depending on when I get hungry.
I don’t like nori. Nori is dried seaweed. The Japanese use nori in a lot of their foods, including rice balls. The pack I bought had two rice balls in it, with different fillings. I could identify less than half of what I ate. I knew the rice and the nori, but neither of the fillings or the little bunch of extra stuff I was given along with the rice balls. That’s one of the reasons why I wouldn’t be able to live over here: I don’t like Japanese food. Sure, there have been a few good-tasting food items over here, but I wouldn’t be able to take them being the entirety of my diet.
Went into a Japanese arcade, I did. Shouldn’t have done that. I blew 300 yen trying to get a large figurine from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzuki (which was actually only two tries), and it allowed me to get the 100 yen coins that I later wasted in coin machines.
When I say “wasted” I don’t mean “used to get figurines.” I mean “the d@mn machine ate 600 yen and I don’t know enough Japanese to explain the situation!” I should have stopped with that machine after it ate the first 300 yen, but I thought that another try might clear it up. No such luck. Still, I do like the figurines that I managed to get.
I’d like to reiterate that I like Yodobashi Camera. They didn’t have the sort of coin machine I wanted at the one in Machida, but there was a coin machine that shocked me. Not so much that it existed, but that it was somewhere where children could get to it. It also surprised me that that machine was nearly empty. I took pictures of it, but I’m not sure that those are enough to get people to believe me about it.
Apparently, in Japanese McDonald’s ice cream is called a “soft twist.” I’m not sure why. I didn’t plan on going there today; I wanted to find taiyaki and a place to get gyuudon, but at the time I couldn’t find either. The ice cream was very refreshing on such a hot day.
I also saw some kittens in a store. OMOCHIKAERI (wow, my word processor says that word is okay. Did I overload it?)! That is, I WANNA TAKE THEM HOME! But I have my own precious kitties, and the ones I saw today reminded me of them. It was so sad to see them in the store windows. The kittens (and puppies, and bunnies) were all alone in their sections and they couldn’t play with anybody else. SADNESS!
I finally gave up on my attempts to find taiyaki or gyuudon in Machida and went back to the station. I had earlier had a difficult time getting out of the station because I’d wandered into the station’s attached department store and didn’t know how to navigate out. I went back to that department store and made my way through every level, eventually ending up on a floor where I finally found some books I recognized: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya light novel series. I was seriously tempted to buy Volume 9, since it’s my favorite of the series, but held off.
I then traveled to the very bottom floor of the department store, and found the place where they sold food. I walked through the various stands, and found one that sold taiyaki. やっと見つけった(Yatto mitsuketta! I finally found it!). I bought one, since I didn’t know how it would taste.
Which brings me to something that I need to address: the Kanon food mission. I set out in Japan on a mission to eat all five of the favorite foods of Kanon’s characters during my time here: taiyaki, nikuman, something with strawberries, gyuudon, and ice cream. Shiori, Nayuki, your foods are okay; the ice cream and the strawberries were fine. Mai, I still haven’t managed to find gyuudon. Ayu, Makoto, we need to talk. Taiyaki and nikuman are not yummy. Stop acting like they are. You are misleading people. Stop it. Diversify the food you eat, and I’m sure that you’ll find something that actually tastes good.
That is all for now.
7-7-08 (8:20 PM Monday local, 4:20 AM back home)
If the reader would please imagine the next sentence in a Ricky Ricardo voice, I would appreciate it. Mai, youse got some ‘splainin’ at do! Thank you. The reason for that sentence is that I have finally completed my Kanon Food Mission, and eaten some gyuudon (or close enough). Mai, you are adorable, but you do not have good taste in food. If it’s just because that was how you became friends with Sayuri-san, that’s fine, but you should specify that that‘s the case.
Where did I finally find gyuudon? In a restaurant that me and four of the girls on the trip found. Why was I traveling with four of the girls who came on the trip? Because I didn’t know where to get food in Kyoto either. Why am I in Kyoto? Maybe I should back up a bit.
Today was the first day of the optional Kyoto overnight trip. Eleven students signed up to go on it, but one dropped out literally as we were walking for the train station, so there are only ten of us, plus Kazuko and her friend, who is acting as a guide.
Kyoto is very hot. I’ve used that to describe Tokyo, but Kyoto takes it to another level. I brought two water bottles filled with ice with me when I left the guest house today, and I was glad that I did so. We visited three temples today, and by the end we were all exhausted.
First up, we visited Kiyomizu’s Temple. The main feature there were three streams of water (streams in the sense of falling in streams, rather than along the ground) that you could drink from. The three streams represent health, wisdom, and longevity. People are only supposed to drink from two of the streams, as to do otherwise is to invite misfortune. I drank from the first and second streams. I have no idea what they represented, as my research has turned up nothing.
The second temple we visited was an accident; Kazuko led us into the wrong one. We got some incense and put it into a burner in front of a gigantic statue, and then went to the proper second temple.
The proper second temple was not very impressive, to tell the truth. The best part of it was that parts of it had air conditioning. The worst part of it was that it had a lot of stairs that were not air-conditioned. Really, though, the Kiyomizu Temple had more stairs just to get to the temple. Actually, the worst part was that my camera’s battery ran out during the visit there. At least I got to have a sluchy-like drink that was tasty even though it gave me brain freeze.
We had to take a taxi to the third temple. It was the Golden Pavilion, a building covered in some form of gold and its surroundings. I really wished that I could take pictures there, but with my camera’s battery depleted… There were also some small places off the path that people could try to throw coins into. I’m not sure why. At the end, Kazuko decided to treat all of us to kakigori (shaved ice). Very nice.
We then returned to the hostel where we had earlier dropped off our stuff. It’s pretty nice here; this is the first place in Japan where I’ve had a comfortable time connecting to the internet. There aren’t any three-pronged outlets as far as I can tell, though, so I’m on battery power. There’s a breakfast buffet, but we’ll have to leave tomorrow before it opens. Pity, as my mouth was watering when I read the description.
And the topic of food leads me back to being in a restaurant with four girls. I spent the time listening to their girl talk, which I am not allowed to repeat under threat of chopstick assault.
Tomorrow we’ll be visiting Nara. We expect to see a lot of deer. And that is all for now.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Weekly wrap-up
This is probably going to be my last blog post for a while. The weekend is coming up, and the buildings with internet access are closed on weekends. I might be able to get some access on Sunday by sitting outside of one of them, but there’s no guarantee of that. After the weekend, I’ll be in a different city for a couple of days. Both will be busy, and I have no idea what kind of internet access there will be over there. If things go as I expect, this will be my last post until Wednesday (local time). Anyways, for what I’ve been up to…
7-3-08 Cont. (3:24 PM local, 11:24 PM Wednesday at home)
I’m still exhausted. I’ll get back to that later.
We had to walk to the elementary school. It didn’t surprise me, nor was the walk there that difficult. It was still morning, and it hadn’t gotten very hot yet.
At the school, we found out that the teachers already had plans of their own, AND Kazuko had given us bad information. Instead of each of us being sent to our own classroom and having to entertain the students for an hour or so, we were broken up into our three groups and each of those groups was sent to help with an English lesson. When the English lesson was over, THEN we were sent on to different classes on our own. For lunch.
I was assigned to a third grade classroom. Lunch was milk, tsukemono (pickled vegetables), slices of peaches and oranges, and some surprisingly good spaghetti. Spaghetti that had pieces of fish inside of it. The students didn’t have very good English, nor I good Japanese, but I was able to answer some of their questions. After lunch, I went to the front of the classroom and answered some more questions from the class. The class I was assigned to even drew pictures on the blackboard (green board) to celebrate my arrival. I might not have noticed except that one of them was a picture of a kitty. When it was time for me to leave the class, a bunch of students had me give them my signature. One little girl didn’t have a book for me to sign, and so asked me to sign her hand. Odd.
Not long after class, we a lot of us were waiting in the meeting room for a few of us who were playing with the students during recess. Billy (name changed after the drunkenness incident) played his guitar for us and some of the students who followed us into the meeting room. They enjoyed it. When he was done, we somehow got started on the “We Will Rock You” song. It was sung by one of the Japanese students. Surprising. Incidentally, all of this means that I had no opportunity to use the cards that I spent over three hours last night making. So I wasted three hours of my life and over half of my note cards.
The walk back was terrible. By the time we left, the sun was high in the sky and not showing us any mercy. I have moral objections to buying bottled water, so I couldn’t get any out of the vending machines near the school (nor was there anything else there that I would consider drinking). I bought a couple of cans of Mountain Dew out of a vending machine near campus grounds (that vending machine has unusually large cans). Both are gone now.
I was originally planning on heading over to the computer lab to connect to the internet after I recovered from the trip back here. It took me longer than I expected, and I still have no desire to make the trek to the computer lab. There’s still more than an hour until we have to meet for our next activity (some sort of kempo club this time), but considering the amount of time it takes to get to the computer lab and back, and the heat out there… This message will have to wait until tomorrow to be posted. Oh well.
7-4-08 (6:37 AM Friday local, 2:37 PM Thursday back home)
The kempo club was the most entertaining of the three martial arts clubs we’ve been to so far. Mostly because they allowed six of us to volunteer to join them in their practice. Six volunteered, but only five were able to practice. The sixth couldn’t fit into the gi. I was not one of the ones who volunteered.
When we got back to the guest house, some of the local students were waiting for us. I tried to get involved in the conversation, but my reserved nature kept me mostly out of it. I did eventually help another student out with his homework, and then I decided that it was time for bed.
Woke up to a thunderstorm this morning. It was the sort of weather I was warned about when I decided to come to Japan. It was really rather nice to lie in bed and listen to the falling rain and roaring thunder. It was also the first time my room here was actually cold when I woke up. Usually it’s incredibly hot in there in the morning, no matter how cold it was when we went to bed.
Plans for the next few days: Today, we’ll be cooking okonomiyaki, watching a scary movie, and if the schedule is to be trusted, listening to Japanese music as well. Tomorrow (Saturday), we’ll be heading over to Kamakura, a historical city. Hopefully there won’t be any rampaging diclonii while we’re there. I plan on spending a lot of my Sunday over in Machida, shopping for souvenirs and trying to find a taiyaki place I heard about. Come to think of it, I still need to eat gyuudon as well.
That’s all for now.
7-3-08 Cont. (3:24 PM local, 11:24 PM Wednesday at home)
I’m still exhausted. I’ll get back to that later.
We had to walk to the elementary school. It didn’t surprise me, nor was the walk there that difficult. It was still morning, and it hadn’t gotten very hot yet.
At the school, we found out that the teachers already had plans of their own, AND Kazuko had given us bad information. Instead of each of us being sent to our own classroom and having to entertain the students for an hour or so, we were broken up into our three groups and each of those groups was sent to help with an English lesson. When the English lesson was over, THEN we were sent on to different classes on our own. For lunch.
I was assigned to a third grade classroom. Lunch was milk, tsukemono (pickled vegetables), slices of peaches and oranges, and some surprisingly good spaghetti. Spaghetti that had pieces of fish inside of it. The students didn’t have very good English, nor I good Japanese, but I was able to answer some of their questions. After lunch, I went to the front of the classroom and answered some more questions from the class. The class I was assigned to even drew pictures on the blackboard (green board) to celebrate my arrival. I might not have noticed except that one of them was a picture of a kitty. When it was time for me to leave the class, a bunch of students had me give them my signature. One little girl didn’t have a book for me to sign, and so asked me to sign her hand. Odd.
Not long after class, we a lot of us were waiting in the meeting room for a few of us who were playing with the students during recess. Billy (name changed after the drunkenness incident) played his guitar for us and some of the students who followed us into the meeting room. They enjoyed it. When he was done, we somehow got started on the “We Will Rock You” song. It was sung by one of the Japanese students. Surprising. Incidentally, all of this means that I had no opportunity to use the cards that I spent over three hours last night making. So I wasted three hours of my life and over half of my note cards.
The walk back was terrible. By the time we left, the sun was high in the sky and not showing us any mercy. I have moral objections to buying bottled water, so I couldn’t get any out of the vending machines near the school (nor was there anything else there that I would consider drinking). I bought a couple of cans of Mountain Dew out of a vending machine near campus grounds (that vending machine has unusually large cans). Both are gone now.
I was originally planning on heading over to the computer lab to connect to the internet after I recovered from the trip back here. It took me longer than I expected, and I still have no desire to make the trek to the computer lab. There’s still more than an hour until we have to meet for our next activity (some sort of kempo club this time), but considering the amount of time it takes to get to the computer lab and back, and the heat out there… This message will have to wait until tomorrow to be posted. Oh well.
7-4-08 (6:37 AM Friday local, 2:37 PM Thursday back home)
The kempo club was the most entertaining of the three martial arts clubs we’ve been to so far. Mostly because they allowed six of us to volunteer to join them in their practice. Six volunteered, but only five were able to practice. The sixth couldn’t fit into the gi. I was not one of the ones who volunteered.
When we got back to the guest house, some of the local students were waiting for us. I tried to get involved in the conversation, but my reserved nature kept me mostly out of it. I did eventually help another student out with his homework, and then I decided that it was time for bed.
Woke up to a thunderstorm this morning. It was the sort of weather I was warned about when I decided to come to Japan. It was really rather nice to lie in bed and listen to the falling rain and roaring thunder. It was also the first time my room here was actually cold when I woke up. Usually it’s incredibly hot in there in the morning, no matter how cold it was when we went to bed.
Plans for the next few days: Today, we’ll be cooking okonomiyaki, watching a scary movie, and if the schedule is to be trusted, listening to Japanese music as well. Tomorrow (Saturday), we’ll be heading over to Kamakura, a historical city. Hopefully there won’t be any rampaging diclonii while we’re there. I plan on spending a lot of my Sunday over in Machida, shopping for souvenirs and trying to find a taiyaki place I heard about. Come to think of it, I still need to eat gyuudon as well.
That’s all for now.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Another quick update
7-3-08 Thursday, 6:30 AM local. Wednesday, 2:30 PM back home.
Didn’t have time to write yesterday. I was very busy in the later day.
After class, we had a two hour break for lunch, but there wasn’t anything worth writing about at that point. I went down to the bakery and bought enough bread to last me for a few days, at least. I made it back with enough time to have lunch and even spend some time in the computer lab, catching up a little on some stuff that I was missing.
After lunch we went to a calligraphy class. It was the first class activity we’ve had over here that I was sorry to see end. Writing the figures was just plain fun, even if it was difficult to get them right. We all got to make a final character on a special board, and it was stamped by the instructor. We are not to touch the stamp for a year, because it was made with oil and powder, and touching it would damage it.
Next up was a trip to the observatory. The only part of the narration that I understood was when it was talking about Orihime and Hikiboshi, since those two stars are involved with a festival I know a little bit about. The chairs were extremely comfortable, and I had a difficult time staying awake. I want one of them to replace the bed I have here!
We had a short , uneventful break followed by a visit to the school’s brass band. Watching them practice wasn’t very amusing, but when the started singing (yes, singing) they were good. They gave us a song as we were about to leave, and that was good as well.
The reason I didn’t have any time to write last night is because I spent the night making the cards I’m planning on using to play with the students today. Everything from this point on in Japanese class is extra-credit, so visiting the elementary school today is pretty much the last hard thing on the trip. Everything else is play.
Except for maybe the planning of the Sayonara Party. Kazuko says that we need to come up with something to show our gratitude to the local students. Some of the other students are doing the planning for that though. Nobody has asked for my ideas, which is fine with me. I don’t have any ideas for what we could do.
Didn’t have time to write yesterday. I was very busy in the later day.
After class, we had a two hour break for lunch, but there wasn’t anything worth writing about at that point. I went down to the bakery and bought enough bread to last me for a few days, at least. I made it back with enough time to have lunch and even spend some time in the computer lab, catching up a little on some stuff that I was missing.
After lunch we went to a calligraphy class. It was the first class activity we’ve had over here that I was sorry to see end. Writing the figures was just plain fun, even if it was difficult to get them right. We all got to make a final character on a special board, and it was stamped by the instructor. We are not to touch the stamp for a year, because it was made with oil and powder, and touching it would damage it.
Next up was a trip to the observatory. The only part of the narration that I understood was when it was talking about Orihime and Hikiboshi, since those two stars are involved with a festival I know a little bit about. The chairs were extremely comfortable, and I had a difficult time staying awake. I want one of them to replace the bed I have here!
We had a short , uneventful break followed by a visit to the school’s brass band. Watching them practice wasn’t very amusing, but when the started singing (yes, singing) they were good. They gave us a song as we were about to leave, and that was good as well.
The reason I didn’t have any time to write last night is because I spent the night making the cards I’m planning on using to play with the students today. Everything from this point on in Japanese class is extra-credit, so visiting the elementary school today is pretty much the last hard thing on the trip. Everything else is play.
Except for maybe the planning of the Sayonara Party. Kazuko says that we need to come up with something to show our gratitude to the local students. Some of the other students are doing the planning for that though. Nobody has asked for my ideas, which is fine with me. I don’t have any ideas for what we could do.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Quick Update
7-1-08 (7:42 PM Tuesday locally, 3:42 AM back home. I think.)
Quick review of what happened after my last post yesterday: karate club. First they had us take off both out shoes and socks, then we could put them back on, then just our shoes had to come off. During all of this, I discovered that I have a blister on my right big toe. I’ve done a lot of walking in the past, and this is the first time I’ve gotten a blister, which should go to show just how much more intense it is to be over here.
The club was not as interesting as it sounded. We pretty much just watched them practice. I didn’t expect (or want) anything more, but the kendo club put on a better show. I understand that some of the more active students (including one who had practiced karate) got to participate a little bit during the later parts of the meeting, but I was long gone by then. An hour was polite, and that was what I stayed.
Now for today.
We had pizza today. Japanese pizza. No, not okonomiyaki (お好み焼き), that was scheduled for tomorrow. Pizza with Japanese-style toppings. Ranged from bacon-like pork with corn to shrimp to veggies and some unidentifiable meat. Pretty yummy, but surprisingly greasy. We were originally going to eat round sushi, but that was changed because it conflicted with what we would do later. Being able to look back on it, I would have taken the sushi over what it conflicted with.
What it conflicted with was us seeing a kabuki play. Kabuki is a highly-stylized form of Japanese play, usually a comedy, and only performed by men. Yes, even the female roles are played by men. I was able to understand the plot of the play (thanks mostly to a summary in English rather than my skill in Japanese). Even the Japanese people have difficulty understanding some of what is said in kabuki thanks to the archaic speech used in it (think the Japanese version of Shakespearean English). I tried to enjoy the play, I really did, but just couldn’t find it funny. Or entertaining. I almost fell asleep several times.
Getting to the play was slightly painful as well. At first, the trip was great; we went to a part of Tokyo that I hadn’t been to before (Tachikawa), and my first thought once out of the station was “This looks like a fun place!” Unfortunately, one of the trains we were going to catch was undergoing repairs, and we had to take a more roundabout route than was planned. It included a lot of walking. At this point, I should remind you that my feet have begun to blister. Even with that, it was pretty fun at first. The problem was the distance we had to walk. I’m getting used to long distances, but I was panting for water (which I wouldn’t find until after we left the play about two hours later) by the time we got to the theater.
The most enjoyable part of the trip was when we stumbled upon a vending machine that served the closest thing any of us have found to chocolate milk in Japan. The iced cocoa wasn’t quite right, but it was close enough. On the topic of vending machines, anybody who wants to come to Japan for the cigarette vending machines had better bring proof of age. As some members of my class found out today, they have now implemented ID scanners on all of the cigarette vending machines. Oh, and in most urban areas, it seems that the beer vending machines are a thing of the past; I hear that they only remain out in rural areas.
Earlier, I mentioned that okonomiyaki was scheduled for tomorrow. It no longer is. Kazuko did not give a reason. As such, I’m tagging along with Ryan and a few others who are going to Machida for lunch tomorrow. We will eat okonomiyaki. It may be a little expensive, but I will eat it.
On Thursday, we’re scheduled to visit a local elementary school. We will be split up, and one of us sent to each class. Some of the less experienced students will have students from the university helping them out, but I don’t know how useful they will be. Essentially, we are expected to entertain the children. Kazuko says that it might just be for a half-hour, but the schedule has it being significantly longer. We also don’t know how much English the children know. I’m planning on making some cards with pictures on them and words on the other side, and using them to play “karudo” with the kids. I’m not sure if that is the right name for the game. Essentially, the game consists of a caller (me) calling out a card (all of the cards are laid out on a table) and the students grabbing the card that is called. Whoever has the most at the end is the winner.
I haven’t decided yet if I want the words on the cards to be the English words with me calling out the Japanese names or the Japanese words with me calling out the English names. It would be helpful to know how much English the students know.
______________
10:25 AM, Wednesday
We're scheduled ot make some sort of Japanese food on Friday. We were originally going to roll some sushi, but Kazuko has decided that okonomiyaki will be a better choice. Many of us hope that she sticks with it, myself included. Doubtful now that I'll go to machida to eat today. Probably just drop by the bakery.
Quick review of what happened after my last post yesterday: karate club. First they had us take off both out shoes and socks, then we could put them back on, then just our shoes had to come off. During all of this, I discovered that I have a blister on my right big toe. I’ve done a lot of walking in the past, and this is the first time I’ve gotten a blister, which should go to show just how much more intense it is to be over here.
The club was not as interesting as it sounded. We pretty much just watched them practice. I didn’t expect (or want) anything more, but the kendo club put on a better show. I understand that some of the more active students (including one who had practiced karate) got to participate a little bit during the later parts of the meeting, but I was long gone by then. An hour was polite, and that was what I stayed.
Now for today.
We had pizza today. Japanese pizza. No, not okonomiyaki (お好み焼き), that was scheduled for tomorrow. Pizza with Japanese-style toppings. Ranged from bacon-like pork with corn to shrimp to veggies and some unidentifiable meat. Pretty yummy, but surprisingly greasy. We were originally going to eat round sushi, but that was changed because it conflicted with what we would do later. Being able to look back on it, I would have taken the sushi over what it conflicted with.
What it conflicted with was us seeing a kabuki play. Kabuki is a highly-stylized form of Japanese play, usually a comedy, and only performed by men. Yes, even the female roles are played by men. I was able to understand the plot of the play (thanks mostly to a summary in English rather than my skill in Japanese). Even the Japanese people have difficulty understanding some of what is said in kabuki thanks to the archaic speech used in it (think the Japanese version of Shakespearean English). I tried to enjoy the play, I really did, but just couldn’t find it funny. Or entertaining. I almost fell asleep several times.
Getting to the play was slightly painful as well. At first, the trip was great; we went to a part of Tokyo that I hadn’t been to before (Tachikawa), and my first thought once out of the station was “This looks like a fun place!” Unfortunately, one of the trains we were going to catch was undergoing repairs, and we had to take a more roundabout route than was planned. It included a lot of walking. At this point, I should remind you that my feet have begun to blister. Even with that, it was pretty fun at first. The problem was the distance we had to walk. I’m getting used to long distances, but I was panting for water (which I wouldn’t find until after we left the play about two hours later) by the time we got to the theater.
The most enjoyable part of the trip was when we stumbled upon a vending machine that served the closest thing any of us have found to chocolate milk in Japan. The iced cocoa wasn’t quite right, but it was close enough. On the topic of vending machines, anybody who wants to come to Japan for the cigarette vending machines had better bring proof of age. As some members of my class found out today, they have now implemented ID scanners on all of the cigarette vending machines. Oh, and in most urban areas, it seems that the beer vending machines are a thing of the past; I hear that they only remain out in rural areas.
Earlier, I mentioned that okonomiyaki was scheduled for tomorrow. It no longer is. Kazuko did not give a reason. As such, I’m tagging along with Ryan and a few others who are going to Machida for lunch tomorrow. We will eat okonomiyaki. It may be a little expensive, but I will eat it.
On Thursday, we’re scheduled to visit a local elementary school. We will be split up, and one of us sent to each class. Some of the less experienced students will have students from the university helping them out, but I don’t know how useful they will be. Essentially, we are expected to entertain the children. Kazuko says that it might just be for a half-hour, but the schedule has it being significantly longer. We also don’t know how much English the children know. I’m planning on making some cards with pictures on them and words on the other side, and using them to play “karudo” with the kids. I’m not sure if that is the right name for the game. Essentially, the game consists of a caller (me) calling out a card (all of the cards are laid out on a table) and the students grabbing the card that is called. Whoever has the most at the end is the winner.
I haven’t decided yet if I want the words on the cards to be the English words with me calling out the Japanese names or the Japanese words with me calling out the English names. It would be helpful to know how much English the students know.
______________
10:25 AM, Wednesday
We're scheduled ot make some sort of Japanese food on Friday. We were originally going to roll some sushi, but Kazuko has decided that okonomiyaki will be a better choice. Many of us hope that she sticks with it, myself included. Doubtful now that I'll go to machida to eat today. Probably just drop by the bakery.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Seriously, HimeyaShop, WHAT?!
Monday, around 4:11 PM here, so just after midnight back home. I just got back from Machida. More on that soon.
With history class over, we had Japanese class extended. At the very end, we did some origami. We only had time to do it once, and we made a crane. I question the wisdom of starting off with so complicated a creation, but that could just be to make everything afterwards seem simple.
After Japanese class, we helped out with a local English class. I was surprised by how easy it was for us to communicate even when not using each other's language. During my time there, I helped out with a group of girls and a group of guys. The girls tried to get me to say which one of them I thought was cutest, but I know my Greek mythology, and I'm not going to pull a Paris. The guys and I spoke about anime and manga; they recommended some to me and I recommended some American stuff to them.
Some of the local students took us on a short tour of the residential area around campus. I saw a kitty! I was able to pet a kitty! That was nice, even if the walk was tiring. Oh and there were probably a few interesting observations about urban planning, but KITTY!
We went over to Machida to have some ramen after the tour. I thought that it was too expensive, but ordered some anyways. Turned out that the stuff I ordered had kimchi in it. That was a SPICY ramen! Still good, though. And it turned out to be filling enough that the price was justified.
Once the ramen was eaten, we split up. I went over to the technology shop (I think that it's called Yodobashi) to try and find some companions for my figurine. There weren't any of those machines in the local shop, and that was disappointing. Actually, now that I think about it, It could have been on the basement floor where the console games were. I just found that area by accident as I was leaving. I'll have to check that out next time I'm there.
The console games and the PC games are on different floors. Probably because the PC games have an adult section. I stayed out of that area. I found a copy of Clannad Full Voice there for around $54. Which brings me to the title of this post. HimeyaShop, the online store I used to by my copy of Kanon Standard Edition for All Ages, is charging $77 for a copy of Clannad Full Voice. That isn't counting shipping , which adds another nineteen dollars to it. Oh well, I got my copy.
On my way back, I had some difficulty finding out which train I should take once at the station. I remembered how I got there, but not how to get back. I had to ask for help from a nice, old security guard (that was how he was dressed anyways). He was very helpful, and didn't look irritated in the least to help me out.
And that brings me to now. Ja ne.
With history class over, we had Japanese class extended. At the very end, we did some origami. We only had time to do it once, and we made a crane. I question the wisdom of starting off with so complicated a creation, but that could just be to make everything afterwards seem simple.
After Japanese class, we helped out with a local English class. I was surprised by how easy it was for us to communicate even when not using each other's language. During my time there, I helped out with a group of girls and a group of guys. The girls tried to get me to say which one of them I thought was cutest, but I know my Greek mythology, and I'm not going to pull a Paris. The guys and I spoke about anime and manga; they recommended some to me and I recommended some American stuff to them.
Some of the local students took us on a short tour of the residential area around campus. I saw a kitty! I was able to pet a kitty! That was nice, even if the walk was tiring. Oh and there were probably a few interesting observations about urban planning, but KITTY!
We went over to Machida to have some ramen after the tour. I thought that it was too expensive, but ordered some anyways. Turned out that the stuff I ordered had kimchi in it. That was a SPICY ramen! Still good, though. And it turned out to be filling enough that the price was justified.
Once the ramen was eaten, we split up. I went over to the technology shop (I think that it's called Yodobashi) to try and find some companions for my figurine. There weren't any of those machines in the local shop, and that was disappointing. Actually, now that I think about it, It could have been on the basement floor where the console games were. I just found that area by accident as I was leaving. I'll have to check that out next time I'm there.
The console games and the PC games are on different floors. Probably because the PC games have an adult section. I stayed out of that area. I found a copy of Clannad Full Voice there for around $54. Which brings me to the title of this post. HimeyaShop, the online store I used to by my copy of Kanon Standard Edition for All Ages, is charging $77 for a copy of Clannad Full Voice. That isn't counting shipping , which adds another nineteen dollars to it. Oh well, I got my copy.
On my way back, I had some difficulty finding out which train I should take once at the station. I remembered how I got there, but not how to get back. I had to ask for help from a nice, old security guard (that was how he was dressed anyways). He was very helpful, and didn't look irritated in the least to help me out.
And that brings me to now. Ja ne.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Catching up on things
I can finally post again. Here's what I've written since my last posting. I'm certain that there's something I've forgotten to mention in here, but I don't have the time to properly check.
6-24-08
About 9:45 PM here, so 5:45 AM back home. I think. I’m rather tired and my
6-25-08
5:48 AM on Wednesday local, 3:48 PM Tuesday back home. Sorry about the sudden break last night. That was where I realized that “If tired, then sleep” and followed those directions.
The weather yesterday was more pleasant than it had been. The sky was clear for a lot of the day, and I think that burned off a lot of the humidity. It may have just seemed more pleasant because I didn’t have to be out in it for very long.
Last night we went to a tea ceremony. It was one of those places where you sat in traditional, formal Japanese style and drank hot, bitter tea. It was not fun. I hate tea. I have hated every kind of tea that I have ever drank, despite being willing to try just about any kind of tea I have the chance to drink.
We received a new student last night as well. She couldn’t make the proper flight with us and had to wait until yesterday to catch one. She’s been assigned to group two, my group.
I suppose that it is time that I describe what life in the guest house is like. I’ve already said that there isn’t any wifi in the guest house, so we have to go to one of the school buildings to use the internet. I think that the school buildings with internet access are closed on the weekends, so I probably won’t be able to get in contact with the outside world then. Speaking of contact with the outside world, our primary method of getting news from abroad is our television. It receives disappointingly few channels, less than ten in all. How are we supposed to get an idea of Japanese popular culture without more channels?
Most of the things here are designed for people smaller than us. Even most of the spoons are oddly small. The showers can be a little cramped, but aren’t too bad. I don’t think we’re using the showers right. We’re supposed to wet ourselves down first, turn off the water, and then soap ourselves up, but I think we are missing what we’re supposed to do with the water container available. It doesn’t make sense that it would be enough to wash off all the soap, but I can’t think of any other use for it. At least the toilets are normal. In the school building we use, in the (male) bathroom we found, there is one normal toilet and one squat toilet set into the floor. Of course there are urinals there as well.
The guest house has three floors, although I think it is only two stories tall. There’s one spiral staircase that connects the floors, and the second floor (only one room) goes off in a different direction than the third floor. The third floor is the bedrooms. Originally the girls were going to have two rooms and the guys one, but we outnumbered them on the first night and got the two rooms for ourselves. They got the second floor room (with two beds) as a consolation. I sleep in the smaller of the two rooms we have, with room for four people.
Now for the people; I won’t describe all of them yet, but I will describe the ones more significant to my writing. First up is Angela, leader of group 1. She feeds us (sometimes) with stuff like miso soup and curry. It got to the point where I wondered if we should be paying her, but she declined the offer. Fujiko (not her real name, but used more than it) is obsessed with cleaning. The other night she had everyone gather up their dirty clothes so that she could wash them. She even folded them when she was done. Must thank her.
Teresa is the leader of Group 2, my group. I’m not sure what else there is to say about her, I think she’s taken Japanese for a significant amount of time. The other members of my group are Sam 2 (Saburo), Ashlegh, Meghan, and Ashlie. I think there is a strong resemblance between Saburo and myself. He is one of the students from Kazuko’s Japanese 103 class. Ashlegh, I’m not sure where she is from. Meghan has been rather unfortunate so far. First she was suffering from motion sickness on the trains, and then she got sick after the welcoming party. Ashlie is the girl who just arrived last night. I’ve had a class with her before, and she if completely new to Japanese.
My roommates come next, I suppose. There are four of us in the room, on two bunk beds. I’m on one of the bottom bunks, the other is taken by Derek, a new student to Japanese. Above me is Sam, who both looks older than me and has a knowledge base that it astonishingly large for a 19 year-old. Ryan sleeps above Derek. He’s funny at times, but like I told his girlfriend, he seems like the sort of person you should take out insurance one.
Yesterday there was finally time to sit down and think. The homesickness is beginning to set in now. I’d been too busy up until now to have any energy to spare on it. Because I cleared the memory card on the camera before coming here, I didn’t think that there would be any pictures on it for me to take comfort from Somehow, though, a picture of one of my cats survived. I don’t know how it is there, but a picture of little Toebi looking at me managed to find its way onto my laptop. I also have pictures of my family, but I prefer not to take them out with the rate at which things around me get damaged.
6-25-08, 7:40 PM local time
Yeah the homesickness has definitely sunk in now. No energy. Sleep.
6-27-08 6:26 AM Friday here, 2:26 PM Thursday back home
This is probably going to be the last time I get to post online until Monday (late Sunday back home), because I’m pretty sure that the buildings with internet access are closed on the weekends. On Wednesday, I and a few others headed over to Machida to shop. The digital camera here are more expensive than I thought they’d be. I think we’re supposed to head over to some shopping areas tomorrow (Saturday), and I’m hoping I can find a cheaper camera there. If not, then I’ll go back to Machida on Sunday and buy one of the cameras there.
This is as good a place as any for a funny aside. On Wednesday, Kazuko was teaching us the names of different foods, and then she got to cucumbers. She kept going on about how American cucumbers were “Too big, too filling” and Japanese cucumbers were “Small and thin.” There was so much laughter, and I don’t think she understood why.
I’m beginning to seriously dislike Kazuko (I already dislike her, but it‘s just starting to get serious). I’m not sure if I have ever met a more annoying or bossy person. She won’t even let Mary (the other teacher) do things her own way. I keep wanting to tell her that we are neither children nor puppets (in Japanese) but I’m not sure of the particles to use. She’s a good enough teacher (in my opinion; other students disagree), but she is an absolutely terrible tour guide. On Wednesday, she wanted to take us to a grocery store as our activity for the day; there were enough objections that it didn’t happen. Yesterday (Thursday), she had us watch some students performing kendo. That in itself wasn’t too bad, but she had us stay there for way too long. Then we went out to a Denny’s. The food was worth nowhere near as much as it cost. Today she wants to take us out to a coffee shop,. I have no intention of going. I have better things to do with my time.
We also had to attend a symposium yesterday. It was completely in Japanese. We thought that we weren’t going to have to attend, and none of us wanted to go, but the staff wanted to get pictures of the Americans at the symposium. We all had to waste two hours of our lives there. We spent three hours in class yesterday, two at the symposium, one hour free for lunch, three more hours in class, had to go to the kendo practice, and then Denny’s. We didn’t get back until past nine at night. As an example of why I dislike her, she tried to stop us from going back to the guest house to drop off our backpacks before going to kendo, The woman has no consideration for the needs or desires of others. Ironic, considering how much time she spends telling us about how we should be considerate since that is the culture here.
6-27-08 (Cont. 8:11 PM)
Today was actually an unexpectedly good day. I didn’t have much for breakfast; just two tiny bite-size tuna sandwiches that I’m pretty sure were leftovers from the party on Monday and some of my ice-water, but I didn’t get hungry. Kazuko arrived and told us that the café was optional, so that was a nice way to start the day.
Japanese class progressed as usual, nothing special happened either way.
We had our last history class today. Mary has to go back to the US on Sunday to deal with some family stuff, I think. We were able to compress over a hundred years of Japanese history into a single week of class.
After history, something that wasn’t so welcome occurred: Kazuko came back and told us that since the reservations had already been made (by a local student, not by her) that we had to go to the café anyways. Then she told us three things that were pleasant: The school would cover the costs at the café, she would be returning the money she had us spend to get into the Tokyo Tower and off the train system on Saturday, and that the café is in Machida.
I ate more than I thought I would at the cafe. Since neither Jennifer nor Ryan were in class on the day the orders were placed, we placed orders for them. We knew they liked tea better than coffee, which were the two drink options, but didn’t know if they would prefer apple cake or cheesecake so we ordered them one of each. Turns out that neither could stand cheesecake, so Jennifer offered theirs to anyone who wanted it. I was the first volunteer. I paid her back for it though; the people at the café gave me a tea that I didn’t want, so I gave it to her.
We didn’t use tickets to get to Machida, Kazuko gave us cards. Much more convenient, since the cards can be used whenever (she approves), but we’d have to get the tickets from her at the station. We were released after we left the café, to go back to campus on our own schedule. A group of us decided that we wanted to go shopping, and three of us needed new cameras. I know I said the cameras here are more expensive, but maybe it just felt that way to me because I got a deal on the one I broke. I bought a new one for 20,000 Yen, which translates to (as of the last time I checked) just under US $200. And then they gave me some sort of Gold Rewards Card that is word 4,600 Yen, or US $46. I’m not sure why, though. All three of us who went to get cameras bought them, and one of the others bought the same kind as me, but I was the only one to get the card.
My breakfast is taken care of for the next few days as well. I bought five 苺ジャムのパン (ichigo jammu no pan), or strawberry jam bread, so that should last me a while. I bought five because they were 98 Yen each, and I didn’t want anymore 1 Yen pieces. Also, I do like the stuff.
6-28-08 8:40 PM Saturday local, 4:40 AM back home
This Saturday was much better than the previous Saturday. I have now mostly adapted to the weather here, and I did not get lost today. The planned activities were far superior as well.
We started off by going to a shopping mall. Then we found out that it wouldn’t open for more than an hour, and most of us went to the Fuji TV station. I saw a statue of the new ship of the pirates from the anime One Piece, but the Fuji station was mostly unremarkable.
When the shopping mall opened, it was highly disappointing. For a Japanese shopping mall, there were surprisingly few technology stores; which is to say zero. There was a place to get crushed souvenir tokens, however. They were more expensive than the crushed penny places in America.
We went to a buffet in the mall after our shopping time. I really wanted to make them regret letting me in by eating them out of everything they had, but only managed a few plates. They have weird pizza in Japan.
After that, we took a couple of rides on boats. The boats themselves weren’t that great, but while waiting for the boats to arrive, we saw some interesting sea life. There was a big fish, and more importantly, what we think was a sting ray. It may have been a skate of some sort. Talking about the ray led us to a discussion of who would win in a fight between Steve Irwin (RIP) and Chuck Norris. Ryan thought that Chuck Norris would win, while Fujiko and I favored Irwin. We all agreed that Zombie Steve Irwin would definitely defeat Norris.
We went to a temple at Asakusa after the boat trip. The temple grounds were much closer to what I thought a festival would be like than the festival we went to last week. I was still unable to find taiyaki. I was, however, able to find a souvenir. After we left, it turned out that at the temple itself, there was some special incense smoke that we were supposed to be able to waft in and get some sort of reinvigoration, but I’m not upset that I forgot to do that.
We then went to something that I think was called “Ameyayako” but am probably wrong about. It was in Uedo. I don’t remember right now. The others went to explore the main shopping street, which was like a giant flea market without the chance of finding something valuable. It was also open air and quite hot. I went into a technology store (incidentally the same chain as I bought the new camera at). It had air conditioning. I consider myself to be the winner in that area. I checked out all seven of the floors in search of PC games (I used the map and found the console games on the top floor to start with, but not PC games). The top floor had some interesting takes on the machines that you put coins into and get random toys out of. They were selling tiny dolls out of them. I hoped to find one that had Kanon characters in it, but there weren’t any. The closest was one that had characters from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in it. I got a Tsuruya-san figure out of it. Very cute. A lot more expensive than most of the machines in America, but the toys are of much higher quality. The doll is something of an irony; The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is distinctly Japanese, but I enjoyed it back in America, so the doll reminds me of home. Speaking of Haruhi Suzumiya, I miss my (peripheral) involvement in the Suzumiya Seitenkan project. I’ll have a lot of backlog to catch up on when I get back to the States. Not just with that, but with The Daily Show and Colbert report as well. A few other things, too.
The low point of the day was parting with Mary. This was the fifth class I took with her, and she is leaving tomorrow, without coming by to see us. It felt like the end of an era. It was fitting though, I began my first quarter at my college with two classes from her in the morning, and in my last quarter I took a two-class length class from her in the afternoon. As I was making the long trek back to the guest house, it began to rain, as though the sky itself was weeping for our separation from our professor. The rain was light, though, indicating that it wasn’t a very sad occasion.
Right now, people are going through their pictures on the television. The camera I bought should be able to do that as well, but I’ll want to look through my pictures and get rid of the ones that didn’t turn out well. Considering the amount of pictures I took today, there must be some that didn’t turn out well.
I’m doing better on the homesickness issue. I’d still like to see my family and my pets, but I think I’m beginning to get used to Japan. I saw an anime shop in Machida yesterday, even though I didn’t have time to go in, that made me feel better. A lot of my problems were from a sense of immense disappointment in what I thought Japan would be. Now that I’ve had a bit of immersion in what I thought proper Japanese weirdness would be (I’d explain, but I want to see my family’s reactions when the see what I saw), I’m feeling better,
I might as well mention that my allergies have been acting up since Friday. Sore throat and a very runny nose. Nothing I do seems to help, even eating chocolate. Just isn’t working. Not too bad, though.
6-28-08 (9:03 PM Sunday local, 5:03 AM home)
Today was our first day off. It was nice. I only went outside once today, to search for some needed supplies and some souvenirs. I wasn’t able to find any of the needed supplies (food that I judge worth the price), or most of the souvenirs I was looking for. All I got was a small fan to replace the one I got at the festival, which I’d put through too much abuse already.
I took care of some stuff I’d been meaning to do. I took care of my laundry; all of it fit in one washing machine but I had to use both dryers since they can’t handle large loads. I also found my flash drive again, which allowed me to look at the stuff I kept in it. Turned out that it was in my carrying pouch, which I HAD looked in.
Most of the others have gone out to do karaoke. My allergies have been acting up, so I have that as an excuse to not go. It’s allowed me to catch up on some writing (which I’ve been working on for a lot of the day), and get to know a few of my housemates better. Sam has an astonishing number of things of things on his computer, and Sandra is hilarious. If anybody asks, she peed her pants.
An movie in English is on right now. I think it’s Anaconda 2. Television in English really is refreshing. Kazuko mentioned yesterday that every time she returned to Japan up until two years ago it was like “I’m home!” The thing that changed two years ago was that she subscribed to Japanese TV, so she feels like she has that connection back home.
----
I might as well take this opportunity to further explain living conditions over here. To start with, the cost of living is higher even than it is in Washington, which I understand has a relatively high standard of living. I liter container of milk costs about two-and-a-half dollars. I can’t find the material to make a decent sandwich either. Can’t find any sliced meat or sliced cheese. That just isn’t right.
The guest house has three floors in two stories. The middle floor is off to the side of the top floor, so that’s how it fits. The bedrooms are on the top floor (the middle floor’s room is a smaller bedroom, taken by the girls). The guys and the girls each have two rooms, although the girls’ second room (on the middle floor) is smaller than that of the guys. We needed more space first, since the late arrival was a girl and we had greater numbers until she got here.
There are two bathrooms and two shower rooms, one for each sex. The guys have the toilet and shower on the top floor and the girls the ones on the bottom floor. The girls’ toilet room has two toilets, while the guys’ has only one. The toilets here have heated seats. They just feel wrong. On Wednesday I sat on our toilet and it nearly burned me. Turned the blasted thing all the way off after that.
The laundry room is actually a covered and locked-off space attached to the house that is open to the air. There are two washing machines and two dryers. Both are easy to use for someone who can read katakana like I can. The dryers are quite weak, though.
When we go out onto campus, we have to wear identification cards that make it clear that it is okay for us to be on campus. The ID cards have little American flags on them. I understand that we’re at a private school, but we shouldn’t have to wear them the whole time. The security should recognize us by now. The normal students don’t have to wear ID cards, and we stick out enough that it should be easy to recognize us.
That’s another thing: we stick out. A lot. I’m not used to being so clearly in the minority. At least the people are friendly. Friendlier than I’m used to, actually.
It also takes some time to get most places. We’re relatively close to our class building and the cafeteria, and that at least is a blessing. It isn’t truly close, though, as I’m pretty sure that even the distance between the guest house and our usual building is at least as great as the width of my official campus. Considering that this is apparently the second-largest campus in all of Japan, that sort of thing is to be expected.
I can’t think of anything else to describe at this point.
_______
Toay we're heading over to Machida again, this time for ramen. I expect to have the chance to visit the tech store and the anime store. That should be nice. My opinion of Kazuko has gone up, but I can't really identify what did it.
Oh, and the reason Friday's entry was written like I would be posting that day is that I thought that I would. Turned out that I spent that time writing emails instead.
Ja ne.
6-24-08
About 9:45 PM here, so 5:45 AM back home. I think. I’m rather tired and my
6-25-08
5:48 AM on Wednesday local, 3:48 PM Tuesday back home. Sorry about the sudden break last night. That was where I realized that “If tired, then sleep” and followed those directions.
The weather yesterday was more pleasant than it had been. The sky was clear for a lot of the day, and I think that burned off a lot of the humidity. It may have just seemed more pleasant because I didn’t have to be out in it for very long.
Last night we went to a tea ceremony. It was one of those places where you sat in traditional, formal Japanese style and drank hot, bitter tea. It was not fun. I hate tea. I have hated every kind of tea that I have ever drank, despite being willing to try just about any kind of tea I have the chance to drink.
We received a new student last night as well. She couldn’t make the proper flight with us and had to wait until yesterday to catch one. She’s been assigned to group two, my group.
I suppose that it is time that I describe what life in the guest house is like. I’ve already said that there isn’t any wifi in the guest house, so we have to go to one of the school buildings to use the internet. I think that the school buildings with internet access are closed on the weekends, so I probably won’t be able to get in contact with the outside world then. Speaking of contact with the outside world, our primary method of getting news from abroad is our television. It receives disappointingly few channels, less than ten in all. How are we supposed to get an idea of Japanese popular culture without more channels?
Most of the things here are designed for people smaller than us. Even most of the spoons are oddly small. The showers can be a little cramped, but aren’t too bad. I don’t think we’re using the showers right. We’re supposed to wet ourselves down first, turn off the water, and then soap ourselves up, but I think we are missing what we’re supposed to do with the water container available. It doesn’t make sense that it would be enough to wash off all the soap, but I can’t think of any other use for it. At least the toilets are normal. In the school building we use, in the (male) bathroom we found, there is one normal toilet and one squat toilet set into the floor. Of course there are urinals there as well.
The guest house has three floors, although I think it is only two stories tall. There’s one spiral staircase that connects the floors, and the second floor (only one room) goes off in a different direction than the third floor. The third floor is the bedrooms. Originally the girls were going to have two rooms and the guys one, but we outnumbered them on the first night and got the two rooms for ourselves. They got the second floor room (with two beds) as a consolation. I sleep in the smaller of the two rooms we have, with room for four people.
Now for the people; I won’t describe all of them yet, but I will describe the ones more significant to my writing. First up is Angela, leader of group 1. She feeds us (sometimes) with stuff like miso soup and curry. It got to the point where I wondered if we should be paying her, but she declined the offer. Fujiko (not her real name, but used more than it) is obsessed with cleaning. The other night she had everyone gather up their dirty clothes so that she could wash them. She even folded them when she was done. Must thank her.
Teresa is the leader of Group 2, my group. I’m not sure what else there is to say about her, I think she’s taken Japanese for a significant amount of time. The other members of my group are Sam 2 (Saburo), Ashlegh, Meghan, and Ashlie. I think there is a strong resemblance between Saburo and myself. He is one of the students from Kazuko’s Japanese 103 class. Ashlegh, I’m not sure where she is from. Meghan has been rather unfortunate so far. First she was suffering from motion sickness on the trains, and then she got sick after the welcoming party. Ashlie is the girl who just arrived last night. I’ve had a class with her before, and she if completely new to Japanese.
My roommates come next, I suppose. There are four of us in the room, on two bunk beds. I’m on one of the bottom bunks, the other is taken by Derek, a new student to Japanese. Above me is Sam, who both looks older than me and has a knowledge base that it astonishingly large for a 19 year-old. Ryan sleeps above Derek. He’s funny at times, but like I told his girlfriend, he seems like the sort of person you should take out insurance one.
Yesterday there was finally time to sit down and think. The homesickness is beginning to set in now. I’d been too busy up until now to have any energy to spare on it. Because I cleared the memory card on the camera before coming here, I didn’t think that there would be any pictures on it for me to take comfort from Somehow, though, a picture of one of my cats survived. I don’t know how it is there, but a picture of little Toebi looking at me managed to find its way onto my laptop. I also have pictures of my family, but I prefer not to take them out with the rate at which things around me get damaged.
6-25-08, 7:40 PM local time
Yeah the homesickness has definitely sunk in now. No energy. Sleep.
6-27-08 6:26 AM Friday here, 2:26 PM Thursday back home
This is probably going to be the last time I get to post online until Monday (late Sunday back home), because I’m pretty sure that the buildings with internet access are closed on the weekends. On Wednesday, I and a few others headed over to Machida to shop. The digital camera here are more expensive than I thought they’d be. I think we’re supposed to head over to some shopping areas tomorrow (Saturday), and I’m hoping I can find a cheaper camera there. If not, then I’ll go back to Machida on Sunday and buy one of the cameras there.
This is as good a place as any for a funny aside. On Wednesday, Kazuko was teaching us the names of different foods, and then she got to cucumbers. She kept going on about how American cucumbers were “Too big, too filling” and Japanese cucumbers were “Small and thin.” There was so much laughter, and I don’t think she understood why.
I’m beginning to seriously dislike Kazuko (I already dislike her, but it‘s just starting to get serious). I’m not sure if I have ever met a more annoying or bossy person. She won’t even let Mary (the other teacher) do things her own way. I keep wanting to tell her that we are neither children nor puppets (in Japanese) but I’m not sure of the particles to use. She’s a good enough teacher (in my opinion; other students disagree), but she is an absolutely terrible tour guide. On Wednesday, she wanted to take us to a grocery store as our activity for the day; there were enough objections that it didn’t happen. Yesterday (Thursday), she had us watch some students performing kendo. That in itself wasn’t too bad, but she had us stay there for way too long. Then we went out to a Denny’s. The food was worth nowhere near as much as it cost. Today she wants to take us out to a coffee shop,. I have no intention of going. I have better things to do with my time.
We also had to attend a symposium yesterday. It was completely in Japanese. We thought that we weren’t going to have to attend, and none of us wanted to go, but the staff wanted to get pictures of the Americans at the symposium. We all had to waste two hours of our lives there. We spent three hours in class yesterday, two at the symposium, one hour free for lunch, three more hours in class, had to go to the kendo practice, and then Denny’s. We didn’t get back until past nine at night. As an example of why I dislike her, she tried to stop us from going back to the guest house to drop off our backpacks before going to kendo, The woman has no consideration for the needs or desires of others. Ironic, considering how much time she spends telling us about how we should be considerate since that is the culture here.
6-27-08 (Cont. 8:11 PM)
Today was actually an unexpectedly good day. I didn’t have much for breakfast; just two tiny bite-size tuna sandwiches that I’m pretty sure were leftovers from the party on Monday and some of my ice-water, but I didn’t get hungry. Kazuko arrived and told us that the café was optional, so that was a nice way to start the day.
Japanese class progressed as usual, nothing special happened either way.
We had our last history class today. Mary has to go back to the US on Sunday to deal with some family stuff, I think. We were able to compress over a hundred years of Japanese history into a single week of class.
After history, something that wasn’t so welcome occurred: Kazuko came back and told us that since the reservations had already been made (by a local student, not by her) that we had to go to the café anyways. Then she told us three things that were pleasant: The school would cover the costs at the café, she would be returning the money she had us spend to get into the Tokyo Tower and off the train system on Saturday, and that the café is in Machida.
I ate more than I thought I would at the cafe. Since neither Jennifer nor Ryan were in class on the day the orders were placed, we placed orders for them. We knew they liked tea better than coffee, which were the two drink options, but didn’t know if they would prefer apple cake or cheesecake so we ordered them one of each. Turns out that neither could stand cheesecake, so Jennifer offered theirs to anyone who wanted it. I was the first volunteer. I paid her back for it though; the people at the café gave me a tea that I didn’t want, so I gave it to her.
We didn’t use tickets to get to Machida, Kazuko gave us cards. Much more convenient, since the cards can be used whenever (she approves), but we’d have to get the tickets from her at the station. We were released after we left the café, to go back to campus on our own schedule. A group of us decided that we wanted to go shopping, and three of us needed new cameras. I know I said the cameras here are more expensive, but maybe it just felt that way to me because I got a deal on the one I broke. I bought a new one for 20,000 Yen, which translates to (as of the last time I checked) just under US $200. And then they gave me some sort of Gold Rewards Card that is word 4,600 Yen, or US $46. I’m not sure why, though. All three of us who went to get cameras bought them, and one of the others bought the same kind as me, but I was the only one to get the card.
My breakfast is taken care of for the next few days as well. I bought five 苺ジャムのパン (ichigo jammu no pan), or strawberry jam bread, so that should last me a while. I bought five because they were 98 Yen each, and I didn’t want anymore 1 Yen pieces. Also, I do like the stuff.
6-28-08 8:40 PM Saturday local, 4:40 AM back home
This Saturday was much better than the previous Saturday. I have now mostly adapted to the weather here, and I did not get lost today. The planned activities were far superior as well.
We started off by going to a shopping mall. Then we found out that it wouldn’t open for more than an hour, and most of us went to the Fuji TV station. I saw a statue of the new ship of the pirates from the anime One Piece, but the Fuji station was mostly unremarkable.
When the shopping mall opened, it was highly disappointing. For a Japanese shopping mall, there were surprisingly few technology stores; which is to say zero. There was a place to get crushed souvenir tokens, however. They were more expensive than the crushed penny places in America.
We went to a buffet in the mall after our shopping time. I really wanted to make them regret letting me in by eating them out of everything they had, but only managed a few plates. They have weird pizza in Japan.
After that, we took a couple of rides on boats. The boats themselves weren’t that great, but while waiting for the boats to arrive, we saw some interesting sea life. There was a big fish, and more importantly, what we think was a sting ray. It may have been a skate of some sort. Talking about the ray led us to a discussion of who would win in a fight between Steve Irwin (RIP) and Chuck Norris. Ryan thought that Chuck Norris would win, while Fujiko and I favored Irwin. We all agreed that Zombie Steve Irwin would definitely defeat Norris.
We went to a temple at Asakusa after the boat trip. The temple grounds were much closer to what I thought a festival would be like than the festival we went to last week. I was still unable to find taiyaki. I was, however, able to find a souvenir. After we left, it turned out that at the temple itself, there was some special incense smoke that we were supposed to be able to waft in and get some sort of reinvigoration, but I’m not upset that I forgot to do that.
We then went to something that I think was called “Ameyayako” but am probably wrong about. It was in Uedo. I don’t remember right now. The others went to explore the main shopping street, which was like a giant flea market without the chance of finding something valuable. It was also open air and quite hot. I went into a technology store (incidentally the same chain as I bought the new camera at). It had air conditioning. I consider myself to be the winner in that area. I checked out all seven of the floors in search of PC games (I used the map and found the console games on the top floor to start with, but not PC games). The top floor had some interesting takes on the machines that you put coins into and get random toys out of. They were selling tiny dolls out of them. I hoped to find one that had Kanon characters in it, but there weren’t any. The closest was one that had characters from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in it. I got a Tsuruya-san figure out of it. Very cute. A lot more expensive than most of the machines in America, but the toys are of much higher quality. The doll is something of an irony; The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is distinctly Japanese, but I enjoyed it back in America, so the doll reminds me of home. Speaking of Haruhi Suzumiya, I miss my (peripheral) involvement in the Suzumiya Seitenkan project. I’ll have a lot of backlog to catch up on when I get back to the States. Not just with that, but with The Daily Show and Colbert report as well. A few other things, too.
The low point of the day was parting with Mary. This was the fifth class I took with her, and she is leaving tomorrow, without coming by to see us. It felt like the end of an era. It was fitting though, I began my first quarter at my college with two classes from her in the morning, and in my last quarter I took a two-class length class from her in the afternoon. As I was making the long trek back to the guest house, it began to rain, as though the sky itself was weeping for our separation from our professor. The rain was light, though, indicating that it wasn’t a very sad occasion.
Right now, people are going through their pictures on the television. The camera I bought should be able to do that as well, but I’ll want to look through my pictures and get rid of the ones that didn’t turn out well. Considering the amount of pictures I took today, there must be some that didn’t turn out well.
I’m doing better on the homesickness issue. I’d still like to see my family and my pets, but I think I’m beginning to get used to Japan. I saw an anime shop in Machida yesterday, even though I didn’t have time to go in, that made me feel better. A lot of my problems were from a sense of immense disappointment in what I thought Japan would be. Now that I’ve had a bit of immersion in what I thought proper Japanese weirdness would be (I’d explain, but I want to see my family’s reactions when the see what I saw), I’m feeling better,
I might as well mention that my allergies have been acting up since Friday. Sore throat and a very runny nose. Nothing I do seems to help, even eating chocolate. Just isn’t working. Not too bad, though.
6-28-08 (9:03 PM Sunday local, 5:03 AM home)
Today was our first day off. It was nice. I only went outside once today, to search for some needed supplies and some souvenirs. I wasn’t able to find any of the needed supplies (food that I judge worth the price), or most of the souvenirs I was looking for. All I got was a small fan to replace the one I got at the festival, which I’d put through too much abuse already.
I took care of some stuff I’d been meaning to do. I took care of my laundry; all of it fit in one washing machine but I had to use both dryers since they can’t handle large loads. I also found my flash drive again, which allowed me to look at the stuff I kept in it. Turned out that it was in my carrying pouch, which I HAD looked in.
Most of the others have gone out to do karaoke. My allergies have been acting up, so I have that as an excuse to not go. It’s allowed me to catch up on some writing (which I’ve been working on for a lot of the day), and get to know a few of my housemates better. Sam has an astonishing number of things of things on his computer, and Sandra is hilarious. If anybody asks, she peed her pants.
An movie in English is on right now. I think it’s Anaconda 2. Television in English really is refreshing. Kazuko mentioned yesterday that every time she returned to Japan up until two years ago it was like “I’m home!” The thing that changed two years ago was that she subscribed to Japanese TV, so she feels like she has that connection back home.
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I might as well take this opportunity to further explain living conditions over here. To start with, the cost of living is higher even than it is in Washington, which I understand has a relatively high standard of living. I liter container of milk costs about two-and-a-half dollars. I can’t find the material to make a decent sandwich either. Can’t find any sliced meat or sliced cheese. That just isn’t right.
The guest house has three floors in two stories. The middle floor is off to the side of the top floor, so that’s how it fits. The bedrooms are on the top floor (the middle floor’s room is a smaller bedroom, taken by the girls). The guys and the girls each have two rooms, although the girls’ second room (on the middle floor) is smaller than that of the guys. We needed more space first, since the late arrival was a girl and we had greater numbers until she got here.
There are two bathrooms and two shower rooms, one for each sex. The guys have the toilet and shower on the top floor and the girls the ones on the bottom floor. The girls’ toilet room has two toilets, while the guys’ has only one. The toilets here have heated seats. They just feel wrong. On Wednesday I sat on our toilet and it nearly burned me. Turned the blasted thing all the way off after that.
The laundry room is actually a covered and locked-off space attached to the house that is open to the air. There are two washing machines and two dryers. Both are easy to use for someone who can read katakana like I can. The dryers are quite weak, though.
When we go out onto campus, we have to wear identification cards that make it clear that it is okay for us to be on campus. The ID cards have little American flags on them. I understand that we’re at a private school, but we shouldn’t have to wear them the whole time. The security should recognize us by now. The normal students don’t have to wear ID cards, and we stick out enough that it should be easy to recognize us.
That’s another thing: we stick out. A lot. I’m not used to being so clearly in the minority. At least the people are friendly. Friendlier than I’m used to, actually.
It also takes some time to get most places. We’re relatively close to our class building and the cafeteria, and that at least is a blessing. It isn’t truly close, though, as I’m pretty sure that even the distance between the guest house and our usual building is at least as great as the width of my official campus. Considering that this is apparently the second-largest campus in all of Japan, that sort of thing is to be expected.
I can’t think of anything else to describe at this point.
_______
Toay we're heading over to Machida again, this time for ramen. I expect to have the chance to visit the tech store and the anime store. That should be nice. My opinion of Kazuko has gone up, but I can't really identify what did it.
Oh, and the reason Friday's entry was written like I would be posting that day is that I thought that I would. Turned out that I spent that time writing emails instead.
Ja ne.
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