Back in America

So I'm back in America. You may be thinking that I'm having this huge re-culture shock and it feels so good to be back home, but for whatever reason, it feels like I've never left. Every time I return home, no matter how long it's been, it always feels like I've never left. It's really kind of annoying. I want that sense of newness in the familiar, but it still just always feels familiar. Oh well....

While it does feel like I've always been here, I still greatly miss Japan. The people especially.... I really wish we could have spent more time together while I was in Japan, but I guess it just wasn't in our schedules..... But I know for a fact that Japan will be a big part of my future and that I'll probably be back sooner than I think. Hopefully.....

Anyways, as a finally closer of this blog, I just wanted to say thank you to all of my friends and family who supported me throughout this entire great experience. This trip feels like one of the greatest things I've ever done, so thank you all for allowing me to enjoy it so fully and to have fun! Since I'm no longer in Tokyo, this blog will end, but the experiences recorded in here never will!

皆さん、どうもありがとうございます！さよなら！！！

Almost time to leave....

Yeah, I know I haven't updated in forever, but I kinda saw it as pointless because I would just talk to people anyways on a regular basis, so yeah. But there is one thing that is hard to do in a conversation that is essential to the blogging world: lists! So here, as I am about to leave Japan (a week and a day!), I have the list for what I'll miss about Japan, what I won't miss about Japan, and what I can't wait to do when I get back home.

What I'll Miss About Japan:

1. Delicious food at every turn for not a lot of money.
2. My friends that I've made here, especially Sochon, Tomoko, Yuki, and all of my club members.
3. A constant sense of security.
4. Biking.
5. Jihanki (vending machines!)
6. The train system.
7. Being able to actually use my Japanese on a regular basis.
8. Feeling exotic in a homogeneous society.
9. Purikura and all of the arcades!
10. Beautiful architecture in not a lot of space.
11. Washlets (the toilets that squirt your ass and warm the seat)
12. My host family, their cooking, and their dog, Totti.
13. Abundance of help if you need it, uchiwa (fans) if you're hot, and kleenex to wipe yourself with.
14. Drunk salarymen.
    

What I Won't Miss About Japan:

1. Disgusting versions of Western food, especially pasta with ketchup instead of tomato sauce, and NEVER being able to get free refills.
2. Sophia University's school system.
3. Constantly having to be polite.
4. People who bike.
5. Spending all of my money on vending machines.
6. Having to commute (I've never had a commute longer than 15 minutes in my life, so having a commute of 50 minutes each way is excruciating).
7. Having to constantly speak Japanese and not understanding it.
8. Getting stared at all of the time.
9. Having a gambling problem with the games of chance.
10. Always hitting my head on door frames which are too short for me.
11. Washiki toilets (the squat toilets that I refused to use this entire trip [only used them about 4 times]).
12. My host family's passive-aggressiveness, lack of being able to leave the house without telling them, and hearing the dog bark at 4 in the morning with no one doing anything to stop it.
13. Lack of soap, paper towels/napkins, and a mysterious lack of trash cans, even though the country is entirely clean.
14. MIDDLE AGED JAPANESE WOMEN (they are the bane of my existence for reasons to numerous too put here).
    

Things I Can't Wait to Do When I Get Home:

1. See my family, friends, and STELLA!!!!
2. Go to the Wisconsin State Fair.
3. NOT have to commute anywhere.
4. Not having any commitments.
5. Have central air (air conditioning here is really expensive, so they tell you not to use it often, but it's hot as hell here, so that's not happening).
6. Eat my mom's delicious food.
7. Have a constant shower (here, you have a handle shower, and you have to turn it off while you lather yourself up. You only use it for rinsing).
8. Stand up straight everywhere I go.
9. Say what's on my mind without being rude and not having to be so polite and altruistic.
10. See Lake Michigan or any large body of water (I haven't been able to see the ocean very much while here, and I miss seeing a large body of water on a regular basis).
11. WATCH TV THAT I CAN ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!!
    

Accident!!!

Sorry for the lack of updates!! I'm gonna put up what I did this past weekend plus other stuff, but today, I got into a biking accident, so I'm just gonna take it easy tonight. Sorry!!!

Also, since I don't do interesting stuff every day, I'd like you guys to ask me questions and I can answer them in detail for daily posts, ok?

Also, I changed the posting format, so that ANYONE can post a comment, so you don't need to create an account or anything.

Ueno Zoo, Izakaya, Roppongi, and a Special Guest!!!

This past Saturday I went to the Ueno Park Zoo with my club. It was amazing! But at the same time, really upsetting, because I brought my camera, but forgot my memory card.......... The entire time I was there, I just wanted to take a picture, but couldn't........ Me without a working camera in a interesting situation is like a bird without wings........

OK, enough of my griping. It was actually kind of a good thing not having my camera because it allowed to me just enjoy myself without having to take a picture of everything, and there were A LOT of animals! Quick list of the best animals I saw: Giant Panda (first time!), Red Panda (first time!), penguins, tanooki (Japanese "racoon dogs". Kinda look like a mix between a badger and a racoon. First time!), owls, baby goats, mouse deer, bats, giraffes, pygmy hippos, elephants, vultures, kangaroos, and flamingos. It was sooo cool, and the admission fee was only about $6! Compare that to the $11 admission fee + parking fees of the Milwaukee County Zoo!

After we walked the entire zoo, we headed back to Yotsuya (which is where my school is) and went to an izakaya. The way it works is that you sit down with a group of people (our was quit large, but broken into 2 tables. I was with the considerably smaller group of 8 people) and order a bunch of little appetizer things. Now this may all sound well and good, but when you're in a country filled with the politest people in the world, it became meal of hesitance and social awkwardness. No one wanted to eat the last bite and when people offered things to me and I ate them, they looked disappointed. Needless to say, I didn't really eat that much out of fear of offending someone @_@. I also felt bad ordering new things because everything (though small) was really expensive. And in the end, they paid for me :'(.

After that, I met up with the other students from Seattle University (minus Alex, who was sick, and Liz, who was meeting us later), and we went to Roppongi, the trendy, expensive place that foreigners mainly go to. All of the clubs there (and there are a LOT) have Nigerian bouncers for some reason. One of them say "Hey, baby!" to Rachel while we were walking ^o^. We weren't interested in going to a club, but guess what kind of restaurant my friends wanted to go to??? An izakaya!!! But this was was WAY different from the one me and my club went to. That was was warm, inviting, and casual. The one we went to in Roppongi was stuffy, empty, on the 7th floor, and tried to be "classy", but failed miserably. We looked at the menu, but couldn't decide what we wanted (lucky for us, they had an English menu). But finally, at the very back, they had a section labeled "Course and Party". For about $30, you could get about 6 dishes, which split among the six of us should've been enough food. It was pretty good, nothing special, and we were all really excited that we were only going to pay about $5 each. But when we got the bill, it ended up being $30 each (even though it said that NOWHERE and it implied itself to be a party platter), plus a $4 service charge... PER PERSON!!! I had also got a ginger-ale, which was another $4 dollars, so I ended up paying $40 that night for a crappy dinner and crappy service.... WHAT A RIP!!! As Diana put it, "We ain't gonna be kickin' it for a while now...".

But, on a happier note, I bought my new best friend today!!! Check him out!!!


He's the Suica penguin, the mascot for Suica, the card you use to easily pay for train ticket fees. He's on everything, and I love him! At the station, they sell everything with his likeness on it! I saw that plushie, and I had to buy it!

Well, tomorrow I have a big Japanese test I still have tons of reading to do.... Wish me luck!

Back to School

Nothing new has been happening here now that school's started... It feels so weird actually having homework. Here's the 4 classes I'm taking here:

• Japanese: I'm really angry about my placement. It seems that every university takes a completely unique approach to the language because everyone is placed in really weird spots. The class moves at a nice pace and it's really helping me remember a lot of things, but a lot of stuff is just vague and weird.
• Japanese Religion and Society: This class is all about different religions and their effect on Japanese society. It's REALLY interesting, but the teacher is a complete pushover. If we wanted to, we could kick her out of the room and throw a party!
• The City and Society of Edo: VERY interesting class about historical Tokyo. I've only been to one class and I didn't get a chance to do the reading, but from the ensuing class discussion, I can't wait to read more!!!
• Introduction to Linguistics: I'm really excited to learn more about linguistics, as I've always taken an interest in languages and their structure. I'm crossing my fingers that it'll live up to my expectations.

The Sophia school system is very.... interesting. The way they do classes is they have a "Trial Week" where you go to classes you think you'd be interested in and then you register for them once you decided. Very confusing, but I can see the point of it. I dropped 2 classes I thought I was going to take because they were either too boring or too hard. I think the class mix I have right now is just the right mix of interesting subject matter (yet boring teachers -_-) and easy work load. Japanese is the class I have to work on most (THEY WANT 2 HOURS OF STUDYING EVERY FREAKIN' DAY!!! ARE THEY OUT OF THEIR MINDS?!?!), but it's manageable.

The thing that I dislike most about the school situation though is the commuting. I really took living on campus for granted! Having to devote an hour each way (an hour when you can't really work on any homework >:-( ) to school can be really taxing, but I've gotta suck it up and quit whining. So many of my friends have a way longer commute than I do, I feel really bad for them!

As for the club I'm in, it's really cool because they have their own club room that only the club members can use. That's like my home base. When I'm done with classes, I'll head there and chat with whichever club member is there! It's really cool!

Well, I best be getting to sleep!!! Got a Kanji quiz tomorrow!!! Bye!

Sucess and Upgrades!!!

As you can tell, I've changed the side bar a little. One new feature I've added is the "What I had for Dinner Last Night" list since a lot of people ask what I eat here. Also, I've added links to my facebook profile and my YouTube account that hold my pictures and videos respectively. I just fixed my memory card (via a vist it Akihabara, the electronics/gaming/manga/geek part of Tokyo ^o^) so I'll be able to upload all of the pictures and videos I took on my Oosaka/Kyoto trip!!!! YAY!!! Also, while I was in Akihabara, I bought a Nintendo DS game that acts as an electronic dictionary, so hopefully, that'll help me improve!

Today, I rode my bike to and from the station for the first time. Going to the station was really crazy because a lot of people were trying to get to work and it was pretty slippery. I almost got hit by a car once and almost fell off my bike like 20 times. I'm such a bad rider @_@. But the ride back was surprisingly easier, even though it was night time. I made it home pretty quickly (maybe even faster than the danged expensive bus) and here I am now! やった！！！ I did it!!!

Japanese Overload!!!

Today I went to my first Japanese Mass (called ミサ or "misa" in Japanese). It was crazy! The church is at Sophia and is called 聖イグナチオ教会 ("sei igunachio kyoukai") or St. Ignatius Church. The building is very..... different.... Not as "different" as the Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle U, but still "different" if you know what I mean. I got there early and took my seat. The first thing I noticed was the absence of holy water when I walked in. The second thing was the lack of traditional fold-out kneelers. Instead, there were individual sized soft kneeling blocks that you would take out of the back of the pew in front of you and put down to kneel on. The Mass started like usual (when I got there, it was pretty empty, but by the time Mass started, it was completely full!). What was really cool, IMHO, was that they had a sign-language interpreter with a deaf section. It was really neat watching them sign all the songs. It was beautiful! The priest was a foreigner like me, but from what I could tell he had no accent and spoke perfect Japanese (which I unfortunately couldn't understand @_@). The next different thing I noticed was that there were 4 children altar servers (all girls) and 4 older people altar servers (at least that's what I thought they did...). So in total, there was about 10 people on the altar including the priest and the announcer (he would say to stand or sit and say which songs we were singing). I think he was a deacon, but I couldn't tell. 2 of the child servers would come up and escort the readers to the pulpit and stand on either side of the reader until it was over. It was pretty cool. When it came time for the sign of peace, it was really Japanesey because no one shook hands, they just bowed to the people around them ^o^. The Eucharist was a little different, too. There wasn't any wine and the host was made out of corn or something. It tasted like Corn Pops cereal.

After Mass, I went to the library to work on homework, which was just a little short reading. It was translated from old Japanese manuscripts about different Japanese gods. The translation was pretty bad and the stories were half just introducing the names of the characters (who were mainly royalty and they would talk about where they ruled and how their name changed when they ascended the throne. It was completely unnecessary...).

In case I haven't mentioned it, in oder from me to get to and from the station that takes me to school, I have to take a bus. But the bus is 200 yen both ways (and they don't even give you a transfer when you get off!), so I decided to take a bike to the station. Today, my host mom set up the bike and went with me (via bike) to show me the route to take to get to my station. It's a pretty nice bike, but there are a couple differences between biking in America and biking in Japan. I'll list them.

1.) Most bikes don't have kick stands.
This is REALLY annoying!!! My "kick stand" (if you can even call it that, it's so huge) is a removable stand thing. I can't ride with it on, otherwise it will fall down and stop my bike!!! I don't know why they could just put a simple kick stand on it!!!
2.) In Japan (or at least my city), it's nearly impossible for bikes to ride on the main roads.
You have to ride on the sidewalk most of the time. And let me tell you, those things are narrow as hell! I know, for a fact, that I'm gonna wipe-out on one of those things (in fact, I almost did today!).
3.) Nobody locks there bikes up.
Japan is a bike thief's paradise! Nobody locks up their bikes! Or if they don't, they don't lock it to anything. They just lock the wheels (which is pretty much ineffective, IMHO). My host mom took me to the place where I'm going to park my bike, a bike parking lot if you will. It's 100 yen a day, but starting May 1st, I can get a 3 month unlimited pass for about $30, which is pretty good. The only problem is, on that day, we have to get there at about 6 in the morning just to buy the thing!!! Another discomforting thing is that I believe there is only somebody watching them until 9 p.m., yet you can leave your bike there till 12 a.m. Scary @_@.
4.) Japanese bike seats hurt my ass.
I really have to buy a new seat. It's like sitting on a metal rod. I didn't tell my host mom because she'd just buy it for me, and she already bought a new bell (which SUCKS) and a light for the bike (both of those were about $30. WHAT A GYP!!!).

But yeah, everything today has been in Japanese. It's been really overwhelming. I hope and pray that I'll get better. Things are just too difficult now. Wish me luck -_-;;

Memory Card Woes

My memory card isn't being read by my computer, so I won't be uploading photos until I get it resolved. I'm going to stop by an electronics store if I can, otherwise I'll have to order one !_!. Why does this have to happen?!?!

Oosaka-Kyoto Trip

This past Sunday, all the Seattle U kids at Sophia went to Oosaka and Kyoto. We just got back this morning. On Sunday, we took the Shinkansen to Oosaka. That thing was really fast!!! It popped all of our ears it went so fast.

We arrived in Oosaka just 2 and a half hours later. We took the subway to our hotel, and when we left the station, we wondered what we got ourselves into. The air was thick and smelled like cigarette smoke everywhere. We even saw a guy riding a bike with a lit cigarette in his mouth! The hotel we stayed at was a Best Western. We wanted to keep it cheap, so we only got three 2-person rooms for the 8 of us and decided to sneak 2 people in. It was a lot harder than we thought it was going to be because the hotel was on the 9th floor of this mall-complex thing called "Oscer Dream" (sic).

After the hotel situation was figured out, we went to Oosaka Castle park. It was really lively! There were people everywhere picnicking and having a good time. The park was huge and beautiful with lots of cherry blossoms. We got lost on the way to the castle, so we asked a local, and it was really strange... He spoke half in Japanese and half in English and seems just a little bit drunk. After showing us the way and telling us "Together, ok", he proceeded to high-five us all. From that point on, we saw how nice Oosaka people were! The castle was huge and was basically a museum. I'll upload the pictures and videos I took there. Later that night, we went to this one famous Oosaka street (I forgot the name >_<;;). We had takoyaki (octopus balls) and sang Karaoke. It was really cool.


The next day, we headed for Kyoto, which is just an hour away by train. I was really looking forward to it, because Kyoto is the only city that wasn't completely burned down during WWII. But, just our luck, it rained ALL DAY. And not just drizzle rain, full blown rain that wouldn't let up. We went to a few temples, but had to call it quits early. When we got back to Oosaka, we explored our hotel further. It was really fun!

The day after that, we decided to give Kyoto another shot. I'm really glad we did, because it was beautiful out! We went to the Golden Temple, which was a little underwhelming for the 400 yen entrance fee, the Nijoji (sp?) castle which was this old shogunate castle that was really beautiful and cool, and finally, my favorite place we went to so far, the torii gates. At Shinto shrines, a torii is the arch thing you walk through when you enter it. This place had hundreds of them, all lined up! It's really tough to describe (even tougher when I feel like I'm about to pass out :-P), but it was this little village/set of shrines built into the mountainside. It was AMAZING and extremely beautiful. Here's a link to the Wikipedia page about the shrine. We headed back to Oosaka where we caught the overnight bus back to Tokyo.

Today was club recruiting at our school. I joined 3 clubs (I think? 2 seemed a little flaky @_@), one of which was the Catholic Student Association. Surprisingly, I was the only foreigner who joined. Everyone else there was Japanese! They welcomed me kindly and we hung out for a while. They seem really nice and I can't wait to do more stuff with them.

Well, it's been a REALLY long weekend and day, so I'm signing off!!!

Photos and Big Plans!!!

For all of those who don't have facebook or haven't checked, I've put up some photos! They're public, so everyone should be able to see them. If you can't, then leave a comment and I'll try to figure out what to do.

These are from the trip here and the day we arrived:
here

These are from the first day:
here

These are from the next day:
here

These are from the day after :-P:
here

I'll have more up later. But guess what?!?! We're going to Oosaka and Kyoto!!! I'm really excited!!!! We're taking the shinkansen, which is the bullet train. It goes so fast, your ears pop. It was HELLA expensive, but I think it will be worth it. I'm bringing my computer, so I should be able to update, I hope.

Oh, and yesterday, I had a Japanese corn dog from Family Mart (a コンビニー, or convenience store). It was amazing and only a dollar!!!

Summary of First Couple Days

DAY ONE-04/01: This Japanese girl from Sophia picked me up from the airport and we had to take a train to get from the airport to where my host family was picking me up. Her name is Shiori, but I almost called her Oshiri, which means "ass" in Japanese.... Pretty bad. The way you use the train systems in Japan is you buy your ticket, put it in this slot thing, and then take it out the other end as you walk through this gate. Now I didn't know you picked the ticket up, so I just put the ticket in thinking that was the entrance fee thing. So when we got off to transfer, we couldn't get out, because you're supposed to put the ticket in at the end of the trip! I felt really stupid and we had to take a different train and pay more money.....

We finally got to the station and I met my family. They drove me back to their HUGE (by Tokyo standards) house and fed me a HUGE dinner which I couldn't eat all of. I went to bed in my full sized bed (bigger than my one back home), thus ending day one.

DAY TWO-04/02: Woke up to an enormous breakfast and a Japanese shower (which is just the head of the shower attached to a hose and you spray yourself down.... hard to get used to). Then I met the other exchange student living with the family. He showed me how to get to Sophia (because he goes there). While waiting at the bus stop, this Japanese lady walks up to me and says something and points to my ass. Apparently I hadn't taken the sticker off of my pants!!! I thanked her and took it off. The bus is really annoying because it costs more than in America and is smaller and slower (I think). We arrived at the train station and took it to Sophia.

The campus is really beautiful with lots of cherry blossoms and other plant life. We had a really crappy orientation that was extremely confusing. Then all the kids of Seattle U went out exploring Yotsuya, which is the neighborhood the school is in. It was a lot of fun.

I headed back to my station, but when I got there, I didn't know which bus to take back! My "host brother" (which is how I shall refer to him) told me to take the #14 bus at stop 8, but there was two stop 8s! I found the first one, but it didn't have the #14 bus, so I wondered around the outside of the station for about 40 minutes. I didn't want to ask the koban (police/tour guides all around Japan) because I didn't have my passport on me, but I eventually found it. When I got on the bus, I felt a huge sense of satisfaction knowing I could find my way back home.

DAY THREE-04/03: I had to get to school by 10 to take a Japanese placement test. I wasn't too worried about it, but when I got the test, it was a BEAST! I thought I'd at least be able to do the intermediate level, but I was only able to barely fully complete the beginner level.... After that test chewed me and spit me out, we met up with Yukari, who had gone to Seattle U the year before. She's really amazing and it was so good to see her again! She helped me get my commuter pass so that I could travel to and from my home station to the school's station and anywhere in between as much as I wanted for a month. Then there was the exchange/international student party. It was a lot of fun and I met some more really interesting people.

DAY FOUR- 04/04: I had nothing to do for school, but I asked Yukari to help me get a cell phone, but cell phones are SOOO FUCKING EXPENSIVE in Japan.... It's about $300 for the cheapest one! Even though I was planning on getting one that day, I walked away empty handed because of my reluctance to pay that much for a cell phone. I'm waiting to hear back from people selling used ones. I feel really bad making Yukari do all that work.... :'(.





I hope that'll tide you over! We're still decided what to do this weekend (we're probably going to Kyoto, Oosaka, and Nara!!!). But I'll write more later and have links to pictures that I've posted on facebook! Bye for now! またね！

Flight

So the flight was very... interesting. Liz, Emily, and I were all on the same flight, but in different seats, which was sad :'(. I was surrounded by a group of high school students going for a class trip, and they were ANNOYING!!! It was fun hearing the different announcements made in both English and Japanese. The flight was VERY turbulent (in fact, once it went down real fast then up and made Liz spill her water and people almost fell down). I was almost moved to tears by boredom. The worst turbulence, though, was at the end when we were supposed to land. We just kept rocking side to side when we were about to land. VERY scary.... But at least we landed....

I've arrived!!!

I have like no time/energy to type out EVERYTHING that happened with my first day here, but I feel like if I at least write a little something each time, I will get into the habit of doing it every night. My host family is AMAZING!!! They're really nice and their other host son is helping me out a lot! I'll write more later.