Wednesday, April 9, 2008
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!!!
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!!!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
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!!!
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!!!
Friday, April 4, 2008
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！
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！
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
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....
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
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.
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