Well, today wasn't too exciting. I found out that I'm placed in Level 4 for both Speaking and Reading /Writing. Hopefully I can keep up with speaking. I think I'm going to see how it goes having the 5th class too. I've done it in Gettysburg just fine, and the courses are remarkably easier here so I hear, so I think I'll do it for now. I have a while to drop a class yet.
I also heard from Yukina! I might get to meet her tomorrow, I'm excited. I hope I can become really good friends with her and or with some of her friends.
I took the bus to Hirakata Station to take care of my Gaijin card but someone forgot his two ID pictures, so that was fruitless. I bought some other things I needed plus a nice shirt for 500 yen. I still haven't found any good silly-english ones that I like. I will get some other clothes eventually because some of the stores have a really nice style that you can't find in the US. I still need to get an umbrella at some point. I want to find one that isn't plastic-see-through like at the school store. I bought some food too, a milk-tea drink that I enjoy and some mugi-cha which is buckwheat tea that is quite good, introduced to me by Hentys (Hi if you're reading this!) I got these nice rolls with a sausage in the middle with some kind of dressing on it. Good breakfast food.
The bus ride to the Station and back was kind of lonely though, with the whole "being a minority in a country where you can't understand much" thing. That and a few "ほら！外人だ！" (Hey! a foreigner) were getting to me. I wish I could understand what comes after just that though.
The odd thing is though, is that you can be put off by these feelings of cultural and lingual exclusion, yet when I decided to try the tiny restaraunt next door I was immediately pleased to be there. There was a small counter with maybe 8 seats and two 4-person tables behind that. The stove was on the counter too, so you couldn't outstretch your hands. I ordered some grilled noodles yakisoba and it was the first time I had the real deal. So good, and only for 580 yen. The atmosphere was nice. Two women cooking that were probably related and some local guy there for dinner. I think they were commenting on the cooking show on the TV or how I had difficulty breaking my egg with chopsticks, haha. The lady who ran it was so nice though. I conducted everything in Japanese until she wanted to try a little English she picked up. I told her I'd come back here often since I live next door and she seemed quite happy. I recieved a 50% off coupon for the next time too!
So I suppose what I mean to say is that even though you can feel left out and if not lost at times, there will always be experiences that will warm you up and will redeem any feelings of not belonging. Finding a nice little place like this is one of them.
I'm very happy to be here and consider myself lucky.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Kyoto!
[Click here for video of Kyoto]
[Click here for more pictures]
Hi everyone! Today we had some more exciting meetings concerning safety and the like in the library again. I was finally scared out of getting a bike due to the numerous dangers about and the fact that I just learned how to ride one last year. Being a little wobbly and the like won't be too fun. Other topics included were Gaijin cards, earthquakes, and not drinking beer from the vending machines in the park and being noisy or looking like scary Gaijin all standing around and drinking... sadly that last one goes ignored. So many people here just don't know how to act. I'm definitely not saying I do, but I at least try to be more considerate and consious of my own actions.
At around 14:00 we lined up outside the CEI for the Kyoto tour, Gaijin on one side and Japanese on the other, and people met in the middle and took off. I ended up going with Joe, and this guy from Maryland named Justin who studied for about a year and a half and his speaking is better than mine, seemingly. I was impressed. We were paired up with two Japanese girls, Eriko and Sayuri. Eriko was only 18 and Sayuri 19, which was funny compared to our ages of 20, 21, and 24. We walked awhile to a station none of us have been to yet and took the train to some station in Kyoto, where we met one of their friends, Miho, who was also studying English, and French. She wants to move to Canada, haha. He english was great, and the other girls weren't bad at all for being second semester students. Justin and I mostly talked with them in Japanese, switching in and out so they can speak in English too, that's kind of how it works.
We took some bus to another part of the city, which I hope I can figure out again on my own, and walked for a bit. Our first stop was Kiyomizu-dera, one of the oldest Buddhist temples which belonged to the Tendai sect before the omiyage sect took over recently. Needless to say it was gorgeous. There were plenty of charms for sale, such as "lucky money" and "airplane safety" and "bike safety". There were intersting ones for lovers as well. Speaking of lovers there were two stones apart at one spot and if you walk from one to the other blind-folded, you'll be set for love, but if you mess up you are doomed! It could not be attempted due to the crowds though.
There were pools of water to drink form and to cleanse your hands with. The three main ones were for wisdom, health, and longevity. I think longevity cost 100 yen to drink from, so I stuck with wisdom and health.
We then walked back down the path lined with all kinds of interesting shops that I want to explore for gifts and the like when I return. Our next stop was Asakusa Shrine which was built in 1649 under Tokugawa. The story behind it goes something like: two fishermen caught a Buddhist statue and a rich man in town hears about it comes and lectures the fishermen on Kannon (the type of statue they found) and they impassionately convert and make a small temple to it and worshiped it daily.
We then found some park that we looked about, and then made our way to the main-drag, whatever the name of it was, and looked for somewhere to eat. We picked a noodle and ricebowl place with moderate prices. I got Kitsune Donburi which is Fox Ricebowl, and fox is some kind of style of noodle / ricebowl in what goes in it and so on. I think the main ingredient was fried tofu. It was only 800 yen and it was delicious. I think it's my favorite donburi now.
We then took the train back to Hirakata Station and Justin asked the girls where he could buy a pillow, detergent, and sheets, so they took him all around town until it was all found. They spent about 15 minutes in the bedding section in one department store, Justin felt so bad (and did Joe and I) that they had to stay out much later doing this for him. They were all really kind to us while they volunteered to show us around. They said they had fun though. I hope they did. They waited with us at the bus stop to Gaidai and I tried to tell them that they didn't have to wait for us and that they could go home since it's late, and it worked on the second attempt. They would have waited for us, but we felt bad keeping them up. I don't think we came across as rude, we thanked them quite a bit and told them how much fun we had.
Justin also got a number from Sayuri and flirted through texts, so we'll see where that goes, haha. He also is renting an old Japanese house, which is pretty cool, although old houses (especially here) can be rough. No internet either! But having your own floor brazer and Japanese style rooms must be pretty cool. And it's only 30,000 yen a month he said, surprisingly...
Anyway, I may have pictures up later. Check back for those. I hope the video works okay, but YouTube butchered the quality. I'll try to make more cohesive videos in the future, it might be a good idea.
[Click here for more pictures]
Hi everyone! Today we had some more exciting meetings concerning safety and the like in the library again. I was finally scared out of getting a bike due to the numerous dangers about and the fact that I just learned how to ride one last year. Being a little wobbly and the like won't be too fun. Other topics included were Gaijin cards, earthquakes, and not drinking beer from the vending machines in the park and being noisy or looking like scary Gaijin all standing around and drinking... sadly that last one goes ignored. So many people here just don't know how to act. I'm definitely not saying I do, but I at least try to be more considerate and consious of my own actions.
At around 14:00 we lined up outside the CEI for the Kyoto tour, Gaijin on one side and Japanese on the other, and people met in the middle and took off. I ended up going with Joe, and this guy from Maryland named Justin who studied for about a year and a half and his speaking is better than mine, seemingly. I was impressed. We were paired up with two Japanese girls, Eriko and Sayuri. Eriko was only 18 and Sayuri 19, which was funny compared to our ages of 20, 21, and 24. We walked awhile to a station none of us have been to yet and took the train to some station in Kyoto, where we met one of their friends, Miho, who was also studying English, and French. She wants to move to Canada, haha. He english was great, and the other girls weren't bad at all for being second semester students. Justin and I mostly talked with them in Japanese, switching in and out so they can speak in English too, that's kind of how it works.
We took some bus to another part of the city, which I hope I can figure out again on my own, and walked for a bit. Our first stop was Kiyomizu-dera, one of the oldest Buddhist temples which belonged to the Tendai sect before the omiyage sect took over recently. Needless to say it was gorgeous. There were plenty of charms for sale, such as "lucky money" and "airplane safety" and "bike safety". There were intersting ones for lovers as well. Speaking of lovers there were two stones apart at one spot and if you walk from one to the other blind-folded, you'll be set for love, but if you mess up you are doomed! It could not be attempted due to the crowds though.
There were pools of water to drink form and to cleanse your hands with. The three main ones were for wisdom, health, and longevity. I think longevity cost 100 yen to drink from, so I stuck with wisdom and health.
We then walked back down the path lined with all kinds of interesting shops that I want to explore for gifts and the like when I return. Our next stop was Asakusa Shrine which was built in 1649 under Tokugawa. The story behind it goes something like: two fishermen caught a Buddhist statue and a rich man in town hears about it comes and lectures the fishermen on Kannon (the type of statue they found) and they impassionately convert and make a small temple to it and worshiped it daily.
We then found some park that we looked about, and then made our way to the main-drag, whatever the name of it was, and looked for somewhere to eat. We picked a noodle and ricebowl place with moderate prices. I got Kitsune Donburi which is Fox Ricebowl, and fox is some kind of style of noodle / ricebowl in what goes in it and so on. I think the main ingredient was fried tofu. It was only 800 yen and it was delicious. I think it's my favorite donburi now.
We then took the train back to Hirakata Station and Justin asked the girls where he could buy a pillow, detergent, and sheets, so they took him all around town until it was all found. They spent about 15 minutes in the bedding section in one department store, Justin felt so bad (and did Joe and I) that they had to stay out much later doing this for him. They were all really kind to us while they volunteered to show us around. They said they had fun though. I hope they did. They waited with us at the bus stop to Gaidai and I tried to tell them that they didn't have to wait for us and that they could go home since it's late, and it worked on the second attempt. They would have waited for us, but we felt bad keeping them up. I don't think we came across as rude, we thanked them quite a bit and told them how much fun we had.
Justin also got a number from Sayuri and flirted through texts, so we'll see where that goes, haha. He also is renting an old Japanese house, which is pretty cool, although old houses (especially here) can be rough. No internet either! But having your own floor brazer and Japanese style rooms must be pretty cool. And it's only 30,000 yen a month he said, surprisingly...
Anyway, I may have pictures up later. Check back for those. I hope the video works okay, but YouTube butchered the quality. I'll try to make more cohesive videos in the future, it might be a good idea.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Welcome, Yet Distant
Today we registered for classes based on our lottery numbers. I drew 367 out of 400+ something, so I got to go at a later time, thus more sleep. When I got to the CIE building people were whining about their lottery numbers and worrying and just generally being annoying about it. When I got there, only a few classes were full. I got all of mine anyway: Negotiation, Intercultural Communication, Japan China Relations, Spoken Japanese, and Written / Reading Japanese. I don't know what levels of Japanese I'm in yet.
I had lunch in the McDonald's with Joe and two other guys from our dorm, Zack and Sam. It was the only option on campus for food. I tried the spicy chicken sandwich with fries and Qoo. The chicken had a slightly different consistency but everything else was the same. The way things were done was different though, maybe due to the limited space that it shares with Seattle's Best and the tables. You get a tray, go down the line, past where they give you the food, and there's a small menu where you can either point or just ask for what you want. The cashier takes your money and gives you your receipt and a number. Sometimes she would then go outside of the McDonalds, around you, and go behind you and hand the person at the food dispersal area your order, then walk back around. It seemed inconvenient and odd. I had to help Joe and someone else for when their numbers were called since neither knew Japanese.
On the way back to the dorm, Joe and I tried a new road that we thought might be a straight line to our dorm instead of the longer route we've taken, so we explored. We came upon beautiful Japanese houses and gorgeous rice fields which are in the link on my last post. It's a quicker route that put us literally at our dorm too. Back at the dorm I had free time until 3:00. Our Okaa-san told us that they changed Induction to 2:30 and that we needed to dress up and leave now. I figured out halfway there that it was most likely a ploy to get us there on time and it was a good thing she did that.
Induction was okay. The Prez gave a speech, then the US and Austrailian Consulate Generals, an American student, then a Japanese student, then my Japan China Relations Professor who is very intense and in your face. I think he'll be fun, interesting, challenging, and at times frustrating or annoying. I'm looking forward to his class.
The food afterwards was okay, but it was crowded in the cafeteria. I met the sole girl from Brazil when her high-heels got stuck in a rain-grate. She was nice and reprimanded me for staying in a dorm with the other Americans, and I'm kind of wondering if I should have homestayed, even though they asked everyone who was if they wanted to get out since it was getting hard to place people due to there being too many who wanted homestays... But anyway... I think her name was Laisha or something like that; I butchered it horribly but it sounded pretty. I was handed some tako-yaki, or grilled octopus in dough, which I find horrible but all of you would probably like it. I ate one and discreetly tossed the rest, feeling bad. However, the oolong-tea and the giant grapes which tasted like wine were excellent.
I say that she's the only Brazillian since 80% of the people here are American, which is unfortunate. It's so nice hanging out with people from different cultures, and it's so easy for Americans to group together, or have them go to you...
I walked back to the dorm alone without anything to really do. Joe was going to go hang out with his speaking partner and another guy and his and shoot off fireworks or something of the sort. It made me feel kind of down that mine won't email or contact me. If she was traveling I would hope she would say, but maybe she doesn't know English... I really want to make Japanese friends, but how? The really sociable ones who are in the dorm (maybe 2-3 of them) already have tons of friends due to being the tour-guides and whatnot. It'll be hard finding someone to befriend...
So I decided to wander out to Makino Station to see if I could stumble upon any sociable Japanese... It's over a mile on foot I would guess there. At some point I decided to cross the stream to see what was on the other side, and I came upon a beautiful Buddhist temple. A woman was there to pray and left, and I said konbanwa to her.
I went back across the bridge and then in passing the park I saw a lot of school kids playing games there, probably High School. One group was playing some kind of singing game that they did loudly and I could hear everything fine but not understand much; it looked like fun. On the way back, the cheerleaders or dance club were practicing some dance routine and it was really cute.
Once I made it to the main road I asked a traffic cop if there was a movie theater nearby since I was curious, but he told me I should try Hirakata. Oh well. I walked about and found nothing interesting so I did the arcade. Some other Gaijin were going in just as I was, unfortunately. Usually that's the case. I played some shooting game and a guy named Will joined me and we died and parted ways. Then a Japanese girl came up to talk to me! ... Only to say "Harro," giggle and go back to her friends. So it goes.
Not to be discouraged a I went to go play Taiko no Tetsujin which is a game based off of Japanese festival drums. I think it's in America by now. I accidentally put in two coins thinking the "how to play" section was the "insert more money" despite it only saying 100 yen. I don't know why I thought this. So I ended up grabbing player 2's drumstick and played both for three songs and made a good show of it.
I hobbled back towards the Seminar House and had to wait for a train to pass, and I was impressed by the speed it passed with. I've never seen a train move that fast in America, mostly since we don't use trains and the rails are so decrepit that they move too slow. Being hit by one of these would be pretty easy, but a mess to clean up...
I saw other Gaijin on the way back who were all heading to Karaoke to drink and be noisy, which I wouldn't have too much fun at. I'll try it if it's with some cool Japanese people, but not so much if they're just fellow Gaijin just trying to get drunk. Notice the theme of wanting to hang around Japanese people? I like hanging out with Joe a lot, but it would be nice if I could talk with him in Japanese. My Canadian roomie is keen on exploring too, but he doesn't know any Japanese, although I expect him to blow through it once it gets into class.
So I just hobbled back to the dorm with tired feet and that's about it. Tomorrow there's nothing to do besides a meeting at 9:30 so I might go to Hirakata to catch some random Japanese movie. I hope it's cheap, I'll be sure to bring my new Kansai ID. I'm looking forward to the Kyoto tour on Friday so I can learn the way there and more about the train system so I can explore on my own. Having 5 classes will hinder exploration time, but we'll see how it goes. I can always drop one. It's not like these count towards anything other than maybe a resume, and I figure I'll learn things either way.
Well, enough of that. Goodnight!
I had lunch in the McDonald's with Joe and two other guys from our dorm, Zack and Sam. It was the only option on campus for food. I tried the spicy chicken sandwich with fries and Qoo. The chicken had a slightly different consistency but everything else was the same. The way things were done was different though, maybe due to the limited space that it shares with Seattle's Best and the tables. You get a tray, go down the line, past where they give you the food, and there's a small menu where you can either point or just ask for what you want. The cashier takes your money and gives you your receipt and a number. Sometimes she would then go outside of the McDonalds, around you, and go behind you and hand the person at the food dispersal area your order, then walk back around. It seemed inconvenient and odd. I had to help Joe and someone else for when their numbers were called since neither knew Japanese.
On the way back to the dorm, Joe and I tried a new road that we thought might be a straight line to our dorm instead of the longer route we've taken, so we explored. We came upon beautiful Japanese houses and gorgeous rice fields which are in the link on my last post. It's a quicker route that put us literally at our dorm too. Back at the dorm I had free time until 3:00. Our Okaa-san told us that they changed Induction to 2:30 and that we needed to dress up and leave now. I figured out halfway there that it was most likely a ploy to get us there on time and it was a good thing she did that.
Induction was okay. The Prez gave a speech, then the US and Austrailian Consulate Generals, an American student, then a Japanese student, then my Japan China Relations Professor who is very intense and in your face. I think he'll be fun, interesting, challenging, and at times frustrating or annoying. I'm looking forward to his class.
The food afterwards was okay, but it was crowded in the cafeteria. I met the sole girl from Brazil when her high-heels got stuck in a rain-grate. She was nice and reprimanded me for staying in a dorm with the other Americans, and I'm kind of wondering if I should have homestayed, even though they asked everyone who was if they wanted to get out since it was getting hard to place people due to there being too many who wanted homestays... But anyway... I think her name was Laisha or something like that; I butchered it horribly but it sounded pretty. I was handed some tako-yaki, or grilled octopus in dough, which I find horrible but all of you would probably like it. I ate one and discreetly tossed the rest, feeling bad. However, the oolong-tea and the giant grapes which tasted like wine were excellent.
I say that she's the only Brazillian since 80% of the people here are American, which is unfortunate. It's so nice hanging out with people from different cultures, and it's so easy for Americans to group together, or have them go to you...
I walked back to the dorm alone without anything to really do. Joe was going to go hang out with his speaking partner and another guy and his and shoot off fireworks or something of the sort. It made me feel kind of down that mine won't email or contact me. If she was traveling I would hope she would say, but maybe she doesn't know English... I really want to make Japanese friends, but how? The really sociable ones who are in the dorm (maybe 2-3 of them) already have tons of friends due to being the tour-guides and whatnot. It'll be hard finding someone to befriend...
So I decided to wander out to Makino Station to see if I could stumble upon any sociable Japanese... It's over a mile on foot I would guess there. At some point I decided to cross the stream to see what was on the other side, and I came upon a beautiful Buddhist temple. A woman was there to pray and left, and I said konbanwa to her.
I went back across the bridge and then in passing the park I saw a lot of school kids playing games there, probably High School. One group was playing some kind of singing game that they did loudly and I could hear everything fine but not understand much; it looked like fun. On the way back, the cheerleaders or dance club were practicing some dance routine and it was really cute.Once I made it to the main road I asked a traffic cop if there was a movie theater nearby since I was curious, but he told me I should try Hirakata. Oh well. I walked about and found nothing interesting so I did the arcade. Some other Gaijin were going in just as I was, unfortunately. Usually that's the case. I played some shooting game and a guy named Will joined me and we died and parted ways. Then a Japanese girl came up to talk to me! ... Only to say "Harro," giggle and go back to her friends. So it goes.
Not to be discouraged a I went to go play Taiko no Tetsujin which is a game based off of Japanese festival drums. I think it's in America by now. I accidentally put in two coins thinking the "how to play" section was the "insert more money" despite it only saying 100 yen. I don't know why I thought this. So I ended up grabbing player 2's drumstick and played both for three songs and made a good show of it.
I hobbled back towards the Seminar House and had to wait for a train to pass, and I was impressed by the speed it passed with. I've never seen a train move that fast in America, mostly since we don't use trains and the rails are so decrepit that they move too slow. Being hit by one of these would be pretty easy, but a mess to clean up...
I saw other Gaijin on the way back who were all heading to Karaoke to drink and be noisy, which I wouldn't have too much fun at. I'll try it if it's with some cool Japanese people, but not so much if they're just fellow Gaijin just trying to get drunk. Notice the theme of wanting to hang around Japanese people? I like hanging out with Joe a lot, but it would be nice if I could talk with him in Japanese. My Canadian roomie is keen on exploring too, but he doesn't know any Japanese, although I expect him to blow through it once it gets into class.
So I just hobbled back to the dorm with tired feet and that's about it. Tomorrow there's nothing to do besides a meeting at 9:30 so I might go to Hirakata to catch some random Japanese movie. I hope it's cheap, I'll be sure to bring my new Kansai ID. I'm looking forward to the Kyoto tour on Friday so I can learn the way there and more about the train system so I can explore on my own. Having 5 classes will hinder exploration time, but we'll see how it goes. I can always drop one. It's not like these count towards anything other than maybe a resume, and I figure I'll learn things either way.
Well, enough of that. Goodnight!
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