The closer my departure from Japan gets, the more I think about how much I’ve learned and changed these past few months. I definitely feel like a different person will be going back to Wisconsin than the one who left it.
For one, I’d say I’m a far more adventurous eater. I wasn’t exactly picky before I left home, but I definitely wasn’t so throw all caution to the wind when it comes to food as I am now. The only thing I’ve been offered in Japan that I didn’t try was raw hamburger and raw egg mixed up together and that was mostly because my stomach had been hurting that day and I didn’t think I would be doing it any favors if I ate such a concoction. Otherwise, every bit of food that’s been put before me I’ve given a go. There’s been more times than I can count where I stuffed something in my mouth and only learned later what in the heck I ate. And now I’m leaving Japan knowing that I quite like squid, octopus and salmon, I really don’t like tuna, okonomiyaki is one of my favorite foods, I don’t mind sushi, and that tempura ice cream is possibly the greatest thing ever invented.
The above paragraph can be viewed as another example of a way in which Japan has changed me: I’ve settled on opinions that I didn’t even know I had. Leaving Japan, I know how I feel about the Futenma Air Base, for example, and kisha clubs. I can have a conversation about Japan/US relations throughout history or discuss orientalism and nihonjinron. I know who the burakumin are and who Hatoyama is. I can tell you about Tulle Lake and talk about defamation laws in Japan. I can even sign my name in Japanese Sign Language. So while I’ve had more academically challenging semesters in the past (more papers, etc), I’ve learned quite a lot this semester.
And more than just widening my palate and learning a bunch of stuff about Japan, I came to understand a lot more about my own nationality and culture. Before I came to Japan, I never really considered American culture as legitimate (for lack of a better word). I thought the United States was just this salad bowl of things taken from other, more interesting places and dulled down, but that we didn’t have anything that was purely American. Now I can see that, yeah, the United States does have a unique culture of its own and that while Americans have ties and ancestry from all corners of the world, we have a set of ideals that binds us together to make us distinctly American. (Though the political talking heads might have us think otherwise.)
Being in Japan, I’ve gotten the smallest sliver of a taste of what it might be like to be an immigrant. It sucks. But seriously, now whenever I think about how people get so up in arms about having Spanish next to English on labels and things, I get really, really annoyed and I see it for the xenophobia that it is. Learning a language is hard. Balls hard. And being in another country where you don’t speak the language, where even if you do speak it you can’t pick up on all the cultural nuances, it’s scary and beyond frustrating. You feel like an idiot 98% of the time and I’ll admit, there were a couple of moments this past semester when I had a good cry because trying to learn Japanese felt so futile and pointless. I can’t begin to imagine picking up everything and moving to permanently live in a foreign country where they don’t speak the same language as you do. Before I came to this country, I’ll admit, I didn’t know quite where I stood on the issue of immigration. Now that I’ve experienced for myself a little bit of what it might be like to be an immigrant, I know where my sympathies lie.
Speaking of xenophobia, I don’t think I ever truly realized how isolated the United States is from other countries. It’s like our mentality is to see the world from only one perspective: ours. We think Africa’s a country and we think Japan and China are synonymous with one another. Most people in the United States don’t have passports and have never been out of the country, not even to Canada or Mexico. We get upset when our president is diplomatic with world leaders and we expect other people to learn our language, not the other way around. In school, we’re taught American history again and again, but we only get one year of world history. We only know one piece of the whole (and I would argue we don’t even know that piece very well). What I don’t understand is why. Why don’t we know our neighbors better? Why are we constantly going around with this “us versus them” ideology? As Zefron would say, we’re all in this together. ;)
Last August, it was like I was looking at a pointillism painting and only seeing dots. Now I feel like Japan has caused me take a few steps back and I can actually see what image those dots form to make. I’m so, so grateful for this fine adventure I’ve had the privilege to have. I truly feel like it’s changed me for the better and I can’t wait to see and experience more of this crazy, fantastic world we live in.
I’ll see you in England.
EDIT: Sorry for the continued text heaviness of this post, but I wasn't able to write about my actual departure, so I thought I'd do so here. Leaving Japan was very hard for me. I don't think I've ever experienced such an emotional roller coaster before. I was happy and excited to come home and see my family and friends, but also devastated to leave what had become my Japan home. I cried saying good bye to my awesome speaking partner, Rina, I cried (multiple times) saying good bye to my wonderful-beyond-words host family, and I cried on the plane as I said good bye to Osaka and I cried on the plane as I took off from my layover in Tokyo saying sayonara to Japan. I feel like I left a part of myself behind in Japan and I dearly hope I'll be returning one day. I became close to some great people and made a lot of fantastic friends who I'm not ready to say a permanent good bye to just yet.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Hiroshima
(note: written last Monday)
Last weekend I went to Hiroshima with two friends as a sort of last big hurrah. Hiroshima was one of the places I most wanted to go during my stay here in Japan, so I’m really glad I finally had the opportunity. I woke up incredibly early Saturday morning and my host dad drove me down to Hirakata station to meet up with my travelling companions. We took a train to Kyoto and then from Kyoto went to Hiroshima via shinkansen. The shinkansen was on the expensive side (even with a student discount), but it was a very cool way to travel. It was almost like being on an airplane, only on the ground instead.
We made it to Hiroshima in about an hour (it took us six hours by bus on the return trip to Osaka). After that we promptly got lost looking for our hostel (one thing I’m looking forward to in the US: street names!), but eventually found it after twenty minutes or so of searching and asking for directions. It was my first experience at a hostel, so I have nothing to compare it with, but it was incredibly nice and clean. Much better than a lot of hotels and motels I’ve stayed in. I especially liked the beds. I don’t think I’d realized how much I’ve missed having a soft, downy comforter until I climbed into my hostel bed later that night (the blankets I use at my home stay get the job done but are on the thin and scratchy side).
We left our hostel after checking in and took a tram and then a ferry to Miyajima, which is this island that’s about ten minutes or so away from the mainland. Approaching it, it was so mountainous it kind of reminded me of Jurassic Park. But no dinosaurs met us when we walked off the ferry, just deer! Like Nara, there were deer walking amongst the tourists. They look cute, but watch out. One of my friends and I decided to buy ourselves some ice cream cones and we quickly learned that deer like ice cream too. We had a mob of deer following us around, nudging us, and staring us down (one even tried to rise up on his hind legs to get a taste of my ice cream cone). The Japanese people around us were pretty amused and though a nice woman took pity on me and tried to rescue me by attempting to get one particularly intent deer’s attention off of me, the gang of deer wasn’t satisfied until I relinquished my ice cream to them. (And even after that they were still shoving their noses into my pockets and my hands, looking for more food!)
But the reason we went to Miyajima wasn’t because we wanted to be harassed by deer. Miyajima actually has a huge torii gate a little ways off shore. It was really cool to see it rising out of the water. It was a cloudy day, so the torii definitely brightened up the horizon. I don’t know what it is, but I really find torii aesthetically pleasing. Suffice it to say, I took plenty of photos.
While we waited for our return ferry to pick us up, we wandered through a couple shops and I polished off the rest of my Christmas shopping. I’m really excited to give gifts this year – though I’m worried they won’t all be well received (I did my best!). We had lunch at a tiny little restaurant. I had donburi (beef, egg, onion and rice). I need to copy down some Japanese recipes before I leave because there are quite a few things I hope I can make when I return home/am fending for myself in England.
Once we were back on the mainland, we took another tram to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. First we wandered around the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome, which used to be a government building/city hall. The atomic bomb was dropped almost directly over it, so it’s still standing (though in ruins). We also saw a section of the park that has a bunch of glass cases filled with paper crane chains. (If you fold a thousand paper cranes, you get to make a wish that will come true.) The paper cranes were folded by school children and the like so that their wish for world peace/no more atomic bombs would be fulfilled.
We then headed to the Hiroshima museum, but before we could get there we were stopped by Jehovah’s Witnesses. (They really are everywhere!). We didn’t quite know what to do to escape (the museum was closing soon), but luckily one of my friends pretended to get a phone call from another friend and we excused ourselves, saying we had to go meet him somewhere. Our escape successful, we entered the Hiroshima Peace Museum. It was packed and near closing time, but we still managed to see everything.
In school we’re never encouraged to see it from the other side. The United States is always in the right, always valiant. So seeing an aspect of World War II from Japan’s side was really eye-opening for me. Walking through the displays of tattered clothing from the blast, stopped watches, and other mangled objects and thinking about their owners was really jarring. The museum had two models on their main floor: one of Hiroshima before the bomb and one after. I don’t think I ever quite realized just how flattened the city was. There was barely a building standing. Hiroshima was a wasteland.
I think, for me, the three things that affected me most strongly was the little blurb about dummy bombs, an elementary school uniform and a paper crane. Let me explain. The dummy bombs chart/description was about the number of dummy bombs the United States dropped on Japan prior to the atomic bomb. A different technique was used with the atomic bomb, so pilots had to practice. This practice came at the cost of Japanese civilian lives. To me the idea of killing other people for the practice seems incredibly reprehensible.
The elementary school uniform was in tatters and shreds and it was hard not to think of my own host brother and sister. Little kids suffering and dying in the most horrendous of ways is stomach turning to anyone, but when you can imagine it happening to someone you know and care about, it’s truly horrendous. As for the paper crane, one display told the story of this sixth grade girl who contracted leukemia due to the radiation from the bomb. She folded a thousand paper cranes (and eventually more than that) with the hope that by doing so her wish to become well again would come true. It’s hard to put into words what seeing her little paper cranes and the photo of her, this little girl, in a coffin filled with flowers was like.
The museum really made me marvel at what people are willing to do to other people and I can’t help wondering what the world would be like if we put as much effort into helping people as we do into killing them.
After the museum, we decided to cheer ourselves up by looking at all these beautiful lights on a nearby main street and eating some ice cream at this place reminiscent of Cold Stone. We went window shopping for a while as well, though I didn’t buy anything besides omiyage for my host family. (In Japan, when you go somewhere on a trip you’re expected to bring back a souvenir or gift of some kind.) I bought some whiskey bon bons for my host parents and some chocolates for my host siblings. I think my host mom and dad especially appreciated the bon bons. (They were gone in a matter of minutes!).
We ended up not going out to eat and just hitting up a convenience store instead. I wasn’t hungry at all, so I stuck with water and bought a cinnamon roll for the next morning. We headed back to the hostel and managed to find it after getting lost again, and gratefully crawled under our warm, cushy blankets.
W e woke up early Sunday morning to check out of the hostel and after getting lost (noticing a theme here?) we managed to find our way to the bus that was going to take us back to Osaka. I was a little worried about the six hour bus ride, but it went by surprisingly fast. Hopefully my long plane ride home will feel just as short. I read a book (Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki), ate my cinnamon roll, and wore down the battery on my iPod. After we arrived in Osaka, we took the subway to Hirakata station where we ate at Mos Burger (the Japanese equivalent of McDonald’s only, you know, actually tasty and filling) and then went our separate ways.
I came back home, had dinner and then realized I hadn’t studied at all for my Japanese test the next morning. I stayed up late to study, but I’m not sure it saved me. I guess we’ll find out when I get my test results back.
I have four exams left and a paper to write, but after that I’m free!
Last weekend I went to Hiroshima with two friends as a sort of last big hurrah. Hiroshima was one of the places I most wanted to go during my stay here in Japan, so I’m really glad I finally had the opportunity. I woke up incredibly early Saturday morning and my host dad drove me down to Hirakata station to meet up with my travelling companions. We took a train to Kyoto and then from Kyoto went to Hiroshima via shinkansen. The shinkansen was on the expensive side (even with a student discount), but it was a very cool way to travel. It was almost like being on an airplane, only on the ground instead.
We made it to Hiroshima in about an hour (it took us six hours by bus on the return trip to Osaka). After that we promptly got lost looking for our hostel (one thing I’m looking forward to in the US: street names!), but eventually found it after twenty minutes or so of searching and asking for directions. It was my first experience at a hostel, so I have nothing to compare it with, but it was incredibly nice and clean. Much better than a lot of hotels and motels I’ve stayed in. I especially liked the beds. I don’t think I’d realized how much I’ve missed having a soft, downy comforter until I climbed into my hostel bed later that night (the blankets I use at my home stay get the job done but are on the thin and scratchy side).
We left our hostel after checking in and took a tram and then a ferry to Miyajima, which is this island that’s about ten minutes or so away from the mainland. Approaching it, it was so mountainous it kind of reminded me of Jurassic Park. But no dinosaurs met us when we walked off the ferry, just deer! Like Nara, there were deer walking amongst the tourists. They look cute, but watch out. One of my friends and I decided to buy ourselves some ice cream cones and we quickly learned that deer like ice cream too. We had a mob of deer following us around, nudging us, and staring us down (one even tried to rise up on his hind legs to get a taste of my ice cream cone). The Japanese people around us were pretty amused and though a nice woman took pity on me and tried to rescue me by attempting to get one particularly intent deer’s attention off of me, the gang of deer wasn’t satisfied until I relinquished my ice cream to them. (And even after that they were still shoving their noses into my pockets and my hands, looking for more food!)
But the reason we went to Miyajima wasn’t because we wanted to be harassed by deer. Miyajima actually has a huge torii gate a little ways off shore. It was really cool to see it rising out of the water. It was a cloudy day, so the torii definitely brightened up the horizon. I don’t know what it is, but I really find torii aesthetically pleasing. Suffice it to say, I took plenty of photos.
While we waited for our return ferry to pick us up, we wandered through a couple shops and I polished off the rest of my Christmas shopping. I’m really excited to give gifts this year – though I’m worried they won’t all be well received (I did my best!). We had lunch at a tiny little restaurant. I had donburi (beef, egg, onion and rice). I need to copy down some Japanese recipes before I leave because there are quite a few things I hope I can make when I return home/am fending for myself in England.
Once we were back on the mainland, we took another tram to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. First we wandered around the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome, which used to be a government building/city hall. The atomic bomb was dropped almost directly over it, so it’s still standing (though in ruins). We also saw a section of the park that has a bunch of glass cases filled with paper crane chains. (If you fold a thousand paper cranes, you get to make a wish that will come true.) The paper cranes were folded by school children and the like so that their wish for world peace/no more atomic bombs would be fulfilled.
We then headed to the Hiroshima museum, but before we could get there we were stopped by Jehovah’s Witnesses. (They really are everywhere!). We didn’t quite know what to do to escape (the museum was closing soon), but luckily one of my friends pretended to get a phone call from another friend and we excused ourselves, saying we had to go meet him somewhere. Our escape successful, we entered the Hiroshima Peace Museum. It was packed and near closing time, but we still managed to see everything.
In school we’re never encouraged to see it from the other side. The United States is always in the right, always valiant. So seeing an aspect of World War II from Japan’s side was really eye-opening for me. Walking through the displays of tattered clothing from the blast, stopped watches, and other mangled objects and thinking about their owners was really jarring. The museum had two models on their main floor: one of Hiroshima before the bomb and one after. I don’t think I ever quite realized just how flattened the city was. There was barely a building standing. Hiroshima was a wasteland.
I think, for me, the three things that affected me most strongly was the little blurb about dummy bombs, an elementary school uniform and a paper crane. Let me explain. The dummy bombs chart/description was about the number of dummy bombs the United States dropped on Japan prior to the atomic bomb. A different technique was used with the atomic bomb, so pilots had to practice. This practice came at the cost of Japanese civilian lives. To me the idea of killing other people for the practice seems incredibly reprehensible.
The elementary school uniform was in tatters and shreds and it was hard not to think of my own host brother and sister. Little kids suffering and dying in the most horrendous of ways is stomach turning to anyone, but when you can imagine it happening to someone you know and care about, it’s truly horrendous. As for the paper crane, one display told the story of this sixth grade girl who contracted leukemia due to the radiation from the bomb. She folded a thousand paper cranes (and eventually more than that) with the hope that by doing so her wish to become well again would come true. It’s hard to put into words what seeing her little paper cranes and the photo of her, this little girl, in a coffin filled with flowers was like.
The museum really made me marvel at what people are willing to do to other people and I can’t help wondering what the world would be like if we put as much effort into helping people as we do into killing them.
After the museum, we decided to cheer ourselves up by looking at all these beautiful lights on a nearby main street and eating some ice cream at this place reminiscent of Cold Stone. We went window shopping for a while as well, though I didn’t buy anything besides omiyage for my host family. (In Japan, when you go somewhere on a trip you’re expected to bring back a souvenir or gift of some kind.) I bought some whiskey bon bons for my host parents and some chocolates for my host siblings. I think my host mom and dad especially appreciated the bon bons. (They were gone in a matter of minutes!).
We ended up not going out to eat and just hitting up a convenience store instead. I wasn’t hungry at all, so I stuck with water and bought a cinnamon roll for the next morning. We headed back to the hostel and managed to find it after getting lost again, and gratefully crawled under our warm, cushy blankets.
W e woke up early Sunday morning to check out of the hostel and after getting lost (noticing a theme here?) we managed to find our way to the bus that was going to take us back to Osaka. I was a little worried about the six hour bus ride, but it went by surprisingly fast. Hopefully my long plane ride home will feel just as short. I read a book (Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki), ate my cinnamon roll, and wore down the battery on my iPod. After we arrived in Osaka, we took the subway to Hirakata station where we ate at Mos Burger (the Japanese equivalent of McDonald’s only, you know, actually tasty and filling) and then went our separate ways.
I came back home, had dinner and then realized I hadn’t studied at all for my Japanese test the next morning. I stayed up late to study, but I’m not sure it saved me. I guess we’ll find out when I get my test results back.
I have four exams left and a paper to write, but after that I’m free!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Life with the host fam
(I was going to write a blog post about my host family, but then remembered I’d already written one ages ago at the start of October. Although some of the details are outdated – Rui is now five for example – the sentiment still rings true.)
Today wasn’t particularly special, but like most days in Japan, it’s ending with me feeling ridiculously giddy and happy. Really, there are lots of aspects of my life in Japan I enjoy, but what causes me to grin like an idiot before I drift off to sleep is, in most cases, my host family.
I’ve heard a lot of reasons for not having a host family and most of them I agree with. I don’t get internet at my host family’s house. I have to drag my laptop to school or use the computer lab. No streaming television shows from the US for me. Heck, just posting photos to Facebook has proven to be difficult. I don’t get to cook anything for myself and I use cook here in the loosest sense of the term. The only thing I’ve prepared for myself since moving into my home stay is making toast once in awhile. That’s it. I don’t really get to choose the menu or raid the refrigerator either. It’s not my house: 95% of the time I feel like a guest. I’m not walking on eggshells constantly, but I’m not flopping down on the couch and zoning out to TV whenever I feel like it either. My host brother and sister are four and seven respectively. I repeat, my host brother and sister are four and seven. They fight, they cry, they pester and bug. They’re loud and sticky and don’t give a crap about personal space. Being in a home stay means you follow the host family’s rules. I don’t have a curfew per say, but if I’m coming home later than usual, I have to let them know. Although I can, theoretically, spend more time in my room than I do, I feel obligated to be with the family even when I feel like some quiet, alone time.
Those are just some of the downsides of having a host family. There are horror stories – real ones – about other host families. I know people who have an eight o’clock or nine o’clock curfew – even on the weekends. I have a few friends and acquaintances for whom it takes two hours to get to school each day. I know one guy who chose to move out of his home stay and back into the dorms because his host mom never fed him and was a heavy drinker.
That all being said, if I could go back in time to when I was typing away at my study abroad application for Kansai Gaidai, I wouldn’t change my decision to apply to live with a host family. For some reason or other, the home stay gods smiled down upon me and I landed with a home stay family that’s pretty much a perfect fit for me. It’s fairly safe to say that one of the big factors in my having such a pleasant time in Japan is my host family.
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, today wasn’t particularly special. I came home from school and read a couple chapters of A People’s History of the United States (which I’ve been working on for the past month now), had dinner with the family (squid, eggplant and bread in a meat sauce, rice, and avocado slices), read three pictures book in English to Rui and Mao (my host siblings for those of you who haven’t been following along), played a game with them, studied for a Japanese vocabulary quiz with my host mom, had a bath, and got ready for bed. This is my general after school schedule.
What’s so great about that, I hear you asking. For me, it’s the small, detailed little moments. I taught Mao and Rui a clapping game I learned from one of my roommates last year and slowly, but surely Mao really started getting the hang of it. (Rui not so much, but he’s four.) This memory of my roommate and I playing this silly game and then it spilling over to create a new memory, a Japan memory, was kind of cool. After dinner, my host mom surprised me and the host sibs with a small package of Oreos to share and she immediately pulled out the Skippy peanut butter she’d bought me earlier so that I could have a favorite treat of mine just the way I like it. (Best of all is that my host mom has learned she likes Oreos with peanut butter too!)
When my host dad came home (he worked late and unfortunately missed dinner) and was sitting down to eat the plate my host mom had set aside for him, Rui immediately had him doubled over in laughter with his wacky antics. My host mom, too, loves to laugh. At dinner, which is usually Rui and my host dad’s mini-comedy hour, she picks up the comedic slack when my host dad isn’t there. I like so, so much that my host family is light-hearted and quick to laughter. It’s reassuring and comforting and makes me feel as though a fragment of my own family is here with me in Japan.
So yes, sure, there are downsides to having a host family, but the positive aspects more than make up for it. Although I’m sure my experience in Japan would still be good if I lived in a dorm instead, having experienced what living with a host family is like, I can’t imagine living in a dorm would give me such a connected feeling to home, family or Japanese life.
Today wasn’t particularly special, but like most days in Japan, it’s ending with me feeling ridiculously giddy and happy. Really, there are lots of aspects of my life in Japan I enjoy, but what causes me to grin like an idiot before I drift off to sleep is, in most cases, my host family.
I’ve heard a lot of reasons for not having a host family and most of them I agree with. I don’t get internet at my host family’s house. I have to drag my laptop to school or use the computer lab. No streaming television shows from the US for me. Heck, just posting photos to Facebook has proven to be difficult. I don’t get to cook anything for myself and I use cook here in the loosest sense of the term. The only thing I’ve prepared for myself since moving into my home stay is making toast once in awhile. That’s it. I don’t really get to choose the menu or raid the refrigerator either. It’s not my house: 95% of the time I feel like a guest. I’m not walking on eggshells constantly, but I’m not flopping down on the couch and zoning out to TV whenever I feel like it either. My host brother and sister are four and seven respectively. I repeat, my host brother and sister are four and seven. They fight, they cry, they pester and bug. They’re loud and sticky and don’t give a crap about personal space. Being in a home stay means you follow the host family’s rules. I don’t have a curfew per say, but if I’m coming home later than usual, I have to let them know. Although I can, theoretically, spend more time in my room than I do, I feel obligated to be with the family even when I feel like some quiet, alone time.
Those are just some of the downsides of having a host family. There are horror stories – real ones – about other host families. I know people who have an eight o’clock or nine o’clock curfew – even on the weekends. I have a few friends and acquaintances for whom it takes two hours to get to school each day. I know one guy who chose to move out of his home stay and back into the dorms because his host mom never fed him and was a heavy drinker.
That all being said, if I could go back in time to when I was typing away at my study abroad application for Kansai Gaidai, I wouldn’t change my decision to apply to live with a host family. For some reason or other, the home stay gods smiled down upon me and I landed with a home stay family that’s pretty much a perfect fit for me. It’s fairly safe to say that one of the big factors in my having such a pleasant time in Japan is my host family.
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, today wasn’t particularly special. I came home from school and read a couple chapters of A People’s History of the United States (which I’ve been working on for the past month now), had dinner with the family (squid, eggplant and bread in a meat sauce, rice, and avocado slices), read three pictures book in English to Rui and Mao (my host siblings for those of you who haven’t been following along), played a game with them, studied for a Japanese vocabulary quiz with my host mom, had a bath, and got ready for bed. This is my general after school schedule.
What’s so great about that, I hear you asking. For me, it’s the small, detailed little moments. I taught Mao and Rui a clapping game I learned from one of my roommates last year and slowly, but surely Mao really started getting the hang of it. (Rui not so much, but he’s four.) This memory of my roommate and I playing this silly game and then it spilling over to create a new memory, a Japan memory, was kind of cool. After dinner, my host mom surprised me and the host sibs with a small package of Oreos to share and she immediately pulled out the Skippy peanut butter she’d bought me earlier so that I could have a favorite treat of mine just the way I like it. (Best of all is that my host mom has learned she likes Oreos with peanut butter too!)
When my host dad came home (he worked late and unfortunately missed dinner) and was sitting down to eat the plate my host mom had set aside for him, Rui immediately had him doubled over in laughter with his wacky antics. My host mom, too, loves to laugh. At dinner, which is usually Rui and my host dad’s mini-comedy hour, she picks up the comedic slack when my host dad isn’t there. I like so, so much that my host family is light-hearted and quick to laughter. It’s reassuring and comforting and makes me feel as though a fragment of my own family is here with me in Japan.
So yes, sure, there are downsides to having a host family, but the positive aspects more than make up for it. Although I’m sure my experience in Japan would still be good if I lived in a dorm instead, having experienced what living with a host family is like, I can’t imagine living in a dorm would give me such a connected feeling to home, family or Japanese life.
INFES and Fushimi Inari Shrine
November 21st and 22nd was the International Festival weekend (or INFES). It was also the Gaidai festival so the entire school was celebrating over the weekend. Every school club and circle seemed to have a booth where they’d sell food for cheap. A small sampling of some of the food I ate: yakisoba, tempura ice cream, waffles, pancakes, doughnut holes, hot chocolate and honey toast. Clearly I have a bit of a sweet tooth. The students running the booths had very aggressive tactics to get people to buy their food. Walking across the campus, I was literally shouted at, physically stopped and followed by booth people trying to get me to buy their food. Sometimes I just went ahead and bought whatever they were selling so they’d leave me alone!
As far as INFES went, which was hosted in the CIE (of course), it went pretty well though I wished I would have gotten to do a different booth than food booth. In total, INFES hosted two food booths (Hawaiian chicken and Japanese parfaits), a dance booth, a fashion booth, a singing booth and world booth (which was basically international students sitting at tables and talking about their respective countries with Japanese visitors). The food booths were the only ones stuck out in the cold all day and in hindsight, I wish I would have done dance booth (as it was offered to me as an option when I was first signing up). Oh well. It was still fun getting to know the people working my booth (especially getting to hang out with my speaking partner so much, who was in the same booth as me) and I was able to sneak away far more often than I would if I worked a different booth. At my food booth there were more people than there were jobs, so I often was able to escape without anyone noticing I’d gone, eat some tempura ice cream, and sneak back again.
One of the best parts of INFES was when my host family stopped by to say hello. It was nice seeing them out and about and I’ll admit, I felt kind of cool having my host sibs run up super excited to see me. Though my host brother’s interest was short-lived when some Gaidai students walked by dressed up as power rangers. I didn’t mind though – the power rangers are way cooler than I am!
Yesterday (November 28) I spent the day with my speaking partner, Rina. At the start of the semester, everyone who asked was assigned a speaking partner: a Japanese student to practice Japanese with (and someone they can practice English with). Study abroad programs, you’ll find, are all about the cultural exchange stuff. But Rina and I often have trouble hanging out because she’s incredibly busy. I really don't know how she does it! She goes to a different campus that's half an hour away from the main one so I was really happy to get to have a little speaking partner bonding time on Saturday.
We went to Fushimi Inari shrine which, if you’ve seen the movie Memoirs of a Geisha, you’d recognize. (The scene where Chiyo/Sayuri is running through the torii gates to pray at the temple – kind of funny seeing as Fushimi Inari shrine is… well, a shrine.) Anyway, so Fushimi Inari has thousands of torii lined up next to each other and you get to walk through them all. It’s like being in a really beautiful, orange corridor out in the woods. (Probably not the best description!) With the colors changing on the trees and the weather being perfect for autumn, being at Fushimi Inari really felt magical. Rina and I only walked up part of the way – there was a break in the torii and then it continued on up the mountainside and to reach the top would take two hours. We decided we weren’t so up for it and were getting hungry for lunch, so we stopped at a nearby restaurant outside Fushimi Inari and shared some yakisoba and okonomiyaki (my two food loves in Japan).
We went browsing about a bunch of stores (later going to a sort of indoor strip mall thing in Kyoto) and I finally got the bulk of my Christmas shopping done which was good. I’m really excited to see everyone unwrap their gifts from Japan when I come home!
After Christmas shopping, we stopped at a little café and rested a bit with some hot drinks before we headed back to Hirakata city. Before Rina and I parted ways at the station, we did some purikura which is basically like really advanced mall photo booths. They’re super fun to do and some people have entire purikura photo albums! (You can print them out as stickers or have them sent to your cell phone.)
I think my luck continued when I got assigned Rina as my speaking partner because she's truly fantastic. I feel like I can ask her pretty much anything about Japanese language or culture and she doesn't mind when I try to bumble along in Japanese. Haha. She's also damn good at English, so there's never really any communication problems which is nice. We've had a lot of good coffee dates where we just hang out and chat about what we've been up to and laugh about this or that (there's also some good gossip thrown in for good measure!). I'm really glad I've finally gotten to know her better and I hope we'll remain friends for a good long time.
Today was pretty laid back and I spent most of it at home by myself because my host family went to the hospital to visit their grandfather who’s recovering from pretty serious surgery. It sounds like he isn’t doing so well and I’m really worried for him (and for my host family because it’s been really hard on them too).
I worked on a Japanese essay today (about my memories of Japan) and though I could have said a lot more, tried to just stick with one memory (Fushimi Inari with my speaking partner). When I was writing it, I noticed how much easier it was to do, how much quicker. I can remember when writing a couple sentences in Japanese took me forever and they were always incredibly simple sentences too such as “I like Japanese.” Now I’m writing more complex things like “Although I’m not the best at Japanese and it’s always been a challenge for me, I still love studying it and would like to be fluent one day.” And it isn’t taking me an hour and a half to do either. I don’t have to look up every single kanji I want to use and I don’t second guess myself so often on the grammar. (I actually recently competed with my host sister, who’s in the first grade, to see who could write the most first grade kanji. I’m fairly sure she won because there were two or three that I’d forgotten, but it was still nice knowing I could at least keep up with a Japanese first grader!)
I think with language learning, it’s so easy to become frustrated because it’s almost always slow going, but when you get some distance between where you were and where you are now, it’s very rewarding and gratifying. Keep in mind I’m still dreadful at Japanese, particularly speaking. I’ve just gotten a bit less dreadful it seems. I really hope I can stay motivated and keep studying Japanese because it’s a truly fascinating language and culture.
It’s so weird to think that there are only three weeks left for me in Japan. I’ve been really homesick lately, but when I looked at the calendar a couple days ago, I decided to stop feeling so mopey and *enjoy* Japan again while I’m here. I think somewhere between the middle of October and now I just started to fall deeper and deeper into homesickness and all I could think about was home all the time. I’m still super excited for Christmas, but I’m trying to keep up a renewed outlook on things and feel the way I did in September and the first half of October when everything was wonderful and exciting. Coming to Japan has really been a once in a lifetime opportunity and while I hope to return one day, I’ll never have this particular set of circumstances again (going to school at Kansai Gaidai, living with the best host family in Japan, etc.) so I’m going to enjoy every bit of it as much as I can!
P.S. If you're interested in seeing a great video about the INFES experience (and seeing a tiny glimpse of me holding tempura ice cream) check out the youtube video below. (It was made by a fellow food-boother!)
"Click here for video"
As far as INFES went, which was hosted in the CIE (of course), it went pretty well though I wished I would have gotten to do a different booth than food booth. In total, INFES hosted two food booths (Hawaiian chicken and Japanese parfaits), a dance booth, a fashion booth, a singing booth and world booth (which was basically international students sitting at tables and talking about their respective countries with Japanese visitors). The food booths were the only ones stuck out in the cold all day and in hindsight, I wish I would have done dance booth (as it was offered to me as an option when I was first signing up). Oh well. It was still fun getting to know the people working my booth (especially getting to hang out with my speaking partner so much, who was in the same booth as me) and I was able to sneak away far more often than I would if I worked a different booth. At my food booth there were more people than there were jobs, so I often was able to escape without anyone noticing I’d gone, eat some tempura ice cream, and sneak back again.
One of the best parts of INFES was when my host family stopped by to say hello. It was nice seeing them out and about and I’ll admit, I felt kind of cool having my host sibs run up super excited to see me. Though my host brother’s interest was short-lived when some Gaidai students walked by dressed up as power rangers. I didn’t mind though – the power rangers are way cooler than I am!
Yesterday (November 28) I spent the day with my speaking partner, Rina. At the start of the semester, everyone who asked was assigned a speaking partner: a Japanese student to practice Japanese with (and someone they can practice English with). Study abroad programs, you’ll find, are all about the cultural exchange stuff. But Rina and I often have trouble hanging out because she’s incredibly busy. I really don't know how she does it! She goes to a different campus that's half an hour away from the main one so I was really happy to get to have a little speaking partner bonding time on Saturday.
We went to Fushimi Inari shrine which, if you’ve seen the movie Memoirs of a Geisha, you’d recognize. (The scene where Chiyo/Sayuri is running through the torii gates to pray at the temple – kind of funny seeing as Fushimi Inari shrine is… well, a shrine.) Anyway, so Fushimi Inari has thousands of torii lined up next to each other and you get to walk through them all. It’s like being in a really beautiful, orange corridor out in the woods. (Probably not the best description!) With the colors changing on the trees and the weather being perfect for autumn, being at Fushimi Inari really felt magical. Rina and I only walked up part of the way – there was a break in the torii and then it continued on up the mountainside and to reach the top would take two hours. We decided we weren’t so up for it and were getting hungry for lunch, so we stopped at a nearby restaurant outside Fushimi Inari and shared some yakisoba and okonomiyaki (my two food loves in Japan).
We went browsing about a bunch of stores (later going to a sort of indoor strip mall thing in Kyoto) and I finally got the bulk of my Christmas shopping done which was good. I’m really excited to see everyone unwrap their gifts from Japan when I come home!
After Christmas shopping, we stopped at a little café and rested a bit with some hot drinks before we headed back to Hirakata city. Before Rina and I parted ways at the station, we did some purikura which is basically like really advanced mall photo booths. They’re super fun to do and some people have entire purikura photo albums! (You can print them out as stickers or have them sent to your cell phone.)
I think my luck continued when I got assigned Rina as my speaking partner because she's truly fantastic. I feel like I can ask her pretty much anything about Japanese language or culture and she doesn't mind when I try to bumble along in Japanese. Haha. She's also damn good at English, so there's never really any communication problems which is nice. We've had a lot of good coffee dates where we just hang out and chat about what we've been up to and laugh about this or that (there's also some good gossip thrown in for good measure!). I'm really glad I've finally gotten to know her better and I hope we'll remain friends for a good long time.
Today was pretty laid back and I spent most of it at home by myself because my host family went to the hospital to visit their grandfather who’s recovering from pretty serious surgery. It sounds like he isn’t doing so well and I’m really worried for him (and for my host family because it’s been really hard on them too).
I worked on a Japanese essay today (about my memories of Japan) and though I could have said a lot more, tried to just stick with one memory (Fushimi Inari with my speaking partner). When I was writing it, I noticed how much easier it was to do, how much quicker. I can remember when writing a couple sentences in Japanese took me forever and they were always incredibly simple sentences too such as “I like Japanese.” Now I’m writing more complex things like “Although I’m not the best at Japanese and it’s always been a challenge for me, I still love studying it and would like to be fluent one day.” And it isn’t taking me an hour and a half to do either. I don’t have to look up every single kanji I want to use and I don’t second guess myself so often on the grammar. (I actually recently competed with my host sister, who’s in the first grade, to see who could write the most first grade kanji. I’m fairly sure she won because there were two or three that I’d forgotten, but it was still nice knowing I could at least keep up with a Japanese first grader!)
I think with language learning, it’s so easy to become frustrated because it’s almost always slow going, but when you get some distance between where you were and where you are now, it’s very rewarding and gratifying. Keep in mind I’m still dreadful at Japanese, particularly speaking. I’ve just gotten a bit less dreadful it seems. I really hope I can stay motivated and keep studying Japanese because it’s a truly fascinating language and culture.
It’s so weird to think that there are only three weeks left for me in Japan. I’ve been really homesick lately, but when I looked at the calendar a couple days ago, I decided to stop feeling so mopey and *enjoy* Japan again while I’m here. I think somewhere between the middle of October and now I just started to fall deeper and deeper into homesickness and all I could think about was home all the time. I’m still super excited for Christmas, but I’m trying to keep up a renewed outlook on things and feel the way I did in September and the first half of October when everything was wonderful and exciting. Coming to Japan has really been a once in a lifetime opportunity and while I hope to return one day, I’ll never have this particular set of circumstances again (going to school at Kansai Gaidai, living with the best host family in Japan, etc.) so I’m going to enjoy every bit of it as much as I can!
P.S. If you're interested in seeing a great video about the INFES experience (and seeing a tiny glimpse of me holding tempura ice cream) check out the youtube video below. (It was made by a fellow food-boother!)
"Click here for video"
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Dance Performance
For just about all of October, I’ve been practicing a traditional Japanese dance with some other 留学生 (international students) and today we finally performed it on stage. I originally got involved with this particular extracurricular activity when a group of Japanese women came to KG and gave us all yukata (which are basically summer kimono) to try on and wear. They then taught us a bunch of traditional Japanese dances and offered us all the chance to learn and perform a Japanese dance when they held their annual autumn dance concert.
Before I came to Japan I promised myself that I’d try to step outside my box, so (with a little peer pressure) I signed up. The dance I learned was called 新・梅は咲いたか (The Plum and Cherry Blossoms). It took me most of October to truly figure out what in the heck I was doing, but during one practice session in late October it all clicked (better late than never!). I spent most of the today with my dance group waiting around to go on. We all arrived at the dance hall around 9am or so, but weren’t going on until a little after 1pm, so we had a fair amount of time to kill. Most of which was spent being dressed and having our hair and makeup done. I don’t think I could ever handle wearing a corset – yukata/kimono are tight enough! Not to mention the wooden zori (sandals, basically) that we had to wear on our way to and from the stage. No one’s zori fit their feet and the zori were so narrow and short that everyone’s heels were free hanging. I don’t think I need to tell you that wearing zori *hurt*! Even though the zori and yukata/kimono were a bit of a struggle, I definitely felt transformed especially after my hair was pinned up and my makeup was put on. I can’t say I’ve ever sported a white face/small red lips/dark eyebrows look before. It sort of felt like we were in Memoirs of a Geisha.
I’ve only ever been on stage for music concerts and I can’t say I’ve ever been much of a dancer, so it was definitely nerve wracking walking up on stage! Even though we had a lot of time between our arrival at the hall and our dance performance, the time felt like it flew by. Before I knew it, we were all nervously goofing around in a hallway that leads into the backstage area and getting ready to go on. I was especially nervous because I wasn’t able to wear my glasses on stage and had decided to just do the dance blind instead of bothering with contacts. It definitely felt like the only thing keeping the butterflies in my stomach contained was the obi that had been wrapped around me so tightly!
As soon as we stepped out onto the stage, organized ourselves into our ‘stand by’ poses, and the music started playing, my nerves just went away. Dancing blind was surprisingly easy and in fact, I’m glad I did it because although I could see and make out my fellow dancers, I couldn’t see anyone in the audience! It was literally like performing for an empty auditorium. Everything went by without a hitch and before I knew it, we were done. When the curtain fell, we all broke out into grins. I imagine we would have cheered if we weren’t in Japan – we got the impression that we were supposed to be quiet even though we were exuberant!
After our performance, we freed ourselves of our yukata/kimono and zori and booked it out of there. Some friends had come to watch us, so we wandered around outside with them for a bit. There was a benefit festival for the nearby hospital so we stopped by and I bought myself some cotton candy. I was under the impression there wasn’t cotton candy in Japan because I’d had to explain what it was to my host siblings who were baffled by my description. After wandering around the festival for a bit, we all went to Mos Burger (which has *phenomenal* burgers) and then we all headed our separate ways. Two friends and I stopped at Kiddy Land and a few other stores outside Hirakata Station. Kiddy Land is pretty much a store filled with cute, adorable things and I have the feeling I’m going to be spending whatever money I have left at the end of the semester in that store. My cheap headphones are falling apart and they have some vintage-style, bright purple ones I think I’d like to buy myself.
Shopping done (or more specific, window shopping), I spent a few hours at one of the KG dorms and then biked home to my home stay just in time for dinner. We had a speed tournament after, which my host mom was champion of. I came in fourth out of five, but I like to think I wasn’t properly warmed up!
And now here I am writing this blog post. The semester is starting to wind down, but my classes sure haven’t and I have more homework than ever. Best get to it.
Catching Up
It seems I’ve been a bad blogger lately as I haven’t written an update in roughly a month or so. I’m afraid the only excuse I can offer is that I’m in college and therefore am usually being pulled in five different directions as it is. What I’ve been up to hasn’t been terribly exciting, but I’ll try to sum up what I can.
NARA: Nara is perhaps best known for its deer park where deer roam around and people can take photos/feed them thin wafers and Todaji temple where there’s a gigantic Buddha inside. I got to experience both when I visited Nara in October with a group of 外大生 (KG students) and foreign exchange students. It was fun to pet the deer and be so close to them. Usually I only ever see deer darting away into the forest. They didn’t particularly seem to care one way or the other about being pet. They mostly just wanted people to give them these deer wafer things and if you didn’t have one in your hand, they were very disinterested. The giant Buddha (and when giant, I mean *giant*) was really awe-inspiring to see. It was very beautiful and I could have stood gaping up at it for some time. I was a little sad that I didn’t get to crawl through Buddha’s nostril – what I mean by that is that there’s a large wooden pillar nearby with a hole cut through the center that’s the same size as one of the giant Buddha’s nostrils. People line up and crawl through it for luck/for the fun of it/to marvel at just how big this Buddha statue really is. The line was too long and Todaji was closing, so there was no time. While at Todaji, I also had my fortune told and luckily I apparently have good luck coming my way. The day I went to Nara was also the day I finally tried takoyaki. Takoyaki is basically pieces of octopus in fried, doughy balls with takoyaki sauce and mayo slathered over them. Being in Japan, I’ve discovered I’m a bit of an octopus/squid fan, so I thought they were pretty tasty. (I still prefer okonomiyaki though.)
HALLOWEEN: Basically ended up falling apart and I spent most of the day working on homework instead. The party I was originally going to go to got cancelled, and there was a mountain of school work that was threatening to collapse upon me anyway. Next year I’m determined to be more in the Halloween spirit!
HIRAKATA PARK: I went to Hirakata Park with some friends for a Saturday. Walking through Hirakata park was like being transported into Roller Coaster Tycoon. Literally, some of the roller coasters and rides seemed to be taken straight out of the computer game. It wasn’t busy at all and was quite cute. We rode just about every ride there – we even walked (or rather ran because it was so cold!) through this ice house which we dubbed ‘Norway’ as one of the friends we were with was Norwegian. Unfortunately I didn’t think to bring my camera on our excursion, so I didn’t get very many pictures. It’s become a bit of a habit with me - not taking photos. I guess I don’t want to look like a tourist, though it’s not like I don’t stand out already. At Hirakata Park, I had my second strawberry/chocolate/whip cream crepe and have officially come to the decision that I need to learn how to make crepes!
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN: My host family and I were originally going to go to Universal Studios Japan weeks ago, but my host brother was sick that day, so we ended up cancelling. So, finally, when everybody was well, my host mom took me and the sibs to USJ. They were in the middle of transitioning from Halloween to Christmas so there were giant pumpkin decorations next to Christmas trees. My host mom had these ‘jump to the front of the line’ passes, so we were usually able to avoid waiting in line for 30-40 minutes. USJ had one rollercoaster which I rode with my host mom (the sibs being too little) and it was probably one of the best coasters I’ve ever been on. Incredibly smooth. I really felt weightless most of the time. At USJ we also rode the usual suspects like Back to the Future and Jaws. It was fun getting to hang out with the host sibs too. They’re pretty good kids, though they sometimes have trouble sharing: both of them usually wanted me to hold their hand or carry them! After USJ, we stopped at my host mom’s grandparents’ house and had a quick dinner. I tried raw fish for what was probably the eighth time and yet I still don’t know how I feel about it. Sushi is definitely one of those things I’m not sure if I like or don’t like. After our long day, we finally headed on home.
SCARIEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE: Sometime last week around midnight, I was working on a presentation for my Japanese class the next day and I heard this really heavy falling like someone falling down stairs and then my host mom started screaming my host dad’s name. I was frozen where I was until she started yelling *my* name and I bolted upstairs to help her drag my host dad over to the couch while she called for an ambulance. My host dad collapsed out of nowhere, even though just four or five hours earlier we were all having dinner together. I think he might have been dehydrated? In any case, I had to rush downstairs and wait outside the front door to flag down the ambulance (neighborhoods in Japan are really twisty turny, so I had to make sure the ambulance knew which house was the one they needed to get to). My host dad was taken to the hospital where they gave him fluids and where he stayed over night. It didn’t feel it was happening while it was actually going on, but once the ambulance drove off I just burst into tears. Why am I writing about this? Because I’m still jumping every time I hear a loud bump from upstairs or someone shouting and because I want to share all of my experiences, not just the good ones.
SHINTO SHRINE: Last weekend I went with my host family to a Shinto shrine for some kind of age ceremony for my host brother and sister who turned four and seven this year respectively. I’d been to a couple of Shinto shrines before, but I was still struck by just how pretty they are. I have to say, getting to sit and watch the ceremony was definitely something I wouldn’t have been able to experience had I chosen to live in the dorm! After the ceremony, we all ate dango (dumplings) which were super tasty. I’d had dango before at Beloit and hadn’t really liked it, but it was very good this time around. I wonder if my tastes are changing or if the dango I had at Beloit was just bad! :D
This past week my host family and I were having dinner and my host mom’s grandma observed that it’ll be no time at all before I leave Japan. November is my last full month here in Japan and I’ll be leaving the country on December 21st. I also just received my acceptance letter to Lancaster University in England, where I’ll be studying abroad next semester. It’s hard to imagine being home in the United States and even harder to imagine living in yet another country for an entire semester!
There are still some things I’d like to do and see yet in Japan like visit Hiroshima and Fushimi Inari Shrine. Hopefully I’ll be able to fit those in with my remaining time here! Even though it’s been a challenge and a struggle to live here sometimes, I’m really glad I decided to come to Japan. For one, I think I’ve gotten better at Japanese - particularly listening. I still mess up most if not all the time, but the language has become less foreign to me and I’m excited to continue learning it (though I question whether I’ll ever be fluent! The Japanese language is a beast!). For another, I’ve met some great people since being here and I plan on keeping in contact with them even after I leave. They’ve definitely helped make the experience worthwhile.
I hope the rest of my November and December are just as wonderful and life-changing as September and October.
NARA: Nara is perhaps best known for its deer park where deer roam around and people can take photos/feed them thin wafers and Todaji temple where there’s a gigantic Buddha inside. I got to experience both when I visited Nara in October with a group of 外大生 (KG students) and foreign exchange students. It was fun to pet the deer and be so close to them. Usually I only ever see deer darting away into the forest. They didn’t particularly seem to care one way or the other about being pet. They mostly just wanted people to give them these deer wafer things and if you didn’t have one in your hand, they were very disinterested. The giant Buddha (and when giant, I mean *giant*) was really awe-inspiring to see. It was very beautiful and I could have stood gaping up at it for some time. I was a little sad that I didn’t get to crawl through Buddha’s nostril – what I mean by that is that there’s a large wooden pillar nearby with a hole cut through the center that’s the same size as one of the giant Buddha’s nostrils. People line up and crawl through it for luck/for the fun of it/to marvel at just how big this Buddha statue really is. The line was too long and Todaji was closing, so there was no time. While at Todaji, I also had my fortune told and luckily I apparently have good luck coming my way. The day I went to Nara was also the day I finally tried takoyaki. Takoyaki is basically pieces of octopus in fried, doughy balls with takoyaki sauce and mayo slathered over them. Being in Japan, I’ve discovered I’m a bit of an octopus/squid fan, so I thought they were pretty tasty. (I still prefer okonomiyaki though.)
HALLOWEEN: Basically ended up falling apart and I spent most of the day working on homework instead. The party I was originally going to go to got cancelled, and there was a mountain of school work that was threatening to collapse upon me anyway. Next year I’m determined to be more in the Halloween spirit!
HIRAKATA PARK: I went to Hirakata Park with some friends for a Saturday. Walking through Hirakata park was like being transported into Roller Coaster Tycoon. Literally, some of the roller coasters and rides seemed to be taken straight out of the computer game. It wasn’t busy at all and was quite cute. We rode just about every ride there – we even walked (or rather ran because it was so cold!) through this ice house which we dubbed ‘Norway’ as one of the friends we were with was Norwegian. Unfortunately I didn’t think to bring my camera on our excursion, so I didn’t get very many pictures. It’s become a bit of a habit with me - not taking photos. I guess I don’t want to look like a tourist, though it’s not like I don’t stand out already. At Hirakata Park, I had my second strawberry/chocolate/whip cream crepe and have officially come to the decision that I need to learn how to make crepes!
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN: My host family and I were originally going to go to Universal Studios Japan weeks ago, but my host brother was sick that day, so we ended up cancelling. So, finally, when everybody was well, my host mom took me and the sibs to USJ. They were in the middle of transitioning from Halloween to Christmas so there were giant pumpkin decorations next to Christmas trees. My host mom had these ‘jump to the front of the line’ passes, so we were usually able to avoid waiting in line for 30-40 minutes. USJ had one rollercoaster which I rode with my host mom (the sibs being too little) and it was probably one of the best coasters I’ve ever been on. Incredibly smooth. I really felt weightless most of the time. At USJ we also rode the usual suspects like Back to the Future and Jaws. It was fun getting to hang out with the host sibs too. They’re pretty good kids, though they sometimes have trouble sharing: both of them usually wanted me to hold their hand or carry them! After USJ, we stopped at my host mom’s grandparents’ house and had a quick dinner. I tried raw fish for what was probably the eighth time and yet I still don’t know how I feel about it. Sushi is definitely one of those things I’m not sure if I like or don’t like. After our long day, we finally headed on home.
SCARIEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE: Sometime last week around midnight, I was working on a presentation for my Japanese class the next day and I heard this really heavy falling like someone falling down stairs and then my host mom started screaming my host dad’s name. I was frozen where I was until she started yelling *my* name and I bolted upstairs to help her drag my host dad over to the couch while she called for an ambulance. My host dad collapsed out of nowhere, even though just four or five hours earlier we were all having dinner together. I think he might have been dehydrated? In any case, I had to rush downstairs and wait outside the front door to flag down the ambulance (neighborhoods in Japan are really twisty turny, so I had to make sure the ambulance knew which house was the one they needed to get to). My host dad was taken to the hospital where they gave him fluids and where he stayed over night. It didn’t feel it was happening while it was actually going on, but once the ambulance drove off I just burst into tears. Why am I writing about this? Because I’m still jumping every time I hear a loud bump from upstairs or someone shouting and because I want to share all of my experiences, not just the good ones.
SHINTO SHRINE: Last weekend I went with my host family to a Shinto shrine for some kind of age ceremony for my host brother and sister who turned four and seven this year respectively. I’d been to a couple of Shinto shrines before, but I was still struck by just how pretty they are. I have to say, getting to sit and watch the ceremony was definitely something I wouldn’t have been able to experience had I chosen to live in the dorm! After the ceremony, we all ate dango (dumplings) which were super tasty. I’d had dango before at Beloit and hadn’t really liked it, but it was very good this time around. I wonder if my tastes are changing or if the dango I had at Beloit was just bad! :D
This past week my host family and I were having dinner and my host mom’s grandma observed that it’ll be no time at all before I leave Japan. November is my last full month here in Japan and I’ll be leaving the country on December 21st. I also just received my acceptance letter to Lancaster University in England, where I’ll be studying abroad next semester. It’s hard to imagine being home in the United States and even harder to imagine living in yet another country for an entire semester!
There are still some things I’d like to do and see yet in Japan like visit Hiroshima and Fushimi Inari Shrine. Hopefully I’ll be able to fit those in with my remaining time here! Even though it’s been a challenge and a struggle to live here sometimes, I’m really glad I decided to come to Japan. For one, I think I’ve gotten better at Japanese - particularly listening. I still mess up most if not all the time, but the language has become less foreign to me and I’m excited to continue learning it (though I question whether I’ll ever be fluent! The Japanese language is a beast!). For another, I’ve met some great people since being here and I plan on keeping in contact with them even after I leave. They’ve definitely helped make the experience worthwhile.
I hope the rest of my November and December are just as wonderful and life-changing as September and October.
Friday, October 9, 2009
The first week of October
When I was packing for Japan I didn't realize how much free time I would actually have. I was so used to being at Beloit where my days were jam packed with classes, work, and paper writing and I dreamed of having time to read for pleasure. I don't have a job here (what with it being illegal and everything), I'm only in class 16 hours a week and I have yet to be assigned one paper to write or a massive reading assignment. (Gone are the days where I'd be asked to read 500 pages in the span of a week.)
I only brought four books along with me to Japan and I've already read two and am half way through the third. Luckily, I've discovered the library here on campus and boy, is it ever a library. I wish the Beloit College library could be half as nice. They have plenty of English books, so I have a lot more reading material to choose from. (And I'll admit, I was a bit excited when I saw they had the British versions of the Harry Potter series.) Not to mention, they also have an extensive collection of American movies (I've walked into the media part of the library and I've seen people watching Mean Girls, Pretty Woman, Enchanted, etc.)
I've been binging on American movies myself lately, often raiding my host family's DVD collection. (I didn't think to bring my own DVDs either. Again, the whole not having much free time theory.) On Wednesday, a typhoon hit Japan and I had the hardest time sleeping through it. I've never heard wind howl so loud and if I'm perfectly honest, I was a little freaked out by the whole typhoon thing. Tornadoes? No problem. But typhoons? ...I'm a complete newb. So I stayed up half the night eating Ritz crackers bathed in the glow of my laptop and watching Toy Story 2.
The typhoon didn't seem to do any damage in my part of Hirakata, but my Japanese teacher was telling us Friday morning that someone was crushed by a fallen electrical pole though I'm not sure where in Japan. (One plus of the typhoon: morning classes were cancelled the following day!)
Last weekend was my host sister's Sports Day at her school. It was a day-long event in which all the students' parents came and watched their kids compete against one another in a bunch of different playground games. There were relay races, obstacle courses, tug of war games and even choreographed dancing (which was surprisingly high quality for an elementary school). It was really fun to watch, but I was quite tired by the end of it.
The day before my sister's Sports Day, I was able to walk around the KG campus wearing a Yukata. A local, community dance troupe came and helped us put them on. It was really cool, but walking was difficult. You really had to shuffle along. Wide strides were way to hard to take.
After we all walked around a bit, the dance troupe taught us some traditional Japanese dance, which was fun. I actually might be performing with them in November, which is two parts exciting, one part nerve-wracking.
Now that October is here, Halloween decorations are starting to appear in Japanese stores. I didn't think Halloween was celebrated in Japan and when I asked my host mom about it, she said it was a relatively new thing in Japan. There are a lot of Halloween parties, she said, but trick-or-treating isn't a big thing. (And walking into the grocery stores, there aren't any aisles filled with industrial size bags of candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters.)
I haven't yet decided what I'm going to dress as for Halloween, but I think I may end up being the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland because I have a similarly striped sweater. All I need is some cat ears and voila. Not the most elaborate of costumes, but I didn't think to bring an actual Halloween costume to Japan.
I only brought four books along with me to Japan and I've already read two and am half way through the third. Luckily, I've discovered the library here on campus and boy, is it ever a library. I wish the Beloit College library could be half as nice. They have plenty of English books, so I have a lot more reading material to choose from. (And I'll admit, I was a bit excited when I saw they had the British versions of the Harry Potter series.) Not to mention, they also have an extensive collection of American movies (I've walked into the media part of the library and I've seen people watching Mean Girls, Pretty Woman, Enchanted, etc.)
I've been binging on American movies myself lately, often raiding my host family's DVD collection. (I didn't think to bring my own DVDs either. Again, the whole not having much free time theory.) On Wednesday, a typhoon hit Japan and I had the hardest time sleeping through it. I've never heard wind howl so loud and if I'm perfectly honest, I was a little freaked out by the whole typhoon thing. Tornadoes? No problem. But typhoons? ...I'm a complete newb. So I stayed up half the night eating Ritz crackers bathed in the glow of my laptop and watching Toy Story 2.
The typhoon didn't seem to do any damage in my part of Hirakata, but my Japanese teacher was telling us Friday morning that someone was crushed by a fallen electrical pole though I'm not sure where in Japan. (One plus of the typhoon: morning classes were cancelled the following day!)
Last weekend was my host sister's Sports Day at her school. It was a day-long event in which all the students' parents came and watched their kids compete against one another in a bunch of different playground games. There were relay races, obstacle courses, tug of war games and even choreographed dancing (which was surprisingly high quality for an elementary school). It was really fun to watch, but I was quite tired by the end of it.
The day before my sister's Sports Day, I was able to walk around the KG campus wearing a Yukata. A local, community dance troupe came and helped us put them on. It was really cool, but walking was difficult. You really had to shuffle along. Wide strides were way to hard to take.
After we all walked around a bit, the dance troupe taught us some traditional Japanese dance, which was fun. I actually might be performing with them in November, which is two parts exciting, one part nerve-wracking.
Now that October is here, Halloween decorations are starting to appear in Japanese stores. I didn't think Halloween was celebrated in Japan and when I asked my host mom about it, she said it was a relatively new thing in Japan. There are a lot of Halloween parties, she said, but trick-or-treating isn't a big thing. (And walking into the grocery stores, there aren't any aisles filled with industrial size bags of candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters.)
I haven't yet decided what I'm going to dress as for Halloween, but I think I may end up being the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland because I have a similarly striped sweater. All I need is some cat ears and voila. Not the most elaborate of costumes, but I didn't think to bring an actual Halloween costume to Japan.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Silver Week
Even though school just started, we’ve already had a vacation of sorts: ‘Silver Week’. Silver Week is basically a string of holidays in a row, which means a five day weekend for Kansai Gaidai students. A lot of the international students went to Tokyo for the extended weekend, but I stayed here in Hirakata. I didn’t make any concrete plans for the weekend, but overall, it was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time.
On Saturday I went to Hirakata station with two friends. I’d been there once before, but only briefly to fill out my alien registration paperwork. This time I was actually able to explore the area and walk around in all the shops. I was able to browse a bookstore for a little while – even though everything was in a foreign language, I still could have spent a good hour or two in there. (Bookstores, as a rule, are a major time suck for me. Apparently that rule applies no matter what country I’m in.) It was a used bookstore, so everything was really cheap, and I picked up a copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Reading it in Japanese will be a major undertaking. I’ve skimmed some of it and I’ve been able to get the gist of most of the sentences (or at least be able to place the scene), but it’ll take a long time to actually read it. I also bought a manga from a series I read way back in middle school. It’s a heck of a lot easier to read than Harry Potter – I can actually understand the majority of it without even having to paw through my dictionary. Besides shopping around, we also let ourselves wander into the nearby area around the station and came across a church. It was the first church I’ve seen in Japan – as far as I know, the Christian population in Japan is pretty slim. We checked it out and went inside – it was actually a Catholic church and there were a lot of texts in Portuguese and Spanish. Japan promoted bringing Brazilian peoples of Japanese descent over to Japan to work and then later promoted sending them back to Brazil. I think a decent number of them must still be here (and are Catholic), so they organized a church. (That’s the only reason I can come up with for all the Portuguese.) Saturday night I went out to a sushi place that’s right behind my house with a friend. I’d tried sushi earlier at my homestay, but this was my first time going out to eat it. This sushi place was one of those restaurants with the counters and conveyor belts, which I found I really liked. It was nice seeing *exactly* what you were getting. I still haven’t decided if I like sushi, so I’ll probably keep trying it. I know I don’t dislike it, but I’m not sure if I’m crazy about it either.
On Sunday I went to Osaka with the same two friends I went to Hirakata station with. I’ll go right ahead and admit, we wanted to go to Osaka because we wanted to visit the Pokemon Center there. I’m not into Pokemon anymore, but it was a childhood staple of mine, so I thought it’d be fun to check it out. Well, when we got to Osaka we realized… we have no idea where the Pokemon Center was! So we gave up on finding it and decided to play Left/Right, that is, just randomly choose a direction whenever we came to an intersection. We wound up walking through Namco City, which was what basically felt like a bunch of narrow streets but indoors. It was strange, but the streets were lined with tons of shops , restaurants, and arcades. We found some Purikura (which are elaborate photo booths) and took some photos, which was really fun. We wound our way outside of Namco City and pretty much stumbled into the Osaka mall. We didn’t stay in the mall long because it was jam-packed with people. So after stumbling into and out of the mall what do we find, but the Pokemon Center and across from it a Mos Burger which is a Japanese burger chain that makes *awesome* burgers. They’re McDonald’s biggest competitor here in Japan. So I ate my first (but hopefully not last) Mos Burger and then we walked across the plaza to the Pokemon Center. It was like trying to move around in a can of sardines and so, was a little overwhelming at first. They had the new Pokemon game there for sale and I thought of my brother, but decided not to buy it for him because a) it would have been in Japanese and b) I don’t have much money. (Sorry Nicholas!) I ended up buying a phone charm for my phone. In Japan, *everyone* has phone charms and I felt like my phone was naked without one. After the madness that was the Pokemon Center, we took the train back to Hirakata. On the bus from Hirakata station to our part of Hirakata City, an old guy sitting behind us gave us two huge bags of Japanese snacks. We’d previously given up our seats at the bus stop for the guy, so I think he was trying to figure out a way to thank us in some way. It was a really wonderful, random act of generosity. Whenever those things happen, I always feel a renewed sense of optimism towards humanity. When I got home that night I told my host mom about the old guy and she responded *exactly* the way my own mom would: she told me not to talk or go anywhere with strangers! I tried telling her we hardly talked to him, but I didn’t really mind the mini-lecture. It’s nice having a mom figure here. Then she made me fried chicken for dinner because she knows it’s a favorite of mine. (Have I mentioned I have the best host mom in all of Japan?)
On Monday night I went out to a karaoke bar with my friend’s, Kristin, entire flat and two random international guys we saw in the park on our walk there. I’ve never really done karaoke before, but it was a good introduction. Some of the international students go to karaoke every weekend – somehow I don’t think my wallet could handle that! While at karaoke, I couldn’t help thinking it was one of those situations that could only happen while studying abroad: two Brits, three Americans, a Polish gal, a Norwegian, and a Japanese girl all singing YMCA and Barbie Girl together. When I got home (around 11:30 or so), my host mom was still up (she’d been out at a concert – she’s hip like that) and as soon as I plopped down she asked me if I’d had anything to eat. I know I sound like a broken record by now, but I really can’t believe how lucky I got in the host family department. Anyway, I told her I hadn’t, so she immediately heated up some onigiri (rice balls) for me. Most of the international students who chose living in a dorm said they did so because they wanted to be independent, not have a curfew, etc. but honestly… I like having a host mom and dad to ask me about my day and to worry about whether or not I’ve eaten anything and what time I’m coming home. It’s a real comfort in this foreign place.
Tuesday my host sister, Mao, had a race at her school so I went to watch her do that. She wasn’t the fastest kid on the track, but it was still fun cheering her on and watching all the other little Japanese kids run around the track. (Something I definitely couldn’t do – and they were seven and eight!). After the race, my host mom took us out to eat okonomiyaki, which has become one of my new favorite foods. They’re basically a thick patty made out of egg, cabbage, and whatever else you might want (the okonomiyaki I ate that day had pork in it) and grilled on a stove top. (At okonomiyaki restaurants the stove tops are set right into the table to keep your food nice and hot.) The okonomiyaki is then topped with scallions, an egg, and mayo and okonomiyaki sauce (sort of tastes like Worcestershire sauce). If there’s one thing I bring back from Japan, it’s going to be how to make okonomiyaki.
Wednesday (yesterday) was a lot less exciting than the rest of Silver Week, but just as good. I went to Kristin’s flat and spent the day there watching Pushing Daisies and A Very Potter Musical. We also walked down the street to Sanko (a grocery store) where Kristin did some much needed grocery shopping and I found some Skippy peanut butter (450 yen for a small jar of it which is incredibly expensive for peanut butter but I couldn’t deny my peanut butter craving any longer). We went back to her apartment and made cinnamon French toast. Kristin didn’t have any maple syrup, so we substituted with honey (which we’d done the week previously when she made chocolate chip pancakes). I think I’m actually growing to prefer honey over maple syrup. After hanging out at Kristin’s I biked back home, had dinner with the fam, did some Japanese homework (which my host mom corrected for me – another plus for living with a host family), hopped in the ofuro (bath), and then fell asleep as soon as my head hit the futon.
On Saturday I went to Hirakata station with two friends. I’d been there once before, but only briefly to fill out my alien registration paperwork. This time I was actually able to explore the area and walk around in all the shops. I was able to browse a bookstore for a little while – even though everything was in a foreign language, I still could have spent a good hour or two in there. (Bookstores, as a rule, are a major time suck for me. Apparently that rule applies no matter what country I’m in.) It was a used bookstore, so everything was really cheap, and I picked up a copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Reading it in Japanese will be a major undertaking. I’ve skimmed some of it and I’ve been able to get the gist of most of the sentences (or at least be able to place the scene), but it’ll take a long time to actually read it. I also bought a manga from a series I read way back in middle school. It’s a heck of a lot easier to read than Harry Potter – I can actually understand the majority of it without even having to paw through my dictionary. Besides shopping around, we also let ourselves wander into the nearby area around the station and came across a church. It was the first church I’ve seen in Japan – as far as I know, the Christian population in Japan is pretty slim. We checked it out and went inside – it was actually a Catholic church and there were a lot of texts in Portuguese and Spanish. Japan promoted bringing Brazilian peoples of Japanese descent over to Japan to work and then later promoted sending them back to Brazil. I think a decent number of them must still be here (and are Catholic), so they organized a church. (That’s the only reason I can come up with for all the Portuguese.) Saturday night I went out to a sushi place that’s right behind my house with a friend. I’d tried sushi earlier at my homestay, but this was my first time going out to eat it. This sushi place was one of those restaurants with the counters and conveyor belts, which I found I really liked. It was nice seeing *exactly* what you were getting. I still haven’t decided if I like sushi, so I’ll probably keep trying it. I know I don’t dislike it, but I’m not sure if I’m crazy about it either.
On Sunday I went to Osaka with the same two friends I went to Hirakata station with. I’ll go right ahead and admit, we wanted to go to Osaka because we wanted to visit the Pokemon Center there. I’m not into Pokemon anymore, but it was a childhood staple of mine, so I thought it’d be fun to check it out. Well, when we got to Osaka we realized… we have no idea where the Pokemon Center was! So we gave up on finding it and decided to play Left/Right, that is, just randomly choose a direction whenever we came to an intersection. We wound up walking through Namco City, which was what basically felt like a bunch of narrow streets but indoors. It was strange, but the streets were lined with tons of shops , restaurants, and arcades. We found some Purikura (which are elaborate photo booths) and took some photos, which was really fun. We wound our way outside of Namco City and pretty much stumbled into the Osaka mall. We didn’t stay in the mall long because it was jam-packed with people. So after stumbling into and out of the mall what do we find, but the Pokemon Center and across from it a Mos Burger which is a Japanese burger chain that makes *awesome* burgers. They’re McDonald’s biggest competitor here in Japan. So I ate my first (but hopefully not last) Mos Burger and then we walked across the plaza to the Pokemon Center. It was like trying to move around in a can of sardines and so, was a little overwhelming at first. They had the new Pokemon game there for sale and I thought of my brother, but decided not to buy it for him because a) it would have been in Japanese and b) I don’t have much money. (Sorry Nicholas!) I ended up buying a phone charm for my phone. In Japan, *everyone* has phone charms and I felt like my phone was naked without one. After the madness that was the Pokemon Center, we took the train back to Hirakata. On the bus from Hirakata station to our part of Hirakata City, an old guy sitting behind us gave us two huge bags of Japanese snacks. We’d previously given up our seats at the bus stop for the guy, so I think he was trying to figure out a way to thank us in some way. It was a really wonderful, random act of generosity. Whenever those things happen, I always feel a renewed sense of optimism towards humanity. When I got home that night I told my host mom about the old guy and she responded *exactly* the way my own mom would: she told me not to talk or go anywhere with strangers! I tried telling her we hardly talked to him, but I didn’t really mind the mini-lecture. It’s nice having a mom figure here. Then she made me fried chicken for dinner because she knows it’s a favorite of mine. (Have I mentioned I have the best host mom in all of Japan?)
On Monday night I went out to a karaoke bar with my friend’s, Kristin, entire flat and two random international guys we saw in the park on our walk there. I’ve never really done karaoke before, but it was a good introduction. Some of the international students go to karaoke every weekend – somehow I don’t think my wallet could handle that! While at karaoke, I couldn’t help thinking it was one of those situations that could only happen while studying abroad: two Brits, three Americans, a Polish gal, a Norwegian, and a Japanese girl all singing YMCA and Barbie Girl together. When I got home (around 11:30 or so), my host mom was still up (she’d been out at a concert – she’s hip like that) and as soon as I plopped down she asked me if I’d had anything to eat. I know I sound like a broken record by now, but I really can’t believe how lucky I got in the host family department. Anyway, I told her I hadn’t, so she immediately heated up some onigiri (rice balls) for me. Most of the international students who chose living in a dorm said they did so because they wanted to be independent, not have a curfew, etc. but honestly… I like having a host mom and dad to ask me about my day and to worry about whether or not I’ve eaten anything and what time I’m coming home. It’s a real comfort in this foreign place.
Tuesday my host sister, Mao, had a race at her school so I went to watch her do that. She wasn’t the fastest kid on the track, but it was still fun cheering her on and watching all the other little Japanese kids run around the track. (Something I definitely couldn’t do – and they were seven and eight!). After the race, my host mom took us out to eat okonomiyaki, which has become one of my new favorite foods. They’re basically a thick patty made out of egg, cabbage, and whatever else you might want (the okonomiyaki I ate that day had pork in it) and grilled on a stove top. (At okonomiyaki restaurants the stove tops are set right into the table to keep your food nice and hot.) The okonomiyaki is then topped with scallions, an egg, and mayo and okonomiyaki sauce (sort of tastes like Worcestershire sauce). If there’s one thing I bring back from Japan, it’s going to be how to make okonomiyaki.
Wednesday (yesterday) was a lot less exciting than the rest of Silver Week, but just as good. I went to Kristin’s flat and spent the day there watching Pushing Daisies and A Very Potter Musical. We also walked down the street to Sanko (a grocery store) where Kristin did some much needed grocery shopping and I found some Skippy peanut butter (450 yen for a small jar of it which is incredibly expensive for peanut butter but I couldn’t deny my peanut butter craving any longer). We went back to her apartment and made cinnamon French toast. Kristin didn’t have any maple syrup, so we substituted with honey (which we’d done the week previously when she made chocolate chip pancakes). I think I’m actually growing to prefer honey over maple syrup. After hanging out at Kristin’s I biked back home, had dinner with the fam, did some Japanese homework (which my host mom corrected for me – another plus for living with a host family), hopped in the ofuro (bath), and then fell asleep as soon as my head hit the futon.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Weekending in Japan
Hi guys. So it’s the end of my third week here in Japan and I think I’m finally starting to settle into the groove. My classes are starting to pick up, I know my way around the CIE (where the international kids spend all their time), I no longer second guess myself on my bike route from home to school and back again, and everyday I’m understanding more of what my host mom says in Japanese.
This past weekend I had a dinner party with some friends, went to Cost Co with my host family on Saturday (which was a vast sea of humanity), and spend Sunday in a nearby park with the host fam as well. The dinner party was probably the most fun I’ve had thus far. Everybody was just sort of cutting loose and goofing around. We swapped some slang with the Japanese students there (we taught them ‘hell to the no’ and ‘keep it on the DL’ and in return they taught us some swears), Kristin and I tried to teach everyone the cup game but failed, and everyone brought or made some delicious food to share though I somehow managed to get away with just picking up some C.C. Lemon and Cola at the local Sanko grocery store.
Cost Co… was not so fun. Though it was somehow strangely comforting to see American brands, I didn’t much care for the huge crowds. (Even though Cost Co was packed to the gills, their bathrooms were still better than the public bathrooms I’ve been in in the States.) I certainly didn’t go hungry there, though. There were free samples at every turn and my host mom was constantly handing free samples off to me to eat. (Not that I’m complaining!) I also had some American-style pizza there as well. (Japanese pizza is a little different than your standard pepperoni and cheese.) It was kind of nice and made me think of home, but, and maybe I’ve just been getting spoiled with really good food lately, but the pizza was pretty tasteless and less-than-satisfying. Oh well.
The park was a huge step up from the prev ious Cost Co-filled day. My host parents packed up some sporting equipment and some snacks and we walked to the park. On our way to the park, we stopped by my host grandma’s house (she lives very nearby) and picked up her dog, Biggie, to bring to the park with us. Biggie’s a Welsh corgie and an adorable one at that. On our walk, my host dad pointed out to me how pale and white I am. Thanks otosan. Haha. At the park we played baseball (or rather, the little kid version of baseball) and we played some badminton together. We snacked for a bit after and wandered the park. Both Mao (my host sis) and Rui (my host bro) ran around catching butterflies and my host mom and I chatted about Disney, Miyazaki, the zodiac, and compared animal noises in Japan and America (apparently in Japan, mice say ‘chuu chuu’). The park was really big and very nice. There were also easily thirty or so cats roaming around the place. My host mom said that they live in the park, but even though they’re wild, they let people pet them. (And they look surprisingly well groomed!). When we got back to the house, my host mom made some chocolate cake and it was totally awesome. (I have a feeling that I’m going to way a ton when I come home. I eat so much here!)
One other thing that happened over the weekend was that one of the international students went home due to homesickness. Firstly, I marvel that anyone has that kind of money. Her ticket cost her 1400 dollars. One way. And secondly… I kind of feel sorry for her. She’s going to miss out on all these great and exciting new experiences just because she couldn’t handle being away from home for a little while. Sure, there are going to be lonely and/or less than pleasant moments and experiences (I’ve already had a few myself), but the good moments and experiences like discovering a new favorite food or getting to meet and know new friends or seeing and going places no one you know has ever gone to before… All of those far, far outweigh all of the bad parts. And, to get a little faux-deep here, it’s all the good parts that make the bad stuff worth going through.
Anyway, I guess that's my two cents. I guess I'm still in awe that I actually made it to Japan (and that anyone would seriously consider leaving such a cool place after a mere three weeks or so). Another cool point for Japan: next week is "silver week" which boils down to three national holidays in a row which means a five day weekend for all the KG students. Some of the plans people are considering are spending the weekend in Tokyo or going to Universal Studios Japan. Even though I don't have any big, expensive plans, I'm still excited for the days off. Hopefully we'll be having another dinner party, and some friends and I might journey to Osaka to find the Pokemon Center (I'm not joking). I'll let you know how that one goes. Matta ne~
This past weekend I had a dinner party with some friends, went to Cost Co with my host family on Saturday (which was a vast sea of humanity), and spend Sunday in a nearby park with the host fam as well. The dinner party was probably the most fun I’ve had thus far. Everybody was just sort of cutting loose and goofing around. We swapped some slang with the Japanese students there (we taught them ‘hell to the no’ and ‘keep it on the DL’ and in return they taught us some swears), Kristin and I tried to teach everyone the cup game but failed, and everyone brought or made some delicious food to share though I somehow managed to get away with just picking up some C.C. Lemon and Cola at the local Sanko grocery store.
Cost Co… was not so fun. Though it was somehow strangely comforting to see American brands, I didn’t much care for the huge crowds. (Even though Cost Co was packed to the gills, their bathrooms were still better than the public bathrooms I’ve been in in the States.) I certainly didn’t go hungry there, though. There were free samples at every turn and my host mom was constantly handing free samples off to me to eat. (Not that I’m complaining!) I also had some American-style pizza there as well. (Japanese pizza is a little different than your standard pepperoni and cheese.) It was kind of nice and made me think of home, but, and maybe I’ve just been getting spoiled with really good food lately, but the pizza was pretty tasteless and less-than-satisfying. Oh well.
The park was a huge step up from the prev ious Cost Co-filled day. My host parents packed up some sporting equipment and some snacks and we walked to the park. On our way to the park, we stopped by my host grandma’s house (she lives very nearby) and picked up her dog, Biggie, to bring to the park with us. Biggie’s a Welsh corgie and an adorable one at that. On our walk, my host dad pointed out to me how pale and white I am. Thanks otosan. Haha. At the park we played baseball (or rather, the little kid version of baseball) and we played some badminton together. We snacked for a bit after and wandered the park. Both Mao (my host sis) and Rui (my host bro) ran around catching butterflies and my host mom and I chatted about Disney, Miyazaki, the zodiac, and compared animal noises in Japan and America (apparently in Japan, mice say ‘chuu chuu’). The park was really big and very nice. There were also easily thirty or so cats roaming around the place. My host mom said that they live in the park, but even though they’re wild, they let people pet them. (And they look surprisingly well groomed!). When we got back to the house, my host mom made some chocolate cake and it was totally awesome. (I have a feeling that I’m going to way a ton when I come home. I eat so much here!)
One other thing that happened over the weekend was that one of the international students went home due to homesickness. Firstly, I marvel that anyone has that kind of money. Her ticket cost her 1400 dollars. One way. And secondly… I kind of feel sorry for her. She’s going to miss out on all these great and exciting new experiences just because she couldn’t handle being away from home for a little while. Sure, there are going to be lonely and/or less than pleasant moments and experiences (I’ve already had a few myself), but the good moments and experiences like discovering a new favorite food or getting to meet and know new friends or seeing and going places no one you know has ever gone to before… All of those far, far outweigh all of the bad parts. And, to get a little faux-deep here, it’s all the good parts that make the bad stuff worth going through.
Anyway, I guess that's my two cents. I guess I'm still in awe that I actually made it to Japan (and that anyone would seriously consider leaving such a cool place after a mere three weeks or so). Another cool point for Japan: next week is "silver week" which boils down to three national holidays in a row which means a five day weekend for all the KG students. Some of the plans people are considering are spending the weekend in Tokyo or going to Universal Studios Japan. Even though I don't have any big, expensive plans, I'm still excited for the days off. Hopefully we'll be having another dinner party, and some friends and I might journey to Osaka to find the Pokemon Center (I'm not joking). I'll let you know how that one goes. Matta ne~
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Meet the Fam
So I've since moved in to live with my host family and I still am marvelling over my luck because they're kind of super awesome.
My host dad sort of reminds me of my own dad because he's super goofy and always joking around. (I can see where my host brother, who's 4, takes after him because he's definitely a comedian in the making.) When he isn't staying late at work, he always makes the evenings fun. He also taught me how to play Wii bowling. Haha.
My host mom is really great. She's very caring and makes homemade bread a couple times a week so I get warm homemade bread for breakfast most mornings which is fantabulous. She's always bustling around and I marvel at how much stuff she can get done in the span of one day. She's also studying English and jokes that she and I can study together me teaching her English and her teaching me Japanese. She's also a huge Disney fan so the house is plastered with Disney stuff - I can get behind that!
My host sister is incredibly smart for a seven year old. Her English skills are very good and I think she gets frustrated with me sometimes when I can't keep up with her Japanese. There have been a couple of evenings where she's sat me down and given me a Japanese lesson. (Which is fine by me because I need all the help I can get!) She likes dancing so sometimes she'll randomly start doing hip hop moves around the living room. It's pretty great.
My host brother is super ridiculous. He's always making faces and acting silly. He makes dinners with the fam *very* entertaining. There will also be moments where he reminds me of my own little brother - especially last night when he was cramming hot rice into his mouth and having to spit it back out again because it was too hot! (Something my brother does way too often - shoving hot food in his mouth before testing how hot it is.)
And finally, Rina the cat. My host mom says she doesn't like people much - she's usually hiding. But when the sibs are having their bath or taking a nap she usually comes out and sleeps in my lap while I pet her. She also has a strangely crooked, Pikachu-like tail. My host mom says that's a common Japanese cat trait apparently? Rina also is the loudest cat I've ever met because she'll meow/yowl nonstop until she gets dinner.
There are only two things I wish I could change in regards to my host family: my Japanese skills because I want to communicate with them better but can't and their sub par internet. They get good internet on their home computer, but it's kind of super tricky getting it on my laptop. I've tried stealing some wireless from the neighbors, but I don't get very good reception.
Well, I could go on and on about my host family, but I think that'll do for now. Matta ne~!
My host dad sort of reminds me of my own dad because he's super goofy and always joking around. (I can see where my host brother, who's 4, takes after him because he's definitely a comedian in the making.) When he isn't staying late at work, he always makes the evenings fun. He also taught me how to play Wii bowling. Haha.
My host mom is really great. She's very caring and makes homemade bread a couple times a week so I get warm homemade bread for breakfast most mornings which is fantabulous. She's always bustling around and I marvel at how much stuff she can get done in the span of one day. She's also studying English and jokes that she and I can study together me teaching her English and her teaching me Japanese. She's also a huge Disney fan so the house is plastered with Disney stuff - I can get behind that!
My host sister is incredibly smart for a seven year old. Her English skills are very good and I think she gets frustrated with me sometimes when I can't keep up with her Japanese. There have been a couple of evenings where she's sat me down and given me a Japanese lesson. (Which is fine by me because I need all the help I can get!) She likes dancing so sometimes she'll randomly start doing hip hop moves around the living room. It's pretty great.
My host brother is super ridiculous. He's always making faces and acting silly. He makes dinners with the fam *very* entertaining. There will also be moments where he reminds me of my own little brother - especially last night when he was cramming hot rice into his mouth and having to spit it back out again because it was too hot! (Something my brother does way too often - shoving hot food in his mouth before testing how hot it is.)
And finally, Rina the cat. My host mom says she doesn't like people much - she's usually hiding. But when the sibs are having their bath or taking a nap she usually comes out and sleeps in my lap while I pet her. She also has a strangely crooked, Pikachu-like tail. My host mom says that's a common Japanese cat trait apparently? Rina also is the loudest cat I've ever met because she'll meow/yowl nonstop until she gets dinner.
There are only two things I wish I could change in regards to my host family: my Japanese skills because I want to communicate with them better but can't and their sub par internet. They get good internet on their home computer, but it's kind of super tricky getting it on my laptop. I've tried stealing some wireless from the neighbors, but I don't get very good reception.
Well, I could go on and on about my host family, but I think that'll do for now. Matta ne~!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Trip to Kyoto
Wow, I have to start coming up with catchier titles for these blog posts.
Well, yesterday I went to Kyoto with some other international students and some Japanese students. We were randomly paired together by the KG powers that be and set off on our Kyoto adventure. I took the train for the first time which was kind of exciting (but I was super glad we had some Japanese students to navigate). Kyoto was a surprisingly short train ride away. I don't think it took more than a half hour to get there. Some of our group didn't speak Japanese and some didn't speak too much English, but we all somehow managed to communicate with each other pretty well anyway. Charades and Spanish were sometimes involved and there were plenty of miscommunication jokes. My favorite miscommunication moment was when my friend Kristin was asking Yumie what was 'left' and 'right' in Japanese. Kana and Yoshimi were walking ahead of her on her left and right and for some reason Yumie thought Kristin was asking what their names were. So she answered that Kana is left and Yoshmi is right. We all quickly realized what was going on and pretty soon we were just kind of stumbling around the street because we were laughing so hard.
(That's another thing: jokes and moments that maybe aren't so funny in straight up English are hilarious when they're a weird Japanese/English hybrid so... apologies if this anecdote is unamusing!)
When we got to Kyoto we walked to Yasaka Shrine and Kiyomizu Temple. It was really beautiful, walking up into the hillside. And it was so different than anything else I'd ever seen before. There was so much to look at. I could try to describe it more, but I feel like my photos do a slightly better job.
There were also lots of little shops around (shrines have a lot of businesses surrounding them, surprise, surprise). We checked out a Studio Ghibli merchandise shop (Kiki's Delivery Service, Totoro, Spirited Away, etc.) which made me wish I had a bigger budget. There were about 20 different things I wanted to get there. I settled for the cheapest thing I could find! I took some pictures but it really doesn't do the place justice. We also saw some geisha there which was kind of surreal to see. (I was dying from how hot it was - I can't imagine how they felt in heavy kimono and make up!) I also tried some traditional Japanese sweets (free samples! haha) and just thinking about them again makes my mouth water.
The sun was starting to set and we were sweaty and tired, so we left and stopped to eat at a swanky restaurant. It was easily the nicest restaurant I've ever eaten in, but it didn't feel at all stuffy or like you had to use the right fork and speak softly. Our table had two little grills in the center, so our okonomiyaki (sort of like the Japanese version of an omelette/pancake hybrid) would sit on that and stay nice and hot. You would divvy up sections and take them off the grill and eat them out of a small bowl. It was my first time trying okonomiyaki, but I'm eager to eat it again because it was delicious! My okonomiyaki had cabbage, beef, pork and squid in it topped with hot sauce and mayo. Okay, I know that may not sound great to some of you, but believe me, it was phenomenal.
After that, we took the train back to Hirakata though we stopped to do some purikura in the train station first. (Purikura is a Japanese photo booth.) Once I was back to the dorm I pretty much collapsed onto my futon and went to sleep.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Japan Exploration and Host Family!
So I took my Japanese placement test yesterday and... let's just say it'll be interesting to see what level I get placed at. Oh well. No matter where I get put, I'll stick get credit at Beloit College as if I were taking third-year Japanese. I'm actually kind of hoping I'll get put back in second year Japanese. I could use the review. And if I get put in first year Japanese (which would really suck), they reevaluate our placements a week into it and I can ask my sensei if I can move up a level.
Finally got word on my Japanese host family yesterday. I received a little profile sheet about them in my mailbox and they pretty much sound perfect. The only way they could be better would be if they had a dog! (They have a cat which is cool and everything, but I love dogs just a little bit more.) I'm going to have a host mom, dad, little brother and little sister. The sibs are in elementary school, which is a good age and hopefully they'll want to play with me and teach me some Japanese! The host family expects me to help them out with their English (particularly my host mom, bro and sis - I think otousan already knows English pretty well), but I'm a-okay with that since they're going to help me with Japanese!
And, here's the best part: they're only 10 minutes by bicycle from campus! That means no hour long commute by train for me! And even if they prove to be awful (which I doubt), I'll at least be able to escape them. Ha ha.
I'll be meeting them this weekend and moving in to their house, so I'm really excited. Hopefully everything goes well!
Last night I went exploring the local neighborhood with another girl from my dorm. We just sort of took random turns whenever we felt like it. It was really fun to just come across stuff out of nowhere like a Japanese Buddhist shrine in a random back alley and a traditional-looking archery school. The students there were practicing in traditional Japanese garb, so that was really cool to see. Then we stopped by the grocery store where I bought some more instant noodles to last me until I get to my host family and start getting home-cooked meals (I can't wait!). I also bought some green tea ice cream, which I haven't tried just yet and some bananas, which I'm going to eat for breakfast today. I also had my first successful all-spoken-Japanese interaction with the store clerk, which was a good boost to the self-confidence. My Japanese speaking skills are really lacking, but I can feel myself slowly starting to get more comfortable with attempting to speak in Japanese.
It'll be interesting to see how good my Japanese gets after doing homestay and living in Japan for 4 months!
Finally got word on my Japanese host family yesterday. I received a little profile sheet about them in my mailbox and they pretty much sound perfect. The only way they could be better would be if they had a dog! (They have a cat which is cool and everything, but I love dogs just a little bit more.) I'm going to have a host mom, dad, little brother and little sister. The sibs are in elementary school, which is a good age and hopefully they'll want to play with me and teach me some Japanese! The host family expects me to help them out with their English (particularly my host mom, bro and sis - I think otousan already knows English pretty well), but I'm a-okay with that since they're going to help me with Japanese!
And, here's the best part: they're only 10 minutes by bicycle from campus! That means no hour long commute by train for me! And even if they prove to be awful (which I doubt), I'll at least be able to escape them. Ha ha.
I'll be meeting them this weekend and moving in to their house, so I'm really excited. Hopefully everything goes well!
Last night I went exploring the local neighborhood with another girl from my dorm. We just sort of took random turns whenever we felt like it. It was really fun to just come across stuff out of nowhere like a Japanese Buddhist shrine in a random back alley and a traditional-looking archery school. The students there were practicing in traditional Japanese garb, so that was really cool to see. Then we stopped by the grocery store where I bought some more instant noodles to last me until I get to my host family and start getting home-cooked meals (I can't wait!). I also bought some green tea ice cream, which I haven't tried just yet and some bananas, which I'm going to eat for breakfast today. I also had my first successful all-spoken-Japanese interaction with the store clerk, which was a good boost to the self-confidence. My Japanese speaking skills are really lacking, but I can feel myself slowly starting to get more comfortable with attempting to speak in Japanese.
It'll be interesting to see how good my Japanese gets after doing homestay and living in Japan for 4 months!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Destination: Japan
So after losing roughly a day (I think I spent 18 hours in total on an airplane, plus 3 hours layover time), and watching a bunch of movies (17 Again/Inkheart) and being lulled into a few hours of sleep by Zac Efron, I finally made it to Japan!
I stayed at Hotel Nikko Kansai (which is the hotel in the airport) overnight because the Kansai Gaidai pickup service wasn't until the next morning. That was fine though, because I really needed the sleep. And en route to Japan I met a fellow KG-er that I'd previously talked to through facebook (we'd decided to share the hotel room and split the cost), which was pretty awesome and made the entire thing a hundred times more fun and less intimidating.
The hotel was fancy, but there is no way I would have been able to sleep on those beds if I wasn't so exhausted. They were very much your typical, granite-like hotel beds.
The next morning, Kristin and I got picked up along with a bunch of other KGers in the airport and had an hour and a half long bus ride to campus.
It was so strange for me to look out over the horizon and see mountains rising up behind all the buildings. I was glad when we got off the highway though and into residental streets, because there was a lot more to look at besides semis. The houses are a lot closer together here, but you can definitely tell where one stops and the other begins because each house has a sort of enclosure around it. We also passed little neighborhood gardens and even what looked like rice fields stuck in the middle of a bunch of buildings. The streets here are also a lot narrower, but they have sidewalks everywhere for people walking and bicycling which I really like. (They don't make their bicyclists bike in the streets!) After taking the 20 minute walk to campus yesterday, I think renting a bike is going to be a must here.
I'm staying in seminar house 4 (one of the four Kansai Gaidai dorms). I almost wish I wasn't doing homestay because sem house 4 is that nice. They have a computer lab, a lounge, laundry room, vending machines and a big kitchen on the first floor. Then a girl's floor and a guy's floor. My room is in a more traditional Japanese style with a futon, low table and tatami mats. I wish I could drag my futon back with me to the US because it's incredibly comfy. And when you're done sleeping on it, you can just fold it up in half to save space.
The dorm bathrooms are also a thousand steps up from the bathrooms at Beloit. Their toilets are really teched out and the seats are even kept warm! The bathrooms are actually in a separate room from the showers. There are also specially designated slippers provided at the entrance to the bathroom that are only supposed to be worn there. (My dorm also has an entrance to the side of the main one for dorm residents to take off and store their shoes before stepping completely inside.) So everybody roams around the dorm in their socks or slippers.
Well, it's time for me to go take my Japanese placement test, so I'm cutting this short. Jaa ne~
I stayed at Hotel Nikko Kansai (which is the hotel in the airport) overnight because the Kansai Gaidai pickup service wasn't until the next morning. That was fine though, because I really needed the sleep. And en route to Japan I met a fellow KG-er that I'd previously talked to through facebook (we'd decided to share the hotel room and split the cost), which was pretty awesome and made the entire thing a hundred times more fun and less intimidating.
The hotel was fancy, but there is no way I would have been able to sleep on those beds if I wasn't so exhausted. They were very much your typical, granite-like hotel beds.
The next morning, Kristin and I got picked up along with a bunch of other KGers in the airport and had an hour and a half long bus ride to campus.
It was so strange for me to look out over the horizon and see mountains rising up behind all the buildings. I was glad when we got off the highway though and into residental streets, because there was a lot more to look at besides semis. The houses are a lot closer together here, but you can definitely tell where one stops and the other begins because each house has a sort of enclosure around it. We also passed little neighborhood gardens and even what looked like rice fields stuck in the middle of a bunch of buildings. The streets here are also a lot narrower, but they have sidewalks everywhere for people walking and bicycling which I really like. (They don't make their bicyclists bike in the streets!) After taking the 20 minute walk to campus yesterday, I think renting a bike is going to be a must here.
I'm staying in seminar house 4 (one of the four Kansai Gaidai dorms). I almost wish I wasn't doing homestay because sem house 4 is that nice. They have a computer lab, a lounge, laundry room, vending machines and a big kitchen on the first floor. Then a girl's floor and a guy's floor. My room is in a more traditional Japanese style with a futon, low table and tatami mats. I wish I could drag my futon back with me to the US because it's incredibly comfy. And when you're done sleeping on it, you can just fold it up in half to save space.
The dorm bathrooms are also a thousand steps up from the bathrooms at Beloit. Their toilets are really teched out and the seats are even kept warm! The bathrooms are actually in a separate room from the showers. There are also specially designated slippers provided at the entrance to the bathroom that are only supposed to be worn there. (My dorm also has an entrance to the side of the main one for dorm residents to take off and store their shoes before stepping completely inside.) So everybody roams around the dorm in their socks or slippers.
Well, it's time for me to go take my Japanese placement test, so I'm cutting this short. Jaa ne~
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
First Post On the Blog
I will soon be embarking on a grand adventure. After being asked by a number of people for regular email updates of said grand adventure, I was feeling a little overwhelmed.
Then, a brilliant idea: a blog! Problem solved.
So I assume if you're reading this, you're either in the family/friend category and know what I shall be doing Aug. 30, but here's a quick reminder: JAPAN!!!
I'll be studying at Kansai Gaidai in Japan from Aug.30-Dec.22. I'll be taking lots and lots of photos and updating this blog so everyone knows what I'm up to.
Usual questions I get about Japan:
1. Do you speak Japanese?
-Yes! Well, sort of. I've taken Japanese for the past 2 years and have declared it as my major.
2. Why Japan? Why Japanese?
-I took my first Japanese language class on a whim and really loved it. It was challenging, interesting and fun. Everything a class/subject should be! And the more Japanese I learned, the more interesting, challenging and fun it got. And now, here we are.
3. Do you like fish?
-No, actually. Hopefully that will change in Japan otherwise life may be difficult.
4. Are you staying with a host family?
-Yes. I won't know anything about them until I meet them, though.
5. Are you excited/nervous?
-Yes and no. Excited, but not nervous. I still can't believe I'm actually going to get to go live in Japan. It doesn't feel real. I have a feeling that once I get on the plane, I'll start getting nervous though!
Even though I'm not nervous, I'm starting to get stressed over all the pre-Japan stuff. I started trying to figure out what I'm going to pack today and it's going to be a long slog, because I am the world's worst packer. I never know what I need and I always end up bringing too much stuff and forgetting something of the utmost importance. I just hope that what I forget this time isn't *too* important.
I also need to find some sort of gift for my host family as well as collect some photos to show them of my life here in the states. I have no idea what I should get for my host family since I don't know how many people are in their family, if they have kids or not, etc. Any gift ideas would be most appreciated!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
