three days?!

My last week here is flying by fast (as is my money, ha ha). Don't think I could possibly recap all of it, but I'll try to hit the highlights.

- My last Chunichi Dragons/Nagoya Grampus games - It might just the Japanese twists on baseball games, but I've come to love the sport a lot more than I thought possible. (Maybe it helps that the Dragons actually win games?? Sorry Mets!) And nothing makes me more excited than riding the Dragons-decorated subway! I've also seen the Grampus lose twice now, but again, the crowd atmosphere always makes up for it!

-Discovery and abuse of purikura - what's not to love about taking ridiculous pictures and slapping on a ton of sparkles and random adorable animals?

-Scoring over 100 in bowling for the first time ever! (shh, I know this is a very Japanese experience :P)

-Two visits to the sento (bathhouse) - definitely one of my new favorite activities, it is a shame I didn't discover it earlier. Nothing makes me feel more Japanese than soaking in a hot bath for 2+ hours. Well, more like 10 baths - there are indoor and outdoor, cool and hot options, and even one that runs electric pulses through you (a bit creepy and sometimes quite painful). The lack of clothes threw me for a little loop at first but once you get used to it there is nothing as relaxing as soaking in an outdoor bath with a soft rain falling.

-KABUKI! I had more or less given up on this one but Aaren's host mom gave him tickets to a performance today! The Japanese was more or less impossible to understand but it was really neat to watch, especially because all the actors were male, including the ones playing the lead female roles.

I have a few regrets, but I wouldn't trade my experience for anything. Besides, my sad lack of Japanese friends just means I need to come back soon. :)

the Simons Family (minus Jenn, self-dubbed "coolest member") Takes on Japan!

Jenn protested my facebook album title so I thought I would acknowledge her complaint in my blog post. :)

sorry I haven't written in a while! Things have been incredibly busy here - travel travel travel, study study study. It's hard to believe there are less than 20 days before I leave Japan...I'm trying not to think about it, though it will be nice to go home for the summer.

Anyway, about 2.5 weeks ago (yes I really am that behind, it is only upon Mary's request that I am writing this), my family flew into Narita airport in Tokyo! Jenn is lame and had school. After some escapades in Tokyo, they came to Nagoya on Tuesday evening just in time to have dinner with my host family. That turned out way better and less awkward than I expected it to be, translating wasn't too difficult and dinner was fish/veggies/delicious beef cooked over a charcoal pit so a lot of attention was diverted to food. The fam spent a couple days in Nagoya, where I showed them Nanzan (what little there is to see), Nagoya Castle, and lastly a Dragons baseball games!

I wish I'd thought to post about baseball games here before, because in Japan they really are something special. This was the second game I'd been to, and my host dad bought my family great seats. Anyway, Japanese baseball is awesome because

1. both the home and away teams bring drummers and trumpet players to play while their team is up at bat. And then of course there are the accompanying
2. cheers! The fan section goes crazy for certain players (huge signs, flags, etc), and they have a fair number of songs and chants, which the crowd can get into with their
3. noisemakers! The crowd gets way more into the game than in America, and a lot of people have plastic bats to bang together along with the cheers. I can't even explain how much fun this is.
   

so long story short, after going into extra innings with the score tied at 2-2 vs the Yakults, when no one scored by the bottom of the 12th the game was declared a tie. Interesting, but very practical - it was an exciting game but all the same we were getting a bit tired of watching.

That weekend we went to Kyoto! Kyoto is special because it is one of the few major cities in Japan which was not largely destroyed by air raids during WW2 due to its cultural significance. I'm grateful, because it meant seeing some legit temples and shrines for once! We hit up Kiyomizu Temple (with a beautiful view over Kyoto), the bamboo forest (one of the prettiest places I've ever been), Ryoanji Temple (famous for its simple yet powerful zen rock garden), Kinkakuji (as the name suggests, entirely plated in gold), and finally Ginkakuji, which was carpeted in beautiful green moss and plants.



We stayed in a ryokan, a traditional Japanese hotel, while in Kyoto. A typical room consists of tatami-mat floors with a low table, and you lay out futons on the floor to sleep on at night. The pricier ryokans often have onsens, or public baths, but we made do with our small shower unit. Sleeping on a futon on tatami was a pretty neat experience.



The last night there we went to a very touristy show which demonstrated some of the traditional Japanese arts, like tea ceremony, flower arranging, court dance, Japanese harp, and puppet theater. The puppets used for puppet theater were amazing - rather than being hand puppets they are large and operated by three people wearing black. Their movements are really lifelike and the actors work seamlessly together to tell the story. I wish I was in Japan longer, I would love to see a longer show.



Oysh, sorry for the ramble! Hopefully a post to come about this weekend (my first trip to Tokyo!) in a couple days!

Okinawa!!

I can't even think of a better place for us to have spent spring break! We were lured there by the promise of warm weather (Nagoya's been hoovering around 50 degrees and raining the past two weeks), but it turned out there was a lot more to do than sit around on the beach!

We flew in on Tuesday, but we didn't do much other than check into our hotel, which was on the ocean and we even got a couple of good glimpses of US military aircrafts. The next morning we were up bright and early to rent a car so we could drive around the northern part of the island. It was a bit of a nauseating ride because Aaren seemed to have some sort of a steering/braking problem, but since he was the only one of us who had a Japanese license (not to mention he has actually drives on the left side of the road on a regular basis), we bravely endured it. :P

First stop was the Nago Pineapple Park! We saw this in the guidebook and couldn't resist...what's not to love about all-you-can-eat pineapple?? Activities included a ride in a pineapple cart while an audio told you about the pineapples grown, eating huge $13 pineapple parfaits which had some of the best sorbet I have tasted in my life, and tasting pineapple wine. Not my favorite, but definitely interesting. After the pineapple park we stopped to hike to a waterfall. Everything was so green and beautiful! Then we hit up the most northern spot on the island, located on a particularly pretty little patch of coastline. A short detour also brought us down a very steep path to a lake with a waterfall! Even better, there was a ropeswing which we took full advantage of. The water was freezing but it was a lot of fun!

The next day our two groups split, because the others wanted to relax and hang around Naha and the beach, while some of us wanted to head south and check out some of the historical parts of the island. First stop was the Himeyuri Museum.
It is dedicated to the female students who tended to the wounded during the Battle of Okinawa. The museum was really informative, but the story was incredibly tragic. Nearly as many civilians died in the battle as soldiers, and no one was excused from helping in the war effort. After the museum we caught the bus up the road to see the Peace Park, which is notable because it pays respect to all who died in the battle, soldier, civilian, or even American. Names are carved on large tablets organized by prefecture, and in a separate part of the park each prefecture has its own memorial area. Last up was Shuri Castle, which had a really expensive entrance fee but was pretty cool. The castle reflects the strong Chinese influence in Okinawa, which did not become an official part of Japan until 1879.

The last full day of our trip was spent on the gorgeous Tokashiki Island! It wasn't our first choice of island, but the ferry times were convenient and not too expensive. When we got there we met our incredibly nice cab driver, who had exactly 7 seats in her taxi and drove us to the beach cheaper than the bus, complete with stops along the way where she took group pictures for us. She also recommended us a great place for lunch (bets on some relative of hers working there), where we had Okinawa soba. Okinawa is famous for its pork, and the restaurant did not disappoint!

Nathaniel and I went on a run first thing, following one of the few roads on the small island up a mountain. Best workout I've had in a while, and also a great view! On the way back to the beach we stopped for ice cream (sugar cane = maple flavor = delicious). Next up was some exploration of the beach, because there were these awesome (aka climb-able looking) rock formations at the end. Turns out they were very climbable, and we spent a half-hour scrambling all over them. The views were great, I could have sat up there taking in the feel of the wind and sound of the ocean forever! The later part of the afternoon was spent snorkeling! We rented some cheap fins and a mask from a hotel and hopped right in! The small patches of coral right off the beach were mostly dead, but there were a surprising number of colorful fish to look at! Whole schools of tiny blue fish, a huuuuge white one, and some really curious striped ones which swam up straight to my face! It was really cool but kind of scary! Makes me appreciate that glass panel in aquariums a bit more, haha.

This beach also had the best shells of any beach I've ever been too! I'm sure the fact that since it was March the only people besides us on the beach were approximately 10 other gaijin, but the shells we found were amazing!

so if any of you ever happen to travel to Okinawa, I would definitely suggest Tokashiki Island! Preferably not in the summer with the hoards of Japanese tourists, but it is a beautiful island with great beaches!

List of ice creams I tried: (I gave up ice cream for lent - the only exceptions being flavors largely unique to Japan)
Sesame
Beni-imo
Pineapple
Sugar Cane

Racing in Japan!

okay, longer post about my awesome spring break trip to Okinawa is definitely on its way, but I am lazy...I got back on saturday but only unpacked my suitcase ten minutes ago. :O

anyway, in the past two days I've run two races!! and hitchhiked for the first time ever, haha (shh don't tell my host mom!). I only entered the race on Sunday because it's only ten minutes away from my house and in the park that I run by every weekend. It also happened to be a track race, and we all know how much I loved running the two mile on the track...anywho I was running REALLY late, and the stadium I thought the race was at was the wrong one, so I stopped on the side of the road to ask these two old Japanese men the right direction. After glancing at the paper with the location (and noting I was supposed to be there to check-in in two minutes), one of them gestured to their car and offered to drive me there. (I did know where it was...it was just kind of far - so if he started driving me in the wrong direction I definitely would have known). So I get to the race safe and sound, (he even strikes up a conversation about the large yellow dust clouds blowing in from China), I find Nathaniel, and then find out that (a) I'm one of 3 girls in the 3000, and (b) males and females were running together and I was seeded in the fast heat. Lovely.

Long story short, I ran much better than I expected (first mile was a 6:30, final time 12:30 flat), so that was a happy surprise. Even better, I managed to not finish last in my heat - though I do have to admit that my main rival for that position was around the age of 14. Also, the 10-year old finished about half a lap ahead of me...*sigh*

Today's race was a bit different - for one, much longer! The Japanese really love running, which I at first found really surprising. But whereas in the US the vast majority of races are either 5k's or half/full marathons, in Japan they have all kinds of races. It's actually kind of hard to find anything shorter than a 10k. Anyway, the one I signed up for was a race based on time - basically you could sign up to run for 2,3, or 4 hours, or do an entire marathon. There's a 1.8km course, and you try to finish as many laps as possible within your time frame. Considering the longest run I have been on in the past 2.5 years is probably 4 miles, I was a little worried...but the weather did turn out to be beautiful, as was the park the race was in.

Long story short, it totally pays to be a girl runner in Japan. There were only five females in the 2 hour category, so I placed third! I got a snazzy certificate and some rice seasoning as a prize. :) I was actually in first after the first hour, but the way I decided to run the race was to do four fast miles with Nathaniel and then slow down/walk if need be to save my knee. I ended up running about 75 minutes before I gave up, walked for 25, and then ran the last lap. So I did 6 laps in the first hour and only two in the last, haha. But it was a lot of fun, and we met a Japanese guy who lived in America for a long time (fluent in English), to talk to for the first four miles. Any 'Heroes' watchers out there? Because his name was totally Hiro Nakamura.


sorry, I only have pictures of the awards because I forgot to put an SD card in my camera so the pictures of me running are saved to the internal memory, and of course I didn't bring the cord with me to Japan...

Anyway, sorry if this was long and boring! I was just really excited for my first races in Japan. Hopefully I'll get to do another one over Golden Week in Tokyo, where I will FINALLY get my T-shirt, muahaha.

We are...

Apologies for the long post! I'm going to copy Ashley and just list off some of the stuff I've been doing here over the past two weeks...

LAST WEEKEND:
- Hadaka Matsuri (Naked Man Festival)
It's a 1300 year old tradition...basically there's only one naked guy, the hundreds of other lioncloth-clad men fight to touch him. The idea is that he will absorb their bad luck, and then later he is taken outside Nagoya to release all of it and cleanse the city. We were only there for the lead-up to the naked man's arrival, but we got to see them getting ready. And Jenna made a couple of friends...

- Universal Studios!
Okay, so maybe not the most uniquely Japanese experience, but it was fun! Many thanks to Emily's host family for taking me!

- Nara!
It was the capital of Japan for about 70 years in the 700's. There are some very old and very beautiful temples and shrines. Definitely the most cultural place I have been so far in Japan, the recently reconstructed Nagoya Castle just didn't quite do it for me...Nara is also famous for the deer that roam all over the place! You can feed them and everything...though they do get a little pushy sometimes.


THIS WEEKEND:
Three days, two concerts, and my host sister came back from Canada for spring break. Anyway, sadly no concert pictures because I guess Japan has some sort of thing against photography during concerts. :(

- Versailles Concert!! On Friday I went with Brett and a Japanese friend of his to the Bottom Line to see Versailles, a visual kei symphonic metal band. The ticket was a last-minute, completely spontaneous purchase. Visual kei is genre of music that is probably best characterized by elaborate makeup and hairstyles, as well as crazy costuming. It is very artistic -for example Versailles performs Renaissance-era clothing. I saw it as a now-or-never kind of a deal...

On a side note, I'm getting reallyyy good at spontaneous decision making. see: naked man festival. My host mom just shakes her head at me now when I tell her my weekend plans.



...yeah, believe it or not they are all male. You can laugh all you want at the guy dressed like a girl, but damn can he play the guitar. And you have to admit that he does make a rather pretty girl as well. Either way the concert was, in a word, awesome. The music was great, their sound might have been a little harder than what I'm used to, but for the most part it was amazing. Their whole stage presence and the atmosphere was what made the concert, it was completely different from anything I've seen before.

-Motion City Soundtrack with Ore Ska Band! Second concert of the weekend! I can't compare them at all to Versailles, but they were great! And I love Ore Ska Band, their music is so happy you can't help but smile all the time. Plus one girl had a purple trombone - how much cooler can you get??

next weekend: OKINAWA. I can't wait for some beach and NATURE.

いつのまにか。。。

Things just keep getting crazier and crazier - I'm having a hard time believing that it's already been nearly two months since I got here. Time needs to slow down right now or when I blink next it'll be May! When I think about how spring break is in only two weeks, I can only wonder where all that time went. It's as if I'm living in a happy little bubble of Japanese - the one subject I truly enjoy studying - and a pile of delicious food and sweets. And I don't know if this will sound a little weird, but I'm already dreading going back. They weren't lying when they said a semester abroad can be one of the best parts of college. I do miss you all but in my perfect world you would all come here and chill in Japan with me and we would eat lots of ramen and curry and azuki ice cream. :D

I probably wouldn't want to live in Nagoya though - if there's one thing I've learned it's that I don't want to live in a big city. What I would do to be hiking in the mountains right now... I love the city lifestyle in its own way, but I've definitely come to appreciate grass and trees and beautiful open spaces. And maybe more importantly, my knee really misses having dirt paths to run on, haha.

I hear there are lots of nice pretty places in the country though, so we could just go live there. :)

lazy weekend

Starting school after a week-long break was a lot harder than I thought it would be! Taco Tuesday at Shooters, our favorite gaijin (foreigner) bar, did help things along though. Japanese food is delicious, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it's nice to eat something familiar...pizza is totally up next, curse you Japan for you lack of Pizza Hut! On the bright side, I totally have my host mother fooled that I will eat anything that is put in front of me, because she mentioned it to my host dad at dinner tonight and I nearly choked on my rice. (Note: I've been here almost 2 months, and I've eaten with my host dad 3 times. The Japanese are CRAZY HARD WORKERS) I know I mentioned once that I wasn't the hugest fan of fish, and while I usually like the way she prepares it, I hope she doesn't start getting too crazy with dinner.

our little ND group is also expanding as we "adopt" people (Emily's word choice), which is pretty exciting too. Yay for new friends!

and I ALMOST got to go to a JRock concert on Friday, but I didn't plan far enough ahead and didn't know how to get tickets with such late notice so it fell through. Apparently Jenn loves the band, so now I'm super bummed I couldn't go...she might have died of jealousy, muahaha.

Yuki Matsuri!

I'm super unmotivated to write (for once), but I just got back from a week of vacation and feel the need to brag about it (ha ha). Getting back into the school mindset has been hard, but hey - only 4 days til the weekend? haha.

anyway, my vacation weekend began with a Friday night of KARAOKE! We did the 'all,' aka you pay about $15 and get a small room from 1-8am and nomihodai (all-you-can-drink) from 1-3. It turned out we were all having so much fun singing that we barely touched the alcohol. I was really surprised by how many English songs were in their system- we probably only sang 5 Japanese ones, and they managed to have most of the English ones that we searched for. I wasn't expecting to have too much fun either (usually me+singing = banana dance), but it was awesome. Notable moments include Banzai (the Middlebury favorite), a lot of 90s music, and waking a snoozing Xiao up in the middle of "My Heart will go on" - because we really were singing that loud.

It didn't really help that immediately following karaoke Emily and I decided to go to a memorial service for the 200-some Christian martyrs killed in the 17th century in Japan. It was in Japanese so we had a hard time understanding most of it, but it was held at a temple (outdoors = sooo cold!) with a plaque dedicated to the martyrs which was blessed by the priests. We all got to lay flowers in front of it. Also, you know you're in Japan when there are cell phone pictures being taken of the mass. By a priest. One interesting difference in the mass procedure itself is that the Japanese all do mini bows instead of shaking hands for the sign of peace. Seems a little impersonal, but hey, you can cover a lot more ground that way!

Then at 7:30 on Monday morning, Xiao, Emily, Joe and I were Sapporo bound! Flight was nice and short and the super-nice-for-the-price-we-paid-hotel was right across the street from the train station. It was six blocks to Odori Park, where we saw a lotttt of snow sculptures!

a couple notable ones: (click for larger size, believe me the details on the animal one are ridiculous!! there was even a light on the plane in the corner that blinked at night)





some of them were so intricately carved that it's crazy. I feel bad pic-spamming the blog, so check out my fb album for more!

We also took an elevator to the top of the TV tower (cool, but it was all glass, you got bad glass reflection and you couldn't walk in the open air which was laaaame), looked at some ice sculptures, ate delicious corn butter ramen, grimaced at advertisements for milk seafood ramen, went to the zoo to look at fuzzy cute animals, got lost A LOT, slipped on icy sidewalks (they don't believe in shoveling), and checked out the Sapporo Beer Museum. Where they have CHOCOLATE BEER for Valentine's Day. Okay, so still not my favorite drink by any means, but it did improve the taste, and they get points for trying...


Emily and I by Sapporo TV Tower on a beautiful night!

Happy Setsubun!

Setsubun, or the bean-throwing festival, is held February 3rd, the last day before the first day of spring (according to the Chinese calendar). The typical practice is to throw roasted soybeans out your window to cast out demons of ill-fortune and welcome in the new year. (I'm a little vague on the exact procedure, I learned this from wikipedia - I guess it's not a standard practice in every house!)

One tradition I did get to take part in was eating makizushi. You're supposed to eat an entire uncut roll (about 6-7 inches or so long) while facing the lucky direction based on what year it is. If you eat the entire thing facing the right direction and without pausing or talking, you will have good luck for the whole year. I think my host mom also said something about making a wish too, but since I can't understand half of what she says...Anyway, this year is the year of the Ox, so we ate our huge makizushi facing west-southwest. :)

Today was also a bit of an adventure day. We ate lunch at Osu (or Osu-Kannon), where there is a famous shrine. The surrounding area has a ton of cool little shops and places to eat. We went intending to grab some pizza (Ashley-I finally understand your pizza cravings. I think even Sbarro's would do at this point), but the place was closed so we went for Mexican instead. It was pretty mediocre, but the azuki flavored soft-serve was amazing. I'm already sad when I think about having to leave the amazing food here in a couple months. Red bean needs to catch on in the US. Fast.



After lunch we just wandered a bit, and managed to catch a mini-parade heading to the shrine. There was a marching band and a bunch of people in various costumes. We didn't stick around for the Setsubun celebration, but the area was pretty packed. There were a lot of decorations up.



Today I also went to the ward office to pick up my foreign registration card! Okay, so it wasn't that exciting, but getting there was, because I got to ride a bike! I didn't realize how much I missed riding mine (or really, how often it really is that I ride it at school), but I had a huuuge grin on my face the whole way there and probably everyone thought I was more than a little crazy. It was one of those city bikes too, with a huge basket on the front which made balancing a little tricky at first. They also have these awesome kickstand things which is actually a triangle-shaped stand that comes down over and under the back wheel. There's also a lock directly built into the bike, which is also pretty cool and different from anything I've seen before.

I also took a much-needed nap today! It was actually really cute, my host mom came in the living room around 6pm, threw me a blanket and was like 'okay you look tired so we're both going to take a nap now.' And we did. On the sofas. I'd like to think that we've bonded over sleep. :)

Hokkaido status: five days and counting!!!

adventures in Nagoyaland!

久しぶりみんな。 Sorry it's been a while, I have a lot less down time than I would like here! Anyway, the good news is, WE'RE BOOKED TO GO TO HOKKAIDO FOR YUKI MATSURI!!! It's a huge winter festival in Sapporo with snow and ice sculptures, I can't help but be excited. And the best part is that ND is paying for it...theoretically. I'd like to know how much attending Nanzan REALLY costs. Sapporo means finally getting out of Nagoya! Not that I mind sticking around here, but I'm really excited to travel. Potential locations for future breaks include Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Okinawa. Maybe we'll even get to all three...

Anyway, so last weekend we went to the zoo! We heard some sketchy things about it, but it only cost $5 to enter and while the cages were a little small, the animals looked alright. The baby elephant even played the harmonica for us and spun some hula hoops around his trunk. It was adorable. We were also pretty psyched for the squirrel exhibit (apparently there are none in Japan), but sadly there was not a squirrel in sight, just a lot of signs telling you not to feed them or let them escape.

Dinner was in Sakae again, some place Xiao's host dad took him to before, and Emily and I failed fantastically at eating our udon. Believe me, eating long noodles with chopsticks is hard!! Then we went on the purple ferris wheel. It is huge and kind of expensive, but definitely worth the view!

The next day I went to a taiko concert with Emily's host family. It was by a kid's group, but they were actually really good! some of them were as young as 2 or 3...I think it was one of the cutest things I've seen in my life. Pictures will be on facebook for sure. :D

And then yesterday was the CJS trip to the Tokugawa art museum and Nagoya Castle! Sadly we didn't have too much time at either place, but it was cool seeing some of the art. Unfortunately, the original Nagoya Castle was destroyed in WW2, along with most of the artifacts inside, and although it has been rebuilt the inside is designed as a museum. They're still working on reconstructing the surrounding buildings. Hopefully I'll get to see a real castle here somewhere. The place did at least have delicious green tea soft serve!

at the "library"

Classes have started! This is both good and bad – I really need the Japanese practice, but I can say sayonara to all of my free time! I haven’t really taken the time since 9th or 10th grade to sit down and really read a book for fun, so it was really great to just pick one up whenever I had a spare minute (or more likely, quite a few spare hours). So far I’ve gotten through Murakami Haruki’s The Elephant Vanishes, Miyabe Miyuki’s The Devil’s Whisper, and Natsume Soseki’s Botchan. I’m very grateful for Professor Shamoon’s lit classes, without them I’d have no idea where to start in the Japanese literature aisle in the library, and be spending a lot more time cluelessly watching TV I can’t understand. It looks like the work load is going to be pretty heavy, but hopefully I’ll still be able to find some time to read.

Anyway, today I went to my first internet café! We went with the simple intention of grabbing lunch somewhere warm (our sensei do not appear to believe in using heaters, nor do the Japanese believe in insulation), but I thought it was a pretty neat little place. Its name was “Library,” strangely enough written in hiragana, and its interior didn’t disappoint—magazines and manga lined every wall. We ate lunch, and with that we got 90 minutes to sit.



We even found the Doraimon section—hooray for Japanese I can actually read! We only used the computers in there for a couple minutes, but it turned out to be a pretty casual place that didn’t mind us talking. Apparently they’re usually rather strict, so I wonder how different it is from those 24 hour ones that we have been recommended to camp out in overnight when we’re out late and the trains aren’t running. Anywho, the chicken curry was pretty good and the free drink refills, very rare here, was a happy surprise. Maybe not the most exciting of “firsts,” but it was a really cute place and I definitely think I’ll be back sometime.

Time for some remedial English...

I'm torn between going to bed and writing this, and blogging just won because I have nowhere to be on my first Saturday in Japan...

I keep forgetting to take my camera with me places, so I haven't taken too many pictures yet...but today was great, we went to Sakae, a part of Nagoya with a ton of shops and restaurants. It kind of looks like NYC, so I instantly loved it. :) There's even a giant ferris wheel! Anyway, we checked out the area a bit, had some dinner (nabe, fried rice and edamame = yummy) and did some more walking to find ice cream! And (maybe most importantly) - I got a phone! Go figure, it's this little prepaid thing, but it is already a thousand times cooler than my regular one. Yay for unlimited texting and emailing! Also, you can do sweet phone to phone information infrared information transfers. They are crazy.

I also think I'm finally getting used to public transport! It's about a 25 minute commute to school every day by subway, though it does take me a bit to get to the station. It's really exciting being able to live in a city and have so much to do just a couple of subway stops away. My commuter pass was expensive, but I'm going to make the most of it!

Yesterday my host mom and I went to the movie rental place (I believe I will be going there often from now on!) so I could get something to entertain myself while I do nothing all afternoon/evening. So I grabbed the Japanese version of Lord of the Rings, and hopefully I'll get to watch it soon! I also own Japanese Peter Pan now, which hopefully I won't need subtitles for (yeah right).


our favorite poster on Nanzan's campus!

3 days in...

Three days in, and things are looking a little better! The first couple days have been a little rough, my host family is really nice but they seem to be the quiet type, and since I not only have no idea what to say but also can barely speak their language, conversation has been a bit scarce. I think I’ve watched more TV than in the past couple years combined. It does not help that I can’t understand any of it, and the Japanese subtitles at the bottom of the screen always have way too much kanji.

A couple things that I have learned:
- Jet lag sucks. I thought I’d killed it with the five hour nap I took yesterday afternoon, but I took another one today…and I’m still exhausted. It’s still weird to think that I’m 14 hours ahead of the US.

- Japanese people have huge mouths. Uh, that sounds weird, but they do have some major sushi-devouring skills. Yesterday night they took me out for sushi at one of those sweet places where you pick things off this rotating belt to eat. Apparently the one we went to will be on TV next week, I wonder if we’ll watch. Anyway, they just pop whole huge chunk of sashimi after whole huge chunk of sashimi into their mouths! It’s the only way you can eat most sushi, but my mouth just isn’t big enough, and then my gag reflex is triggered and I feel ridiculous because then I look like I’m not enjoying the food. But I’m rather proud of myself—I don’t particularly care for food of the ocean-dwelling type, but I tried (and more importantly—finished) everything that was put in front of me. And it was a lot! Plate after plate of “This one’s good, try it! You’ve never had it before? 食べて！” I have no idea what all I ate, but most of it wasn’t bad. I was definitely lucky I had slept through lunch, or I never would’ve been able to finish half of it.

- Don’t say “yes” to every food that is mentioned. It’s my default reaction to everything I recognize (and a lot of what I don’t), when in reality my host mother is asking if I would like to each aforementioned food. And then she zips off to the kitchen to prepare whatever it is, and I feel obligated to eat all of it. I almost exploded at breakfast the other morning. Definitely enjoying the food, but if all Japanese people eat as much as I’ve been eating, I have no idea how they all stay so skinny.

- It’s winter, but everyone still wears miniskirts. And short shorts. My host mother almost went into shock when I told her the only skirts I own go to my knees. They wear them with tights or leggings of course, but with how often they comment on how cold it is outside (when it’s probably no colder than 40 degrees or so), it’s kind of surprising. And I definitely felt out of place leaving the subway station in jeans this morning…not that that means that I will be caving to trend.

Anyway, things are still a bit crazy right now, I’m trying to figure out the deal with the forms, alien registration cards, and subway passes. Orientation has been dead boring so far, even the parts given in English get tuned out. At home, there has been more than a lifetime’s worth of awkward silences. I try and cover them up by obsessively petting their adorable, hyperactive, fluffy dog, but they were so bad the other day I was prompted to take that 5 hour nap. Which I did need, but still. I don’t know if it’s because my Japanese is so terrible it offends them, or if they’re just quiet people or if it is because this is the first time they’ve ever been a host family, but I do a lot of drowning in silence. I really wish I was better at making conversation! Granted, this afternoon was a lot better, I talked to my host mother a lot on the way back from school and during dinner.

Sorry for the obnoxious length of this, hopefully it wasn’t too boring but there’s just a lot going on right now! It’ll be shorter in the future for sure. Umm and obviously feel free to comment, it can get a little lonely over here!

Japan!!!

So, I decided to convert this to be my trip blog! You can ignore all the other posts in Japanese, I'll probably just be using it for my study abroad experience from now on. And yeahhh...that's about it for now. So far Japan has been...stressful. :)