Disorganized Rambling

久しぶり！(long time no post!) Hey all,
I realize I've been derelict in my posting duties, but life has been quite busy. Classes have been going for a few weeks now, and the Japanese language is extremely tough. My listening skills need to improve, and my vocab as well. I managed to test into the highest level class, but I am within that class, I am on the lower end of the skill distribution. There are kids in there who are ready to take, or have already passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 1 exam. Whereas I'm right around level 2, and let me tell you, there is a huge difference in skill between those two levels, so class is a little intimidating right now. My other classes are calligraphy (interesting enough, but an exercise in frustration...it never looks good), classical Japanese, Japanese History, and Japanese phonology. The Japanese phonology class is an open course, which means there are some regular Japanese undergrad students mixed in with all the international students, and we had the first class with them yesterday. It should prove to be interesting. When I got out from my painfully boring history class yesterday, myself and couple other exchange students were randomly approached by four Japanese girls who quote, 'wanted to have dinner with some exchange students.' A) That takes alot of courage. B) I was pissed because I had to say no. My host mom was probably already making dinner at the time. Ditching last minute would be rude beyond belief. So after politely declining we commented on the wierd chanting we heard in the distance. Apparently a group was practicing the Passion play. (Yeah, Nanzan is a catholic school, although I think a whopping twenty people are actually Catholic).
Anyway, rewinding a bit. A couple weekends ago, I went out to dinner in Sakae (the happening downtown area of Nagoya) with my host family, and was expected a nice dinner out. I realized the I completely underestimated jus how 'nice' it was going to be when I saw four guys in tuxedos greet us at the door. My host dad definitely knew one of the guys, and I think that's why the entire family was allowed in. Otherwise, this isn't normally a place you'd bring kids. We sat down in leather armchairs and sipped champagne while we waited for our table. We had to take and elevator down to our table, which was private room with one of those low to the floor tables. I tried some Japanese alcohol called shochuu( I think) and it was like most other alcohol I've tasted. But then they brought in a lot of sushi, and a bunch of other courses bit by bit. Seriously the best sushi I've ever had, and there was pork dish with pesto that was pretty darn good, too. I don't even want to know how much that bill was. At this point, I'm starting to think my host dad likes to live large...I would later be proved correct.
Fast forward one week, and it is a three day weekend, as Monday was "respect for the aged day." Sunday we went to the Higashiyama Park and toured the zoo (where they have koalas! I'll add the pictures later). They had a pretty extensive collection of animals, and it was a good time all around. Apparently those paddle boats are universal, and my host mom and I were slaves at the pedals while Yugo captained our trusty Panda steed. (which looked a lot cooler than the pink flamingo paddle boats...) After seeing the zoo, we went to the top of the sky tower in the park. We stopped off at the restaurant on the fifth floor for chocolate parfaits...which were a little small by American standards, but just as delicious. Then we scoped out the bird's eye view of Nagoya, which was rather impressive. It's a huge city, but my host family is technically outside the city limits in a town called Nagakute. (It takes me about 45 min. to commute, which isn't bad by Japan's standards).
The next day was "Respect for the Aged Day" which we honored by going the Osu shopping district and a really awesome eel restuarant WITHOUT the grandma. Go figure. I managed to find a proper two to three holes outlet converter. So I can recharge my laptop and now dump pictures from my SD card to my hard drive. After shopping we stopped at an eel restaurant that has apparently been there for over 90 years. The building had to be rebuilt after the war, and that same building has been there for 60 or so years. The interior was small, and had a really authentic atmosphere. For our appetizers we eel seared eel innards. I couldn't really identify what part of the body they were. I thought they looked with little brians, but apparently my host mom said it is some part of the digestive tract. I made sure to eat one before I asked what it was, though. I find that's a smart policy to adhere to. Overall, though, they were actually decent tasting. I also tried one of Nagoya's local dishes, hitsumaboshi. They give you about and eel and half's worth of flesh, and you eat it in three specific steps. First, just plain with rice and eel sauce, then with onion , rice and some other garnish. And finally you add dashi, a sort of soup broth, and make a little stew out of it. Really stinkin' good. I'm still a good week and a half behind in storytelling, but I need to study quick for my classical Japanese quiz. Six new, or should I say really old, verb tenses: Mizenkei, renyoukei, shuushikei, rentaikei, izenkei, and meireikei. Okay, I think I've got them memorized. Off to class.
-Collin

I have always hated school networks

Okay, so there's a slight problem. The regular undergrad students returned from summer break today, and the school network's security seems to have been beefed up, as I can no longer connect my digital camera and upload pictures. So...there may be a dearth (I hope I spelled that right...I'm trying not to lose my English completely) of pictures until I figure out a way around this. I have more stories, but I also have a quiz in Classical Japanese...in 30 minutes...and I really ought to prep a bit.
Later

My host family is crazy in the best way possible

Hey all,
The focus of this will be my host family, but I'll pick up from the last post for the sake of continuity. On the way back from the airport, Yugo pointed out the moon through the car window and said "Ojiisan," which means grandpa in Japanese. Apparently his mom's dad passed away recently and the moon is now symbolic of his spirit. Well, after Miki-san (mom) explained the recent death, Yugo pipes up with "yeah, mom is always crying as she tries to go to sleep," to her obvious embarassment. After that slipped, I felt like whatever idea or plan for tatemae (keeping up appearances) she have had went out the window. She later explained that Yugo has been rather lonely since the grandfather passed away, which explains his immediate attachment to me. He already was laying in my lap on the way home, and also went through the family names "Terao Miki, Terao Yugo..." only to add "Terao Korin." Needless to say, I quickly felt accepted and integrated into the family.

We got back to the house and I met the dad, Takashi. He works for some insurance company and seems like a pretty cool guy and good with kids. He has crazy hours and there are days when I don't see him. For instance, right now he is in Seoul, South Korea for a few days. Anyway, after some chit-chat that night, the sushi arrived. We all shared a HUGE plate of sushi, and I tried pretty much anything I hadn't seen before, and I still don't know half of what I ate. I do know I ate anago (sardines) sushi at the insistance of my host dad that it was delicious. It was leaps and bounds better than the crap they throw on pizza in the U.S., but I just don't like the little buggers. We actually stayed up pretty late that night talking and watching TV and whatnot. The dad ended up showing me the part of Rocky 3 with "Thunderlips" (played by Hulk Hogan) after we had a long discussion about pro wrestlers. He asked if I knew of the Hulkster, but through his accent I couldn't make out the name. Who the hell is "hogaa" I asked myself, after he insisted this supposed wrestler was really popular in the U.S. Turns out my host dad has some connections, too. He knows some actual sumo wrestlers and asked if I wanted to meet them sometime. Um...hell yes? Finally, after being awake for more than 24 hours straight, I was ready to hit the hay.
The next night they took me to an okonomiyaki restaurant (think savory pancake batter with random stuff mixed in. You can pick wanted you want in them, add toppings, and they bring it to your table and it fries right in front of you on the hibachi style grill. REALLY delicious! I also tried Real Gold, a crazy energy soda/drink they have over here, also pretty tasty. The next morning my host mom askedf I like Miso soup...I told I love the stuff... and she replied "Oh good, because otherwise I didn't know what I'd do for breakfast." We almost always have a bowl of rice and a bowl of miso for breakfast along with other random assorted things, such as fruit, salad, "little smokey"-like weiners, eggs, bread and jam, plain yogurt, etc. Between breakfast and dinner, I don't think I've gone a day with out miso...that rocks so hard it hurts.
Then I had three days of orientation...pretty boring stuff. We had the placement exam, which went fine. I was placed in the highest class, which is good, because McGloin-sensei back in Madison would have had my head on a platter if otherwise, but it's pretty tough so far. I'll whine about classes in another post.
Then on Friday night I just hung out with the family, and the host dad apparently used to practice karate, and since he knew I practice martial arts, we sat down and watched some 15-20 year karate tournament he had on VHS, so that was pretty sweet. Saturday, my host mom and Chiharu-san (or Chi-chan, as most call her; she is my host mom's sister) took Yugo and I to the Setomono Matsuri. It's a festival in Seto bascially where a bunch of people come out sell and buy pottery at pretty cheap prices. That where the picture I posted last time is from. I got to try out some festival food from the vendors. I finally got to try miso katsu on a stick (fried pork in a slightly sweet miso sauce...insanely delicious), some doughnut hole-esque things that weren't nearly sweet enough, sweet green tea(yummy), and finally, octopus tentacle on a stick, which is actually pretty good once you get past the skinny end that is laden with suckers.
Sunday we ran some errands, went to a department store and got some Baskin robbins ice cream, and then stopped at a local fruit stand/garage when it started to torrentially downpour. So we waited there while Yugo made some crazy faces and I learned a new word "amayadori" which basically means to wait for the rain to stop/weaken.
Other than that, it has been a lot of playing with Yugo and eating the wonderful food that the host mom makes. Plus, about 3-4 times a week, the mom's mom and sister (who live together about 5 minutes away by car) come over to have dinner together, so the grandma makes a couple of dishes, too. It's practically a feast.
Yugo likes to watch Kamen Rider (a 30 year old series in the vein of the Power Rangers) and the Gaorangers (Power Rangers with cat claws) and Tryder G7 (some elementary school kids pilots a huge mech robot and saves Japan repeatedly) and often requests that I watch it with him, which is good listening practice, plus the Power Rangers-eqsue shows are nostalgic. I have more stories about the host family...but until next time...
じゃ、また！(Later!)

Pictures!

This is a super quick update letting everyone know I figured out the picture dilemma, and they are up on my facebook profile now. And this is just a test to see if I can upload pictures properly to this website.

Did I ever doubt Japan would rock?

Hey all,
I made it safely to Japan, and the 13 hour nonstop flight from Ohare to Tokyo went by surprisingly fast. I had an aisle seat and an open seat next to me. Even better was that a super nice Japanese guy was sitting two seats away. Apparently he is a physics prof. (yes, Stephen, physics still sucks, even in Japan) at Tohoku University, which is supposedly the third largest, or something like that. Anyway, he showed me word games with kanji and then was testing my kanji with some magazine he had picked up off the shinkansen train. The plane food was surprisingly tolerable, although they said Nacho Libre was on the list of movies to be played but then totally skipped over it. I was looking forward to learning about Busha's rich Mexican heritage. Then I got to Narita, and waited for next flight. Out of boredom, I decided to go to the bathroom, and was taken aback by the heated toilet seat. I had completely forgotten Japan has insanely fancy toilets. You can shoot water at your butt with the touch of a button. When I saw the water pressure adjuster, I had to try out maximum pressure. Let me tell you, maximum should never be necessary. Water sprayed pretty much everywhere, leaving me more uncomfortable than beforehand. The domestic flight I had with All Nippon Airways was short, but the plane was completely *pimped out* (as I believe the kids nowadays are saying). LCD screens on the every seat, a projector for the middle section. The kicker, though, is the remote in the arm chair that not only lets you select what music, movie, or TV you would like to watch, but it also doubles as a video game controller (I think Nintendo took a page from their book for the Wii design).
I was a bit nervous about meeting my host family, but all fears were set aside when the four year old, Yugo, called out my name and instantly latched onto me. The mom informed me we would be having sushi at the house and asked if I could wait the hour or if I needed something right away. (She's incredibly nice like that.) I politely declined and we headed toward the car. The father didn't come along, which ended up being a good thing since we barely got all my stuff into their car, which happens to be a frickin Jaguar. So far, my family has been incredibly nice, and I have been the near constant plaything of the four year old...but I will go into more detail about my host family in the next post. Needless to say, I am more than pleased. I will post pictures as soon as possible, but I'm having trouble figuring out a way to get everything to work with the school's network.
Later

Test post

Hey all, it's the day before I leave, and I finally got around to creating a website, woo hoo! This is pretty much just a test post. I finally got a hold of my host family last night. I talked to the mom and she sounded really nice, so here's to hoping. It might be a bit before another post, not sure when I'll first get at a computer. FYI: I'll be posting a few pictures on here, but if you want to view ALL my pictures, I'll be dumping them on my newly created facebook account.