Soaking up the rising sun

Bushas in Japan

2007-05-25T09:55:00.000-05:00

To conclude the *not so* epic cliffhanger, er...rather statement from the last entry, upon seeing each other in Narita airport, Brian and I did indeed perform a less than graceful, but still rather spectacular in its own right, 'jump-hug' of sorts. And yes, we got a few looks from those around us. I had come off an all-night bus, and after killing the morning doing a whole lot of nothing (i.e. watching the main intersection of Shibuya from the second floor of Starbucks), I headed to Tokyo station. There I got slightly confused on which line to take, but figured it out after ten minutes of staring at the line map only to realize I was on the wrong platform. No worries, though, as I had nothing but time on my hands. An hour and a half or so on the trains and I was at the international arrivals gate...about 4 hours early. Again killed time just people watching and playing my DS. First some Mario Kart, then a little nap, some more people watching, and a bit of Final Fantasy III right before they came. Times like that I really mourn the fact that my iPod kicked the bucket a month or so ago. Some music would've been handy for passing the time...or a book or something, but I sent all those back early by boat mail. It was getting to be time for the Bushas to exit, but they didn't for a bit, and I worried it might have been the other American Airlines flight, which got out at exit A, not B. So I quick ran to A to double check, and of course by the time I ran back to B, they had already exited and began the money changing process. I called out to them, Brian immediately spun around and it was then that the 'jump hug felt 'round the world' took place. We caught up on the train back to Tokyo, and grabbed some dinner at a ramen place. Then we dragged their luggage to Alaina's apartment, and experienced the joy of riding a crammed train in Tokyo while carrying massive luggage. Getting off from the middle of the train was a puzzle itself, but the solution mainly consisted of profusely apologizing while jostling half the folks riding in our car. After arriving at Alaina's and completing a rather difficult game of luggage tetris (solution? stack 'em sky high) we managed to work out a sleeping arrangement in Alaina's tinsy Tokyo apartment. I slept in the entryway on some blankets the landlord left out for any of the tenants to use. The thing about Alaina's place is that I think a special type of allergen permeates everything in there. That compounded with the fact that the blankets I borrowed seemed to have been washed pollen or something comparable, I had a nightly allergic bout while waiting for the Sandman to whisk me away. But don't get me wrong, I don't mean to complain in the slightest, as I am nothing but grateful to Alaina for letting us stay in her place, these are simply facts. Free in Tokyo normally doesn't happen, so we were extremely lucky. However, due to unfortunate circumstances, our luggage was seen when her extremely pesky, nosy landlord decided to walk straight into her room (apparently knocking is just a formality to him). On top of that, he saw us leaving the place early this morning, and apparently got pissed at Alaina. She covered for us, but in order to not further invoke his suspicion, tonight we are staying at an internet/manga cafe. It is from a small room in that cafe from which I am currently typing this up.
The first night we just sat at Alaina's and chatted. Alaina is having a horrible time here, and so when asked to talk about Japan, she started venting. And although I have a much more optimistic view of Japan than her at the moement, there are things wrong with the place, and so I joined in a bit. All in all, though, we may have given the Bushas an skewed negative first impression of Japan. I think we managed to improve that over the past couple of days, though. We've explored the Shibuya, Akihabara (the elecronics district), Asakusa, and Ueno areas to name a few. In the process, we hit up a few arcades along the way, Brian and I teaming up on various light gun games, including multiple runs at House of the Dead 4. I'd recommend trying that out, but arcades don't exist in America anymore (tear) so that's futile. We explored some temples/shrines in Asakusa, and while walking to Akihabara, stumbled upon the Nintendo-Tokyo Branch building, so that was a pleasant surprise. Who knows, maybe someday I'll work there, or have to reason to business trip over there, haha. Then to Akiharabara, where we went to probably the best arcade I've been to in Japan-absolutely amazing selection of games. There, Brian unknowningly challenged the guy across from him to a fighting video game (Arcana Hearts) when he put his coin in the machine. Brian managed to take one match, but then got creamed pretty in the other three. Today rained all day, but it was fine since we spent most of the day in the Tokyo National Museum, which definitely had a wide collection and some interesting pieces. There is a limit, however, to how many old scrolls with absolutely unreadable characters (even to most Japanese) one can gaze upon before becoming bored with the activity.

Yesterday evening, I went to Yokohama for the final goodbye with most of my classmates. We went to a Chinese restaurant and had a good time while munching down all you can eat Chinese food for 2 hours. You can order freely for 90 min., but have to eat everything ordered or be charged accordingly. This left myself and two other brave souls to at the very end eat cold fried chicken wings in order to escape the monetary penalty. It was definitely a sad occasion to part with all the new friends I have made over the course of this past year. Yet at the same time, I really think that I will be seeing a good number of them again sometime in the future, and so with that attitude in mind, we all parted, vowing to stay in touch and whatnot. It will be interesting to see where everyone goes from here, as there was a lot of potential in that class. Tonight I spent a little more time with Pak, grabbing a drink with him at Starbuck's (my second trip there today, ugh...) He vows he will concentrate on English once he returns to Korea, seeing as he is currently surviving on all the less than widely useable slang we've been teaching him thus far. Well...I am getting rather drowsy, so I am bringing this one to a rather abrupt end. Good night!

The beginning of the end

2007-05-21T04:08:00.000-05:00

So finals are over, and we had the closing ceremony for the study abroad program two days ago. That was followed by a party at Nanzan's student union before heading out for karaoke with a bunch of people from class. It still hasn't fully hit me that I'm leaving in two weeks, but the ceremony made it slightly more real for me. It was rather boring, as ceremonies are, with everyone saying almost the same thing in their speeches. Thanking the host families, the dorm management, the teachers, etc...and urging us to not forget Nanzan, but use the international mindset we theoretically gained while here and use it in the rest of our lives. The president of Nanzan is German (at least I'm 90% certain of that) and despite having lived in Japan for who knows how many years, still isn't all that great (and I'm being polite with that statement) at giving a speech in Japanese. Despite knowing this, I was still floored my how much he was outdone my the student representative's speech (a classmate of mine). Not only the delivery of the speech, but the speech's content and structure was about ten times better than the president's. Somebody had better was job... Anyway, after having a good laugh with everyone about our classmate taking the president's job, we handed over a present to our teachers. Just a nice picture of everyone with messages everyone had written around it. Then we got a little momento of IJ700 that a few of our classmates worked rather diligently on. There are even rather humorous comics that one of our artistically talented classmates drew. The party at the student union was crowded, but a good chance to see the teachers one last time along with the other students outside IJ700. Then a bunch of us went to karaoke afterwards, cramming 11 or so people into an 8 person room. It was stuffy and sweaty, but a ton of fun. I had almost the entire group singing with me on Sorafune by Tokio, but the more humorous selection I chose was Young Man by a comedian by the name Razor Ramon, who has a character named Hard Gay, which is indeed as hilarious as it sounds. The costume consists of a vaguely more S&M-esque version of the biker guy from the village people (assuming there was indeed a biker guy...I could be making this all up). Anyway the song is a cover of YMCA and the music video is hilarious (or slightly disturbing) depending on your understanding of Japanese culture/appreciation for batshit crazy things. We sang some more somber songs of parting as well. Luckily, though, a large number of us will be meeting again in Tokyo (all there for different reasons), so we'll have one more chance to say goodbye. After karaoke, we headed to 'The don' which is a chain donburi/udon restaurant. Nothing terribly delicious, but it provided a place to goof around with everyone. Apparently some of the others find some of my facial expressions rather humorous, and Pao took it upon herself to try and mimic me. So there ended up being some interesting photos and some "hilarious to us, but painfully stupid to everyone else" 5 second videos of her and I trying to pull off the expressions simultaneously.

My host mom helped organize a bazaar for Yugo's pre-school and it was yesterday, so I helped out with that, running one of the kid games and helping out with the raffle. I met a strange old lady that day, however, who looks 100% Japanese (and may very well be) but she is American, and was born in Brooklyn. She moved over here for her husband over 50 years ago, and she was telling me about all the trouble she has since everyone assumes she is a native speaker and can read kanji perfectly. She has apparently had a pretty hard time living over here, so we commisserated (spelling?) a bit about Japan's less than finer points. The society's rigidness, the country's crampedness, etc... I realized just how much some of their customs have become ingrained my head later when I was eating my lunch. She said she was going to be leaving and just wanted to say goodbye. I instinctively started to get up from my seat (a custom when saying hello or farewell, especially to someone older than you) , and she immediately gave me an 'oh sit down!' There are other facets of the society, other parts of the culture, that have practically become hardwired in my head...the incessant bowing, the constant apologizing. I will look forward to apologizing when I have done something wrong or messed up, not when someone else has messed up. Sometimes the level of sacchrine kindness just gets to me. It can all seem so fake at times. Oh well, you've got to be keeping up appearances. Ah...now there's a good British comedy, Keeping Up Appearances. If you haven't seen it, you ought to. Sorry, off track. Back to the old lady story. I ended up getting up from my seat anyway to say goodbye to her husband. After I talked to him a brief bit and they were going to leave for real, she just says all of a sudden 'Okay, I know this isn't 'allowed' in Japan, but I want to hug you. Of course I hugged her, but was a bit surprised at first. Then I thought about it, raised in America and then move to Japan for 50 years, where kids (at least once they hit 7 or so) don't even hug their parents. She must have just been desperate for someone to hug. For all of it's supposed conciousness of those around oneself, Japan can be rather cold society at times. I guess I'm going to get stared at when I jump clothesline/hug both the Bushas when they arrive in Tokyo tomorrow. Now don't get me wrong, Japan is not a horrible place, far from it! But...there are certain things about it that can get to you (I can only imagine what 50 years would do.) Which is why I am so appreciative of my host family, who at times can be rather un-Japanese in how they do things. Although my host dad does not even, and I quote 'touch his parents.' (...let alone hug them) But I, myself, will most certainly be hugging my family, and probably a majority of my friends when I get back. Only 2 weeks left...craziness!

Onsen-it'll cure what ails ya

2007-05-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

...So the next we grabbed more uni-ikura donburi for breakfast, and then bought some crab and fish to be sent home. And this was some rather fresh stuff. Once we realized you can't really send the live crab walking around in the pool via takkyubin (Japan's UPS/FEDEX, etc.) we went with already dead, on the rocks. After heading back and checking out, we went for a drive, with our ultimate destination being lunch. Anyway, Hokkaido reminded me a lot of Wisconsin, not only in the fact that it was still refreshingly cold in May, but also the scenery. Save for sharp changes in elevation, between the farmland and the pine trees I felt right back at home. Oh, and the cows. Not exactly anything surprising for me, but my family seemed to get a decent kick out of 'em. At one point, we saw some horses galloping (not walking, trotting, etc.) across a meadow, and that was rather picture-esque. I also couldn't help remembering how delicious that horse meat I ate back in the fall was. The road starts climbing, and we arrive at some huge, fancy hotel which is quite literally on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. There is, however, a rather pretty vista overlooking Lake Toya, which I assume is part of the draw. That and the golf course, how could I forget. Anyway, we had a nice lunch there, Yugo terrorized the hotel as best he could, and then we were off for Noboribetsu. The place is famous for onsen (natural hot springs) and I could immediately tell because upon driving into the town I was literally knocked over by the overwhelming smell of sulfur in the air. While, yes, it does kind of stink at first, the smell grew on me, and evetually my nose got used to it. The onsen was attached to the hotel, so a simple elevator ride was all it took to get to the bath. After an extensive meal that was brought to our room, I put on my yukata (a thin, summer-style kimono, or in this case something that resembled more of a bath robe) and headed with Yugo and my host dad to the bath. After heading into the changing lounge (and yes, it is not a room but a lounge) and stripping down, I grabbed my little hand towel (with which most people hide their unmentionables) and headed into the public bath. First on the list, I threw water over myself with this little handled bucket, and found and empty shower station. Basically, you sit down on this little bench take a shower, all the while breathing in steam filling air and enjoying a generally sense of warmth. After the shower, it is natural spring time. And this is where it can get difficult, simply due to the number of choices. There were probably a good ten different bath indoors, plus three more outdoors, each one having different water with varying minerals and properties. Oddly enough, that was one of the more interesting things for me. Each spring had a sign (no English, sorry) explaining what minerals the water had in it, and what health benefits one could supposed get from steeping in said water. The creepiest looking one was a murky gray color, due to the high sulfur concentration. Other pools had naturium, calcium, high acidity, etc. Benefits listed included helping against high blood pressure, certain skin deseases,...even hardening of the arteries could be stemmed by taking a dip in the stuff. Man, do they bottle this stuff?! There was even sort of a 'cure all' spring. I took my time in that one. My favorites have to be the outdoor ones, though. It was even the perfect temperature out (probably upper 30s I'd guess), so that while soaking my body was nice and warm, but there was a refreshingly crisp breeze against my face. Probably nothing better to refresh oneself both physically and mentally. The water constantly flowing into the 'cure-all' spring was brought in on this criss-crossing set of roughly hollowed out wooden halfpipes, really giving it and authentic natural feel...it also really, really felt like Japan. While living in Japan can have its downsides, the hustle and bustle, the crowded, cramped feeling, there are certain wonderful things that one can only experience here, and the onsen is one of them. Granted I sleep like a log anyway, but after going in the onsen sleep comes almost instantly. The next day we went to a bear park. After taking a ski-lift up to the place, there were a couple a large pens where you could toss puchased food nuggets to the bears. One bear was rather active and would stand on his hind legs and even put his paws together in an 'itadakimasu!' sort of fashion to try and get everyone's attention. Yet another bear, who's laziness I rather admired, refused to get up from his laying down position, but lazily put one paw to see if there were any takers. I decided to give it a shot, and even managed to get one in his mouth, he didn't even have to move. But in the end, that sort of thing isn't my cup of tea. It's cool to see the bears and all, but it's kind of sad when you realize they spend day in and day out in this pen sitting around catching the same nuggets over and over again. We grabbed ramen and yakiniku (grilled meat) for lunch, and then left for the airport. We took the scenic route, but mother nature must have had it out for us that day, as the fog was so thick I could barely see the trees lining the road, let alone any sprawling, distant scenery. That and I think my host dad was getting sleepy, as his driving was getting rather irratic. Random slowing down, hitting the brakes a little harder than he needed to, and considering these were windy mountain roads, it wasn't the most comforting thing in the world. My host mom was yelling at him constantly to pull it together, but her license had expired a week or so ago, and that fact served as fodder for my host dad. 'You're commenting on my driving? You don't even have a license. Haha' etc. The comment doesn't come off well without his light-hearted, joking tone of voice, but he was indeed joking around. At the airport, we bought a bunch of souveneirs (i.e. dessert) some of which had to be eaten the same day. So we ended up munching on these cream puff sort of things while still in the airport. I managed to find an interesting 'gourmet' variety of Kitkat only sold in Hokkaido-red wine and raspberry Kitkat. Delicious. Japan seriously knows how to do dessert. The portions may be smaller, but they are exquisite.
Halfway through finals. Two down two to go. Unfortunately the two remaining are the tougher of the four. After finals, only a few weeks until I leave. Scary! One of those weeks will involve me painting Tokyo red with the Bushas (for family who doesn't know-two really good friends of mine who are both going to study abroad in China). The city will be brought to its knees. Any international incidents during the week of May 22nd will likely be our doing.

Hokkaido-the most delicious place on the earth

2007-05-03T22:24:00.000-05:00

So I have a week break right now for Golden week, which is week that a good amount of the population gets off of work, aside from certain restaurants, workaholics, etc. Not sure of the origins of this holiday, but most Japanese are overworked anyway and could use a nice break, so I say that's reason enough. Anyway, I went to Hokkaido, the northernmost of the four main islands, with my host family for about 3 days. The thing is, though, the entire reason we went up there was to eat. Hokkaido is especially known for its fresh seafood, namely crab, ikura(salmon eggs) and uni. But seriously, everything is super fresh and tasty. Now, my host dad normally rolls pretty hard when it comes to food, but on this trip we reached a whole new level of decadence. It almost felt like we were constantly eating, and don't recall ever feeling not stuffed the entire trip. So after landing in New Chitose airport, we waited a bit to get the rental car and then sped off to Sapporo to try and make it to our 1:30 reservation at this supposedly outrageously delicious sushi place (and the place closes at 2pm). Sapporo apparently likes to put stoplights every two feet on the main drag, so we got there around 1:40, but luckily they were nice, still seated us and even stayed open until 2:30 so we got to eat at a semi-leisurely pace. And this was some delicious stuff. Shrimp, squid, saba, salmon just to name a few, but my favorite is by far fatty tuna, I think I put away about 6 of those little buggers. On top of all the sushi we clam miso soup, along with a Hokkaido specialty uni-ikura donburi, which is basically a bunch of ikura and uni thrown on top of some rice. It may sound deceivingly simple, but the point is to appreciate the deliciousness of the fresh seafood. And this specialty dish is rather top-tier in terms of delicacies. A modest sized bowl runs about $25. After that we just wandered around a shopping center trying to find me new shoes. My shoes had severe holes in them, and after seeing the prices of shoes in Japan, I had decided to tough it out until returning to America. That is until my host mom let slip the terrible condition of my shoes to host dad, at which point it was pretty much decided that I would be getting new shoes. After going to a couple stores, and not being able to find shoes big enough for me, we finally found a pair. The length on the other shoes wasn't the problem, it was the width. They were all too narrow. Sometimes I forget how big I am the the 'Japan scale' so to speak.
We stopped at a local cafe for dessert, and I had this parfait that had chocolate ice cream on the bottom, but then this really weird frozen pudding on top that had a very strange texture but was also quite tasty. Then the mac daddy of dinners. We were going out for crab, and my host dad had this specific style in which he wanted it prepared. After wandering around trying to find our restaurant, we finally arrive and have a about five ladies in kimono greet us at the entrance. So already it feels like a fancy place. We walk past this glass case in which there is a mammoth crab just sort of chilling, waiting to be eaten. We get to our little room only to find out what my host dad wants isn't on the menu. So he tries haggling with the waitress to see if the chefs can do it up special. She seems a bit unnerved by that and fetches who I assume is a manager of sorts. So he asks her about the mammoth crab out there, and if they could prepare it half grilled/cooked and half raw sashimi style. After consulting the chefs and thinking about, she decides they can, but it'll run just shy of $400, to which my host dad, without thinking twice, says 'okay, let's do that.' To a certain extent I thought I was getting used to how my host dad throws around money, but I was once again flabbergasted. And it was good and everything, but there was so much of it, I don't think I ever want to see crab again.
　We head back to the hotel, and decided to take Yugo to a game center (arcade), but it is nighttime in one of the less elegant parts of downtown and the arcade won't let children in that late, so we dropped Yugo back off at the hotel. My host dad then decided we should go to a hostess club. This is similar to what I mentioned back in my Kyoto post. You pay money to drink and chit-chat with pretty young ladies done up in fancy dresses. I have decided I am not a big fan of these. I don't particularily like idle chat in the first place, plus the whole concept of 'I'm paying to talk with you' just makes for an uncomfortable premise in my opinion. Anyway, about a half hour through, my host dad sees a closed off room and asks what that is. 'Oh, that's the VIP room, it costs more, but has karaoke, etc, etc. ' 'Well hey, why don't go over there!' And so we head to the VIP room and sing karaoke for the next hour or two until the place closes. My host dad asks the two ladies if they know of any good ramen places and invites them to join us for ramen. So the four of us grab a midnight snack, and I had some out of this world miso ramen. After taking care of cab fare for both the ladies, we took cab back to the hotel. And that was just day one...to be continued.

Untitled

2007-04-23T00:51:00.000-05:00

Okay, folks. Not sure where to start. Let's see, a few weeks ago friends of my host mom came in from Osaka and stayed for an extended weekend (which felt like a super extended weekend to me). Why did I feel this way? Oh, it just so happens the number of kids in the house doubled. This has pros and cons. Pro-They will sometimes be content playing with each, leaving me with relatively quiet time in which to do homework, relax, etc. Con-the rest of the time they are attacking me in a group. The worst of which involved me giving two of them piggyback rides simultaneously. Nothing like having a 5 and 6 year-old (around 80 pounds) clinging to your slowly deteriorating back. It was fun enough at first, and made for nice exercise, but they don't comprehend that after awhile I'm both mentally and physically tired of giving them piggyback rides (onbu). So they just shout ONBU ONBU over and over. I can't even sit down without one or both of them climbing up onto my back/neck, 'If you don't onbu we'll get even noisier' That's one part of returning that I'm looking forward to, no kids constantly screaming, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love the hell out of Yugo and Tayusuke, but it'll be nice to return to the real world. Also, I went on a huge, crazy trip/adventure about a month ago to Kyushu, Yakushima, and Shikoku over spring break. I don't have the time to detail it at the moment, but suffice it to say Molly and I hiked over 10hrs just to see a damn tree. Are we crazy? Yes. Another fun anecdote involves the konpa we had for Japanese Lit class. We went out drinking and to karaoke with our sensei. Nothing like drunkenly talking about the meaning of life, etc. with your also drunk 50-year-old teacher. Good times. I may also detail that later. We had our 'returning home' orientation last week. It's starting to hit home that this is ending. It has been a fun ride, and I'll make the most of what is left. This coming weekend is a trip up to Hokkaido with my host family to consume mass amounts of super fresh sushi and crab. Scrumtralescent! After that I have about a week break before finals, so I should be able to get a decent post in then. Sorry about the drought of posts lately. The shorinji kenpo club I joined is more time consuming than I imagined. Later.

The saga continues

2007-03-09T04:33:00.000-06:00

So I didn't plan on writing this blog post, but it was warmer than I expected this morning, leading me to switch my winter jacket for just a hooded sweatshirt instead. There is a small problem, though, both my cell phone and my keys to the house were in the front pocket of my winter jacket, so when I came home from school today and nobody was home, I was kind of in a pickle. I was hungry so I decided to head over to the manga cafe a few minutes from the house, and that is where I am now. I am going to try and catch up quickly on my travels, for those of you who can't see the picture version on my facebook account. Way back in January, while I was still on winter break, I was lucky enough to get to accompany my host family on a vacation to Bali, Indonesia. I never thought I'd be going to Indonesia in my entire life, let alone the resort island Bali. Needless to say, it was awesome. We were there for four nights, and the first two were spent at a hotel that was literally in the middle of the jungle. It consisted of a series of (very nice) huts all scattered on this slope. There was a gondala-esque (spelling?) contraption that got us from our rooms to the restaurant and front lobby (on the upper part of the incline). The view over the ravine was incredible, and we spent most of the day there chilling in the pool. As per usual, I got sunburned, as the tropical sun has absolutely no sympathy for pasty white boys like myself. We took in two traditional dances, the first being the legong dance, and the second was the kecak dance. They were both very mesmerizing, but the latter involved fire and chanting, so it gets the nod out of the two. In that second dance, the guy playing this monkey god gets trapped in a ring of flaming piles of dead grass. While barefoot, this guy kicks a pile into the air, and then side kicks through it, all in one fluid motion. It was pretty badass, no lie. But he must have gotten a little too excited, because one of the other piles he kicked a little too close to some of the spectators, and the other dancers had to intervene.
Shopping in Bali can be a living hell. Haggling (which I don't like to do) is the name of game, and often the quality of the goods is questionable at best. My host dad, however, loves to haggle. We drove to this mountain village in the tour van for lunch, and upon getting out we were encircled by women trying to sell us T-shirts, 5 for 1000yen (about $8.75). My host dad got them down to 10 shirts for the same price, but our tour guide warned us that the design would likely ruin after one wash, and the shirt itself would follow soon after, so we passed on those. There are no stoplights in Bali, and the streets give Japan a run for its money in their narrowness. Enough room for one lane each way, if you're careful. More than cars, though, mopeds are generally used. We had a cool enough tour guide, named Suweden, but he couldn't take a picture to save his life. The final two nights were at the Bali Hyatt, which is right on the ocean. We went snorkeling, which was really cool, since there was a lot of really pretty coral. I mean, it's pretty on TV and all, but having it just a few meters below you...well, it feels like a different world. Okay, enough of Bali.
The last weekend in January involved at trip to Tokyo to see a danpatsu-shiki, which is the ceremony a sumo wrestler goes through when they decide to quit the sport. My host dad went to the same school (and was friends with) one of the current sumo, so through that connection, he has made a lot of sumo wrestler buddies, one of whom was retiring. The main part of the ceremony is the cutting off of the sumo's chonmage, the special hairstyle that only sumo are allowed to wear. The sumo selects literally hundreds of people to come up and cut off the chonmage, bit by bit. My host dad was one of the people who got to go up. More than that, though, halfway through the ceremony I got to go back with my host dad into the back prep room and meet the current yokozuna (highest rank in sumo), and get a picture with him, which is a really rare opportunity most Japanese never even get. We had chinese that night, but it wasn't your take out General Tso's chicken. No, this was a multi-course meal including peking duck, and shark fin, along with countless other dishes. That next day we hung out with an ex-sumo and his family. They took us around Tokyo a bit, I had squid ink ramen for lunch. Then we stopped at this place that specializes in fruit-based desserts. Apart the restuarant, the same company had another store on the floor below that sells top quality fruit. The prices are literally mind-boggling. The ex-sumo with us splurged on two oranges, each of which ran close to $20 a pop. I had to steady myself however, when I saw the $185 melon. That is not a typo, folks. There is not a melon on the face of this earth that a level of deliciousness to warrant such a price tag. After recovering from that, we all split the $20 oranges, and while delicious, they weren't $20 delicious.
Two weeks later I found myself again in Tokyo for a sumo ceremony of sorts. The first part was a broadcast variety show, with the sumo participating in games and singing karaoke. Apparently some famous singers were there as well, but I had no clue who any of them were. The second part wasn't televised, but the baby, Tayusuke, got carried into the ring by the sumo, and they did some little special blessing type of thing. That was the main reason we went, and it was done and over in about 2 minutes. I had developed a fever that morning on the shinkansen (bullet train) and my condition was deteriorating, so I went back early with the grandparents, rather than go out for dinner with the rest of the family. The fever went away the next day, but a stomach virus stayed around for about a week or so, limiting me to eating very plain foods. I was definitely sick of udon (thicker noodles) by the end of that week.
That was during a week and half or so break we had in mid-February. Just before this Tokyo episode, though, I had spent two nights in Kyoto. My host dad was going anyway for work, so I went with him to Kyoto, and then explored the city on my own while he was at the meeting. There were a good dozen or so of his business buddies and we all rode the shinkansen together from Nagoya. We had lunch together at a place that specializes in the skin that forms on the top of the vat while making tofu. Not exactly my cup of tea, not something I'll order on my own, but it was good to try it once. Then I got tips on sightseeing from all the other business guys, and split with the group at the hotel. The first day I hit the golden pavillion, and tried walking to two other temples, but they were already closed by the time I got there. So I just wandered up and down the streets of Kyoto, looking for interesting shops or a good place to eat. I found a cool little bakery and cozy restaurant where I had yakisoba and okonomiyaki, along with a orange/lychee flavored mixed drink. I got back to the hotel around 8pm, and when the business meeting ended at 8:30, I decided to go out with my host dad and his buddies. So here's me a foreigner wearing a hooded sweatshirt and khakis walking around with 12 guys in suits. But all them were cool, and I think most of them had already had a little to drink at the work banquet. We were going to Gion, a district famous for Geisha and extremely expensive night clubs. In the taxi ride there, one of the salarymen was surprised that I hadn't yet snared a girlfriend, and then informed me it was a waste for me to having less than 3 girlfriends...okay, buddy, whatever you say. Still, he was funny. Someone needs to tell the Japanese female population to stop talking with a pitch so high that Alvin the Chipmunk hangs his head in defeat. Then maybe I'll reconsider. Anyway, we get to this night club, go to the second floor, and for the group of 12 or so, there are 8 or so women in really pretty dresses, makeup, etc. They are hostesses, and basically they are there to talk with you, laugh at your anecdotes (even if they aren't funny), pour your drink, light your cigarette, etc. The alcohol is super expensive, and you pay for whatever the girls drink as well. Anyway, the one girl I chatted with most of the time was really nice, and she had even been to America. She had apparently been treated very well and helped out a lot while in America and said she wanted to do something in return. She offered to take me around Kyoto the next day in her car and do some sightseeing. So after doing some sightseeing on my own, I met up with her in the early afternoon at Heian Shrine. We stopped at a favorite candy shop of hers and then hit a couple of temples. She bought some tofu donuts along the way, so I got to try those. And being not a huge fan of tofu, I was really surprised to find out they taste like normal donuts, and they are even good for you! Crazy. She also suggested a restaurant for me to go to that evening. Her friend runs it with her dad, and it was a place that specialized in chicken. After intially ordering some rather tame stuff (since I couldn't understand half the menu), the dad told me I ought to have something a little different, that I've never had before. So I left everything up to him. I quickly found out that I couldn't understand half the menu because they were simply body parts I hadn't learned yet. I basically had an anatomy lesson that night, eating neck meat, crunching through what I could only imagine was cartilidge (spelling?), and the worst was probably trying to bite through the chicken KNEECAPS they served me. Not too pleasant. But I did have a really nice yuzu(citrus-like fruit) infused sake with all of this. Basically though, I loved Kyoto. All the temples have really nice gardens and are super peaceful and calming. It is often hard to get away from the city in Japan, so it was a really nice 'refresher' so to speak.
So my host dad likes Star Wars, and we recently went to the robot museum in Nagoya (where I got to try out the Segway), where my host dad found a super realistic light saber for sale. The thing ran about $200, and my host mom gave him a disapproving look. After thinking she had convinced him to give it up, we went to wait outside the store while he looked around some more. Well, long story short, he bought the Obi-Wan lightsaber. Where it gets really funny is the other night, when my host mom and I, in the living room, here a light saber noise from the hall. A few seconds later enters my host dad, in a t-shirt and his boxers, waving around this lightsaber. Deciding the outfit wasn't complete, he grabbed a quilt and drapped it over his head...it was priceless. I think the quilted, boxer-clad Jedi could really take off. Then he insisted my host mom couldn't play with the lightsaber since she wasn't a Jedi like he is. Hilarious. Okay, I'm wrapping this monster post up, and going back to see if my host family is home yet. Cross your fingers for me.

The cult of IJ700

2007-02-27T23:32:00.000-06:00

Okay, so a couple want to hear about who I hang out with. Well, it is pretty simple. I hang out with those people who are in my intensive Japanese language course. Why, you ask? Well, in general, it is somewhat difficult to make friends with study abroad students in other levels of the language. Last semester wasn't as bad in the fact that my linguistics and history course were both open to anybody, so they had a nice mix of people. However, both of those classes involved getting talked at for 90 min and 135 min respectively. The one common thread we had was bitching about the classes, which was fun, but it wasn't as if we ever hung out on the weekend or anything. This semester, all of my elective classes have a proficiency reequirement, so only people from the top 2 levels can take them, which leaves me seeing largely the people I just saw all morning in the Intensive Japanese class. We pretty much eat together almost everyday, and then occasionally go on karaoke outings or check out a film at the Picadilly Theatre near Nagoya station, which is generally preceded by dinner at a nearby ramen place (which has a 'happy hour' of sorts-half price gyouza(dumplings) and you can't beat that). The two guys I hang out the most with are Ken (from UW-Madison) and Tom (from UI-Iowa City). We often head out to the various game centers (read: arcades) and have a good time remembering exactly what an arcade is (since I haven't seen one in America for years). Aside from DDR, Mario Kart Arcade is always a good choice, along with the slew of 2D fighters. They still have freakin Street Fighter II cabinets. Not to mention the Neo Geo stuff, Guilty Gear, Tekken 5, and oh, how could I forget, Virtua Fighter 5, which is a disease in Japan. A lot of the arcades I have been to have a separate LCD display so spectators can watch the matches currently being fought. They're hardcore over here. Why does the group consist of so few? Because a fair number of people in the class seem to only go out if it's for karaoke. There is a guy named Kevin in the class as well, who is a gamer and that provides for some nostalgic conversation. He also has a rather dark sense of humor (always a plus) and I'd say he rivals Wallin in emo-ness. Erika is from Hong Kong, so natively she speaks Cantonese, but she also has stellar English and a good sense of humor. Pao, from Thailand is easy-going and fun to joke around with. She takes teasing well, so I dish it out liberally...and she has taken one lesson of Taekwondo from me. She wants to exercise more, so I may have a training partner soon. Running through forms by myself leaves a bit to be desired. Then there is Yongkyu (or Pak-san) from Korea, who is about as stylish as it comes. Rather concerned about his looks, but and all around good guy, and I just found out today he is a huge WWF fan, and has been for awhile. He started talking about Wrestlemania VI's Hulk Hogan v. Ultimate Warrior match, which I have no recollection of. I was rather surprised, and entirely amused that WWF had made to Korea, and more than that, it has taught him important English phrase's including, but not limited to X-Pac's 'Suck It' (with appropriate x hand gesture). Sara is from New York, she likes to read books a lot, and got screwed in terms of her home stay situation. She's currently trying to get a bowling outing planned, which I am completely in favor of. They are others I didn't bother to profile here, but they are all good people. However, to answer Busha's query, they are not as cool/awesome, etc. as Brian himself, or all of my other friends in the U.S. I look forward to seeing everyone in a few months!

Randomness

2007-02-04T23:31:00.000-06:00

Okay, so the evening is a whole lot of studying. Miki and the kids go into the bath, and after they come out it is generally not too long before they head upstairs with an 'oyasuminasai' (good night). Miki generally comes back down once the kids are asleep, and almost always makes some sort of drink, whether is be black or green tea. She also occasionally has these mildly fruity drinks made from a syrup, and few times it has even been blueberry vinegar, which is actually really, really good. There is often some sort of dessert-type thing that she brings out as well. This often serves as a study break for me. We sit and chat for awhile about whatever, sometimes rather random stuff. For instance, I found out she doesn't know what macaroni and cheese is. I guess there are just certain things I assume have been assimilated from Western culture, but apparently Kraft dropped the ball hardcore on taking advantage of the Japanese market. I mean, c'mon Easy Mac and Instant Ramen co-exist in the U.S., why not Japan? Weekends...let's see. They generally involve going out to eat at least once. A couple of times, when Takashi really can't get away from the office, we drive to Sakae (the entertainment/business hub of Nagoya) and have dinner somewhere in the area. Speaking of which, the other week we went to a small ramen shop (counter only, seats maybe 12-15 people) and had by far the best ramen to date. It was Garlic Butter Spicy Miso ramen, and it rocked my world. I generally wouldn't expect garlic with ramen, and probably because of that, loved it. Mixed with the spicy miso...seriously good stuff. I am going to cry when come back to America and have to eat Instant Ramen again. Oh, Mass Transit...the mood on the trains to and from school is something close to death. Most people sleep or read, play their DS, or again, look dead. The subway is where you can tell just how tired everyone is, just how much the life of a salaryman has eaten away their soul. Okay, that might be a little much, but still... It is etiquette to not talk on your cell phone while in the train car (and most people can't anyway once the train goes underground). Yet a ton of people type away text messages to pass the time. You are theoretically supposed to give up your seat for older people, but I only do if they look like they want it, which is pretty much what all the Japanese do as well. If you have an empty seat next to you, and someone sits down next to you, you must, by some unwritten rule, scooch over, or pretend as if you are making room for them. And if after sitting down, they readjust themselves, an acknowledging readjustment of your own is a must. It doesn't matter if you actually move anywhere, just fidget a bit in place. That'll work fine. Busha, what else? I know this still is far from comprehensive, but class calls again.

This one's for Busha

2007-01-21T23:45:00.000-06:00

My friend, Brian Miguel Busha, has been bugging me about doing a 'daily life' post, so here it is. I wake up at 7:30am T-Th, and 8:00am on M and F (my classes start later those two days of the week.) I struggle to get out of bed since my room is literally an icebox. Homes in Japan don't have central heating. Instead each room has a wall-mounted air conditioner/space heater. Also, the living room and kitchen have heating through the floors. Anyway, after getting ready, I head downstairs, where breakfast is either ready, or only a few minutes wait. It depends on the day, but there is often rice and miso soup. Knowing I like pizza, my host mom also often makes toast with tomato sauce and cheese on it. The equivalent of little smokies (i.e. little weiners) show up enough since Yugo really likes those. After eating I leave in a few minutes, and Miki and Yugo send me off with a 'bai bai' or 'itterasshai' (the latter is customary). It takes me about 15min to walk to Fujigaoka station, where I take the Higashiyama Line (it's the yellow line) for 12min or so to Motoyama where I transfer to the Meijo line (purple). Car #14 sets you up in perfect position to get to the Meijo line platform quickly. From there I wait (how long depends on if I took the 8:41 or 8:43 subway out of Fujigaoka.) for the next train, and take that two stops down, where I get off at Yagoto Nisseki. From there it is another ten minute walk to Nanzan University. The whole commute takes about 45 min. Class starts at 9:20 (10:05 on the late days) . The morning consists of the intensive language class until 12:35pm. I generally eat lunch with my friends from the morning language class. The curry house on campus is good if you want to avoid the crowd. Otherwise, the #1 caferteria has excellent toritama donburi (chicken, barely cooked egg, and rice), and dagane has pretty good misokatsu (miso sauce drenched pork cutlet). In the afternoon we have our electives. They generally either start at 1:30 or 3:15 and last for 90 minutes. We have those elective classes once a week. I'm going all out this semester, taking Classical Japanese 2, Business Japanese, Creative Writing, Calligraphy, and University Preparatory Japanese(this is the one I'm worried about). I'm also just hanging out for fun (i.e. no credit) in the Japanese Literature 4 class since I want to read the books they are covering and the teacher is HILARIOUS. He speaks a crazy/broken mix of Japanese and English, has quoted Field of Dreams, and started singing in the middle of class(and that was only the first day!). This semester I'm am either going to join the Shourinjin Kenpo club, or just start training Taekwondo on my own again on Mondays after class (more often if I can). Once spring hits, I'll be practicing with the capoeira club on Wednesdays. After my classes, practice etc. end, I head home, doing the reverse of the commute I detailed above. I get home and dinner is ready generally within a half hour. This is generally when Yugo demands my attention, and I've just learned to not even bother trying to study if he wants to play, etc. before dinner. After dinner I start studying or continue to be distracted by Yugo, Tayusuke, etc. ...and I'll continue this later. I have to get to calligraphy. Let me know what you are still curious about Busha...or anybody else for that matter. The comment link is there for a reason. Later!

Apology, Skiing, drinks and live music

2007-01-14T21:45:00.000-06:00

So, before I go onto post-Christmas activities, there is one anecdote that I forgot in my last couple posts. Upon seeing the wintergreen candy canes my mom had sent over, Yugo said, with a somewhat ungrateful tone, something to the effect of “Why did she such a weird looking thing?” I said nothing in response and simply thought to myself, “Weird? Those things are freakin’ delicious, kid.” I didn’t think much else, and simply figured he hadn’t seen a candy cane before. I went upstairs to continue cleaning my room. I took a break to look at the old photo album I brought along. And while in a happy little wave of nostalgia, my door slides open a bit and Yugo pops his head in a bit, but then closes the door. A minute or two later he does it again, at which point I tell him it is all right to come in. But he doesn’t. At which point I figured something was up. So I open the door and he is just sitting there with a dejected look on his face. Normally if he is feeling that bad he is bawling his head off for his mom or something. I ask him what is wrong multiple times and he won’t say a thing, so I just sit there with him. After quite awhile, I decide candy might make him feel better, so I offer him some…yet he doesn’t take anything. Yugo not eating candy I offer him…is the apocalypse coming?! Anyway, after I eat a few pieces of candy, Yugo has a few, but still won’t say anything. Finally, his mom comes up and asks if he properly apologized. To which I respond that he hasn’t said anything at all, and wonder what the heck he is supposed to be apologizing for. Well, apparently my host mom also heard Yugo’s comment about the candy canes and felt really bad about Yugo saying anything even close to disparaging about the stuff that was sent over. So she sat down with Yugo and explained again to Yugo why he shouldn’t have said what he did and demanded he apologize. Well first he bawls into tears, and after awhile finally manages a half crying/half wailing “GO-MEN-NA-SAI!!!” He was quite better once he got that out, and quickly realized why he had been so silent. It was kind of cute (yes, though I despise the word cute, my diminishing English vocabulary leaves me no choice…) since I could tell he felt so bad about possibly making me feel bad. He may be a whiny brat at times, but deep down he’s a good kid.
Now, onto the next big event, Nagano. So apparently, my host mom’s side of the family has been going to the same inn in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture around New Year’s for the past 30 years or so. So what I initially thought was a random ski trip ended up being a rather deep tradition. I hadn’t been skiing before, and since Nagano Prefecture hosted the 1998 Olympics, I had visions of extremely difficult hills, broken limbs, amputations, what have you. We were worried for a bit, though, as the complete lack of snowfall threatened our trip. The forecast called for big snow, but even the day before we left, nothing substantial had accumulated. Luckily, Hakuba got absolutely dumped on the night before we left. We left early on the 29th and after a 5 hour drive, we finally pulled into the inn. After dropping our stuff off, we rented some equipment. Meanwhile, the grandma had Tayusuke on the back in a sling sort of thing. He was bundled up ten times over, but with it snowed hard and the wind not helping matters, he seemed to have a look of “Where is this place, and why did you bring me here?!” We got outfitted and hit the slopes. I fell. A lot. The first attempt landed me in a fluffy bank of snow so deep, I couldn’t get up by myself. After Chi-chan (the aunt) helped me out, we continued on. After getting my balance down, I tried turning, which proved futile until she taught me to turn using what I’ve been told is called the “snowplow” position (both skis pointed inward). Turning immediately made sense. The second day I got stopping down competently and even managed to make it all the way down the mountain (it takes a good 10 min, or more if you’re a beginner like me) without landing on my keister, so I was pleased with my progress. Up until noon on the second day, only the shorter three slopes from the top of the mountain were open, but then they finally got all the prep done and opened the path that goes all the way down. I managed to get that in twice before the end of the day. The first day you couldn’t see a thing due to the clouds and the blowing snow, but the second day cleared up and revealed some breathtaking scenery. Mountains practically surrounded us, aside from the one vista overlooking the town. (Beyond the town were…yup, you guessed it, more mountains) Definitely not the kind of terrain you see in Wisconsin, and the whole experience was rather surreal. During our breaks from skiing, we went to the same restaurant for lunch both days, and it was really delicious. Nothing super fancy, just pizza, pasta, fries, chicken, some Japanese dishes, an appetizer plate of meat and cheese, but it was all done really, really well (and reasonably priced to boot!). The freshly fallen snow lead to impromptu snowman making, which then devolved into a snowball fight. I haven’t had a proper one of those in a long time. Next winter in Madtown, massive snowfight! I won’t settle for less. I also taught Yugo and Chi-chan how to make snow angels, so that was fun. When I first arrived here, when bathtime came around, Yugo would occasionally say “I want to get in with Collin!” After both his mom and I told him no multiple times, he pretty much stopped asking. But the bath at the inn was public, and Yugo’s dad wasn’t able to come on the trip, so he again wanted to go in the bath with me. He went in early with his mom to the ladies’ bath, so I thought I was in the clear, but once I decided to go in later, he continued his supplications with renewed vigor, so I caved. I pretty much knew why he wanted to go in the bath together, and my hunch was corroborated almost immediately. Upon entering the bath he quickly ran around to my front to see just how I was “different” from him. Yugo ended up not entering the actually bath after all, since the water was too hot. And I can’t blame him. Upon entering, I felt like my skin was on fire for the first 15 seconds or so until my body adjusted. That is one thing about the Japan, the bath water, or the water in onsen (natural hot springs) is often insanely hot. One onsen in particular in a place called jigokudani (Hell’s Valley) has water at a (what I think to be a dangerously) hot 192 degrees Fahrenheit. The locals boils eggs while they themselves steep in the piping hot water. At this point I’d like to quote my friend Nick’s reaction to this fact. “If the water is doing that[cooking] to the proteins in the eggs, just think of what it is doing to the proteins in your body.” It’s crazy what sort of immunities the human body can acquire.
The second night in Nagano was nothing short of amazing. I went with Miki(host mom) and Chi-chan (her sister) to an old Meiji-era building (approx. 130years old) that now functions as a private inn. Apparently they also just take in customers for drinks and food, but there was only one table and we were the only ones there who were staying overnight. The rest of the people there were all family it seemed, so we sort of felt like we were intruding. We had some sake, gyouza (dumplings) and cow intestine (yum!) for a light snack. The group staying overnight was across the room from us cooking in a more traditional fashion. There is a wood border for setting cups and plates on, but then the inside is set into the floor and has a bunch of old ash covering it. Hot wood coals are brought in and set down almost in an almost campfire-like fashion. From there you can hang a pot above the coals to make soup, etc. or cook fish on stick (much like we do with hot dogs or marshmallows). The only difference is this is all indoors. We decided we had intruded long enough, and started to leave, but one of the guys across the room said he was going to start playing his guitar and sing, and that we should stick around to listen. After politely refusing once (as it almost always customary) we accepted after he insisted. And boy am I glad we stuck around. They brought out tea for everyone (on the house) and we sat back and enjoyed. It is a bit surreal to listen to some bandana-wearing 40 year old Japanese guy sing some love song in Spanish while sitting around in a 130 year Japanese house. Even more than that, I joined in and helped him out on Yesterday by the Beatles. Memories of the time I sang that song in a quartet for solo/ensemble senior year in high school came flooding back. We all made up crazy motions right before the performance, which ended making all of us laugh during the performance. Good times, eh Busha? Anyway, this guy on the guitar was extremely charismatic, and one of the best emcees I’ve seen. He kept everyone captivated. After his show, we decided to head up to the second floor, which functions as a bit of a museum. We checked out the art and then sat down on floor pillows and just began to talk. I knew I was in for a long but fun night when one guy brought up a HUGE bottle of sake. I had to be careful not to drink mine too quickly, because everyone was only too eager to fill my cup back up. I can’t even remember all what we talked about, but one guy in particular absolutely loves American football. He seriously thinks it is the best thing since sliced bread. I told him I liked football well enough, and so he starts asking me who is on top this year. Considering I haven’t seen a single minute of NFL broadcast this year, and haven’t bothered to look up standings on the internet, I did my best to bullshit my way through a sports conversation about which I knew nothing.
Dude: So who’s good this year?
Me: Umm…the Colts? Yeah, yeah, the colts. They’re good.
Dude: How are the Patriots doing?
Me: Uh…good. Yeah, they’re doing good, too. (Desperately trying to switch to something I have a bit of knowledge about.) The team near my hometown won the Super Bowl ten years ago, but they’re aren’t doing too well now.
Dude: What team?
Me: Green Bay Packers
Dude: Oh yeah! The Packers! I know them! Not only did the guy know the Packers he seemed to act as if they were his old friend. Needless to say I was more than surprised at his detailed knowledge of the NFL. Everyone was pretty well drunk, or at least tipsy, to the point where the conversation was loud and raucous and the one guy was spilling the sake as he tried to pour others’ glasses. When I posed for a picture with two of the guys, they insisted I go in the middle of them, and then they both put their arm around me. So I do the same. I am quite sure this kind of physical contact does not happen in Japan while sober. Nothing like making friends over countless hours of conversation and a massive bottle of sake.

Christmas in Japan!

2007-01-12T01:29:00.000-06:00

Next up is Christmas Eve. Every year they get together with a bunch of old friends from high school, etc. This year was the same and we headed over to one of the friend’s houses for lunch and stayed into the early evening. It’s pretty much like any get together in America-a bunch of food, drink and joking around. The only difference is what’s on the table. Along with a roast chicken are the onigiri (rice ‘balls’ with random stuff hidden inside), along with the beer is sake (alcoholic drink made from rice for those not in the loop). And apparently the sake they had was extremely high end, so much so that it isn’t widely sold and it is hard to just get a hold of it. It was noticeably better than other sake I’ve had, but I don’t think it lived up to its reputation. There was also some mashed potato-looking sort of thing with cucumber and other random stuff mixed in, and that was pretty good. Things quickly shifted focus as the family’s new Playstation 3 was booted up. They also had the Gundam game, and that quickly garnered all the attention of the kids and adult guys. I eventually tried my hand at it, and after a few rounds of getting acquainted with the lackluster control scheme, I made a reputation for myself as deadly with the beam saber. But basically, just like every other Gundam game, it is mediocre to the extreme, and the clunky controls hinder gameplay. But before this turns into more of a game review, suffice it to say that a good couple hours of the afternoon were spent on this game. It was sometimes hard to get a turn between all the kids, but eventually some of them started requesting to play a match against me. One kid in particular was dominating everyone, and then when me and the other kids started beating him, he burst into tears. I think he could handle losing to me, but when his friends even starting getting the upper hand, he lost it. But everyone’s mood brightened when Santa knocked on the window! Even I wasn’t expecting this. The guy whose house it was dressed up as Santa and came in the sliding door from the backyard…barefoot. Okay, so not the most convincing Santa impersonation I’ve ever seen, but he gets points for effort. The kids all called him out as not being the real Santa. (Apparently this was the first year that happened…maybe boots, or footwear of any sort, would have helped.) After a bit, the party ended, and we went over to Apita, the local department store to grab some dinner and Wii software, since my host dad also bought a Wii within the past week. The Christmas decorations already had huge discounts on them, so my host mom picked up some stuff for next year. Then we headed over to the video game section where I proved to be much more knowledgeable about the Wii than the store clerk. So it was basically me telling my host dad what he should and shouldn’t buy. I had him pick up a second nunchaku controller, the controller packed with Hamete no Wii (WiiPlay), WiiSports, and Odoru Made in Wario (WarioWare). I had to remember I was picking out multiplayer games the family could play, otherwise Zelda and Elebits would have gone in the cart, too. Then we headed to a Chinese restaurant within the department store, and it was really good. We all split a rice/vegetable dish in a thick, clear sauce, along with a whole slew of different dumpling-esque things. Busha, I’m looking to you for the Chinese name of these things. Don’t fail me. And I have completely fallen in love with gomadango, which is a dessert that consists of sweet bean paste inside rice paste, which is covered with toasted sesame seeds. Really, really, freakin tasty. I first had them while I was in Okinawa, and now jump at the chance to order the things. The only drawback is they sit in your stomach like a rock.
Onto Christmas!!!! Okay, so it started out kind of slow, but picked up after awhile. The night before at the department store, Yugo found a toy he wanted and whined like no other until my host dad decided to make it Yugo’s Christmas present if he promised to clean his toy room (which didn’t get touched during that cleaning day). Yugo wanted me to help him clean he toy room, and I had nothing better to do, so I told him we’d split the room and each do half. Of course, Yugo just putzed around while I cleaned my half. Once I finished and his half was still messy, he tried to get me to do to half of his half. But I refused and then he decided he was tired and wanted to sleep. I said that was fine and stretched out on the floor to take a nap, too. Yugo wasn’t actually tired, which I suspected; in reality he just didn’t want to clean. Later in the afternoon, Yugo wanted to draw dinosaurs. Specifically, he wanted me to take turns drawing dinosaurs with him. I quickly realized just how little artistic ability I possess when I could hardly tell which ones I had drawn and which ones Yugo had drawn.
One of the guys at the Christmas Eve gathering works at (and I think maybe owns) a hair salon, and since I needed a haircut and badly and my host dad did as well, he made an appointment for us at 5pm. Well, five rolls around and he isn’t back from whatever work he had to do. It was maybe 5:30 when he came back, and we left right away. We had to stop and drop off the platter at the sashimi place for them to use. Then we headed to the salon. This was the first time I had anything beyond a basic cut, and on Christmas no less! A santa cap clad girl rinsed and shampooed (sp?) my hair before and after the cut, which I thought was a bit overkill, but eh, whatever. And then afterwards they brought out tea. There were also two brown sugar cubes and a thing a cream, so I varied from my normal taking of tea (straight up) and threw all the sugar and cream in. Not a bad way to drink it, but I’d rather save my sugar intake for something that tastes better. After the salon we picked up the sashimi and then the birthday cake for Tayusuke (the baby) who turned one year old. Yeah, he gets the royal shaft on presents, having his birthday on Christmas. So we got back a little late for Tayusuke’s birthday party, as the grandparents had already arrived awhile ago. So we had a nice dinner, and then sang Happy Birthday for Tayusuke. For those curious, the song and the words are exactly the same, you only have to murder the pronounciation of the ‘th’ sound and you’ll fit right in! After the cake, it was present time! This was mainly comprised of presents that my mom and my dad and stepmom sent. Yugo was ecstatic over the Kamen Rider game, and to my surprise, already knew of and loves Pez, and ate (with everyone’s help) two of the three packs of candy that came with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dispenser mom sent him. He also thoroughly enjoyed the red mystic ranger my dad and stepmom sent him. The armor can even be constructed into a plane! He especially liked that part. Of course my host mom and dad were all completely surprised by the amount of stuff sent, and thanked me a million times over, but that still pales in comparison to the Nintendo DS my host dad got me for Christmas. And in his typical fashion he can’t wait to give it out, so I got it a couple weeks ahead of the holiday. My host mom got one as well. Then after a Rotary dinner (where I was cajoled into giving a little impromptu introduction speech), we went to Geo, a new/used media chain, to pick up some games. I picked out a kanji studying game, and the New Mario Bros., while my host mom picked up an English studying game and, with my guidance, Final Fantasy 3. Okay, getting a little off track. Back to Christmas… after opening the presents, we just chatted for awhile and then my Christmas in Japan came to a quiet close.

New car, Pizza Hut, and Video Games

2007-01-12T01:26:00.000-06:00

The next day (the 23rd of December) we all went and picked up their new car. (The Jaguar was having problems and wasn’t worth fixing.) It is an Alphard, which I think might be made by Toyota, but I’m not sure. Either way it isn’t model you’ll be finding in the U.S. It is pretty much a minivan; it seats 8, has a DVD system, and a bunch of other bells and whistles. We grabbed lunch at a local Italian restaurant, Flour, which happens to be one of my personal favorites. After that I had a plan to hang out with Ken (the other guy from UW-Madison) and Tom, a friend I met here. We met at the Book-Off store in Tenma-cho. Book-Off is a wonderful chain of stores that buys and resells used books, comics, CDs, DVDs, and video games. I found Christmas presents for Yugo, and my host mom and dad. All of which were Playstation 2 software. My host dad had recently bought a Playstation 3 and the Gundam game for it, but since there are only a few games out for 3, I thought I’d pick up some old 2 software to beef up there library. I made a really good find for Yugo, as I found a Kamen Rider (Masked Rider) game that features V3, his favorite iteration of the series. I bought a large chunk of the Full Metal Alchemist series that day, but more than that, Ken randomly found a comic series by the name of ‘Super Mario-kun.’ Considering they were about $2.25 a pop and there were over 20 of them, I decided to try out the first one before throwing down the money for the whole series. We then killed time waiting for Young-kyu (or Pak-san) a classmate of ours from Korea, to meet us. Once he arrived we rode the subway to Kurokawa to grab dinner at the Pizza Hut there, which was the main mission of plan for the evening. It is the only Pizza Hut in Nagoya where you can actually dine in, and I hadn’t had real pizza for a while, so I was looking forward to this. Since almost everyone gets delivery, they just include that expense in the normal price, so I if you eat in, you get a discount off the menu price. After that, a medium cheese pizza only cost 800yen, which is about $7. You can’t get that stuffed for 800yen anywhere else in Japan-I’m convinced of it. They were pretty busy, so the lady at the counter asked us if we minded waiting a half a hour, and then looked even more horrified when she realized we were all ordering a pizza for ourselves. I had almost forgotten how good the grease on Pizza Hut’s pan pizza tastes. Mmm…all that artery-clogging goodness. After an extremely satisfying dinner, we headed back to Tom’s apartment for some serious video gaming. We tried out the new WarioWare game for the Nintendo Wii, which was extremely fun. After giving ample time to that and WiiSports, we hooked up his PS2 for some Guilty GearX2, and boy had it been awhile. I was a bit out of form but still dominated hard, only losing one match to Tom at the end. After that it was time to hook up his Sega Saturn, and we tried some games Ken had just picked up. I finally got to try out the Saturn version of Symphony of the Night, along with Gunstar Heroes and Golden Axe: The Duel. I apologize to any family members who may be reading this for all the video game lingo I just put you through.

The Semester Ends

2007-01-12T01:13:00.000-06:00

Hey all,
So winter break has hit in full force, and oddly enough, I find myself gasping for air between all the functions with my host family. We lost three classmates from my language class. Two are going back to their home countries, and one of them, Matt, is going back to Maine for about eleven days before leaving for France to study abroad there in the spring. (He definitely wishes he was staying in Japan for the entire year, and I can’t blame him.) A couple days before the end of class, we took half the day for a wakarekai, which is basically a farewell party. Most people in the class performed some sort of talent or prepared food. A couple people did karaoke, two did a classical piece of music together (piano and singer), Pao, from Thailand, said Bangkok’s full name in Thai, which is apparently the longest city name on the record books, and it took her a good 20 seconds or so to spit it out. Machida-sensei got up on stage and performed movements from Iaido, a Japanese sword art. I performed two of my Taekwondo forms, and that went over pretty well. After the talent show was over, we chowed down on all the food. One guy from Boston made Boston Cream Pies which were to die for. I’d never had it before, and it definitely jumped up to one of the top spots on my dessert list.
About a week later, after I walked out of my last final (history), there was a party for CJS (the exchange student branch at Nanzan University), since a lot of people would be going back in a few days. One of my classmates, Lee-san, gave a really nice speech, and got me thinking about what I’ll be feeling in about 4-5months when I’m the one going home in a few days. It’s going to be rough to say the least. I’ve become horribly attached to everyone in my host family, and the feeling is reciprocal. I hate to see what Yugo is going to be like when I have to leave. He’ll be a bigger wreck than me. Anyway, I don’t want to dwell on that anymore than I have to, so back to the CJS party. My host mom came with the two kids to the party, so the party basically consisted of my introducing them to all my classmates, with Yugo constantly sticking his head under the hooded sweatshirt I was wearing, since that was gathering all the attention of my female classmates who all thought it was too cute. After grazing the free food, the party ended and a good dozen or so of us went out for karaoke. This was basically a farewell outing for the people leaving, and it was a three-hour marathon of fun. The karaoke chain of choice is KaraokeJoyJoy, because they are cheap, and the karaoke comes with nomihoudai, which basically means unlimited drinks. Granted, the cups are small, and you have to run your cup down to the front desk, so the fact that it is a pain in the butt helps limit how much you drink, but it is still a good deal. And it is something to do when someone starts singing a song you don’t care for. (‘Arigatou’ by SMAP for starters…) I’ll have to explain the enigma that is SMAP in a future post. Anyway, I normally stick the various “sour” drinks of various fruit flavors since they are sweet, but in the normal mix of ume, peach, and muskat grape sours, I ventured off the beaten path after trying a bit of Blake’s drink, appropriately named a sledgehammer. It tasted quite a bit stronger than the sours, and I realized exactly what I gotten myself into after I ordered it. The girl behind the counter threw a couple cubes of ice in the glass and then took the bottle of vodka and poured, and poured…and poured. No water, no soda, just a bit lime syrup and over half a glass(albeit a smaller glass) of vodka. I definitely started to feel a buzz after that little experiment and went back to the sours. I basically try to not be as drunk as all the salarymen riding with me on the last train home. Okay, so after starting off winter break properly with that karaoke-fest, the next day was devoted to cleaning. My host mom decided it was cleaning day since Yugo’s room was a freaking mess, and she wanted to do a thorough cleaning of the living room. I was totally fine with this, since I had been meaning to clean my room for a long, long time. So organized everything, vacuumed the floor multiple times and then wiped down the floor. And during this I finally told my host mom that I had accidently stained the floor with marker. This was a good month and half ago, but I made a visual aid for a speech I was giving in class, and the marker bled through the paper in some spots. The dots are pretty small, and I didn’t notice them right away either, but if you look closer there are quite a few of them. Anyway, even though I knew my host mom wouldn’t be mad, I was still a little anxious about telling her. But in her typical, extremely kind fashion, once I showed her the spots, she just smiled and said, “Once Yugo gets older and uses the room, we can just look at the dots and they’ll serve as a reminder of you.” It’s comments like that that get me everytime. She has even called me her ‘new son’ many a time when introducing me (don't get jealous, mom! haha). I just have to look back at comments like that to realize how lucky I am to have gotten this host family, and that we'll be seeing plenty of each other long past when I come back in May/June.

Continuing on

2006-12-05T00:45:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I'm in the computer lab, I've finished typing up the essay that due tomorrow, but I'm stuck on printing... A) The printers aren't connected to lab on a network, rather, you have to go to one of the three computers that has a printer. B) None of the printers have paper in them. I remember someone saying something about bringing your own paper, but I probably dismissed it due to its complete lack of efficiency. Apparently this is true, at least in the lab I'm in right now. Japan is great and all, but I'll be damned if they don't have a thing or two that is just bass ackwards. Aaaanyway, back to Tokyo. After lunch, my host family dropped me off at Shibuya station, where I was to meet my friends in front of Hachiko, which is this famous dog statue where everyone and their mom uses as a gathering point. So once we got the troops together, we killed some time at this crazy manga(Japanese comics), DVD, CD, video game shop that primarily specialized in used stuff, but had plenty of new merchandise around. Of particular note were some of the video games. They had a bunch of the old Nintendo Game&Watch games for sale. Some going for over $200 dollars. Donkey Kong was only $20, and I was tempted to pick it up, but I controlled myself. They also had what appeared to be developer tools for the Super Nintendo, for instance a game controller test cartridge (also quite expensive). It was cool to check some of the stuff out. At the same time, one runs into the problem of being unable to escape the omnipresence of hentai related material...figurines, cards, etc. For those who don't know, hentai is erotic comics/animation. And they don't always separate it from the rest of the stuff. i.e. Aaron and I were looking at some of the collectible cards they were selling, and stumbled onto a rather unsettling card involving tentacles. (In Japan there is a genre of hentai that involves rape by tentacles. Where the tentacles come from? I don't know. Is it an octopus? Could be. I've never bothered to find out more as that is a fetish I will NEVER understand) Sorry for the seedy departure, but hey, you're being cultured. After leaving that store, we killed some time at a local arcade, where Alaina and I broke out our moves on Dance Dance Revolution, and Aaron and Molly went head to head on Taiko Drum Master. (Japan also has a thing with rhythm/music based video games.) After that we headed for dinner at a Indian curry place, a decision that would later come back to haunt me. The chicken curry was excellent, as was the special bread (whose name I forget). Then we headed for...KARAOKE, where we spent the next two and a half hours belting out some of our favorites. (Picture: from left Aaron, Alaina, and Molly after our karaoke session) In particular Aaron and I rocked out hardcore to Separate Ways by Journey, I could barely speak after that one. I think we freaked Molly out during the chorus of it as well, so all the better. I was supposed to meet my host family sometime before the wedding party/reception that started at 9pm, but along came 9 with no call, so I tried to reach them with no luck. Finally I got a call saying it was taking longer than they thought. So we killed some time at a coffee shop, where I once again experienced the sad true reality that Japanese 'cheesecake' is not even close to real cheesecake. It is wholly unsatisfying, and not worth the close to $4 it costs. (Welcome to Tokyo prices!) So I get a call from my host dad saying to head to Harajuku(apparently to try and find this party they were at). Let me just say I HATE trying to have a conversation in Japanese on cell phones, especially with loads of background noise. I didn't understand my host dad's directions at all. I managed to glean that he wanted me to go to the police box in Harajuku. I didn't understand his directions to the police box, so I decided to ask the station attendant. I was tired and frustrated from not being able to understand my host dad, so Molly, who, along with Alaina, was nice enough to accompany me during this excursion, asked the attendant for me. So we find the police box, and call my host dad, who says he'll come pick me up. A few minutes later, I get a call. 'Hey where are you?' 'Umm...in front of the police box, where are you?' 'In front the police box, is your named blahblah?' I look up...I'm at the wrong stinkin' police box. After handing the cell phone to the police officer in the box I was at, my host dad figured out where I was and picked me up in a Taxi. I guess I can't go to Tokyo without getting lost. Must be a requirement. So I bid Molly and Alaina adieu and head to this wedding reception. The groom owns a company that provides high altitude simulation training rooms for athletes. (This dude has climbed Everest, and is in the Guiness World Record book for something...) Anyway, the party was at the building where those training rooms are. Basically, the party consisted of eating, drinking, and talking to people. No dancing, unliike American receptions, but there was no room to dance even if ya wanted to. They also cut the cake in front of everyone. Shortly after everyone started clapping and making noise in an effort to get the newlyweds to kiss. The groom was fine with the idea, but the bride pratically recoiled we he went in for the kiss. I don't know if she was just too embarassed or what, but it didn't look like a normal newlywed interaction. When she finally gave in to the crowd/groom, it was a short kiss and her lips were pursed the entire time. Either that marriage isn't headed anywhere, or she just needs to loosen up. I then went back to the hotel with my host mom (the went out for karaoke and didn't get back until 5am) and hit the bed. My stomach felt a little queasy, but I figured sleep would do the trick. (By the by I hadn't had anything alcoholic to drink during the day). Despite that, I woke up at 4am with the overwhelming urge to puke...so I did. I went back to sleep and woke up at 7am-ish. I thought I'd get in the shower, but the minute I entered the bathroom I puked again, followed by a long spell on the toilet. My host mom immediately realized something was up when we met to grab breakfast. I didn't eat anything from the buffet, and when we got to actually leaving the hotel, I had a sudden rush of fever and dizziness. I had to stop and sit down, at which point my host family was considering sending me back on the bullet train because it would be faster. Luckily, that wasn't necessary. My host dad's car seats recline pretty far back, so I just layed down in the car for the 5 hour drive back to Nagoya. The rest of the day I only had apple juice to drink, and ate nothing. By Tuesday I was feeling better, but I'll be sure to never go that Indian curry place again. Whew! Done with Tokyo. Next up will be Okinawa! And Busha, you're probably going to have to wait until winter break for that 'daily life' entry, but I promise I haven't forgotten about it.

Fugu fish and Tokyo again (part1)

2006-12-03T23:25:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I am going to try to catch up some ground here. I'm jumping all the way to about three weeks ago. November 12 was Shio-san's birthday, so that night we all went out together (we had a group of about 10 including other friends of hers) and had fugu(blowfish) for dinner. For those who don't know, fugu is somewhat famous because it contains a lethal amount of poison (paralyzes the muscles and you go from asphyxiation), and thusly, only licensed chefs are allowed to prepare the fish. This is considering a delicacy in Japan, and quite the birthday meal, so I was lucky to be able to attend and try some of the stuff. No, I didn't die, so that's a plus, but on the other hand, it wasn't some out of this world delcious food either. It had a distinctive flavor, but that flavor was weak (especially when raw). The fried fugu had more bone than flesh, so it was quite hard to eat. But it was definitely and experience (and almost $100 a plate, not one I'm going to repeat unless my host dad is footing the bill again). I brought Shio-san a little stuffed Wisconsin badger for her birthday, but then it typical fashion for her, despite it being HER birthday, she gives me this pot of pointsettia(she owns a flower shop), as well as this funky little knick knack that you can look through and see a little picture. She is incredibly nice, it's insane.
Fast forward one week and I find myself back in Tokyo, this time with my host family. My host dad was already in tokyo on business so I went with my host mom via the shinkansen (bullet train). Here's a good example of how my host family rolls: I had gotten a special student discount voucher from Nanzan University, and thought I could maybe use it and save her some money, but when I showed her it, she said something to the effect of 'Oh, well I wanted to ride the Green Car today' The green car is the equivalent of first class. Instead of three seats in a row, there are two, and there is more leg room, etc. But it is not worth TWICE the price of the unreserved regular car tickets. Needless to say, that student voucher was a moot point. ...I'm just not used to living the high life, it doesn't always compute with me. The actual ride was pretty spiffy, and the train got going pretty darn fast (I want to say 400+ km/h, but don't quote me on that). In any case, the scenery was clipping by, and close objects were pretty much a blurr. From Nagoya to Tokyo in 90 minutes without having to board a plane. Not too shabby. So once we got into Tokyo we met up with my host dad and grabbed some lunch near Ginza at a really, really fresh sushi place with professional sushi chefs. This was by far the best stuff I've had. Incredibly fresh, and expertly prepared, I don't know if better sushi is availbe. The toro (fatty tuna) pretty much melted in my mouth and was by far my favorite thing there. But we basically let the sushi chef pick out what he thought was good that day and ate what came to us. I also got to try a lighter, white miso soup(a Tokyo thing), as opposed to the normal tan-ish miso or the smack-you-over-the-face dark brown miso available in Nagoya. The creepiest thing I had to eat, though, was the shrimp that the sushi chef killed right in front of us and then threw it on top of the rice...tail sill twitching. So despite the fact that it was moving, I threw all but the tail into my mouth and had the freshest shrimp possible.The really unnerving part, though was that even after I had bitten off all the body (and muscle that could possibly sending the tail electric impulses), the tail still twitched a couple times on my plate. I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut this short. The next half of the Tokyo trip (involving karaoke, Indian curry, incorrect policeboxes and throwing up) will have to wait until the next post. Okay, the photos aren't uploading, so they'll have to wait, too.

Lack of content

2006-11-28T01:55:00.000-06:00

Okay folks, so I am REALLY behind in updating this thing, but that is due to the fact that I have been oh so busy over the last few weeks. I went to Iga, an old ninja village. The next weekend I was back in Tokyo, and found out Indian curry+me=puking the next morning. This past weekend was four days and I spent them on vacation with my host family in Okinawa, which was awesome. I will put up pictures and more extended details about these three outings relatively soon. Hopefully this weekend! we shall see...anyway, I need to get back home in time for dinner.

The conclusion

2006-11-12T23:44:00.000-06:00

So we got a late start Sunday morning. Molly wanted to get some studying done in the morning, Alaina showed me around her neighborhood...more specifically she took me to one of the best bakeries I have ever been to. I had this extremely delicious sugared donut, that, instead of being filled with jelly, was filled with sweet red bean paste. One of the best donuts in existence. There were also a bunch of other yummy goodies I picked up, since we were going to be heading to Molly's host family's house for lunch. When I bought the bread, etc, I realized the store's secret. There was what appeared to be a Frenchman working the stove. A little bit of Europe right in Tokyo. Then we headed to Molly's place and picked up some veggies to put in the tomato sauce. (We were having spaghetti.) After chilling out there for awhile, we made our way to Akihabara, the electronics district of Tokyo. Like I said, we got to a late start, so our time was limited and I didn't get to look at the game shops too much. However, outside one of the arcade there was a crowd of about 50 people all watching this one guy play Taiko Drum Master, a rhythm/music based game. More impressive/scary than the crowd was the fact that this guy had a group of about 4-5 of his friends doing motions and cheering him on as he played. Ahh, how I miss the days when arcades existed in America. Upon leaving the sensory assault that is Akihabara, we prepped to leave. We went back to Molly's place to pick up my stuff, and we headed to Shinkjuku to find my bus...which sounds much easier than it turned out to be. Luckily, Molly and I figured we might get a little turned, plus we wanted to grab dinner before I left, so we arrived in Shinjuku really early. After walking up and down the same street a couple times, we consulted a map (other than the microscopically tiny one the bus company gave me...) on the street. We found one of the buildings marked on our tiny map, so we thought we we're in good shape. Only problem is, it wasn't where the map seemed to say it would be. We decide to stop at the nearest convenience store and ask the clerk. It seemed promising, until I handed him the tiny map I had, at which point he furrowed his brow and said "Wow, this map is hard to understand. It isn't labelled very well." On top of his less than confident response, neither Molly nor I could understand him much through his dialect/accent. So...we wandered around some more. Everytime we'd find a building on the map and get our hopes up, the fact that the building didn't seem to be where it was supposed to left us even more confused. Next we asked a friendly looking cop who was watching over the crowd huddled around a Playstation 3 kiosk. He was extremely nice, and a bit easier to understand. We followed his directions, but it lead us to the Keio company bus terminal...not the company I was going with. So then we asked a guy near the station who had a police-looking uniform on, but he was rather rude to rejected me right away. I chalk it up to the fact that he was a old curmudgeon, and probably wanted to go back to talking to his buddy rather than working...oh well. None of that mattered, though, because we were soon saved by a random Korean guy. He and a couple of his friends not only offered to help (without us asking them) but they walked with us as we tried to figure it out. After another 10-15minutes of wandering around with these guys, we find the supposed spot, and we thank them profusely. Molly, being the nice friend that she is, decided to stay and wait until I got on the bus. Another 15 mintues pass, and the Korean guy comes back, saying he checked with a few other bus drivers and that this is for sure the right place. The level of kindness is incredible. Anyway, that's about the end of the Tokyo story.

Tokyo a go go

2006-11-08T23:28:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I went to Tokyo for the first time...and it was pretty spiffy. But first, before I forget, I would like to raise an example of why my host mom is awesome. Especially now that winter is approaching and my room upstairs becomes a frickin icebox, I generally do my homework down in the huge living room. After my host mom puts the kids to sleep, she often comes back downstairs and makes tea for the two of us. This often leads to fun conversation in lieu of homework...let's be honest, what's more important? Anyway, to get to the point, what did we talk about last night? Star Trek. I was trying to explain the term science fiction, and as a long shot threw out Star Trek as an example. I've never been to much of a fan of the show until this summer, but I was shocked that not only she knew of it, but she used to what it with her dad and loved it. She also thinks Patrick Stewart is the shit, which he is. Then we spent awhile trying to recall Counsellor Troy's name and reminiscing about Data's various antics. Crazy. Now, onto Tokyo...
So, I decided to take the overnight bus from Nagoya to Tokyo and back, which I knew knew would be unpleasant, but we also arrived at Shinagawa station 1hr. 15min. earlier than scheduled. Thus, I was left waiting for awhile before Molly and Alaina would be there to pick me up. They are two of my friends who are studying abroad at Sophia University in Tokyo. So I wandered around for a bit and stumbled onto some amusing posters. ( I will post pics....eventually...) Once they arrived, we wandered around Shinagawa some more, but eventually decided there wasn't a whole lot going on, and we left for Shibuya. There we grabbed a bite to eat at a random cafe and then found ourselves a game center (i.e. an arcade). We coaxed Molly into playing DDR, and it was good fun. Then we went to Harajuku, which has a bunch of crazy little shops and is home to a more alternative, quirky culture. We scoped out this one T-shirt shop, and there were a few shirts I was tempted to purchase, but I held out assuming I would return to Harajuku before the weekend was over. That was not the case. One of the T-shirt I was looking at was a cartoony chicken, with the most dejected, defeated look on his face, sitting at a dinner table with a plate of eggs in front of it. We also stopped at this excellent store chain called Book Off, which sells used manga, CDs, video games, DVDs, etc. I felt like I should buy something, so I picked the first four manga in the 鋼の錬金術師 series, which transliterates to 'The Steel Alchemist,' but some of you likely know it by the English title Full Metal Alchemist. So I am looking forward to picking up the entire series. It'll actually make reading fun! Woo hoo!
Alaina was feeling sick at lacked the energy to walk any further, so she went home and Molly and I went to next door Yoyogi Park, once of the rare occasions in which you can see a decent amount of green in Tokyo. There were some folks out drumming, so I got a little taste of Madison in Japan. Since Alaina was sick, we decided to call it an early night. We picked up some sushi for dinner and headed back to Alaina's place to watch House on DVD. If you haven't seen House, do so immediately, it is dripping with sarcasm, and it rocks.
The next morning we went to Sophia's university festival in part to cheer on Maria, Alaina's Russian next door neighbor, who was participating in a Japanese speech contest. After the contest, we wandered the campus a bit, partaking in the various festival foods prepared by student clubs, the most interesting of which was the Frankfurter of Terror. The club went all out with a Halloween theme, despite the fact that it was a just a plain hot dog on a stick, but we had fun with the name. After that we headed to Tokyo station to see the nearby Imperial Palace. That was pretty darn cool. Of course, we couldn't make it inside due to tight security, but we walked the grounds, snapped some photos, and commented on how the air quality in Tokyo was noticeably poor. Granted, it was cloudy that day, but there seemed to be a general low-hanging haze. Alaina again returned for the night, but Molly and I went back to Shibuya and met up with Min, a friend of ours from Japanese class in Madison. She is not only studying abroad at Sophia, but interning with some marketing company...crazy Koreans. Anyway we ate at some place called Miami Garden, which apparently attempted to put a Miami twist on Italian cuisine, whatever that means. It was pretty standard pasta and pizza, nothing special. We then hit up a cafe for dessert. Along the way, though, we stopped at this store called Jeans Mate, and found some horribly bad engrish shirts. If it weren't for the style being a little too 'fashionable' for my taste, I would've bought one. Okay, this is getting longer than I anticipated, and class time has arrived, so I'm breaking Tokyo into two parts. Next up, Akihabara and getting lost in Shinjuku...

Horse, it's what's for dinner

2006-10-30T23:22:00.000-06:00

Yeah, you read that right. It's amazing what you can get away with when PETA isn't breathing down your neck. This post will partially be dedicated to the weird food I've eaten, and was inspired by the fact that I ate HORSE last night. On top of that, it was raw. Yup, horse sashimi. And I'm sure there are some making a weird face, or in stunned disbelief (I'm looking at you, Tamara), but hey, don't knock it 'till you try it. To be fair, eating horse is rare in Japan, it's not as if you can find it in every grocery store or on the menu at the local restaurant. My host dad, as per usual, has the connections, and while he was in Kagoshima(which is apparently semi-famous for the stuff) on business, he had some sent back to the house. It's just like pigs, cows, etc. where they raise the horses specifically for the purpose of being eaten, so it's not as if I'm gnawing on the tough muscle of some Triple Crown thoroughbred. Besides the chunks of raw horse meat, there were also chunks of fat, which after dipping in a little soy sauce, are eaten straight up. I could only handle one of those after I felt my arteries hardening from eating pure fat. That's a curious thing about Japanese people, their motto is the more fat, the better. ...It's amazing how they manage to stay so thin. In America, you hear a decent bit amount lean meat and whatnot, but that is considered less preferrable here. Beyond the horse meat, which was pretty tasty with a little soy sauce, I've had more beef in the past 3 weeks that I've probably consumed my entire life. And to a certain extent, I'm developing a taste for it. Case in point, I went to a yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant with my host family about 10 days ago. The idea of these places is that the server brings you a plate o' raw meat, and you cook it yourself on little grill embedded in the table. It just so happens that my host dad is friends with the owner (again, his connections are insane) so we got what he called (saabisu) aka 'service' or 'the special treatment.' For appetizers we had beef sashimi. Yup, raw chunks o' beef. This was followed by raw cow liver, yet another thing I never thought I'd be eating. Now I'm not going to come back to America and start downing raw beef. A) Japan is draconian about preventing mad cow disease. B) The owner was giving us all the choice parts of the cow. After that, plate after plate of meat was brought in, along with rice, soup, veggies...the table was completely crammed with dishes. Quite the satisfying meal. I may or may not have already mentioned that awhile ago I had eel innards, etc. Anyway, enough about crazy food.
I saw Kabuki about two weeks ago, which was a great experience. Since the performance was going to be some 5 hours long, with the longest break being 30 min, a bunch of us exchange students decided to grab something to eat (and drink, of course) beforehand. So after eating some maguro donburi (tuna and rice, basically) and downing my fair share of sake, I headed to the theatre with the gang. The kabuki was loooong. Certainly interesting and I'm quite glad I went and had the cultural experience and all that, but I was definitely nodding off during the final play, which was 2hrs. 15min. long. We were up in the nosebleed section, but so were a couple of old guys who probably about the only two in the theatre to shout the actors' house names at climatic points in the play (or really whenever it seemed.) This is an established practice, so they weren't being rude, rather they were adding to the Kabuki atmosphere. Those two guys just sounded cool, and made it more interesting, so they get a big thumbs up. After the play, all the exchange students were taken on a tour below the stage, which normally isn't done (ahh, the perks of being a foreigner), and that was really cool. The guy explained some of the special names given to stage parts. The platform that lifts the actors to stage level from underneath is called a 'snapping turtle' because when it stops the actors' heads bob up and down a bit, apparently like a snapping turlte. Another one of the areas was nicknamed 'hell' etc. I have some pictures of that, but I forgot my USB cable, and these computers don't have SD card slots, so it'll have to wait.
Happy Halloween!

Birthday fun part one

2006-10-22T23:56:00.000-05:00

Ahoy hoy,
So I definitely have two mid-terms and a speech this week, so how am I spending my time? By updating of course. This won't be quite so long however. I decided to get some folks together for a birthday shindig, and what I initially thought was going to be a smaller gathering quickly ballooned when word spread through my Japanese class. We ended up with a healthy majority of the 18 total students in the class, which made it all the more fun. We pretty much went with the standard course of action for 'going out' in Nagoya, which entails heading to Sakae, the party/entertainment/business hub of Nagoya, going to a pub of sorts (izakaya) and then heading to karaoke. We ended up hitting a place called Murasaki (which means purple...so remember that word Courtney!) and fittingly all the employee of the place are in purple garb. We had a good dozen or so people, and the thing about izakaya is that you order a bunch of little dishes and appetizers and pass them around the table. Everyone splits the evenly, no matter how much you ate/didn't eat, drank/didn't drink. I don't mind the sharing the bill thing, but I always leave these pubs still hungry. That whole passing the food idea is good in theory since you get to try a lot of different stuff, but it fails to satisfy my hunger...I really need a Snickers right now. The mixed drinks are super sweet, which is to my liking, but seriously doubt there is anything above a homeopathic level of alcohol in those things. I wouldn't have felt a thing if hadn't been for Aki who got down to business and ordered some sake. I have made this revelation...sake MUST be warm when you drink it. It seriously changes the flavor and how it feels going down. So Jason, Voss, you really ought to try that out if you haven't yet. I really can't stand the stuff cold, but it's decent when warm. Again, the whole bill sharing thing...I felt kind of bad because one of my classmates Sara(h) is vegetarian (hardcore, too, no cheese, etc.) so she hardly ate anything and still ended up paying close to equal that of everyone else...but that 's how it is done in Japan, plus my sympathy for vegetarians is somewhat lacking.
After that we headed to KaraokeJoyJoy, namely becuase that place is cheap, even when you do nomihoudai, which is a fun little practice where you get unlimited drinks during your time there. The only catch is the glass is kind of small and you have to go downstairs to the lobby desk to get alcholic drinks. But again, these didn't seem to pack much of a punch; they only served to satiate my sweet tooth. It is somewhat surprising to see what songs get into the books and which don't. For instance, they have the Power Rangers Theme Song, some stuff from West Side Story, even a song by Mest, but they lack Yellowcard and other bands that were relatively popular compared to some of the more obscure songs in there. I can't think of more examples now, but trust me.
After the karaoke we stopped at a local arcade to take purikura. It's basically a photo booth where you can add a bunch of crazy clip art and text to the photos afterward. I have no way of loading these up, although they turned out pretty crazy. I'll just have to show them to you when I get back...if I don't lose them, that is. They are tiny!!
Then on Sunday, my actual birthday, there was a small local festival. We gathered as a neighborhood and sported the ever fashionable happi festival jacket and made our way to a river bank where a group of guys were to fire off replica teppou, or old-style firearms. This group toured the entire town the whole day, firing off the teppou at various locations. So we watched that and then paraded around the neighborhood. Yugo got enlisted to help shake a rope with bells on it. The coupe de grace, though, was the float the kids had made. Normally the floats are little portable shinto shrines or whatnot, but the kids had made a float using an inflatable Stich, from Lilo and Stitch, all decked out in a Happi jacket. Of all the things to deify...only in Japan. After that, we crashed at the house until evening when a few family and friends came over for my birthday party. We had shabu shabu, a sweet cake that Shiho-san brought over. They sang happy birthday, with the requisite butchering of the 'th' sound. I got a slew of presents, ranging from crazy socks, to a photo guide of Japan, to a bunch of random candy...all in all a good, and extremely unexpected, haul of schtuff. I didn't expect such an elaborate party or the presents from Shiho-san, Tokiyo-san, etc, who I barely know. If there has been one thing I've been impressed/taken aback by, it is the level of kindness everyone has shown. Waaaay above and beyond the call of duty...err society.
Dave, the word for awesome that you are looking for is 'sugoi' It conjugates just like other adjectives that end in i (omoshiroi, kawaii, etc.)
Later

I've got sadou (tea ceremony) on the brain

2006-10-15T23:47:00.000-05:00

Hey all,
Okay, I apologize for the ugly picture layout, and again, I'm really bad in keeping this thing up to date, but I'll try to make up some time with this post. I had made plans to hang out with Aki (she is a student at Nanzan University who studied abroad at UW-Madison last year and lived in the same dorm as me) on Tuesday a couple weeks ago, but I had yet to make a bank account, which I needed to do in short order to receive one of the scholarships, and we didn't have any specific plans, so I asked if she wanted to accompany me while I opened a bank account. The epitome of fun, I know. Well, I tried to hit the bank beforehand, only to find out I had the wrong document from the ward office, and couldn't open an account. Awesome. So I met up with Aki, and fill her in, so we go back to my host family's place and then head to the ward office and get the proper form. More fun, I know. Anyway, my host family was having some friends and extended family over that night, and they invited Aki to stay for dinner. That ended up being a rollicking good time. And Aki, despite having a job interview the next day, was putting away her beer rather quickly, which prompted my host family to make many a joke.
But it was all good, because Aki got the job! So she held a party that next week on Wednesday, and we went to an izakaya, which is bar/restaurant where you order a bunch of small dishes and pass them around between everyone, while drinking of course. Then we hit karaoke, where I managed to find the old Power Rangers theme song. Apparently that song has verses, which I never recall hearing before, but when the chorus hit, I , along with Ken and Chris, rocked out hard.
But the weekend in between those two events was even more memorable. My host mom's friend is a tea ceremony sensei, and she was nice enough to bring me as a guest to a tea gathering at Atsuta Jingu (a famous shinto shrine that holds one of Japan's three national treasures) The weather was picture perfect, and the entire setting, from the old teahouses to almost everyone at the ceremony wearing kimono, screamed 'Japan.'
We participated in three separate tea ceremonies, and this gathering was apparently part of a larger project to conduct 400 tea ceremonies in 100 days. This tour o' tea started at four different points in Japan and the four paths are converging on Kyoto where they'll hold the final gathering of the 'relay.'
The entire experience was rather surreal, and save for the cameras and cell phone, it could have been couple centuries ago. I have developed quite a liking for matcha, which is the type of green tea served at ceremonies. But before the tea, they serve little Japanese candies, which are almost always as pretty as they are delicious. Everything, every motion is predetermined, from how you enter, to how you receive the candy and tea. You rotate the bowl twice before drinking, and there is a specific way to fold the paper after you eat the candy (so as to not spill crumbs). Oh, and you are supposed to sit in seiza style (see picture), which after awhile cuts off the circulation to your legs. After the third ceremony, I couldn't feel my legs, and had to wait a bit before I could stand. Also, that night I noticed my leg was a little swollen. There is much more but it would take a while to explain.
Probably the most interesting thing I found out was that the entrance to the teahouse was purposely made extremely small so that samurai would have to disarm in order to fit. Without their sword, and thus their rank, they were equals with everyone else when taking tea.
Immediately after that I went to a musical my host Aunt (she's a dancer) invited me to. It was a kid's musical, and one of her friends was in it, so we had free tickets. The muscial was to commemorate the world expo that was held in Nagoya last year, and featured the two furry mascots of the expo helping a group of four kids who were lost in a forest.
The weekend after that, I got to attend another muscial, in lieu of another foreign exchange student who fell ill. Roughly translated, it was titled 'A Dream Borne from a Dream' It was sensory overload. Outside the theatre there was a 'pre-show,' which consisted of a bunch of costumed people freaking out kids and making photo opps. The actual musical was pretty interesting, and easier to understand than I had expected. Probably due to the fact that since it was a musical, they pronounced the hell out of every word.
After the musical we headed to dinner, and stumbled upon Hard Rock Cafe-Nagoya. The food was pretty similar to the U.S. (although apparently the mashed potatoes were instant) but the memorabilia was understandably not as impressive as in the U.S. The prices seemd expensive at first, but taking into account the fact that tax is included in the price, and that you don't have to tip in Japan, it ended up being cheaper than the U.S. Go figure!
In general, life is going well, although I was out this past weekend with a sore throat/fever/cold sort of thing that is still pestering me. I had my mid-term for Japanese class today, which I think went decently despite the illness. Anyway, to repsond to a few of the comments people made. Stevo, yes, I have had sake, there will be pictures on the next post when I detail my birthday weekend. Busha and Sami, as far as nightlife goes, it is pretty much the same formula as Aki's party, go somewhere to eat and drink, then go to karaoke and drink some more. Again, more details will be in the birthday post. Aaron, PLEASE let me know of any places I should check out. Where exactly were you stationed? And it would be awesome if you were able to make the trip (just let me know in advance). Voss, I realize you get the Wii in America before Japan, and I hate you for it. Finally, thanks to everyone for their support and the kind birthday wishes left on my facebook wall, they are much appreciated!!!!

Disorganized Rambling

2006-09-29T00:26:00.001-05:00

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

2006-09-22T00:43:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-14T23:43:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-09-12T00:39:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-09-11T02:56:00.000-05:00

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

2006-09-02T11:41:00.000-05:00

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.