~Atashi no Nippon Bouken~ My Japanese Adventure

I'm home!

2007-05-31T04:19:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I know it's been several days since I made a post, but i've been recovering from jet lag and such and been too busy. But here I am, and here I will remain, I guess, back in the good ol' US of A.

On Saturday I ended up going with Okaasan and Mayu to the Animate in Kyobashi, where I made my last anime purchase and bought two posters. I had wanted to get Mayu a going-away present, but she couldn't find anything in Animate that she liked, so I didn't. Then we at lunch at a local "sakana-ryori" (fish) restaurant, my last really good meal in Japan. Actually quite a lot of food in many small dishes. After that, we parted ways because they were going to see a movie but I had not yet begun to pack AT ALL, so I really needed to get home.

But, instead of going home, I took the train FOR THE LAST TIME (how sad), and went back to Hirakata eki. I still was determined to get Mayu-chan a present, along with more presents for my sisters. I also wanted to get rid of the last remaining yen I had. So I went to Vivre, and picked out a few small things. But I still couldn't find the perfect thing for Mayu, so I went back to hirakata eki. Truth was, that morning in Animate she had been looking for an anime CD, but it turns out they didn't have it in stock. So, I went to Tsutaya, the local book/CD/manga store, and even though they are NOT an anime store, they are a larger store so they have more things in stock. Turns out, they had this CD, so I spent the absolute last bit of my yen on it, such that I only had about 500 yen left. But I felt good knowing I had bought something that I was absolutely sure that she would like. Plus, it was a song from the show that we had watched together (Rozen Maiden), so it would also be an appropriate gift from me.

Then home to pack! I was a little scared that all the stuff I had bought would not fit into my two suitcases. But once I unwrapped things and threw out boxes, packages and bags, it managed to fit. It probably helped that I shipped out a small box full of things on Friday morning (which cost an arm and leg and they only accepted cash). But I managed to be packed by the evening, and then I vaccumed and dusted my room. Our last dinner was Okaasan's curry, which I like very much. Then I watched the last episode of anime that I would watch with Mayu, which happened to be an episode of Kamichama Karin. Okaasan also asked a few last minute questions about the cookbook that Mom had sent her, because it was in English. I tried my best, but I don't even understand myself about cooking even in English, so I couldn't explain things to her adequately. Then, off to bed, for a big day.

I got up at 4:45 AM, and brought my suitcases downstairs. Poor otousan tried to bring down my largest one, which was extremely heavy. Poor man is smaller than me, and there was no way he could have carried that thing. But they helped me carry them to the car. On the way to the drop -off point, the car passed through some of the narrowest roads I've ever seen, which is saying quite alot. There's one thing I won't miss about Japan, the narrow roads and dangerous traffic conditions. Then we reached the parking lot where the airport bus comes to pick you up. But, there was a problem: there were too many people already lined up! The ticket man said that there would be no more room for luggage in the undercarriage, so i would have to have it beside me inside the bus. I thought this was going to be impossible since my luggage was so big, but otousan and okaasan carried my luggage for me all the way to the back of the bus, which was a sight to see. My okaasan is a very petite woman, and to see her struggle even with the lighter of my two suitcases was pitiful. I wanted to help, but the aisle was too narrow and only one person could make it down. In the end, there was a compartment at the very end of the bus with one seat that had more room around it for luggage. So that's where it all went.

I bid a quick goodbye to otousan and okaasan and a quick handshake, but it was a hassled, hurried goodbye and not as I would have liked it to be. The stress of getting the luggage on the bus and making sure I would be ok was probably what made it that way. But they waved at me inside the bus and I waved at them as they left the parking lot. Goodbye!

I managed to stay awake until we hit the airport. Thankfully the bell boy came onto the bus and helped me get the luggage out, since i never would have been able to do it by myself. Then I immediately grabbed a baggage cart, and i was ok on my own. I found the Northwest check in point, but after 20 mins of waiting in line, I found out that they weren't checking in my flight yet, and I had to wait two hours! So I mangaged to find a place that I could sit out of the way with my huge baggage cart next to me. Turns out that the airport had free wireless, so i brought out my laptop and used that for a while to make the time pass faster.

Finally I was able to check in for my flight around 10. I go up there and the first thing the lady tells me is that my big bag is overweight. Overweight! I knew this might happen, since i felt that it was much heavier than when I came to Japan. I had to pay an extra charge for it, which was $25. Let's see, I had about 500 in yen, and $20 saved from my flight on the way to Japan. Not enough. How about....the credit card? Yes! Finally, the credit card i was given by my parents becomes useful. I wasn't able to use it in Japan to buy anything, or even to pay for shipping at the post office, but I was able to use it to pay for an overweight fee at the airport. Allright.

At that exact time I met up with Haley, who incidentally also had to pay an overweight fee, but she paid in yen because she had sooo much yen b/c of her scholarship. Now luggage-free, we found our gate then walked around. I tried to get rid of the last of my yen by buying some takoyaki (octopus balls) at the food stand, and then a few other things because they were also able to accept American dollars (but the change was in yen, which messed up my whole plan to get rid of all my yen!). So I ended up having about 50 yen left. Oh well, I mostly used it all up.

Plane ride itself was fine. I actually slept quite alot, and watched the movie Happy Feet. I was sitting next to a Taiwanese woman, since the plane originated in Taipei, Taiwan. I tried speaking Japanese to her at first, and she was like, "I'm sorry, I don't understand English" and I stopped trying after that. Haley moved into the empty seat next to me after a while, and I read the Newtype Romance she had.

Finally, we hit Detroit in America. Going through customs was a pain in the butt. It was such a change from the polite Japanese way, where they bow at you and request your cooperation very nicely. You hit America, and you have people yelling at you to have your passport out and to take off your shoes and laptops when you go through detectors. It was somewhat of a rude awakening. I missed Japan already at this point.

We picked up our luggage to get it through customs. I saw that my big bag had been opened, but nothing taken. Then I put it through inspection (it wasn't inspected at all), and then handed it off to some other officials. This was the last time I saw it (ooh foreshadowing).

So then we met up with Haley's mom by some weird coincidence, she was taking Haley's brother home from a national Odyssey of the Mind competition. So, Haley was already having a family reunion of sorts, as well as meeting up with many people from her hometown. I sat at the very back of the plane next to a stranger, and slept most of the way. Then, we were at the final stop: Portland, ME.

Haley's whole family, even grandparents, came to get her. Mom came to get me. Yay. Plus I was tired and in a bad mood and not wanting to come home. Then, guess what happened. That's right - my luggage never showed up. I was the last one waiting after the carousel stopped. I was sooo angry, and then when I went to see the lady, I found out that my bags had stopped in Detroit. They didnt' get on the plane to Maine with me. Why?? Why had Haley gotten her bags, and I didn't? We did everything in the exact same way, so i still have no idea what happened. Anyways, the lady said that as soon as they found the bags, they would ship them to my house. Grr...

So, I had no clothes and no presents for anybody as I went home. Mom asked Granny to bring over some of her clothes, as Mom's and Sara's wouldnt' fit me. They all came over that night and had dinner, and even though I was dead tired I stayed awake and talked. Then Sara comes in and immediately says, "Let's go see Pirates!"

In the end, I did go see Pirates of the Carribean 3, and got home around 1:30ish, and went to sleep at 2 AM ish, the longest Sunday of my life (about 34 hrs straight awake). Yikes.

Since then, I've been taking care of business that needs to be taken care of before i go to Colby. My luggage FINALLY got here late last night, so I've got some clothes to wear. I went and saw Spiderman 3 with my father last night as well. Recovering from jetlag pretty nicely I think, but I am still really tired. My computer is nice to come home to as well.

Well that's all for now, hopefully i will be posting more Japan-related entries as I continue to put up things that I never had time to write when I was there. I do miss Japan already, though, and do want to go back someday.

Until next time~

Don't forget to leave comments and tags, plz.

Only Two Days Left!

2007-05-25T10:32:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Well, today is Friday and I'm leaving on Sunday. There's only two days left in Japan. I can't believe it!

Today we are going to Kyoto for the last time. Ryan(friend from Colby) is up visiting us from his program in Nagasaki and we'll show him around. But its raining, its already late in the day, so I don't expect to hit up more than one temple (probably Fushimi Inari). And we'll have our last ramen and karaoke at Kyoto Eki.

Tomorrow Okaasan wants to go to a museum & movie & shopping, so that'll be a full day. I'm just worried because i haven't really packed yet! That's not good...today i'm going to try and ship something out but its pretty small.

So, let's continue from where I left off yeseterday:
Things I will miss about Japan:

5. The clean, fast bus system. You can always count on them. As a matter of fact, all the safe, fast transportation here. Its great!
6. Conbinis. That is to say, convenience stores. There are so many here, and they all are cheap with lots of stuff. There's a conbini store culture here, where people can live off these stores. You can do it, I've done it.
7. Japanese TV. It is just too much. The absolute trashiness of it somehow becomes attractive after watching it for a while. But there's only so much I can take of celebrities sampling local dishes and saying "Oishii!" or talking about current events or participating in stupid contests and making fools of themselves (because those three things alone comprise approximately 73% of all Japanese TV). And of course there's the J-doramas, the news, and then educational programs and anime. That's about it.
8. Anime culture, of course. It will just be sad to leave a place where many many people like the same stuff I do, and where its really easy to watch anime or to get anime-related goods. Thats one thing I will miss very much.
9. Being less than an hour away from interesting sights and interesting things to do. I've never lived this close to a big city where there is lots of stuff to do. I mean, Colby is in the middle of NOWHERE and Glastonbury is not that much better. I will definitely miss that.
10. Prettiness. Japan is pretty. It is full of pretty things, and it is kept very clean. They all recycle to a degree that Americans do not understand, and the janitors here are very serious about thier work. Policemen and bus drivers wear white gloves, and of course many people wear the surgical masks. It is just so clean here, it will be hard to adjust to American again.

Well folks, thats it for now. I don't anticipate having time to update again before I leave on Sunday, so - here's Kim, signing off from Japan. I'll catch you on the flip side!

As always, comments are appreciated.

PS - Please do keep checking this blog, as when I return to America I will continue to make posts and pictures that I didnt have time to before. Check it out!

Thanks for your patronage this semester!

Mid-Week

2007-05-24T15:15:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Well I thought I was going to be able to update on Tuesday, but that didn't come to pass as I was not feeling so well and thus didn't go to school. But on Wednesday I felt better and went to Denden Town with Haley and Shin.

First Shin wanted to take some pictures so we went to those PuriKura machines (read: those mechanical booths where you walk in and get pictures taken with people) at an arcade. Man, those things are LIGHTYEARS beyond what we have in America. Everything works with touch computer screens. First, you put in 400 yen (bout $3.50), then you can scan in a background if you have something special in mind. If you don't, you get to choose 6 backgrounds/picture styles (like french fries, Pocky, circus, teddy bears, etc) and that's all BEFORE you go into the booth. Then you go in, and you get only one try for each of the backgrounds and then choose the ones that you like the most. Then you go back out to another booth where you get to edit the images as you see fit. With the stylus you can draw on the images in a variety of colors and styles, you can put preselected sayings in Japanese (like, "Friends Forever!" type thing) or a date stamp. You can add sparklies in many varieties, and little icons of hearts or bears or food or anything, really. It is just amazing. The machine gives you about 5 mins to do this, and then you can choose how many and what size pictures you want to print out. Then it prints them, and there's a little table with scissors for you to cut them up with. Truly spectacular.

After we did that, Haley and I decided to visit DenDen Town for the last time *sniff* . Shin came with us, but only for an hour or so because she had alot of stuff to do before leaving for Taiwan (lucky girl! From Japan, an all-expense paid trip to Taiwain for three days is in the range of $300. So cheap!) so we said our goodbyes.

To make a long story short, Haley and I accomplished all our goals for Denden Town. We found the stores we wanted and bought what we wanted (thanks to a last minute money transfer from Dad, I was able to go out and buy something that I really wanted). So, we were both happy.

Now here's the short story made long:

~~~~~~Begin Otaku-speak~~~~~~~

Ok so for my last time in Denden town, I wanted no regrets! We started with a figure store, the one the Death Note had been in last time. I FINALLY caved in and bought a Giroro keychain. I looked at the big Miina figurine, but of course it was 4500 yen.

Here's a picture:

Of course it looks JUST LIKE the one that Densha Otoko had, so I wanted it but that's just too expensive. So I settled on getting the small Gashapon version. Still looks good ( I hope).

So, then we saw the famous MANDARAKE store (we visited its biggest outlet in Akihabara, of which this one was just a mere shadow). I have never seen such narrow aisles in my life. BUT! It was in this store that I saw the Athrun figure that I have been wanting for nearly two years. It was the going for the cheapest that I've ever seen in Mandarake, probably because its a figure of a guy and not many guys will buy those. It was priced at about $16.50, which is SUCH A DEAL because I've seen it for $40 + shipping on Ebay. Even in all the other stores in Denden town it was at least ten dollars more expensive. So, I went ahead and got it, and now I have it, yay! Definitely my best purchase of the day, and maybe in Japan (but plastic ramen, i mean come on...).

AFter that we stopped by Osaka Gundams (yes, a store devoted entirely to Gundams)which was AWESOME. They had a 6 ft Gundam model right in the middle of the store, and one the second level they had made it to look like a giant Gundam hand was crashing thru the wall. Too bad you coudlnt' take pictures, because it was SOO COOL.
So I must have had amazing luck that day, because you could get pencil boards with Gundam characters on them, but they were all wrapped up so you couldn't tell which one you were getting. I really wanted a certain two of them, so I picked at random and, guess what! I GOT THEM! Even the super rare one that I wanted, I got! Fortune must have been smiling on me that day. (But not Haley. Even when I picked for her when she was buying KKM plushies, she still got Conrad. Too bad). Ha HA ha .

Then we went to a doujin shop that I hadn't been to before, and it was like...omg so big with so much stuff. I got Haley to buy her first doujin! And of course I bought some too....And on the CD floor there was a CD of Chemistry's song that was used for the last GSD opening theme, so I got that too. Then, on to Animate!

Animate was, and still is, the best anime store around. I got a Haruhi mousepad and John's present (John, your souvenir will be three-fold). Then we went to the CD floor and of course, guess what day it happened to be? That's right, the hatsubai (opening day) of the Motteke! Sera Fuku~ CD! (Lucky Star op). They were blasting it all thru the store and even on the same floor from different locations, while of course still replaying the OP on a small TV in front of the counter. Simply amazing. Well, I decided to do my part and parcel to make it #1 on the Oricon chart, so I went ahead and bought it. That felt good! Oricon #1 wo Mezase!

So then, we left Animate and wandered around, looking at the cosplay shop for the last time, and the figure shop that had the Kyon figure that I desperately wanted. We found it! And both Haley and I wanted it, so I finally did something good and bought it for Haley as a birthday present, since when it was her birthday I didn't have enough money to get her one. So that was great and now we have a matching set of chibi Kyons. Can life GET any better?

Finaly we found this figure shop that Haley was wanting to find, and she bought an L plushie that i pointed out to her and I got something else for John. Then we bid a tearful farewell to Denden town *sniff* Gooodbye~~~~~

~~~~~~End Otaku-speak~~~~~~~

But getting home sure was a bother. We were both so tired that we must have been spacing out because we missed our stop and had to ride the Osaka Loop around again. Darn! As a result, we were late for dinner. This was the night I told Okaasan that I would bring Haley over for dinner, and we were late. Not a good thing. But Okaasan didn't seem angry. She had made mochi for dinner, so we ate mochi for dinner. All kinds - cheese mochi, soysauce + seaweed mochi, adzuki mochi, and daifuku! And then she helped Haley put on one of her kimonos and we took pictures. Then Haley left and Mayu-chan and I watched Rozen Maiden. Yup.

So I'm kina hurrying cause I gotta go soon, but tomorrow Ryan (friend from Colby) is gonna visit us on our last day! So we decided that Kyoto is a good place to show him around and for us to end our Japan semester on a very Japan-like note. In Kyoto we will go see two temples that we've been wanting to see, probably eat ramen, and do karaoke. My last excursion in Japan~\

Probably on Saturday I will spend most of hte day with my host family and make sure I am packed. Then it's the long plane flight on Monday. Too soon, too soon.

Things I will miss about Japan:
1. Being able to leave your stuff anytime, anywhere without fear of people touching it (I seriously left my computer and backpack sitting in the lounge for hours and no one disturbed it at all)
2. Ramen.
3. Being bowed to by people and made to feel like you are really important when buying something at a store.
4. Being called "Ojousama" by a policeman (!)

More to come.

I will update at least once more, stay tuned!

As always, comments are appreciated

Weekend, Last Week here!

2007-05-21T19:19:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Well I'll make this a short post, since tomorrow's will be longer. This weekend was the graduation ceremony. Everyone walked up on to the stage, got their little diploma holders (the diploma wasn't even inside them) and there were some hackneyed speeches about how important this experience will be to the rest of our lives, a song by the a capella group (Sam was in it!) and that was about it. Oh, and the food. In fact, my host family only came for the food. You see, I thought we were going to go to the ceremony together, which is why when they said they were leaving at a certain time, I made sure I was ready by that time. Only later I found out that if I left at that time, then I would miss half the ceremony and only get there in time for the food, which is what they were planning to do. But by the time I realized this, it was too late. So I missed half the ceremony, but only the boring roll-call part, so it was ok. But stil...

All that put aside, the food was certainly worth it, some of the best I've had in Japan. After we finished eating, my host family left and I went to the lounge to hang out with Haley and Shin. We changed out of our formal clothes (the dress code was formal, which ran the gamut from dresses to kimonos to turbans to monk outfits) and just chilled for a while, waiting. This is because Haley and I were invited to Kim's (yes, there were FIVE Kims beside me) birthday party, which happened to be at a karaoke place. This other Kim and I are hardly the best of frends, but hey, an all night karaoke party? Who can pass that up?

So, Haley and I met up with everyone at the station and had a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant, at which I didn't order anything cause I'm running out of money. Then we went to the place, called Jumbo Karaoke. We got a really big room for 15 people (cause that's how many we were) and started singing! Of course, I immediately brought out the sheet i had prepared beforehand of karaoke songs and began ordering them up.

I sang all anime songs, of course, which a surprising number of people knew. I'm not used to people being anime fans. But poor Kim must have felt out of the loop because she doesn't watch anime at all. But I stayed all night! Till my voice was dead and gone.

I think though, that people who talk while other people are singing are being rude, and also people who have bad voices that sing (unwanted) with other people are also being rude. I was doing this really cool song when someone who couldnt' sing a tune had to join in and mess me all up. I hate that. But yeah, other than that it was cool. I can say I've done an all nighter.

Unfortunatley, during that night Sam had to leave. It was a sad goodbye, but I know I'll see here soon, being as she lives in my hometown.

Today I went to to the Touji flea market, but seeing as they're about to kick me out of the computer lab, I'll update you on that tomorrow.

Tata for now!

As always, comments are appreciated.

Well, I'm done

2007-05-16T11:16:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I just finished my last exam. Phew! They went well for the most part; I'm expecting As and Bs. I have been running on adrenaline for the past three days, so I really am wanting to sleep now. The plans for my last week in Japan are pretty much filled, so that's good. Graduation ceremony is on Saturday.

I think that'll be all for now, as I'm too tired to write more.

Jaa ne~

I should make a post

2007-05-11T14:33:00.000+09:00

Because it's been a couple days since the last one, I guess.

Well, both my papers have been handed in, for better or for worse. As for the Art final paper, I switched topics just last week with the professor's approval. I'm really bad at analyzing pieces of art - I guess I'm just not imaginative enough. I see a painting, I can tell you about the colors and the subject and technique, but that's it. I really dont' like to speculate on what the artist was trying to show or to represent. To me, it's just futile because we'll never know. So, even though I had a painting picked out and I went to a museum in order to see it, I just wasnt' very excited at the prospect of analyzing it. So instead, I chose to "analyze" some frames of anime. Its a bit unorthodox, but I could talk alot about it without have to speculate on the meaning of the piece, because I know exactly for what purpose it was made. I hope the professor likes it.

In other news - not much happening here other than classes are ending, people are studying, and the semester in general is wrapping up. This weekend will be straight studying because all my finals are next week, with the dreaded Reading & Writing coming up first. Must..memorize...500 kanji words....

Policemen definitely saluted at me and said hello. It was cool, even though I know its their job. Also, I heard the Japanese national anthem emanating from the police academy. It's actually a really beautiful song, slow and stirring and full of minor harmonies. It's a better piece of music than our national anthem. I bet its easier to sing too.

Last night Okaasan saw a funny program on the TV guide and taped it so we could all watch it together. It was about gaijin otaku (foreign anime fans). They showed them competing in a contest to prove who was the ultimate otaku. It was, to me, really really funny. As much of an anime fan as I am, these guys were on a different level. They by far equal or exceed the level of the Japanese otaku. It was so amazing and yet sad at the same time. They all have to live in Japan to be that otaku-y. They knew intimate details about which stores were where in Akiba.

So, that's about it. I will not have fun this weekend, because I will be studying. I will update you all later about finals time.

Till next time~

Après-Golden Week

2007-05-07T16:39:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Well, Golden Week is officially over. I'd have to say that I spent 99% of it doing absolutely nothing, which is ok cause that was my goal, pretty much. There were primarily two events: the Saturday of Haley's birthday, and the following Friday when I went out with Sam and friends to karaoke.

Saturday was really great! It was Haley, Sam, Kate and I, and we partyed it up real nice. By that, I mean we spent the whole day in DenDen town, looking at/ buying anime goods. Both Haley and Sam were looking for games for their new DS's, and similarly I had a mission to buy the new Naruto op single. We managed to accomplish all that, through getting lost, occasional rain storms and losing members of our party. Most amusing was the entire floor full of Gashapon machines, in which all but I gambled copious amounts of money on (I've had too many bad experiences). Case in point: the Sailor Moon one ate Haley's 100 yen, and the Full Metal Alchemist one kept spitting out Roy Mustangs at Sam (which was rather hilarious. I think she got like, six of him. She wanted to get rid of them, so she gave me one).

PS- for all those in the dark, Gashapon machines are like bubblegum machines, except instead of bubblegum, they sell tiny figures of almost anything you can imagine, from tiny plastic food to cell phone charms (but mostly anime related). There are so many of these things that I just can't describe. Especially in DenDen town, where they are in every anime goods store. Here, I'll let Wikipedia say it more eloquently:

"Gashapon (ガシャポン or sometimes ガチャポン in katakana), also referred to as "capsule toy", is a Japanese onomatopoeia, made up of two sounds: "gacha" for the turning of a crank on a toy vending machine, and "pon" for the sound of the toy capsule dropping into the receptacle. It is used to describe both the machines themselves, and any toy obtained from them.

Gashapon machines are similar to the coin-op toy vending machines seen outside of grocery stores and other retailers in the United States. While coin-op vending toys are usually cheap, low-quality products, sold for a quarter or 50 cents, Japanese Gashapon can cost anywhere from 100 - 500 yen (Equal to $1–$5 US) and are normally a much higher quality product.

They are often constructed from high-grade PVC plastic, and contain more molding detail and carefully painted features. However, these are not simply toys: they are collector's items, with rare ones fetching extremely high prices.

Gashapon toys are often based on popular character licenses from Japanese manga, video games, anime, popular icons and few American entertainment inspire toys. These highly detailed toys based on popular culture icons have found a large following among adults in Japan, and the trend is filtering to the West with other popular culture influences such as anime and manga. It is not at all uncommon to see sets based on licenses explicitly for adults, with figures of naked or near-naked women."
-Wikipedia.org

Tis true, we saw a "bondage" Gashapon machine, which was completely empty but the illlustrations on it made perfectly clear what kind of gashapon it was. I tend to stay away from Gashapons because they are incredibly addictive and costly. You could just keep pumping in 100 yen, saying, "Oh this time I'll get the one I want" but you never do. It's a trick, I tell you! It's far better to buy the complete set of figurines at an anime store and spend a bit more money, but get the one you want. Example: Haley's been trying to get the Kyon figure out of the Haruhi Gashapon machine near her home. She's tried at least more than five times, which means she's spent probably at least 1000 yen. However, when we were in DenDen town we saw the Kyon figure sold separately for 980 yen, which of course is a better price. But, of course she might have plans for her unwanted figures - perhaps to give them away as gifts. But anyways, you get my point. DON'T USE GASHAPONS!

Anyways, we went into tons of stores in DenDen town, including a cosplay store, where they sell anime costumes. I wanted the Naruto jacket sooo bad, but of course it has to be like $115, way way out of my price range. Seriously, they make these things for cheap and sell them for waay more than they're worth. Finally we ended up at Animate, the store we found in Akiba, and I bought a good deal of merchandise, three folders and one pencil. And! I found the Naruto CD and bought it, yay!!! Mission complete!

(Oh, I forgot to mention that we found a real Death Note being sold (just after I mentioned that I bet they sold them, and how much I would like to buy one). After I saw it, I figured it wasn't worth it (just a black notebook with some fancy writing on the front), but! What a great opportunity to take pictures! So Sam took a pic of Haley and I with the Death Note, and it came out AWESOME, I can't wait to post it here).

But the day was not yet complete, because we needed to find the cake buffet restaurant (keeki baikin). My Okaasan had drawn a quick map for me, but unfortunately it was a bit...inaccurate. Because of this, I had to rely on my instincts from having visited there previously, and we asked some storekeepers. Finally, we found it! Called SweetS Paradise, this place lets you eat all you want for 90 minutes for 1200 yen. They not only had cake, but dinner foods like curry and spaghetti as well. The thing is...of course the cakes weren't that good. Plus, they seemed to be all jello-type consistency, which is the type I hate most. Because of this, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought, but that's ok. It was Haley's birthday, and she enjoyed it so that's great. We sang Happy Birthday for her too.

After that, we started heading back towards the station. Let me tell you, that place, Shinbashi, is really something at night. It's all lit up like Times Square, with huge ads and TV screens blasting stuff, and so many people. I saw what was probably the biggest movie poster I've ever seen in my life on the side of a building, advertising for Spiderman 3 (which I want to see omg). But seriously, it was awesome-looking.

Back in Hirakata, we went to that karaoke place that I went with Sam and Haley before, soley for the reason that we had membership cards and wanted to use them. And so, we proceeded to do three hours of karaoke. Of course, it was fun. Then we disbanded, as people needed to get home.

I did nothing on Sunday and Monday, and went to school on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday night I went over to Haley's house, and just relaxed on Thursday. Highlights of being at Haley's house - comfortable futon, Internet access, big beautiful TV, and good food. Who wouldn't want to be there?

Then, Friday I met up with Sam, Jake & speaking partner (Haley wasn't feeling so well) and we did, guess what, more karaoke! This time, Five hours worth! (a deal, it was cheap). I met Sam's speaking partner and her friend, Sasori and Eri. We had fun! I think there is no activity with friends that is more suitable for me than karaoke in Japan. I like to sing Japanese songs....it's really perfect. Everyone complimented me on both my singing voice and knowledge of Japanese songs. Of course, they had good voices too (I've been singing for a long time with Sam, so I was able to do some harmony with her). And Jakes' got a good voice for doing Frank Sinatra and Johnny Cash.

AFter that, dinner and then back home. I did absolutely nothing on Saturday and Sunday. And now I'm facing two papers due on Wednesday. I'd better get crackin'. Talk to yous later!

As always, plz leave comments/tags.

Golden Week!

2007-04-27T18:03:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Yup I'm still still here. Had a rough week with many tests, but they went reaaonably well. Here's the scoop!

As for my camera, it's irretrievably lost, and I'm not going to be upset about it anymore. As for my computer, I'm mildly upset but I know I can get it working again eventually and the data is not lost. But, one more piece of technology failed on me that I absolutely can't stand....my contacts!

It seems that even precisely manufactured cups of plastic don't like to associate with me. After TWO DAYS with my brand new pair of 3-month contacts, my left eye one became caught in the lid of my contact lens and ripped. There's a nice hole right smack in the middle of it, and I cannot wear it at all. This means I will have to wear glasses for the rest of my time here, and probably for the next three months. Words cannot express my frustration.

On a lighter note, I will describe the Shana movie escapade that we had on Monday. After a half hour of wandering around the station, Haley and I finally went into a hotel to ask directions to the cinema. Due to the super duper map of the area that hotels usually have, we found it no problem. I picked a showing in the middle of the afternoon, so only people around our age ( and some old men) showed up. It was kinda cool, to be among the real otaku!
Well, after munching on some stale unbuttered popcorn, we entered the theater (in a very orderly manner, according to the order in which tickets were purchased). Again, it was a small screen.

The movie was mostly recap, but it was nice to see Shana on the big screen. With that ticket, which cost 1500 yen, we also got to see two other half hour anime movies. One of them was so funny, omg! It was Inukami the movie, and it was so undescribably funny that I won't even try. Suffice to say that I enjoyed it.

As we left, we stopped by a game center and played DDR. Surprisingly, there are not many DDR games left here, it has gone out of style. Instead, the Taiko game is really big right now, so we played that. You have to hit a drum in time to the music, its rather fun. Then we left!

Enough of that. Other than tests, there is not alot of stuff going on. Some news not related to Japan: I've got a job at college this summer, so I'll be staying at college for most of the summer. Also, during room draw I had my friend Kristen pick for me and she got me the biggest female single on campus! How about that?

Well, you may be asking, "What does the title of this post mean?"
I'll tell you- Golden Week is a (nearly) week-long holiday almost equivalent to the stretch of days between Christmas and New Years that alot of people have off. It is like and yet unlike to April Vacation, seeing as it occurs in the beginning of May and is a series of national holidays, not school vacation. And, it's about to start!

I'll let Wikipedia do the explaining for me:

"The National Holiday Laws, promulgated in July 1948, declared nine official holidays. Since many were concentrated in a week spanning the end of April to early May, many leisure-based industries experienced spikes in their revenues. The film industry was no exception. In 1951, the film "Jiyu Gakkou" recorded higher ticket sales during this holiday filled week than any other time in the year (including New Year's and Obon.) This prompted the managing director of Daiei Films to dub the week "Golden Week" based on the Japanese radio lingo “golden time” which denotes the period with the highest listener ratings.[1]

Many Japanese take paid time off on the intervening work days, but some companies also close down completely and give their employees time off. The longest vacation period of the year for most Japanese jobs, Golden Week is an extremely popular time to travel. Flights, trains, and hotels are often fully booked despite significantly higher rates at this time. Even some foreign destinations (such as Asian Countries, Guam, Saipan, Hawaii, and cities on the U.S. west coast such as Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco) are affected during this season by large numbers of Japanese tourists."
-Wikipedia.com

Yes, Japanese people do actually say "Goruden Ueeku" (Golden Week) when they talk about this vacation time. Here's the holidays of which it is comprised:
April 29
Shōwa Day (昭和の日, the Emperor Show's Birthday)
May 3
Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日)
May 4
Nature Day (みどりの日)
May 5
Children's Day (こどもの日) also known as Boys' Day (端午の節句)

Since April 29th is a Sunday this year, Showa Day gets observed on Monday. Which leaves Tuesday and Wednesday as "normal days" when schools and businesses operate, only to be closed again on Thursday and Friday.....huh?

I find this schedule to be ridiculous in the extreme! I mean, who is going to come to school or go to work for only TWO DAYS during a week that's mostly holidays and prime vacation time! I mean come on, why not invent some special meaning for the other two days and give them off too. They did it for "Nature Day" because it was sandwiched inbetween Constitution Day and Boy's Day and therefore according to the law, had to be made into a holiday. From the Wikipedia article and from what I understand from talking to people, I think most companies do just that and make it into a full week of vacation.

Here's a side note on Japanese vacation holidays:
Apparently, in 2000 they implemented a holiday date change called "the Happy Monday System (ハッピーマンデー制度)" (yes that's right, Happi Manday Shistemu) which moved a number of national holidays to Monday in order to have a long weekend. In America, that is a matter of course! What took the Japanese so long, I wonder.

The very fact that it is prime vacation time is the reason that I am not going to go anywhere. Plus the facts that I have no money left and finals are rapidly approaching, along with the myriad papers and whatnot that must be completed before that time. Therefore, I intend to stay close to home during Golden Week. Perhaps I'll go stay at Haley's for a couple of days to watch their big screen TV.

Speaking of Haley...tomorrow is her 21st birthday! To celebrate, we are going to DenDen Town tomorrow ( place where they sell all electronics/anime/video games in Osaka). We will also visit a keeki baikin (All you can eat cake restaurant) and at the end of the day, go karaoke-ing! Personally, I wish it was MY birthday. You can't ask for a better birthday than that!

Maybe on Sunday I will go to an event in Intex Osaka that is for "Akiba-kei" (anime geeks) and maybe I won't, cause I don't really know what's there. Perhaps I'll go to that manga museum in Kyoto...I don't know. My plans are very vague at this point, the only thing certain is Haley's b-day plans tomorrow.

Well, that's all for now, I'll make another post as events warrant.

Leave comments, tags plz!

Post!

2007-04-23T17:30:00.000+09:00

Hey folks,

Well, here's another quick update. Just to let you all know how I'm doing.

Unfortunately, this update has some bad news. As mentioned before, I lost my camera on the train. I simply do not know what happened to it; it's as if it disappeared from the inside of my backpack. And it was such a nice and expensive camera too. This means, no more pictures or videos for the rest of the semester. Ugh..

And if that wasn't enough, my secondhand laptop chose this time to break. It's as if something is slowly exiling me from all electronics...the laptop slid out of my lap (not very far) and the power jack in it got bent. Now it won't charge at all, and to preserve it's precious amount of remaining batter power I have turned it off. I won't use it for the rest of the semester. At least the data's ok - it contains all the pictures I took this semester BEFORE my camera was lost!

So I'm sans pictures and sans computer. It may be no surprise that I will probably not update too often now. But I will sure as heck try to do a little more than I've been doing.

Interesting things in the past/future that I have not yet mentioned:

1. Last week there was an EARTHQUAKE! I was at Haley's homestay house, still in bed about about noon last Sunday. All the sudden, I head this sound like someon turned on the washing machine. But it kept getting louder and my bed sharted shaking! I kid you not, it felt as if someone was shaking my bed.The whole house seemed to be moving. It was totally unreal - to someone who's never experienced an earthquake before, this was unbelievable. To have the very ground undearneth you start moving is an unsettling experience. It only lasted probably thiry seconds. Then Haley and I talked to each other about it, and I looked it up on the internet. Here's the info:

Magnitude
5.4
Date-Time
Sunday, April 15, 2007 at 03:19:30 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time
Sunday, April 15, 2007 at 12:19:30 PM local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location
34.78N 136.27E
Depth
16 kilometers
Region
WESTERN HONSHU, JAPAN
Distances
25 km (15 miles) WNW of Tsu, Honshu, Japan
70 km (40 miles) SW of Nagoya, Honshu, Japan
70 km (45 miles) E of Osaka, Honshu, Japan
330 km (205 miles) WSW of TOKYO, Japan

Location Uncertainty
Error estimate: horizontal +/- 4.6 km; depth fixed by location program
Parameters
Nst=176, Nph=176, Dmin=262.2 km, Rmss=0.77 sec, Erho=4.6 km, Erzz=0 km, Gp=107.5 degrees
Source
USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Remarks At least 12 people injured and 63 buildings damaged in the Mie-Nara-Shiga area. Recorded (5U JMA) in Mie; (4 JMA) in Nara and Shiga; (3 JMA) in Aichi, Fukui, Gifu, Ishikawa, Kyoto, Nagano, Osaka and Wakayama; (2 JMA) in Hyogo, Shizuoka, Tottori, Toyama, Yamanashi; (1 JMA) in Kagawa, Kanagawa, Kochi, Okayama and Tokushima Prefectures

I'm in Osaka prefecture, btw. Visit here for more info:
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_beaf.html

Now that I've experienced an earthquake, I'm perfectly happy. It was just enough for me. No more, thank you.

2. This weekend we went to a Zen Buddhist temple as part of an art class field trip. It was really pretty and tranquil, but I get fed up with that kind of stuff after awhile. We saw the Genki Priest! (very energetic old monk guy) and he chanted stuff at us. We saw the famous 500 yr old Zen rock garden. It was full of rocks....our teacher told us that most of the rocks were not original ones from 500 years ago. During the wars, the temples would fight each other and stole each other's rocks! They were apparently quite valuable commodity...the value of the current rocks in the garden is priceless, probably running into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Pics:

-The remaining artifacts from the great Rock Wars between the Buddhist temples...

-the Genki Priest~!

3. Tomorrow, Haley and I are going to see the Shakugan no Shana movie! Yet another otaku-ish event that we are going to do. I'm running out of time to do them all...basically, it's an anime movie that I wanted to see, since I watched the series. I knew it was coming out while I was here, but you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find movie airing times/places etc. Everything's in Japanese, plus anime movies are not advertised that well. It appears that the Shana movie is only showing in a limited number of theaters around the country, and only for a time period of two weeks. It shows that even here, anime is not mainstream. After much hassle and searching, I found the nearest theater and the best time. So, we're going tomorrow! I'll post a report later.

-Pic of Shakugan no Shana.

Well it's all very exciting. I'll post again when I am able!

Dewa~

As always, leave comments/tags plz.

Yes I'm still here

2007-04-19T17:27:00.000+09:00

Hey folks,

I'm still around. I've been saving up for a really long post, but everytime I sit down to do it, I can't seem to find the energy. But it will come eventually, believe me~

This weekend I'm going on another art field trip. End of story. Yaa~~y.

Until next time~

PS- Policemen saluted at me today.
i lost my camera~~D-:

Random

2007-04-13T17:30:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I just thought I'd make a post. Last night, I did Passovesr for my host family. Okaasan really enjoyed it, and Mayu really didn't understand it. But I tried my best to translate the Haggadah into Japanese for them, and I think I did a pretty good job. Not with the actual phrasing, but with the general gist. I made some charoset again. Mayu didn't like it! Apparently she doesn't like cinnamon. Go figure.

This weekend, Haley and I are going to Nara! We will go to the art museum, then look at Todaiji temple where the Daibutsu (Big Buddha) is. I think its the biggest buddha in all Japan, but I'm not sure.

I will make a better post tomorrow, cause Haley's got internet at her home, and I'm staying the night. Yay!

As always, commetns/tags plz.

PS - OMG I forgot it was Friday the 13th! I didn't wear black!

Bleach Broadway Bouken~ The Follow-Up

2007-04-10T13:57:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I hope all of you had a good Easter. I really didn't do anything; just stayed at home and slept. I was sooo tired, due to certain events this weekend! I'll tell you about them.

Remember, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Ok so! Let's start at the beginning. Haley was able to write directions to Nishinomiya (near Kobe, but not Kobe itself) by using the Hankyu train line. I printed out directions as to how to get to the temple in Kobe as well as the theater of the Bleach musical. I hurried and left school at around 2:15. By following the directions, I made really good time and reached Kobe around 4 PM. I figured I had enough time to try and find the Jewish temple, so I got off at Sannomiya and followed those directions.

I got off in a place that reminded me of Harajuku in its busy bustleness. There were many many shops, fashionable clothes stores, high-end restaurants, and lots of people. There was this place called "Ikuta Road" which I remembered from our previous visit to Kobe, when we visited Ikuta Shrine. Here's a pic:

For some reason, Japanese people like to mark off their popular roads by putting big signs over them (plus, in English! What's up with that?). But of course, the normal roads are not marked at all (most are not even named). Heh, well I can't complain, because due to the sign I was able to find my way to the temple so easily. It involved walking up one such delineated shopping road all the way to its end, and then some twists and turns.

Finally I found the temple, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It looked foreboding rather than welcoming, barred by iron gates. I didn't know if I was allowed to go in. I gathered up some courage and turned the handle, and it turned out to be unlocked. I poked my head in. There was a large room, and two guys in the corner, who looked at me strangely. I felt like I was trespassing! Fortunately, one of the guys turned out to be from New York. Pretty sure the other one was Russian or something. When I told them I just wanted to visit, they relaxed. I talked to the New York Jew, apparently they're not too friendly towards Jewish people around there. Perhaps that's why it was all scary-like. I saw the synagogue and met the rabbi. He again, did not speak English. Heh, thank god the New Yorker was there. Anyways, I ended up buying some matzah there to show my family. Then I left, and was secretly glad to be gone. The atmosphere in there was stifling. You'd think it would be a more structured place for being the "Jewish Center of the Kansai Area". I had read so much about it and the website sounded friendly, but real life is different. Oh well.

The outside of the temple.

The inside of the temple. This is probably the room where they had Passover.

I backtracked to the Sannomiya station. I still had plenty of time till the concert and wanted to explore that area, but I was nervous about maybe not finding the theater right away. I took the train back the way I came to the Nishinomiya station, and got off. Lucky me, the train station was actually connected by a walkway to the theater! No searching needed. Since I still had plenty of time, I ate dinner at a cafe. At the table right next to me, a man was trying to teach a Japanese woman some English. It was clear that this guy taught at Nova, the biggest "learn English" school in Japan. But the poor woman, she couldn't understand half of what he was saying and he didn't speak any Japanese. I felt like jumping in and helping, but of course i couldn't do that. He was teaching her things like, "I have nothing to declare" so I think she was getting ready to travel to America. It's funny that Japanese people have to become proficient before they go but Americans just go anywhere without caring to learn that country's language. It's pretty bad.

So finally, I got in the line at the theater! This theater looked big and professional - after all, it was the Hyogo Performing Arts Theater (the whole prefecture's art center). I mean, there were several concerts going on at the same time. There was no hint at all that the line I was in was for the Bleach musical. So, using my best Japanese, I asked the two girls ahead of me in line if it was indeed the Bleach musical line. They answered in the affirmative. Then they began to talk to me! We had a good conversation about Bleach, and which characters were our favorites, etc., etc. Then the line started to move and I lost them. But it didn't matter, because when I got inside the staging area, I knew I was in the right place.

First impression: sooo many girls! Once again, I was wrong. Even though Bleach is indeed a show for young boys, the real fans are the teenage girls who follow it avidly. I think there were maybe, three boys in the whole joint. And all the merchandise was CLEARLY targeted at girls. I'd say the most represented group was 16 - 20 aged girls. Plus, there were *gasp* overweight girls and not stunningly gorgeous girls too! This show brought them all out of the woodwork - all the otaku girls, the real fangirls, the more normal looking people that you never see walking down the street. I almost felt like I was back in America. I didn't have time to muse on this, however, because the line to get in funnelled you right into the merchandising booth. Every girl was buying this one package set, so I figured I'd do the whole experience and get it too. The package was the full color Bleach Musical brochure with bios on all the actors, plus a photo of the actor of your choice. After paying an arm and leg for that, I moved away from the line to try and organize my stuff.

Many girls reading the Bleach pamphlets they just bought. Just like me!

THE MERCHANDISE. The DVD and CD combo of the musical would have set me back more than $100 ;_;

(By the way, for the individual actor picture, I just quickly chose my favorite character from the anime, and didn't have a chance to see what the real actor looks like. Guess what, he's actually the most famous out of all the bunch. The packet i received had three notices for his fanclub. Guess I'm a pretty good chooser)

Then, amazingly enough, I managed to run into the same girls I had been talking in line with again. This time ,we talked some more and they even took a picture of us together with their cell phones. They really thought it was great that a foreigner would come to something like this. I was happy to make friends, however temporarily. And it was temporary, because in the next few minutes they opened the theater to seating. It turns out that my seat, since I had gotten the ticket at the last minute, was way up on the 2nd floor balcony, while theirs was on the first floor. Good thing that okaasan had given me her "opera glasses"(weird plastic box with little lenses and limited focusing). But still, I was here and it didn't matter.

Next to me sat omg, a large Japanese girl wearing Goth black! I almost expected her to speak English, so American did she look. But she didn't. ;_;

Then, onto the show! I tried to be a responsive audience member - alternating between looking through the opera glasses to looking without to get the whole picture, gasping at the right moments, laughing at the right moments, swaying my arms during the last song with the actors on stage. I think I annoyed people because I was craning my head this way and that trying see past this one tall person's head. i even managed to snap a few pics during the performance, even though you weren't supposed to. I was so scared that I would get caught that my hand shook and the pictures were blurry. But they may give you some idea of what the stage looked like:

Yes I know it's blurry. You can see how far I was away from the stage here. There were two main set pieces with a lot of stairways that they kept rotating.

Let me address all the points of concern I raised in my last post:

Firstly, the costumes. They were all supremely wonderful. This is cosplay on a professional level, people. About three of the characters had what you might call "typical anime hair" - that is, hair that appears to defy all the normal laws of nature. They not only pulled off this hair, they pulled it off with style!

Here's some comparison pics I have pulled together:

Renji. Notice the spiky ponytail, which didn't even bounce around that much even though he was running around the stage and swinging his sword (which was also well made).

Hitsugaya Toushiro. My favorite character in the anime and the most popular male actor in the cast. His hair, as you can see, is nearly impossible to pull off. Yet they did it and managed to make it look natural. And of course it stayed stable during the entire thing, no matter how much he ran back and forth or bobbed up and down in his horse stance (Because his character is supposed to be short, he always bends his knees doing the karate horse stance at all times in order to make himself look shorter. It worked most of the time, except when it...didn't)

Firstly, the action scenes. Bleach is about fighting; even in a musical, you can't change that. Fortunately, even though there is alot of "energy" attacks, all the fights are still basically sword-on-sword. And, it IS possible to choreograph cool sword fights on stage. But there was still alot of imagination required. Especially when many of the dramatic moments come from a character using a "powered up" sword attack, or their bankai. They actually tried with Byakuya's bankai - his sword is supposed to split into a billion small metal shards and attack his enemy. Since these shards catch the light, they look like falling flower petals (hence the name of the attack is "A thousand petals"). On stage, they dropped some flower petals from ceiling to simulate the attack. But no matter how much the actor prances and flails his sword about to avoid them, there's no way you can make flower petals look dangerous, I'm sorry.
For others, they didn't even try; for example, Toshiro's bankai. In the anime, its really cool - his sword becomes a giant pair of ice wings that he uses to fly around and attack his enemy with ice shards. On stage, he just swung his prop sword around a bit, woohoo~ not impressive at all.

On the other hand, there was a well done special effect at the end - the bad guys were supposed to ascend into the sky, and they accomplished this by using strings and it looked really cool. Yay! Soi Fong's Suzumebachi was also done very well.

As for the other point, about breaking into song - yes it was weird, but it was well done. The only problem was that most of the actors COULDN'T SING~ and it was a MUSICAL~ Especially, the main character was horrible. Yucky - I guess they really did pick the actors based on likeness to the character, rather than singing or acting ability. All the women were passable, though. Toushiro's voice was really good ^_^

As for the plot - basic rehashing of the SS arc. They alternated very dramatic moments with funny, pointless ones to liven up the atmosphere. Some of the funny moments were not in the original Bleach plot, and could be seen as "in-jokes" to people who had seen the previous musicals. I had not, so I didn't get them all. But since I have seen all of Bleach, I was able to understand most everything, which I consider a great accomplishment.

After the ending of the story, I expected the show to be over, of course. But even after the end, the actors went on to do like, 5 more songs! Very surprising - it appears that they needed to fill up more time or something. These songs were probably ones that wouldn't fit into the story logically, so they saved them all to the end. Things like a song with the entire cast, a song with just the good guys, a song with just the bad guys. In fact, these songs were probably the most enjoyable ones. I especially liked the one with the bad guys because they started break dancing! Totally out of character, but awesome.

So of course, since everything was so amazing, I found myself cheering and clapping at the end. Only problem is, Japanese girls don't cheer. I felt like an idiot, hooting and hollering. Apparently that's not how you cheer here, you just clap harder. I couldn't help myself though! To me, it seems that clapping isn't enough to express appreciation. If i thought something was good, well then I'm going to cheer my heart out. So I did, even though it was awkward.

Then I filed out of the auditorium, and guess what? I miraculously met up with those girls again. We walked out of the theater together, sharing our thoughts and opinions on the musical. They even wanted to get some pizza with me! But I was worried about the trains stopping running, since it was 10 PM already. So, we went home part of the way together on the train. We were all very excited from seeing the musical and it was alot of fun talking to them. It turns out they were both 18 and recently graduated from high school. One went to college, and the other - get this- was going to school to become a voice actor! For anime!! How cool is that! That's like, my dream job. So of course then I asked her who her favorite voice actors were, and I knew who they were and rattled off some of their more famous roles. They were happy that i knew such things, and so we talked about that. Then, unfortunately, came our parting. I knew, and they knew, that we would never meet again. But still, they said things like, "See you later!" and thanked me for talking to them.

This was probably the best night in Japan for me so far. There was one simple reason: I felt like I belonged there. Even at the Anime Fair and the doujin convention I still felt like somewhat of an outsider, probably because I didn't understand everything that was going on. But here, at this performance, I was just another fan. The Japanese girls and I all shared something in common; our love of Bleach and our understanding of it. It was a common language I could speak and share with them. We all clapped and laughed at the same moments onstage. We all sighed over the same hot guys. We all displayed avid consumerism and fangirly moments. I didn't have to defend myself and explain why I like anime guys, Bleach or anime in general to anybody. They instictively understood because they have the same feelings themselves. It was so relaxing and so much fun, to have that understanding. I felt like I belonged here more than anywhere else. It was like coming home.

Well, that's all I have to say about that. I will cover Saturday's events in my next post. As always, leave comments/tags! Ja ne~

Bleach Broadway Bouken!

2007-04-06T12:39:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Well I've finally finished all my tests this week. I just got out of my hardest one, Reading and Writing, and i thought I did pretty well! I'm happy about that. Ok, now on to more fun stuff...

Weekend plans! Well, this weekend is Easter, although I dont' think I'll be able to find a church nearby. There are not many, you see. The one I did manage to find doesn't celebrate Easter this weekend (?) but next. Weird. But I'll still probably color eggs with that kit that Granny sent me. Mayu should like that. I hope you all have a Happy Easter!

Other than that, I plan to go hanami with Haley. I will explain about hanami later - its basically going to look at cherry blossom trees, which are currently in bloom. More about that on Monday after we do it.

But today's main topic is the main event of the weekend - the Bleach Broadway Bouken, or my Bleach Musical Adventure!

Now I can just imagine what this total non-sequitur is doing to your poor brains. I've even prepared this illustration to help with your confusion:

However, this train of thought is NOT correct! Unfortunately...
What you probably do not know is that there is a currently very popular anime named Bleach, for reasons unknown (it has absolutely nothing to do with detergent!). This anime has been airing for about 3 years. It is your typical shounen (read: boy-targeted) anime, featuring such timeless themes like fighting, competition, determination, friendship, I-will-be-the-best!, defeating bad guys, etc. As such, it has a classic appeal to boys from ages 5 to 15, and also, incidentally, to myself.

I've been watching Bleach for about a year, and I find the characters and story very captivating and suspenseful. Thus, when I found out a month ago that there was a Bleach Musical, I of course wanted to go! It was quite by accident that I found out; I was merely browsing the web and bang! there it was. Of course, it is no coincidence that I happen to be in Japan at the time it is being performed! Clearly, the gods are telling me I must go.

The thing that is so amusing to me, however, is: How can Bleach possibly be turned into a musical? It would be like turning The Matrix into a musical; it just makes no sense. I mean, there are extensive, extensive fight scenes in Bleach. And its not just a matter of hiring some kung-fu choreographer from Hong Kong; the fights in Bleach always involve spirit energy, or reiatsu. For example:

Many, almost all of the characters attack with reiatsu, which is usually portrayed in the anime as a flash of light. How the heck are they going to portray that on stage? Furthermore, Bleach is most definitely an action anime. I just can't imagine them just breaking out into song at random intervals. Certainly the boys in the audience will get bored?

But, no one can say they don't do a good job of making them look like the characters! here's a promotional pic I found:

I'm sure it will be very silly and kiddy. But still, I'm excited to go! This is probably the only time in my life I see an anime made into a musical. You never know, I might like it. Since only I watch Bleach, only I am going. Haley helped with the directions, but I am still going alone. It shouldn't be that bad; the maps are pretty detailed. It should be right next to the train station. If I have time, I will go visit the famous temple in Kobe, the Jewish center of Japan. There is probably some interesting stuff around there.

I will update you all on Monday as to how it was. In the meantime, I hope the Easter Bunny brings you some good stuff. Ja ne~

As always, leave comments/tags plz.

Pics! finally!

2007-04-05T16:05:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I've finally gotten around to loading some pics for y'all. Right now I don't have time to write too much, but sit back and enjoy the pics! Remember, you can click on them to make them bigger. Tomorrow I'll do a post detailing exciting weekend activities. Here goes~

The famous sample (plastic food) store! There were two big ones on that street, and this is one of them. Note the extensive collection of fake beer.

Another shot of the sample store! Don't they look realistic? They really had everything under the sun, I tell you..

Hardcore cosplay outfits found in the back of an anime store near Mandarake. Yes, that's Chii from Chobits...these outfits were expensive!

A nice candid of junior high school girls playing DS. They really all had their own DS and they brought it out at the same time and started playing the same game! It was kinda funny...that's a Nintendo DS to all you who don't know their systems. It's really big in Japan, really big. I keep telling Haley she should get one...

I don't think I need to explain this one. In fact, that's why I took this pic- the store explains its purpose quite matter-of-factly. I wish some American stores were this forthright about their wares...

Mandarake, the Largest Anime Store in the World! Yay!

"Harajuku Girls you got the wicked style
I like the way that you are, I am your biggest fan"
- Gwen Stefani, Harajuku Girls
Yes, the famous Harajuku girls. Unfortunately I didnt get any really good pics of them, but here's your standard Gothloli. Yes, it is actually pretty normal for girls to dress like that...

A Harajuku outfit on display in front of a store...

More ridiculous Harajuku outfits...and they're expensive too...

A cool looking blue building in the Times-Square-esque Ikebukuro.

The famous jewel black egg of Hakone! But it tasted like a normal boiled egg...

Sulphur rises from the Hakone hillside, and Kim rides forth on the cable car, seeking black eggs.

The cable car in Hakone!

Majestic Mt.Fuji as seen from our bus, with the clouds rolling in.

The summit of Mt. Fuji as seen halfway up the mountain from the 5th station.

Your ever-popular tourist trap, Tokyo Tower! Yes, its higher than the Eiffel Tower by 8.6 meters.

A sampling of normal afternoon activities in Akihabara. Here's some fine (not!) Akiba cosplay. Yes, those are men. Don't ask.

A display at the Sony building, which was full of exciting electronics. Unfortunately, this picture is not very exicting.

The sushi restaurant at which we ate breakfast in Tsukiji. I tried ootoro, and it was good, though expensive.

That's all for now! More pics later. Uploading them all is rather tough.

As always, comments/tags plz~

Various

2007-04-03T13:01:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Sorry with the lack of regular posting; I can't seem to work myself into a schedule where I can do it regularly every day. Plus I've been really tired and miserable lately - rather than using the internet, I'd just go home and sleep. Yup.

This weekend was pretty tame. I stayed in on Saturday, relaxing and doing laundry, cleaning, etc. I watched the Death Note movie (PS: I'm on quite a Death Note kick. It's freaking amazing).

It's a dark, supernatural, crime mystery thriller thing about this normal high school kind who finds on the ground a blank journal titled "Death Note", dropped by a passing Death God (in Japanese, Shinigami). In it are a series of extensive instructions on How to Use, beginning with "The human whose name is written in this note shall die". The story then concentrates on the high school boy, who uses the Death Note to help him achieve his delusions of grandeur by killing off all criminals in the world, making it a "better" place. The story comes down to a faceoff between him and a detective who is determined to find the truth behind this series of untraceable murders. The story is suspensful and has alot of twists and turns, so I really like it.

Death Note is a hot, hot phenom taking over Japan, much like The Matrix or LOTR. It was first a manga, then this live-action movie (to which there was a sequel that has just now come out on DVD) and now it is an anime about 4 months old currently airing that I am also watching. Anime is possibly better than the movie.

Side note: In the new opening song of the anime, they chose this really really out-there death metal group to do the song and the lyrics are insane.
Here's a sample of the translated lyrics;

"Convenience convenience hurray, convenience convenience hurray, convenience convenience hurray, people
Convenience convenience hurray, convenience convenience hurray, convenience convenience hurray, people
Hey, will you shockingly anger me? Will you shockingly anger me? Will you shockingly anger me? People
Hey, will you shockingly anger me? Will you shockingly anger me? Will you shockingly anger me? People"

They even drop the f-bomb several times! And this is on normal broadcast TV that anyone with an antennae can pick up! I was shocked when I saw it. Apparently the Japanese TV censoring committe doesn't care if English swear words are used. Yet, enough people here know English that it might be a problem, I think...oh well. It would certainly never pass muster in America. Another reason why I dont like heavy metal music - lots of screaming and lyrics that don't make sense.

On Sunday I went with my art class to see Byodo-in and Touji, both Buddhist temples of great importance. Byodo-in is actually on the back of the 10 yen coin. It was rainy and kinda bad weather overall, but it was fine. Byodo-in is in Uji, where all the green tea comes from. Subsequently, our entire class stopped to get some green tea ice cream. I got half green tea, half sakura (cherry blossom) flavor. I figured I'd never get to try something like that again. And I won't, because even if i did have the opportunity again, I wouldn't. Sakura flavor is just weird - its very salty and not at all pleasant. Thankfully the green tea taste drowned it out.

Mine would the one in the middle.

Touji is the father of all Buddhist temples in Japan. It's got the highest pagoda in Japan (which the teacher referred to as "The Darth Vader of Japanese pagodas") and is one of the most distinctive sights in Japan. You can't go in there though. We did go into the koudo where all the statues are. 21 symmetrically arranged Buddhist statues is a sight to see. They are supposed to represent a 3D mandala, or worldview containing all the important Buddhist deities in Esoteric Buddhism. There was this big guy, Fudo Miyou Ou, one of the Four Kings of Light. And he looked pretty fearsome. Alot of Buddhist deities are pretty scary looking because they're supposed to be fighting evil. Others look weak and feminine because they are gentle and inviting you to be saved. They were very large and impressive looking with their gilt halos and huge canopies. But after all that, I've reached my Buddhist-statue-viewing limit. I don't want to see another nyorai in the lotus position doing the Abhaya mudra for a long, long time.

-http://www.healing-touch.co.uk/m-bud14.jpg

Aforementioned nyorai in the lotus position doing the Abhaya mudra. This is the principal figure of Toji temple, Yakushi Buddha.

Walking back to the train station, we managed to find a Book-Off, where I persuaded Haley that if we were having trouble finding something we should JUST ASK, and I did. She was able to find the manga she wanted, and I was able to find mine. So I have nice new volumes of Ouran Koukou Host Bu to read, when i have time. It's amazing to me that I can actually read something like a whole manga, albeit painfully slow and tediously. It's because they have pronunciations, called furigana, written beside each kanji so that even if I don't know the kanji at all, I can at least know how its pronounced and therefore may be able to guess at the meaning. But I can read it! I can!

Incidentally, Happy Passover to all! The first night was Monday night, last night for me. It saddens me that, not being home, I wasn't able to fully celebrate the holiday. But, being the good two-holidays-a-year-half-Jew that I am, my desire to eat bitter herbs with matzah roused me out of my normal laziness and spurred me to reach out to any fellow Jews here on campus. I put up a notice on the wall, and an astounding THREE PEOPLE responded to my summons. One of them dropped out later through email, so I ended up meeting the other two on Friday. We agreed to look for things and do alot of preparation over the weekend, which none of us ended up doing. So, there I was Monday afternoon, looking for an online Haggadah and printing it out. I also printed out a recipe for Matzah, cause, whaddya know, you can't find it here in Japan. Go figure.

After the lengthy process of getting permission from the CIE office to use the Seminiar House (study abroad student's dorm) to make our ceremonial meal, we set out. I tell you, they are strict about just who enters the dorms here. You need a pass, you need to sign in, you can't enter certain rooms. Can't even use computers there. Yeesh.

(As a sidenote: All of us were surprised at the lack of cooperation we received from the CIE office in this matter. I mean, in America, you mention that you need some special circumstances because of your religion, and you get it. ESPECIALLY if you specifically mention the word "Jewish", people will immediately fall over backwards trying to get you what you need or to make an exception for you. (must be a guilt thing) Here its totally different because they had no idea what "Jewish" is. For all they know, we could have been some cannibalistic cult requesting permission to cook human body parts in the Seminar House kitchen. When someone finally told them what "Jewish" is, the CIE officials were actually embarrassed that it took so long when they finally gave us permission. It was just...somewhat of a shock.)

We found a supermarket, and managed to find all the required ingredients for only about 1000 yen ( less than ten bucks!). We were pretty thrifty - I snitched some parsley from a prepackaged entree that my okaasan brought home last night (with her permission of course)Our maror (bitter herbs) were some free packets of ginger taken from the sushi isle in the supermarket. Our charoset was made from one (1) apple, and sugar from sugar sticks that are supposed to be used to sweeten tea. Heh...well i won't stick in an adage about Jews and money. That would not be at all applicable to the situation. Nope.

We went to the Seminar House and began cooking. Lots of students there, doing the same, preparing their own dinners. Sometimes I regret living in a homestay, when I look at the seminar house. Just being with your friends, keeping your own schedule...its kinda nice. But I still maintain that homestay is better. Anyways...

I ended up making both the matzah and the charoset. Honestly, even being only half-Jewish and a bad cook to boot, I still was more competent than those other guys. Maybe its because I grew up watching people cook, I don't know. But at least I can make some dough out of flour and water and roll it out and bake it. I have to say, although it was my first time making matzah, i don't think it came out half bad. The ovens were a problem though - too small and not hot enough. Therefore the matzah came out kinda too thick, but it still tasted good. I also made the charoset based on a recipe I found on the internet - apples, walnuts, cinnamon, sugar and wine. Of course, no alcohol allowed in the Seminar House, so we just used grape juice. I mixed it by ear (does that expression work in this context?) and it came out surprisingly good - pretty much just like Kathy's. My comrades praised the charoset greatly and ate every last bit. They were in charge of...boiling the eggs. And cleaning up.

Our endeavor attracted the attention of the Japanese TA, so she came over to see what we were doing. I'm afraid she didn't understand too much of it, though...I think she thought it was funny when we all dipped our pinky fingers in the grape juice to do the Ten Plagues. The other girl, Renee, an Australian Jew, could read Hebrew and so she did all the prayers. We even had a rousing chorus of "Dayenu", in response to which the other students in the dining room stared at us as if we had three heads. Our dinner, because we had no time or money to prepare anything else, was simply charoset, matzah and boiled eggs. Yum.

Then we cleaned up and headed home late~. Because of bus schedules, I had to wait around in Tsutaya for an hour ( a book/Cd shop). I got tea at Starbucks (OMG! If you think Starbucks is expensive in America, wait till you see how expensive it is in Japan. I could have gotten a nice dinner for that price...never again!). I didn't end up getting home till 11:30. But it was worth it, I feel like I did something good. The other two students thanked me as well and said they felt better for doing it. Well, L'shana Haba B'Yerushalayim! (Next year in Jerusalem!)

(Only disappointing thing: I didn't get to watch the Ten Commandments. But I will later, cause they've got it in the library with Japanese subtitles! I'll watch it next weekend.)

So this week is going to be pretty rough. I've got a art test tomorrow, a speaking test on Thursday and a writing test on Friday, plus I'm tired and sick. Kill me now~~

Pics are taking usually long to load today. So, sorry, but no vacation pics today!

As always, leave comments/tags plz.

Vacation Wrap-up

2007-03-30T15:32:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Wah, seems like I just got back yesterday from vacation. Actually I didn't come to school on Monday since I was sick/tired from too much vacation. The days following I have also been sick/tired from another cold, apparently. I just can't get a break here. Anyways, let's do some wrap up of my awesome spring break!

I didn't have time to add pics and videos to this post, but I will do so on Monday. They take a long time to upload.

I realize now that I missed a day when I made my posts last week, that day being Thursday, the day we went to see Mt. Fuji. So, let me summarize that day:

We all woke up late and ended up running to the station to get to where the tour was meeting. It seemed that we were always running to make deadlines! It turned out that we needn't run at all because we ended up sitting on the bus for a half hour before it left. Checking in for the tour was no problem, went without a hitch. Boy am I a good trip planner!

It took about an hour and a half to reach Mt. Fuji from Tokyo. It was amazing how quickly highways and suburbs turn into winding roads and mountains. We were excited but tired. I was worried we wouldn't see the mountain at all...but we did! All the sudden it appeared out of nowhere ahead of us. It was clear as day, with quite alot of snow on the top. We definitely went closer to it then I remember coming in 2004. Our first stop was at the Mt. Fuji visitors center, which was mainly to take pictures. They didn't really give us alot of time at any one place in order to keep to schedule. Sam and Jake had a hard time with that, though!

Our next stop was on Mt. Fuji itself - we were able to reach the 5th station, which hadn't been open since December due to snow. We were lucky that that day it had finally cleared up enough that we could drive all the way up! It took us about a half hour to ascend, during which our tour guide with his barely understandable English regaled us with anecdotes of Japanese culture. Do you know that Japanese people rarely say "I love you" to each other? Even husband and wife will settle for just a "I like you". Apparently, it's too embarrassing to say "I love you" for a Japanese person. Hmmm, well I think in America we say it too much. Meh.

We reached the fifth station and got off into the freezing cold. There must have been snowdrifts five feet high there. Great, spectacular view though. The summit looked deceptively close, although it was stil a good 6-7 hour ascent away. We went into the tourist/souvenir store there and they were really selling some ridiculous stuff there, like canned air from Mt. Fuji?? Also some mushroom tea, whihc was suprisingly good - I tried a sample. Tasted like mushroom soup. Yummy. I went out back and saw a shinto shrine - there is also supposedly one at the summit. Then I made it back to the bus, but went on the wrong one! Then I realized my error and quickly rectified it. After that, we descended back off the mountain and ate lunch at a nearby hotel. Sam found a cake shop with her 'cake'-dar and we went there for dessert. Then, back on the bus!

We made a big circle around Mt. Fuji. Apparently it visible from its north side, but the South side is notoriously difficult to see. The tour stopped to go on a tour boat on Lake Ashi, one of the five famous lakes in Hakone. Actually the name means "foot" so it's Lake Foot, which is weird. Very cold and windy on the boat. The lake was pretty and surrounded by hills on all side, but no Mt.Fuji. We had apparently seen the last of it after the hotel.

After the boat, we got on the bus and they brought us to a cable car, from which you could also supposedly see Mt.Fuji but you couldn't. But it was still really cool because the cable car was suspended between two mountains and there was sulfur rising from the mountains! I had never seen such a thing - supposedly Hakone is famous for it because it makes their hot springs very good. There were also these famous black eggs, but I didn't understand why exactly they were special at the time. Wikipedia says:
"Try the black jewel eggs (黒玉子) at Owakudani. Boiled on site, their shells are a mottled black due to a chemical reaction with the sulphurous water, but the inside is quite tasty. According to Japanese legend, every one you eat will add seven years to your life."
-Wikipedia

I ate two.

So after that we began the long busride home, on which I almost fell asleep. The tour ended by dropping us off at Shinjuku station. From there, Haley and I were determined to visit the famous Sunshine 60 building in Ikebukuro. So we found our way to Ikebukuro, which is like Times Square - so many lights, so many shops, very intense. But then again, half of Tokyo is like that. We managed to find this Sunshine 60 building, which the guide says is famous just because its a shopping mecca. Haley and I were more interested in Gyoza-town and Ice-cream town inside it for where we could eat dinner. But Sam and Jake were so hungry that they didn't bother trying to find it - instead they just ate at McDonalds. Haley and I at least at at a gyoza place (dumplings). We then parted ways with Sam and Jake, and Haley and I continued to explore Sunshine 60 while Sam and Jake hit up some bars.

There was this place called Namjatown inside of Sunshine 60 that was like an amusement park unto itself. It had rides, experiences, and the gyoza-town inside of it, as well as its' own souvenir-shop. Pretty weird...

And after that, we went to Shinjuku proper in order to have a good look at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. We were able to go inside it, even though it was late at night (they have an observation floor). I have never had my bag more politely searched, I tell you. They apologize for looking inside your purse before they do it. After that we distanced ourselves from the building a bit to get a good look at it. Its got two towers and is quite distinctive, haiving appeared in many anime. That's why I wanted to see it, you see. We backed into the nearby park in order to get a good look. There were some hobos sleeping there though...not safe.

Then we made our way back to the hotel to get some meager rest for another big day.

Fast forward to Saturday!

So, Saturday we went to TAF, the Tokyo International Anime Fair. We woke up and checked out of our capsule hotel, and said a tearful goodbye. Goodbye, hotel! Goodbye, Akiba!

We followed a slightly different route back to Odaiba where Tokyo Big Sight, the convention was held. The train ride in Odaiba is very scenic because it is outside and winds through all the buildings. I swear, someone decided to make Odaiba the "futuristic-looking building spot" of Tokyo. Got a weird looking building plan? Let's put in in Odaiba. The distinctive Fuji TV station was there, as well as the Panasonic bulding, and a bunch of other stuff. Tokyo Big Sight itself is, well, a sight to see. It's like a upside down pyramid supported by columns. We managed to get off and walk over there, only to find that there was already a line out the door. And by "out the door" I mean out the door, across the courtyard, through the walkway, down the steps and pretty much halfway across Odaiba already. And this was 15 mins before opening time, and everyone in that line already had tickets. Haley and I were like ,"forget that" and insted we got some breakfast at the covenience store inside the convention center. Finally the line started to move, and it moved fast. But still, there was no end in sight. So we walked all the way to the back of the line and got in, after putting our backpacks in a coin-operated locker. We walked through the door, up and down escalators, around corners, and finally we reached the entrance of the convention hall. So exciting!

At this point I should stop calling it a convention, because it was not. That fact disappointed Haley while confirming my own private suspicions - this was an advertising fair. That is not to say that it wasn't exciting, spectacular and worth every moment I spent there. It was just not what we fans expect when we say "convention", which is namely: fans gathering together to share the enthusiasm they feel for a particular activity/subject. Conventions usually have fan-run trivia contests, costume contests, informational panels, and of course a dealer's room where you can buy goods. While all conventions are put on by fans, this Anime Fair was put on by professionals. You might say that it was THE professionals - this is the one place and the one time that all the companies that make anime get together and show off their latest wares. It was essentially an anime bazaar, but very well done. The big names had really spectacular booths and spent lots of money bringing in the heavy electronics, setting up stages, etc., to show off their stuff. They also had girls (always girls) dressed up as various characters handing out pamphlets. You couldn't take pictures of these girls, for some reason. I tried and got yelled at. Hmph.

They also invited some of the people who sing theme songs for anime to come and perform. This was very interesting, but it was so crowded that I couldn't stand and watch any one performance, just glimpses here and there. Oh, it was so crowded, you wouldnt' believe. I checked the website later and it tallied the total number of attendees at 107,000 - that's alot of people! And the whole thing was only around 7 hours long. Therefore, they had to have excellent crowd control, and they did. If there was someone performing, unless you had lined up an hour before you couldn't get NEAR the stage. Thankfully for the big stage in the back they had set up a huge TV screen so you could see the performer. I didn't know any of the performers or their songs so it wasn't vital that I see them; it was more about the experience of being in a crowd with fellow otaku. And there were otaku there, as well as normal people. I saw kids, I saw grandparents, I saw middle-aged adults - very normal looking people. But you could always tell the otakus because they'd be thin, unkempt middle-aged men with lots of bags, and they definitely had organized cheering, I kid you not. Because I was interested in watching the otaku, I attended the first part of an interview with a seiyuu (voice actor) from the current anime Hidamari Sketch. Those otaku all cheered for her, clapped in time together, waved light wands in sync - it was amazing.

I look through the mirror at these otaku, and can't really find myself in them. Yes, I understand all about being enthused about something you enjoy. Maybe if I knew that performer or seiyuu I'd be all excited too. Maybe if someone taught me how I'd cheer in unison with everyone else. But the thing is, here is a bunch of middle aged men drooling over a show targeted at young girls, starring young girls. There's something wrong with that. And in Japan in general - this country has a large problem with perverts and pedophiles. So much so that it has to have a women's only car on the train every morning. I think it has to do with the moral codes being so strict and stuff. If there's any movie that's both sexually explicit and contains graphic violence, the Japanese will censor the sex while the Americans will censor the violence. Go figure.

Anyways, off on a tangent there. At the anime fair, we basically wandered around, looked at all the booths and took pictures. We were handed a dozen flyers and paper bags to put them all in. A highlight was when Haley and I saw a small booth in the back dedicated to one of our favorite animes, Kyou Kara Maou. We saw that it was advertising an OVA (like a mini sequel) and that was the first time I had heard of it. It was then it hit me: this is probably the first time anyone is going to hear of it! This is the center of it all, where people make the big annoucements, and we're here to see it! We jumped up and down with excitement as we grabbed the free paper bags with the characters on them; later I found out that these bags were made exclusively for the Anime Fair and that they were a limited edition of 5000 - and I have one! Wow!

We at least got to sit down and attend one presentaition - in the schedule, which was all in Japanese, it was called "How to Make Anime" so it sounded good. But in actuality it was pretty much an interview with the director and two voice actors from an anime I had never watched before and was thus kind of pointless to Haley and I. Though I tried my best to pay attention, and was surprised at how much I understood. I guess I'll have to start watching this show, Kekkaishi, now. The voice actors were even dressed up as their characters, which was fun.

Soon after that, we left the fair because we had seen everything there was to see. We left around 3 PM, much much earlier than we thought we'd leave. I pretty much hadn't planned anything else for Saturday - just Anime Fair, then get the bus to go home. But now we had an unprecedented amount of time, so we wandered around Odaiba a bit, holding big anime bags. We hit up the Panasonic building because it was just across the way. That building was just as, possibly more, awesome as the Sony building. Immediately when you come in they had a section dedicated to Nintendo because they have some kind of partnership with Nintendo. We saw the Wii and a bunch of DS stuff and there were alot of kids playing. Haley got excited because she saw a list of games coming out for the Wii and there was stuff she likes on the list. Away from the Nintendo section was the normal Panasonic stuff: TVs, VCR/DVD players, and cameras.

(Warning: Techie/geek rant ahead)

Oh man, they are pulling out all the stops with the new DVD/HD/Tivo recorders. They are really favoring Blu-ray DVDs, and I saw a bunch of new models that are Blu-ray DL (Dual Layer) recorders/burners. I took a pic of one and the lady came over to scold me, something like, "I'm so sorry but we don't allow pictures". Then I went over to their "future" section to read about technologies they're working on. Get this: they are working on a way to send internet signals through power lines! So if you plug your computer into a wall, you're already on the internet. This would elminate the need for ethernet cables, as well as a bunch of other stuff. They diagrammed the whole "smart house" with this in mind, and it was awesome. I got really excited about it and this lady came over and tried to talk to us in English about it. Heh. But yes, I was astonished that such a technology exists and has already been implemented (you can get it on the market on a small scale, I think). Then we walked over to the last section to see The Biggest Plasma TV in Existence (I think it was almost as big as Uncle Ronny's TV, hehe, inside joke). It was an incredible 103 inches diagonal. Amazing clarity and all that - just like you were there. I dont' know what signal they were using but it would have to be some super high-def signal. Finally, we went to the kids' room and tried to use a computer program about space. It was amazing how much I understood of it, but then again I know alot about space. Then we made our exit and found the train station again.

(Normal program resumes)

Even after the detour to the Panasonic building, we had loads and loads of time left. So we decided to go back to Ikebukuro in hopes of seeing the Keroro Gunsou movie that I have been wanting to see ever since it came out on 3/17. It took a good hour to use the trains to get back to Ikebukuro, and then we found Sunshine Cinemas just before the movie started. Would you believe that the last movie of the day is at 6:20? I didn't either. And, guess how much a movie ticket costs? Just guess! It's 1800 yen, which is an even $15. Yes in the states I've seen $10, maybe even $12, but $15 is so much. My dinner costs less than that! But, there was nothing to do but grin and bear it. We bought our tickets and somehow managed to find our way to the ninth floor, which was where the movie was.

When you consider that "going to the movies" is akin to a religious experience for me, you may be able to understand how painful "going to the movies" in Japan is. This is one area where the US is DEFINITELY SUPERIOR to Japan. Let's make a list: 1. The price - too high. Yes I know everything is more expensive in Japan but 1800 yen!! Too much. 2. The times - Why must everything in Japan shut down so early! The only things open after 7 are restaurants/bars and clubs. Seriously. You can't even do "dinner and a movie", it has to be "movie and a dinner" because the movies show so darn early. 3. THE SMALLNESS OF THE SCREEN. I kid you not, the Largest Plasma TV in Existence that I saw a few hours before dwarfed that cinema screen. It was small, it was far away because we had ASSIGNED SEATS in the back of the auditorium, and it never even got bigger like when the draw back the curtains sometimes in the US. Never happened. I guess I am spoiled by having huge, sprawling movie theaters in the US that cover half of a mall. This is because Japan just has no space for such a thing. They have to have their movie theaters on the ninth floor in pre-existing buildings with small floor space. Such a SHAME. 4. NO hot, buttered popcorn: A HERESY! Here's what they did have - a small, prepackaged popcorn box worth 400 yen that probably had been shipped there weeks ago. Nothing fresh about it. But! There were four different flavors: Salt, Caramel, Black Pepper, and....Apple?! So, so strange...For the sake of sampling popcorn of different cultures, I tried the Black Pepper and Haley had the Apple. Both unique in their own ways but...give me hot, fresh popcorn any day. Plus, there was no candy/drinks either. There was a vending machine but....there's always a vending machine in Japan. Everywhere. Yes.

Moving on from bad movie watching experiences....the movie itself was pretty decent, if predictable. Plus, we all got a free Keroro Gunsou toy! I picked Giroro because he's my favorite. If anyone is wondering what it's all about, I will sum up - it's an anime about some aliens who look a lot like frogs who come to Earth and try to invade it, but they miserably fail. In fact, that pretty much sums up each episode - they come up with a plan to invade Earth, and it comically fails by the end of the episode. The movie was no different, and it was amazing how much I understood. Even Haley, who has never seen Keroro Gunsou before, was able to understand most of it. Keep in mind though, that this movie was targeted at children and therefore the Japanese in it is such that children will understand. This is probably why we were able to understand it. But still, it felt like an accomplishment.

After the movie, we wandered around Ikebukuro for a while, eventually finding an anime store (as if we didn't see enough of those in Akiba!). It was mostly the same stuff over and over again, but it had a good CD section and I spent a long time browsing. I was really tempted to buy something but i had already bought enough for this trip and was having trouble carrying it all. Keep in mind that I still had my big anime bag from the Anime Fair as well has a huge backpack with all my clothes and the plastic ramen in it. We found someplace cheap to eat that had curry (for some reason we were both craving it) and then we found a crepe place. Not like they're hard to find - for some reason, the Japanese people love crepes. Especially in Ikebukuro, they were all over the place. Guess what else they love to put in them - strawberries. Now, I like strawberries just as much as the next girl, but not in every dessert and certainly not instead of CHOCOLATE. In fact, I think I'm the only person in Japan who prefers chocolate instead of fruits for dessert. Every cake, every sweet thing will have fruit, usually strawberries, and I'm getting sick of it. (Incidentally, Haley loves the fact that there's strawberries everywhere and won't stop teasing me about it).

Eating our crepes, we walked back to the station. We stopped a few minutes to watch a street performer who was doing some pretty cool stuff. He did the robot dance, he juggled glass balls and some stuff like that. Then at the end of his act the police walked in and told him to break it up. I couldn't figure out if the police were actually part of the act or not. Hmm. But it seemed that he was a college student like us, just looking for a way to make some extra money. We clapped for him, and then continued on to the station.

The night bus was due to pick us up at Tokyo Station at 11:30 PM. We found the place, we checked in, and we sat and waited. 11:30 - no bus. 12 AM - No bus. Hmm...The lady came and announced, using very formal and polite language that was hard to understand, that something had happened to the bus and it was going to be unavoidably delayed. I think it had something to do with the lights in the bus not working. But anyways, it was awful. The station itself closed at 12 AM (on a Saturday night, yes I know) so there was no warm inside place to go to. It was cold, the wind was howling, and we were huddled in a concrete stairway for two hours waiting for the stupid bus to arrive. Not fun, not fun at all. But it was kind of funny the way the people kept apologizing in very formal language and bowing with deep bows. From somewhere they got some cracker-like snacks to give to us in apology, as if eating a cracker makes up for freezing my butt outside for two hours. But oh well, the bus finally came and we were all glad when it did.

It is absolutely impossible to get some sleep on those buses, but I did try. However, when Haley wanted to get out for a minute it woke me up and I was not able to get back into anything resembling sleep. The seats are too small and too hard so you couldn't get comfortable. We reached Kyoto station at around 8:30 because of the bus being late. This was a problem for me because I intended to go on the field trip to the doujinshi convention that day and the time to meet up with the class was at 9:15. So Haley and I ran inside, quickly bought tickets and took expresses to Hirakata station. I made it with about 5 minutes to spare, but this was without even visiting to bathroom so I felt absolutely disguesting. Haley and I parted ways here and she went home to sleep. Lucky...

Getting to the doujin convention was a long and tedious process, needing to visit the bathroom the entire time. We had to transfer trains at least three times in order to get to Intex Osaka, the convention center it was being held at. I separated from the class in order to use the restroom in the convenience store, and I hoped that I wouldn't be left behind. I knew I could still get in without them, but if I entered with the class, the school would be able to give me a partial refund on the ticket price/transportation costs. I caught up with them just before they entered. I decided to stick with my new friend Sing from class - she's from China, a really nice girl. We went in together, then I went to the bathroom to change into new clothes. I put on this Bleach bandana that I bought at the Anime Fair (one of my two purchases, the other being a Naruto tea mug). Finally, I felt ready to tackle Comic City!

Being there was a complete deja vu of what I experienced the day before. The same lines, the same crowdedness, the same convention-center atmosphere. But there were a few significant differences. The first one was, the attendees were 99% girls, which was not at all surprising considering the nature of the event. Secondly, there was merchandise to buy, this being the point of the whole thing. Thirdly, there was nothing pretty, no huge setups, no AV equipment - this was put on by fans, for fans. So the atmosphere was alot more relaxed, well except for the hustle and bustle.

Some of you are probably wondering, "what is this all about? What are 'doujinshi'?" Let me try my best to explain. Put simply, doujinshi is fan-made manga. Amateur artists band together in groups called "circles" and create these short, amateur manga which are usually based on professional or real manga and anime. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and that's what these girls are doing - showing their respect and love for their favorite manga/anime by drawing their own imitations of it, with their own plots and ideas mixed in. Why it is mostly girls, I don't know - certainly boys draw too, and I think that the boys have their own separate event. But this one was certainly girl-oriented - by girls, for girls. I was actually very excited, since I have read doujinshi before online, and I have a good idea of what to expect and what i wanted.

I was shocked when I saw two of the circles I really liked there! I know them through reading their work online, and to actually be able to buy their newest volumes was an honor. Although I didn't say much, mostly, "I'll take this" it was still really cool. One woman asked where I was from, and I said, "America" and that was pretty much it. There were so many tables with so many circles, and the event only lasted about four hours with the most popular groups selling out quickly, packing and leaving. As I like to do comparison shopping, I missed out on some of the groups that left early when I tried to come back and buy something from them. Oh well, I learned my lesson. In the end, I came away with some beautiful doujins, so I'm happy. My friend, Sing, however, was disappointed, as she didn't really understand what doujins were and she doesn't watch any anime so it didn't mean anything to her. We got separated right at the end of the convention and I couldn't see her anywhere, so I just went home with the teachers. On the way home we talked about doujins, anime and manga, so it was a very good conversation. Although my teacher is currently teaching us about anime in my Mass Communications class, he is surprisingly unknowledgable about anime, only being familiar with the classics. It was then my clear duty to try to bring him up to date. But by then I was just soo tired...

I managed to make my way back home and greeted my host family before going upstairs and collapsing. I showed them everything I bought later, and they ooohed and aahed over the plastic ramen. It was easily the best purchase I made. Heeeheee...and then I went to bed and couldn't wake up in the morning, just like the song. I ended up sleeping until 2...so much for school! Plus I was feeling the effects of an oncoming cold, with which i am still grappling. Bleeeehhhhh

Well folks, that was my vacation! What do you think of it?

Please leave tags/comments as always. Thanks!

All of Tokyo in One Day!

2007-03-24T00:28:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I know I didn't post yesterday, but we were so tired that it was impossible. But I'll post on yesterday more fully later. We did so much today that I feel at least compelled to get it all down before I forget.

Haley and I decided to separate from Jake and Sam today, since we had different goals to accomplish. So, we were out ofthe capsule hotel by 9:15-ish, and off to the metro. I had spent an hour planning our day the night before, making sure we'd hit everything. It was goign to be perfect!

First stop: Meiji Shrine. According to Wikipedia, this "is the Shinto shrine dedicated to the souls of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken. Emperor Meiji died in 1912 and Empress Shoken in 1914. After the demise of the Emperor and Empress, this shrine was constructed to venerate them. Their souls were enshrined on November 1, 1920. The original building was destroyed during World War II. The present shrine was completed in October, 1958."

So as shrines go, this is pretty new. But it was made to look very venerable and traditional, with the torii gates left a natural wood color instead of painted red. But the shrine itself was nothing spectacular - 'seen one shrine, seen 'em all' seemed to be the impression given by it. However, it was big, pretty and famous, and that's all the matters. We did get to see some kind of ceremony where some people came out and bowed before the alter while a guy pounded on teh biggest taiko drum I've ever seen. Got that on tape.

After the shrine, we wandered around Harajuku for a bit, especially down the famous Takeshita doori. This street is home to many of the small and unusual clothes shops for which Harajuki is famous. This area is a mecca for fashion-conscious Japanese girls looking to enhance their individual style. You will see everything from scary goth to cute maid outfits to funky haircolors and ripped jeans here. Even the guys like to be trendy and shop here. I took some pics, which I will upload later. But we didn't spend alot of time in Harajuku, as it is mostly clothes shopping and therefore uninteresting. We got back on the train and headed to Nakano.

PS - As a side note, we did most of our travel today by the JR train line, whereas on Wednesday we did most of our travel by the JR metro line. One is a subway, one is a train and although they occasionally share the same station, there are many stops that the metro makes that the train doesn't make and vice versa. Today we happened to need to make the stops that the train made, so we used the train. But the train doesn't have an all day pass like the metro does....so we paid thru the nose.

I looked online, and at Nakano station happens to be...the largest anime store in the world! So I knew we had to go there, if only for a short while. After some walking around and not finding it, we went to a Mister Donuts (yes, that's what they have here instead of Dunkin Donuts, and its better) and we asked for directions. It had been right where we were walking, but only on the second floor! So we went back and found Mandarake (that's the name) and explored. It consisted of several shops: DVD, CD, figurines, and doujinshi. We saw a lot of cool figurines, I even saw the rare Sailor Saturn statues that i've wanted for years. (costing about $150) Ah, I'll never have one, but I can at least dream. We wandered around Mandarake for a while, but we had to leave pretty soon if we were going to hit up all the places we wanted to go to.

After Mandarake, Haley wanted to go to the Tokyo national Museum, so we went there. It was in Ueno Park, a large open park with fountains, temples and museums. They also had a museum of science and of Western Art there. But who goes to Japan to see Western Art. Instead, we went to the Japanese art floor and basically did a quick survey of all Japanese art in an hour, including things like samurai swords and helmets. After that, we went back to the station.

My next goal: Plastic food store! I found some really good directions online for how to get to the plastic food store, so we went and found it no problem. In case you did't know, plastic food is a pretty big deal here. ALL restaurants have it out front so you can see what the food will look like. Therefore, the making of plastic food has become somewhat of an art, as they try and make it look more and more realistic. The result is something you can barely tell apart from real food unless you look closely. But it is a rather niche market, so there are only a few stores in all of Tokyo that actually sell it. We found the famous ones, and I was determined to make my first big purchase in Japan other than necessities. I really love plastic food, I think it is hilarious and would make the best souvenir. So, I decided to get something you can't get back home, in order to remind me of Japan - Ramen! I got some plastic ramen, then I bought a cheap bowl to display it in. It was expensive, but absolutely worth it. It looks so real! Haley got some melon pan keychains - the lifesize melon pan was about 55 bucks, which is just too much. Yikes, that stuff was expensive! The ramen i got could buy you 10 bowls of real ramen. But this one'll last forever!

Then we left the plastic food stores and returned to Akihabara. Both Haley and I wanted to explore Akiba some more before the anime convention. We stopped by the Tokyo Anime Center to see what it was - basically a glorified information booth. Had some flyers and a looping video advertising various anime, and some merchandise. But it was good that we stopped there, bcause I saw an advertisement for a store I wanted to visit a couple of streets away, another famous one like Mandarake. So, even though we were exhausted and had hadnothing to eat except a donut and a chocolate covered banana, we lugged our stuff and walked through Akiba, looking at various stores.

As usual, it was the center of the action. Businessmen by the dozens walked past us, maids handed out flyers for their cafes, and sellers hawked their wares in front of their stores. The sounds of my favorite anime songs drifted in the air. We passed by one desk where a song caught my attention - it was the ending single from one of my favorite animes that ended two years ago. But, as the speaker was explaining, this was a new version of thesingle that had come out today, with a new cover! It came out today, all the Japanese guys were looking at it, and it was really cool! So of courseI got it and it was very very exciting to be buying something like that on the day its released, here in the anime capital of the world, I can be one of the first people to buy it. yay!

Haley wanted to look in alleys for stores, and I agreed. Generally the best stuff is found atthe small stores. However, they can be seedy. We did find a retro game store, which Haley enjoyed. But the other stores we found were nothing special. Finally we returned to the main drag, and I saw the store that I saw advertised earlier in the Anime Center, and I suggested we go there. So we went to Animate.

It was really a great store, and so incredibly crowded. There were like seven floors, each one filled with a different kind of anime paraphernalia. I found all kinds of cute merchandise i never knew existed before - towels, blankets, washcloths, bottle warmers, mobiles, mugs, etc...all kinds of useful stuff. However, having just bought some expensive ramen, i held back and only bought a pen.

After that, there was only one thing left to do in Akiba: Go to a maid cafe. So we found one, and we did. Haley and I were both nervous; arent' maid cafes filled ith perverted old men? What would happen if we went in? |Well, we needn't have worried. The one we randomly picked seemed rather laidback, there were even a party of women there already seated and having dinner. No cause for alarm. The only difference betweenit and a anormal cafe was, theinterior decorating was kinda amateur and the waitresses were dressed in maid outfits. They were brown with a very short skirt. You werent' allowed to take pcitures of them, or I would have. The bartender waswearing Chi ears. They were all very cute, and the decor was suitably sugary cute wtih cat plushies and such in the area. The food was simple and overpriced: I orderedsomething called "nuts and cheese" and got a planter's assortment wtih a few cubes of cheese for 500\. A real ripoff, but the point here was not the food, it was the maids. And although themaids did not do anything special for us, they did do things for the guys sitting next to us.For example, each entree a guy ordered would have something that the maid needed to pour on before he coudl eat it. One guy got some onigiri soup. The maid had a sauce bottle and asked him what he wanted her to write, and he replied, "Love!" So she wrote the kanji for love on his onigiri. The other guy ordered curry and rice, and so themaid brought out a plate of rice and a bowl of curry. Then she very slowly spooned the curry on top of the rice for him. It was just subtle things likethat, but it was obvious that they were doing it to appeal to the men. Also, the menu saidthings like, "You must order at least one menu item an hour. Pictures are prohibited. You must pay 500\ to talk to the maids". I get the feeling that some guys just come in there to sit and stare at thegirls in their uniforms. Hmmm, i feel sorry for those guys. But at least now I know what maid cafes are like, and I lived the life of the otaku for at least half a day.

After the maid cafe,there was only one more thing to make the day complete- a visit to the largest ferris wheel in the world, in Odaiba. Getting there was such a hassle, since the ferris wheel closed at 10, we though we'd never make it. Odaiba is a manmade island in Tokyo Bay, and is thus pretty far. But after gettign lost andfrustrated, finally we made it and were able toride. The reason this ferris wheel means so much to me is because it was in one of my favorite animes, and the lasttime I came to Tokyo I saw it but couldn't ride it. But this time I did! And the view from the top car is pretty good. We even waited to ride the clear car, which is all clear plastic so you can see everything. Not goodfor people with fear of heights. But it was fun and then when we were done we sat down and watched it for a while (the deal with the ferris wheel is, it is lighted adn makes patterns at night in a way that no american one does).Then we finally came back to our hotel in Akiba, for our last night in a capsule *sniff. But man am I tired. These capsules are actually pretty comfortable.

Tomrorow is TAF! Tokyo Anime Fair Day! Then we'll be going home on the night bus. This will probably be my last post till Monday since I won't have internet until I get back to school. So, till then!

Don't forget to leave comments, posts. Thanks!

Day 1 - Deppatsu, Ginza, Tsukiji & Akihabara

2007-03-21T23:54:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Well it looks as if I can use internet at the hotel, so I`ll give you guys a little update. Im tired and have to go to bed soon, but Ill say what I can.

Last night we began our journey by meeting at Hirakata-eki. We ate dinner at a place Jake likes that has a lot of fried foods. After, we went to do karaoke in that very same building. I really like that place - you can do pool, read manga, play games or do karaoke for only 100\ per fifteen minutes. So, Sam, Haley and I did karaoke while Jake played pool. We sang almost every anime song we knew, and it was great fun. After an hour and a half of that, it was time to leave. We headed out for Kyoto eki, and missed our stop. Thus, we turned the huge chunk of buffer time we had into a last-minute dash for the bus. We really had no idea where the bus was going to be when we got to Kyoto eki, so we ran around asking a million people in Japanese and finally we found where it was supposed to be, only it hadnt come yet. Phew.

Bus ride was, as expected, uncomfortable and none of us got any sleep. We arrived at Tokyo Station around 6:45AM Weds. morning, to find it pretty much deserted. So much for the supposed rush hour. We had decided that, since it was early, we might as well go see the famous Tsukiji fish market, like the guide recommends. Oh, btw we have been living off of the Frommer:s guide to Tokyo that both Sam and Haley own. It says that Tsukiji is the largest and freshest fish market in the world. Well, after freshening up a bit we went there, only to find it deserted. Merely a large warehouse-looking parking lot with a fishy smell and lots of little vehicles sitting under patios. Well, if the fish was already auctioned off, might as well try to eat some. The guidebook recommended a sushi breakfast of fresh fish; most sushi places were closed at that time, but we managed to find a 24 hr sushi place. We all ordered some manner of tuna; I finally tried some ootoro, or fatty tuna which is very expensive(400\ for one slice). But if i:m going to eat it, it may as well be here, where it is the freshest possible! It was very good- a delicate flavor. But due to the expensiveness ofsushi, my *breakfast* was only 4 pieces of sashimi.Yikes.

We left Tsukiji and, after some reevaluating and backtracking, headed towards the Imperial Palace. The palace is only open two days a year, and the rest of the time only the East Gardens are open to the public. So, that:s where we went. The gardens themselves are not particularly beautiful or interesting - mostly the fact that we were near where the royal family lives is exciting. I did see camera crews by the gate as we passed on the bus- perhaps the Emperor would show his face today? Ill never know...

Finally we quit those boring gardens and went to Ginza, the haute-couture department store capital of Tokyo. But we didn:t come to go shopping, no- we came to see the Sony Building, Sony`s world headquarters. It was very exciting! They dont let anyone in until 11 AM - there are guards standing by the doors to make sure the rule is enforced. Finally, we were let in and we ran to the showcase floors. There was everything Sony sells, all the newest models - from Walkmans to cameras to Vaios to TVs, PSP and PS3. They let you demo everything but the game consoles. There were some gadgets in there that blew my mind with their awesomeness. I:ll detail them more later.

After the Sony building, we were tired so we left to find our hotel in Akihabara. The only thing is, I forgot to print out the map from the hotel:s website as to whereit was located with respect to Akihabara Station...this caused an hour of agonizing walking around, hard feelings and endless inquiries at convenience stores for directions. At last, one nice man pointed us in theright direction and we found it. We checked in, but werenot allowed to stay because they were cleaning, so we left and atelunch at a burger place. Then, we walked around Akiba!

Akiba would have been alot better if I wasn:t so dead tired. But even as it was, ti was great. Wandering through the stores, recognizing every other songplayed over the speakers, looking at figurines, DVDs, books, manga, it wasall great. We even saw some cosplay stuff ( I really want this Naruto sweatshirt, but it was waaay too expensive). Then Haley and I returned to the capsule hotel to meet with Sam and Jake, who had returned early to take a nap.We all finished the evening by going out to see Tokyo Tower and eating dinner there.

Boy is Tokyo Tower a tourist trap. Yes its: bigger than theEiffel tower, but it has much less meaningto inhabitants of Tokyo than the other one. It is gaudy and overpriced, costing you 1400\if you want to go to the top, and *only* 820\ if you don:t. They have thigns like a wax museum there too. The view was good, though, especially at night. We saw the ferris wheel, yay! Got to ride that tomorrow. Tokyo tower has also appeared in many anime, like MKR and Sailor Moon and X. Yup.

Ok and now to bed. I get to sleep ina capsule, yay. They don:t look bad at all, really. Then tomorrow its up early to go on the mt. Fuji tour. I really hope the weather is good and we get to properly see it. Mt.Fuji is only visible 50 days of the year, you know, and its unlikely that tomorrow will be one of them. *sigh. One can only hope....

Well we:ve got stil alot left to do on this trip! I hope I get it all done!

As always, commments/tags plz

The Plans of Spring Break

2007-03-17T12:52:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

It's the first day of Spring Break! Yay! And now, finally, I have the time to make a decent post. *deep breath* Here goes!

Its a Saturday, and thus the campus is usually not crowded. However, I forgot that this particular Saturday is graduation day for the Japanese seniors. Yes, it's been a month since they took their final exams, and now they come back to campus to graduate. The campus green is full of boys in tuxes, girls in splendid kimonos and their proud parents. Seriously, there is a great variety of kimonos out there in all kinds of colors - it looks like a rainbow. They've even brought the school band out in tuxes to perform outside on the steps. Well I'm not at all involved with the ceremony so I'll stay out of their way. However, this does mean that the new semester will be starting soon, and hordes of Japanese students will be returning to campus. Good time to make some friends!

Well I know I promised to say something about White Day when it happened, but there really wasn't much to say. White Day was on Wednesday, and it came and went just like any other day. The only notable thing was the amount of sweets/candies advertised in the stores under the "White Day" banner. I also saw a good number of things to buy for your girlfriend that WEREN'T sweets, but I don't think I'll go there! Let's just say that some of that stuff was very prominently displayed when I went to Namba last weekend. Mayu received little presents from the boys in her class, like a box of cookies and a bunch of erasers 'n stuff. Pretty cute. Okaasan received some kind of necklace from Otousan, but I didn't see it.

Ok let's switch from one marketed holiday to another. Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm wearing the greenest shirt I own, and Haley wore clover-patterened socks yesterday, but that's about it. This holiday is of course virtually unknown here. They have really no concept of what it is to be Irish, although the other day my Okaasan made boiled cabbage and carrots that taste just like Granny's. It was kinda strange! It seems that it's just another way she likes to prepare vegetables. I told her that it was a very Irish style of cooking, and all she needed was to add some corned beef in there to get the traditional Irish meal. I think though, that corned beef will be impossible to find here. Also, the Japanese don't need another reason to go out and get drunk with friends...they do that enough already.

**Pi Day and the Ides of March happened sometime this week, but there really wasn't much I could do for them. I'm not taking any math classes here....Sam pretended to stab me with a knife so we could act out Cesear's assasination by Brutus...but that was it and it was pretty lame.**

Ok, on with the exciting stuff - Spring Break Plans! I have been plannning what we were going to do for about a month. I had certain goals for this break, and so before planning I laid them out. They were:
Go to a REAL onsen (hot spring), not one of those public baths that you can find just about anywhere. I'm talking in the middle of nature, a natural hot spring, traditional Japanese inn where they give you yukatas to dress in and give you the bazillion-course traditional Japanese meal. Why? Because I haven't done it, it's my only chance to do it, and I want to experience myself what I've seen in just about every anime ever, the traditional high school trip to the onsen. Finally, I will be able to do it myself.

Go to Tokyo. I've been to Tokyo, yes, but not on my own, not doing what I wanted to do. I'm not going to Tokyo to see famous sights, not really. I want to go see the pop culture of Tokyo - see the famous style of the Harajuku girls, marvel at the glitter of Shinjuku, and of course visit the famous electronic stores and anime mecca at Akihabara (henceforth, I shall refer to it as Akiba, like the otakus do). I really couldn't care less about stuff like the Imperial Palace or the Meiji Shrine, since I've already been-there-done-that.

Go climb Mt.Fuji - I saw it when i came to Japan three years ago, but I wanted to experience it more directly. I remember seeing it from a distance on a hazy day and you could barely make it out. This time, I wanted to get closer to it and really experience it. I dispatched the idea of actually climbing it about three seconds after I started searching for information online. The climb is actually pretty strenuous, taking 7-9 hours to summit. Mt.Fuji is 12,388 ft tall, about twice the height of the tallest mountain I've ever climbed. Neither Haley nor I are experienced mountain climbers, so that idea went into the can. "Well, if I can't summit, maybe I can just climb to the base?" Normally, this would be possible but actually the climbing season doesn't begin till June. Anyone climbing the mountain in the off season has to register with the police and prove that they are experienced climbers beforehand. Ok, scrap that idea...."Well, maybe let's just get near it and look at it". Allright, I can live with that.

So, my three goals were - go to an onsen, go to Tokyo, go close up and look at Mt. Fuji. HOWEVER, in my searching I stumbled upon something that I knew I absolutely must do during the break. This is not just a fourth goal, this is the SUPREME goal. And that is...to attend the Tokyo International Anime Fair, or TAF. I read the site online, and I knew I must go. This is THE fair, the place where all the people who make anime meet and make business decisions, the best anime of the year is awarded, singers perform and the newest wares are sold. It's the BIGGEST ANIME CONVENTION IN THE WORLD.

What kind of coincidence must it be that this convention happens during the few months that I'm in Japan, during the very week of my break, during the very time that I was going to go to Tokyo anyway? Clearly, my fate is to go to this convention. I obviously have no choice but to bow to my fate and go~

So, I did much internet searching to accomplish these goals. Haley and I were going together no matter what, and finally Sam and Jake decided to come with us as well. After much discussion and deliberation, we have finally decided on the following schedule:

Sunday Morning: We will meet in Hirakata, and take the train to Kyoto. From the station, we will take a bus to Kurama Onsen, which is apparently very remote. Sam and I decided to go there after reading its website. It seems the ideal place to go. It's secluded, peaceful, has got an outdoor hot spring, the building is in traditional style, two Japanese meals are served. We made a reservation for Sunday night for the four of us. We'll be staying in the very traditional bamboo-mat floor room that has a paper slider to separate girls from boys. I'm very very excited for this - it will be as Japanese an experience as I'm going to get. Then on Monday morning after we check out, we'll hang out in Kyoto for a while to do whatever everyone wants to do, whether it's looking at shrines or shopping. We return to our respective homestays Monday night.

Tuesday: Most of the day is free, but that night we are going to take the night bus to Tokyo! The bus is ideal because it transports you at the same time letting you sleep on the way. It's like a moving hotel, but not nearly as comfortable, I'm sure. That was the business transaction I made here at campus - I was able to reserve the night bus for all four of us by myself, in Japanese. The lady was very nice. I'm sure it'll work out, but we'll be tired. The bus leaves at 11:40 PM and gets to Tokyo at 7:30 AM.

Wednesday - Saturday: We will be in Tokyo, or at least stay in Tokyo every night. Where are we staying, you may ask? Good question - poor college students can't really afford a hotel for three nights. Youth hostels were also all full! So I pretty much saved the day when, with my ingenious searching, I discovered a wonderful, cheap place to spend three nights. And it is: the Akihabara Capsule Hotel!

I'm not sure if you have heard of the phenomenon of Japanese capsule hotels, so here's a summary from Wikpedia:
"A capsule hotel (カプセルホテル, kapuseru hoteru) is a hotel system of extremely dense occupancy. Guest space is reduced in size to a modular plastic or fibreglass block roughly 2 m by 1 m by 1.25 m, providing room to sleep and little more, although facilities usually include a television and other electronic entertainment. These capsules are then grouped and stacked, two units high." - Wikipedia

The one in Akihabara happens to have a wonderful site in English: http://www.capsuleinn.com/index.html

Yes, we'll be sleeping in little boxes, compartmentalized and stacked in rows. The ultimate ideal in Japanese efficiency. Here's a quote from the site that I found hilarious:
"You might recall the movie The Fifth Element, directed by Luc Besson. Our capsule units will remind you of the main character, Bruce Willis' small living and sleeping area."

Pic:

It will be an experience, no doubt. I've told several people that we're doing it, and they have raised an eyebrow and laughed. Hey, I never said it will be comfortable or luxurious, but it gets the job done! And its in Akiba, no less. I will get to go to sleep and wake up in the anime capital of the world. I could not be happier.

Wednesday, Friday: We will explore Tokyo together. I'm sure everyone else will want to see places like Meiji Shrine and the Imperial Palace, and of course I'll go with them, but I'll be more excited to see things like the Longest Escalator in the World, which is in Ikebukuro, and of course explore Akihabara. We have two days to see everything we want to see...

Thursday: We will take a trip to Mt.Fuji. It's a long haul from Tokyo, about two hours by bus. Since we are not familiar with the area, I suggested we sign up for a tour that will bring us from Tokyo, show us Fuji, then bring us back to Tokyo. It's a real deal - for about $100, it'll include all this stuff:

"Deluxe motorcoach drive along the expressway to Mt. Fuji
Depart from Tokyo to enjoy a scenic drive aboard a deluxe motorcoach to Mt.Fuji (3,776m . or 12,388ft.)

Fuji Visitor Center
Nature, culture and artwork concerning Mt.Fuji are on display at the information center. When the center is closed (Monday and certain other days), Peace Pagoda located on the way to Hakone will visit instead.

Drive up Mt. Fuji 5th station (Base camp, essentially)
Enjoy the spectacular drive halfway up Mt. Fuji to the Fifth Station (altitude 2,305 m.). The natural scenery en route is sure to impress.

Lunch at a local restaurant
Enjoy western-style lunch at a restaurant. Vegetarian food is available on request.

A cruise on Lake Ashi
Experience a delightful cruise on Lake Ashi aboard a large sightseeing boat. Let the crisp air & surrounding scenery refresh you.

Mt. Komagatake Aerial Cableway
Ride an aerial cableway up and down Mt.Komagatake for a sweeping view of celebrated Hakone National Park."

And then it brings us back to Tokyo. I'm fairly sure that if we went by ourselves, we could never figure all that out. Plus, the tour will be in English, and we can learn stuff easier. Everyone agreed with my plan. It certainly fulfills my goal of looking at Mt.Fuji - according to the day plan, we'll be looking at Fuji five different ways. I may even get sick of looking at it. Oh well!

Saturday: TAF Day! I plan to spend all day at the world's largest anime convention. The information at the English site is a bit sparse, so I'm not exactly sure what kinds of events there'll be. But there will be the award ceremony, anime performances, the dealer's room, companies showing off their newest creations...so I'm sure it'll be great, and I know it will take the entire day.

Saturday night: Haley and I are returning by night bus to Kyoto. Sam and Jake will stay an extra day in Tokyo. The reason we decided to return is that we thought originally there was an art field trip for our class, but there isn't. Instead, there is a optional field trip that my Mass Media and Communications class is participating in - a trip to the Comic City doujinshi fair in Osaka. We're studying manga right now, so it seems appropriate. Doujinshi is fan-made manga, or amateur manga. They get together at conventions and fairs to sell their wares. I love doujinshi too, so I'm definitely going! Although I'll be dead tired after the night bus...but I'm still going. Straight from anime fair to doujinshi fair - I'll be on overload. But it's the time to go - this Comic City is the largest event in the area, and if I go with the field trip group I'll get reimbursed too.

So those are the plans! Usually on spring breaks, college students go somewhere warm and get drunk and party. I think this spring break is much better than that, in fact I can't think of any vacation more exciting that this is going to be. There's no where in the world I'd rather go, and nowhere I'd rather be. I will of course take lots of pictures and videos while I'm gone. I'm debating on taking my computer or not to Tokyo so I can make daily posts or not...hmm.

That's it, folks! I'm off on spring break. About to have the time of my life - I hope you all are doing well too.

Please leave tags, comments!

Yay! Midterms are OVER!!!

2007-03-16T18:12:00.000+09:00

Yes, pretty much what the title says. Its been a bit hectic here all week. But finally, the midterms are done. My oral exam and written exam for the speaking class went pretty well. Art and Mass Communication turned out to be easy. But alas, Reading and Writing was probably the hardest midterm I've ever taken. I even pulled an all-nighter last night, to no avail. Aa~ah. You try memorizing 120 kanjis and their associated 500 compound words as well as some esoteric grammar. In any case, it's over~~~ and now, its time for - Spring Break!! As I have to go home soon, I will outline my plans for break in detail tomorrow. Look forward to it!

As always, comments/tags plz!

Odds and Ends

2007-03-09T17:33:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I'm sorry about the lack of decent posts lately. Maybe it's because I'm still sick (going on three weeks now) or maybe because there's tests, or maybe because I'm just lazy. Either way, it doesn't look like there'll be any letup soon (next week is midterms, I'll still be sick, I'll always be lazy). Anyways...

Today I conducted my first business transaction in Japanese, and it went pretty well. I negotiated taking a bus from Kyoto to Tokyo for four people round trip, all in Japanese! I feel pretty proud of myself. It's all part of our spring break preparations, which I will talk about as the day approaches.

Okaasan dressed me in one of her kimonos the other night, just for kicks. It was very beautiful, costing around $3000. It is long-sleeve style (only unmarried women wear) -her parents got it for her when she was 20, because age 20 is kinda like "coming out" age for women and it is traditional to give the girl a very beautiful kimono. Unfortunately it did not look very good because I am a much bigger and taller person than okaasan. But still it was fun - but man those things are hard to take on and off! They are so darn complicated with so many unecessary frills. I mean, how many sashes do you really need to tie something around? Come on, now.

Haley and I have still not gotten cell phones, but we plan to next week. This weekend, I think I'm finally going to do something with my host family. We'll go to DenDen Town again, but this time I'll stick with them and go wherever they go. On Sunday there's a tea ceremony thing that okaasan is going to, but I'm not sure I'll go because it costs some money. Either way, it'll be a fun weekend. Then I've got to start studying for midterms!!!

Well then, I'll make better posts as information (and time) warrant.

Leave comments/tags!

Testo...

2007-03-07T17:47:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I know I haven't made a post in a couple of days. But, there's a reason - it's midterm time, and today alone I had 3 tests! I think they all went pretty well, except art - yucky. Oh well~ I'll make a proper update very soon. Until then!

Down with a Cold...Japanese Style

2007-03-02T18:44:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I apologize for not updating nearly all week. No, I wasn't just being lazy - I've been feeling really bad this week due to - allergy season!

Ah yes, it's nearly springtime here! Funny, I almost feel like winter never happened. Although I understand that the weather has become much colder after I left, and there have been some snowdays....what a bummer I missed them! But, springtime has virtues of its own: warmer days, flowers beginning to bloom, my nose becoming red and runny...uh-oh. It's been many years since allergies have hit me this hard - perhaps it's all the unknown flora, or because I'm not taking allergy shots at the moment. In any case, for about a week now I have been in severe discomfort. Lucky they have so many tissues here - it seems they use them in place of napkins.

Because I'm dumb and didn't bring any anti-congestant or Claritin with me, I prepared to grab a box of tissues and suffer it out. But to my great thanks, my okaasan stepped up to the plate and tried her darndest to help me. She also has similar allergies, and offered some of her medicine to me. But I am not so bold as to take someone else's prescription, especially in Japan, so I respectfully declined. She also started making tea for me everyday - she calls it "allergy tea" but I have no idea what's in it. She says it will help me, and she also drinks it herself. I don't know if its working or not, but I like tea so...fine by me!

However, on Wednesday I knew I just couldn't make it to school. I had been unable to sleep the night before, with my nose always clogged I couldn't breathe very well and my bedside had become a veritable mountain of used tissues. I told my okaasan that I would be staying in bed all day. She immediately whipped up another allergy remedy, a very interesting one. I don't know what she mixed together, but it was some root-like things, mashed into a paste. She spread the whitish past onto one of those large square band-aids and stuck it to my forehead. "Keep this on for three hours, and go to sleep. It should help your nose - it worked for me!" she said. So I went to bed with a large bandage on my forehead containing mashed plant matter. Hmm...

Apparently, okaasan prefers natural remedies over prescription drugs. "Taking too many pills is bad" she says, and I'm inclined to agree. However, I'm sad to say that the root concoction did little or nothing for me - it only left me with a rather sticky forehead. (Perhaps this is because my discomfort was no longer caused by allergies; as they're wont to do, my allergies had turned into a cold, which is then usually followed by a sinus infection. Let's hope it doesn't get that far). What worked far better were the cough-drop-like things that she bought for me later that day. Just like the ones in America, they have that Vicks-vapor type feeling that clears you up temporarily. And she brought me my lunch in bed too, making a special type of rice gruel for me that is reserved for times of sickness. It was all very considerate of her.

Whether due to root paste, tea, cough drops or just plain bed rest, the next day I indeed felt much better. Okaasan then gave me a couple of face masks to wear for the day. You may or may not know, but the Japanese people have a habit of wearing surgical face masks outside. Up until now I assumed it was sick people who didn't want to get others sick, or paranoid people who didn't want to get sick in the first place. But apparently, it's considered a good idea to wear them during allergy season, so that less allergens make it to your nose. It's a good idea actually- we should do that more in the states. But still! I felt so self-conscious wearing the mask, even though it's very much accepted here to do so. Perhaps I felt I was being stared at, people thinking "How come a foreigner is doing what we do? Are they making fun of us?" Quite the contrary, I think it's a great idea. But for some reason, I just don't feel comfortable doing it. Plus the masks aren't the most comfortable things in the world themselves. They kinda trap heat around your face. So I stopped wearing it...

Here's some more info on face masks from the BBC website:

"It is a common misconception among foreigners who come to Japan that the people wearing white cotton face masks on the streets are sheltering from pollution. In fact, they are usually performing a public service by trying to keep their cold germs to themselves.

Face masks are one of the most visible examples of the Japanese obsession with battling baikin or germs which, as the mercury rises at this time of year, goes into overdrive." - Juliet Hindell, BBC News

And I hear there are even face masks with patterns and characters from popular TV shows. I need to find me some of those...like this one-

-http://www.teaching-in-japan.com/

Well, this weekend I intend to rest on Saturday, because on Sunday I'm going on a field trip with my Art in the Kansai Area class to see a Buddhist temple in Nara. I'll post all about it when I get back, I swear. Now that I'm feeling better I have absolutely no excuse.

I hope you all are well. Further updates as events warrant!

Please leave comments/tags as always!

A quick update..

2007-02-26T16:41:00.000+09:00

Hi all, I have a test tomorrow and therefore cannot make much of an update...I hope it goes well, and you are doing well too. Real update soon! Sorry!

Not much going on here...

2007-02-23T14:00:00.000+09:00

I know I promised to make a really great post, but you'll just have to wait. I find that I've been especially busy with classes and such that I've had no time. But don't worry! It'll come. Perhaps on Monday. But tomorrow will be exciting, because Sam, Haley and I are going to Kobe! Haley's planned out the entire trip and it should be great. I'll do a full report on it, probably Saturday night or so. Until then!

Hirakata Takoyaki

2007-02-21T17:38:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Yesterday, both Haley and I were free in the afternoon. So, since Haley wanted to get a cellphone and I wanted to go to the bank, we went to Hirakata Station (basically, the center of Hirakata city). From Kansai Gaidai, to take the bus to Hirakata is only like, 10 minutes. We got off in Hirakata, and headed towards Sumitomo Bank. I then had somehow to communicate that i wanted to deposit some Traveler's checks, without knowing any banking terms whatsoever in Japanese. Fortunately on the second floor there was a "Foreign Exchange" desk which I had to take a number for and wait. The lady barely spoke any English, but it wasn't that hard - I give her the traveler's checks, and she went back somewhere and turned it into cash. I had to fill out a couple of forms too, and write my name all in caps, exactly as it appears on my Alien Registration card. It's a funny thing - I don't know if I explained it before, but since the bankers can't read English, when you write your name it has to be exactly as it appears on previous documentation in order for them to verify it. My name must just look like a series of weird pictograms to them, and if I wrote it any differently (like using lowercase letters) then they might think it was someone else's name. In any case, it all went smoothly and she gave me the cash, which I then deposited using the ATM. ATMs are crazy, maybe I'll do an expose on them later. But at least the money got in there. Yay.

Then Haley and I went to the cell phone store (keitai denwa). They have special plans for foreign students that aren't so bad. Free phone, $17 a month, and $25 cancellation fee for when I return. For the three months I would use it, that'd be a total of $76. That's not bad, considering the benefits of being able to instantly communicate with my friends. So I think I'm going to get one. Haley also was going to get one, but they wouldn't let her because she doesn't have her registration card yet. I think that it's strange that I'm the only one who has one - everyone else's city hall must be slow. I could have got a cell phone right then and there, but I decided to wait so Haley and I can go back together and get them. Then I'll be like a real Japanese person! I'll talk more about cell phones when I get one..

After that, we wandered around Hirakatashi for a while. There was an open raised walkway that went all the way around the plaza in front of the station, so we walked on that. We decided to go in some random department store (Kintetsu) and looked at all the expensive clothes in tiny sizes. Japanese stores may not be wide, but boy are they tall! This one store covered 7 floors - I couldn't believe it. However, the square footage of each level was relatively small. I'd have to say it was kinda like Filene's. There were some floors where everything was a "bargain" and we saw some shoes that Haley might want to consider getting because she needs sneakers. Then we went all the way down to the basement, and it was kinda like an underground mall.

The basement floor of this place was filled with gourmet food vendors, as is quite common here. One floor always seems to be filled with glass cases and women in maid outfits bowing at you for just glancing at their wares. I took a couple of pics:

Here's some stuff for the upcoming Hina Matsuri (Dolls Day)

Then we made our way to the surface, and figured out that we had crossed under the street by being in the underground mall place. After that, we went to Baskin and Robbins (they call them "31" here, because of the 31 flavors thing) and I had azuki flavored ice cream, or the traditional red bean. It was pretty good. Haley had chocolate (chicken!) Then we both went home.

For dinner, my okaasan made takoyaki! I had actually been wanting to try these for a while, but I didnt' think that it was possible to make them at home. I always thought you could only get them from street vendors...Let me explain what they are. Takoyaki (たこ焼き) means "baked octopus" and it is essentially that. But i think of them as "octopus balls" because they are balls with some octopus in them. I'll let these videos do the explaining for me.

Making of Takoyaki Part 1

Making of Takoyaki Part 2

Making of Takoyaki Part 3

I've wanted to eat takoyaki for a long time, since I've seen them in anime. And no, you can't really taste the octopus. It just adds texture.

Takoyaki in Anime:

And with that we had rice and miso soup and something green that was alot like spinach. Refer to wikipedia for some more info on takoyaki:

Nothing important happened today. But tomorrow I'll do a nice cultural update, like I did for Valentine's Day. Look forward to it! (Tanoshimi!)

Until next time~

Don't forget to leave comments/tags!

Karaoke Night!

2007-02-19T17:39:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Well I'm here to report on my weekend. Actually the only thing interesting to say is that I went out Friday night with Haley, my speaking partner Yasuyo, and her friend Haruka. We went to a restaurant and then karaoke. For the rest of the weekend, I didn't leave the house - busy studying for a test and writing a paper, which I turned in today. Pretty confident on both counts. But! I'm sure you want to hear more about the karaoke so...here goes!

We met up with Yasuyo-chan (靖代) and Haruka-chan (陽加) at Kansai Gaidai and then proceeded to Hirakata-eki (the area around the train station). Inside the station there was a restaurant that Yasuyo and Haruka really like - an omlette rice restaurant. I tried to explain that we don't really have omuraisu (what they call it) back in the States. Essentially what it is is a thin layer of egg wrapped around some rice. Don't ask me how they do it - i have no idea. Anyways, you put various sauces on the egg and the rice to change it up. When I tried it at the school cafeteria I didn't really like it, but here it was pretty good. Here's a pic:

Mine had a hamburger on top of it (yes I know) because I wanted to try what the Japanese thought was a hamburger. It was essentially just some ground beef, but it was fine. The name of this thing, however, was incredible - "hambaagaa suteeki hayashi saasu omuraisu" with "baata raisu" and I managed to say the whole thing only messing up once. For those of you who don't speak Engrish, that is "hamburger steak hayashi sauce omlette rice with butter rice (as opposed to 'ketchup rice')". So yeah. By the way, the restaurant was called "Pomme no ki" as in the French word for apple. However I don't know quite what they thought it meant because a large decorative sign was hung featuring the words "Pomme de Terre!" on it, which in English would be roughly equivalent to hanging a sign with the huge word "POTATO!" on it. It was kind of amusing, but Japanese people make such mistakes often enough with English, let alone French. We tried to explain it to Yasuyo and Haruka - it was a bit difficult. All of our conversations mostly centered around differences between America and Japan, and customs thereof. Try explaining using air quotes to a foreigner. I can't even quite explain that in English!

After we ate, we went to a nearby karaoke place on the fourth floor of some building (if they hadn't been guiding us, I would have never known it was there). This is the setup: there's a reception desk, everyone is dressed in office suits and the waiters are dressed in little tux-type things. For 600 yen per person you get an hour plus a soft drink of your choice. The lady hands you a slip with your room number on it, and like a motel you go and find the room. In the room there's couches lining the walls, a table in the middle, and a TV at the end. Our room for 4 people was kinda cramped, but at least it didn't smell of smoke like I feared it would. The waiter comes by in a few minutes to bring the drinks. The system for picking the songs is surprisingly advanced. Everything is wireless, except the mikes.(you'd think those'd be too) There is an approximately clipboard-sized box with a LCD screen on it that you can move around and use the stylus to select options. The menu is all in Japanese, of course, so they had to explain to us what stuff meant. You can search by artist or song title, and I think there were some more options too but I don't know what they did. You can input letters in English or Japanese using the stylus. The system can also give you scores at the end of a song, like a game.

So it was all great fun. I managed to find every song I wanted to find, which means that this system not only has popular songs, but also anime songs, which tend to be not as popular. It also has a good deal of English songs as well, but I didn't sing any English. If I do karaoke in Japan, you can bet that I'm going to be singing all Japanese songs, thank you very much. While you sing, the TV does a music video and lyrics for you (in Japanese, of course!). Thankfully I only sang songs I had already memorized. Next time I go, I'll find even more Japanese songs. Everyone had fun, including Haley. Here are some pics:

The one on the left is Yasuyo, the one on the right is Haruka.

Unfortunately the hour was up all to quickly and Haruka and Yasuyo left. Haley and I went to the Tsutaya (Books, movies and CDs) for a while....and I found my Newtype! Yay! so Exciting! I'll put pics of it later. Then we went home. Not too much of an adventure, but a little one.

Well that's all for now, folks. More updates as information warrants.

As always, don't forget to put comments/tags!

Weekend!

2007-02-16T17:43:00.000+09:00

Well, I'm off to karaoke tonight with my speaking partner and her friend, Yasuyo and Haruka. Haley's coming too! I'll be sure to be fun. As for the rest of the weekend, I think I will need to stay home and study, or maybe come to school to use the internet because I have to write a paper. I'll be able to update on Monday to let you know how it went. Till then!

"And Haruhi in a Bunny Suit Rolled Under a Car..."

2007-02-15T21:42:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Well, it's officially been two hours since the premiere of Naruto:Shippuden aired. And what a show it was. The hour special was better animated than any Naruto that I've seen in quite a while. Plus, I got to watch it on Machiko-san's large TV, and let me tell you, that picture was GORGEOUS. I think she must have HD TV or something, because the picture was so clear and sometimes the commercials went widescreen. But anyways, it was great and I'm very happy.

But really, Haley's route home is quite long and tortuous. I do not envy her having to walk it everyday, twice a day. But on the plus side, I got to see lots of school kids in their uniforms going home on the train. We stopped in Neyagawashi to take a look inside Book-Off and Tsutaya, both book stores. Haley bought some manga in Book-Off, but I was looking for Newtype magazine and failed to find it. It's mysterious, and has been eluding me since I got to Japan. Where is Newtype?? It has to be here somewhere...

We went to several grocery stores in the area so I could find Naruto goodies. Strangely enough, they are impossible to find. I wonder where they sell them. I bought a little fruit tart for Machiko-san though, just to thank her for letting me stay over there. Some of the grocery stores were closed for no apparent reason. Then we took the train one more stop to Haley's house. She then proceeded to lead me through a maze of suburbs. On the way we saw a guy selling taiyaki, or fish-shaped pancakes full of red bean paste. They are surprisingly very good. Then, Haley dropped the figurine she had bought out of a vending machine (it was Haruhi in a bunny suit) and it rolled under somebody's car. We figured it was too much trouble to try and retreive it, since it was only Haruhi in a bunny suit. However, if it was Kyon, we would have been down on our hands and knees looking for it (sorry, inside joke. Just ignore and read on).

Machiko-san turned out to be a really good cook. She made homemade soup and homemade potato salad. We even had - fugu! - for dinner. As you may know, fugu is blowfish, which is poisonous. Because it takes great skill to prepare such that it will not kill you, it is very expensive to buy. We only had a small piece each. I myself did not think it was terribly delicous (I still like salmon better) but Machiko-san seemed to think so. Her house is really awesome, a lot better than my house. She's got a great setup in her kitchen/dining room, with a raised tatami mat floor and an inground kotatsu (it's a table with a heater in it). So, I'm glad I came here. Plus, here I can get wireles...hehhe.

OK well I've got to go to bed cause I've got to get up early tomorrow! I'll post later but, tomorrow I'm definitely doing karaoke! Yay!

As always, leave comments/tags plz.

「Hero’s Come Back!」

2007-02-15T13:32:00.000+09:00

Warning: Extremely long post ahead. Proceed with caution.

Hey all,

I think it was a successful Valentine’s Day, for my part. I gave my okaasan the chocolates that I bought, and I think she liked them. I know Mayu definitely did! But okaasan is probably tired of chocolate by now; today, she gave out girichoco and Mayu gave out some tomochoco. She even gave me tezukuri choco, or homemade chocolate that she made with a kit. It’s really cute, shaped like Kogepan’s face (Kogepan is a popular character over here, on the same level as Hello Kitty). Here is a picture of the Kogepan choco:

It's kinda hard to see the resemblance, but here's the real Kogepan (his name literally means "burned bread")

But now the day is drawing to a close, and I sit here, eating maichoco that I bought at the convenience store, absolutely feverish with excitement as I type this blog entry. Why, you may ask? The answer is summed up in two words: ナルト- 疾風伝 (Naruto Shippuden).

Many of the readers of this blog probably have no idea what Naruto Shippuden is. To those who do, I apologize, for I am about to provide a lengthy explanation. Skip it if you wish, or read on if you want to know my take on the whole subject. Here goes!

Naruto Shippuden is, to put it succinctly, an anime. Now before all of you shake your heads and wonder again why I’m always going on about anime, just wait a minute and hear me out. This is Japan, the mecca of anime, and if you really want to know and understand my daily encounters and important experiences here, then you’re going to have to hear about anime, even for just a moment. You might even find it just a little bit interesting. Let’s start at the beginning.

Anime is Japanese animation. That’s simple enough, right? But it is a little different than the American conception of “cartoons”. Anime can and does have more adult plotlines and serious material, and some adults in Japan seriously watch anime as you would watch CSI or Lost every week. Therefore, someone watching anime at my age is not unheard of. But, that does not mean that it is quite normal. Like in America with respect to cartoons, one is expected to “grow out” of watching anime eventually. Japanese people consider late teens as the normal “limit” age of watching anime. However, people can and do continue watching anime as adults, relatively few though they may be. These people are called “otaku” (meaning can vary as much from “geek” to “obsessive fan”) and are generally considered the losers and unpopular of society, those who lack the social skills to really fit in. For example, my host family was a bit surprised when I said I watch anime, and furthermore, that I consider myself an otaku. That I watch the occasional anime show would not much bother them, but that I openly declared myself something that, in their society, has a somewhat negative connotation was probably surprising. Usually, people are closet otaku, and do not want to admit their geekiness openly. But, both “closet” and self-declared otaku exist and have their own niche in society, and there are enough of them to make Japan’s anime industry one of the country’s most profitable. During spring break I intend to go to Akihabara in Tokyo, otherwise known as “Otaku Central”. This is the otaku’s normal hangout place, with restaurants and stores catering exclusively to them. But more about that later.

Here's an example of the typical otaku:

Note the short height, geeky glasses, heavy backpack and shopping bag no doubt filled with anime goods.

Conversely, something that is not considered an “otaku” or geeky interest is reading manga, or comic books in English. From 5 yrs old to 95 years old, everyone here reads manga. I see them on trains, buses, and in stores. Manga by the thousands is released in the form of weekly manga anthologies, each which target a specific audience. For example, today in the convenience store I saw many boys and old men just standing in front of the magazine rack, reading manga anthologies. I’ve discovered that it is not at all uncommon to see people just stand in a store for ten minutes or more, reading magazines and manga, to the point where in America the store owner would come over and say, “Hey you gonna buy that? This ain’t a library” or something like that. The old men would be reading manga with sophisticated themes like politics, and the boys would be reading something like Shounen Jump, an anthology full of manga targeted at boys. These anthologies contain about ten or so different manga stories, all by different authors. Each week each author writes a chapter (about 15 or so pages) to be published. It’s like the Sunday comics in the news paper, only if each comic was about 20 times longer than that and in black and white (color is too expensive for weeklies). One of the manga published weekly in Shounen Jump anthology is called Naruto, a manga about ninjas.

Here is a pic of the cover of Shounen Jump. In this issue, Naruto happens to be featured on the cover:

Let me explain a bit about the symbiotic relationship between the manga and anime industries in Japan (more like predator/prey or something). You know how, in America, recent movies have been based on books like Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Eragon, or comic books like Superman, Spiderman, X-men, etc.? Well there’s a good reason for that – the book or comic book in question has been around for a while, has proved itself popular and has an established fan base. This ensures that the movie made from it will not fail – at the very least, the producers know that the fans of the book or comic will go see it. It is conservative but sound logic. Similarly, producers in Japan, who are even more conservative than financially-hurting Hollywood, would much rather jump on an existing bandwagon than create a new one. That is, they love to take advantage of the preexisting popularity of a manga by creating an anime from it, thus ensuring that they will grab the viewership of the manga fans at the very least. In the best case, they will create new viewers who like the anime for its own sake. For example, the Naruto manga had already been going on for a few years and had gained a considerable popularity and readership before it was made into an anime approximately four years ago.

Ah, I remember so well the time I first watched Naruto. It was almost exactly two years ago, during JanPlan as a freshman, when I finally decided to give it a try. I was immediately hooked – I marathoned the first 80 episodes in a week (one of my proudest accomplishments). Those were the days….suffice to say that I absolutely love Naruto, and since that January two years ago I have been following it every week. I am one of those fans of the anime only – I started out with the anime, and found no reason to read the manga, really. I’m not a big manga fan, I kinda need the sounds and dynamic camera moves to make it come alive for me. But anyways….it was unfortunate that, just as I caught up to the point currently airing in Japan, something terrible happened. Naruto went filler….

Once more let me explain. For about the first 130 episodes, Naruto had been following the plotline laid out by the manga. As is the case in America, the strictness with which a movie/anime adaptation of a book/manga varies. There can be and has been endless debates about which is better, the book or movie, etc., etc. Just like recent American movie adaptations of books, some animes follow manga plotlines more loosely than others, and vice versa. For example, some animes follow manga story up to a point, and then the writers start creating their own story (usually because the manga is so long and the anime producers need to make their animes end at a fixed number of episodes). Some animes keep strictly to manga plotlines, even so far as copying exact camera angles as depicted in the manga panels. Naruto is one of these, and so Naruto manga fans rejoiced because the manga they love is being reproduced so exactly, and anime fans rejoiced because the manga plotlines are top-notch quality. However, since each episode of anime usually can cover about two chapters of manga, the Naruto anime quickly caught up to where the manga currently was. The anime producers had to make a hard decision – do we stop the anime and resume when manga has gotten sufficiently far enough ahead? Or do we pave our own path here and begin to write new material for the series?

Their choice was the latter, unfortunate though predictable. Naruto was, and still is, a cash machine. Its popularity was such that no one in their right mind would stop production just because they ran out of storylines. Thus the anime entered a phase that we call “filler” because it is material that fills the time between manga storylines. I personally don’t mind filler if it’s done well; however, over the past two years the anime creaters have proved that their skills at writing good material for Naruto are nearly nil. The only person who can write truly good Naruto stories is of course the man who created the Naruto manga, Kishimoto-sensei. Since he is the one who created the characters, only he truly understands them. Therefore, for two years we have seen no character development and overused plot devices. The great anime that was Naruto became a farce, and as a result lost a lot of its viewership. Even so, it is impressive to note that Naruto routinely makes the ten top watched shows of the week. If it is like that at its low, imagine what it will be at its height. I predict the height of Naruto’s viewship to occur tomorrow night at 7 PM JST. How can I pin it down so exactly? I’ll tell you why – it’s because tomorrow is when Naruto resumes with manga plotline.

Finally, the manga has gotten sufficiently far enough ahead so that Naruto can again continue with manga stories. I’ve seen endless commercials and promotions over the past couple of weeks to advertise it. To celebrate, the producers are renaming the series to Naruto Shippuden and giving it a new opening/ending. A note about openings/endings – anime opening and ending songs are usually sung by famous singers/bands in Japan, similar to popular shows in America. The more popular shows (the most money-making shows) are able to hire some very famous singers to do their themes, and as a result many anime songs end up in the top ten of Japan’s Weekly Top 40 (most popular songs). I’ve read that Naruto’s new opening song will be called「Hero’s Come Back!」(hence the title of this post) and will be sung by nobodyknows (and no, I don’t know them, haha). I find the title of the song to be especially apt, since in a sense Naruto really is “coming back” to the way it’s supposed to be. I hope the song lives up to my expectations. But I do know the band that does the ending, they were just on the MTV-esque program that I saw on TV the other day. Since they are pretty famous, I expect this ending song to get pretty high on the weekly ratings. Of course, I have no idea whether it’s a good song or not; I’ll find out with the rest of the world tomorrow night!

Here's the new logo: Naruto Shippuden!

Hundreds of thousands of fans around the world have been waiting nearly two years for this moment, and I’m one of the lucky few who will be able to see it real-time, here when it actually happens. This is the reason why I’m so excited and I can’t wait! Haley and I made big plans for Naruto: Shippuden Day (as I’m calling it). We’re going to leave school after our afternoon classes finish, and go to a shopping area near her house where I will buy any Naruto-related goodies I can get my hands on. Naruto has quite a considerable merchandise line, and I know there are some snack-like things that I can get. I may even get some naruto, a food item for which the titular character is named. It’s a fish-cake-type-thing, and is usually put into ramen (whch happens to be Naruto’s favorite food). In honor of that, I may have ramen for lunch if it works out. Here’s the ramen we ate last weekend in Kyoto:

It was pork-based ramen. Unfortunately, there was no naruto in it, but it was still very, very good. As is the custom here, I drained the bowl to the last drop:

Then we’ll go to Haley’s homestay house because she says she has a really big TV that’s good to watch Naruto on. We’ll watch it and then I’ll stay overnight, since it would be hard to come back to my house late at night. It’s probably better like that, since we can study together then for a test on Friday. I can also give my regards to Machiko-san, Haley’s host mom, who escorted us around Kyoto last weekend.

Speaking of Kyoto last weekend, I never really said what happened. It seems I only get to talking about the previous weekend when the next one is going to start. Well, suffice it to say that I didn’t do karaoke, instead I went to Kyoto with Haley and her host mom on Sunday, and the other days I stayed at home not doing much of anything. In Kyoto we went to Kinkakuji, (Golden Temple) which I had already seen when I came to Japan three years ago. But it was good to see it again, even though it was cold and rainy.

Here's Haley and I at Kinkakuji:

After that, we went to the Kyoto Tower shopping center. Let me tell you, that mall was fabulous. Such a high, pretty, new polished looking building. The mall is built on top of the train station, so it has many floors. One floor is devoted entirely to ramen restaurants, and that’s where we ate dinner. On that floor was one small shop that sold only green tea ice cream – they made it right in front of you! It was so cool that I took a little video of the process. Of course, it was delicious too.

Here's a picture of my dessert:

The mall itself was extremely ritzy – I know it’s not safe to use the word “wasp-y” so I’ll just say “very upper class”. The first four floors were entirely Burberry, if that gives you any idea.

Burberry Golf:

The upper floors sold a variety of traditional Japanese wares made by craftsmen that were also very very expensive. For example, here's a bunch of handmade crafts that commemorate this year being the Year of the Boar:

Here’s some handmade dolls for the upcoming Hina Matsuri (doll festival) –

Yes, that price is about in the $2000 range. Wow. Then of course, there was the floor dedicated to the selling of chocolate, which I described in my last post. I think that was a seasonal thing, however. In any case, very impressive.

Again, I was more impressed by malls and material goods rather than the historical significance of the magnificent Kinkakuji palace. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I was freezing my butt off at a place I’d already seen. But oh well, there are still many temples in Kyoto I haven’t seen and Haley wants to see them so we will go back there soon. But this weekend, I don’t care if it’s in Kyoto or two streets away, I want to go do karaoke! So we'll see...

Again, I apologize for the very long post. If you've read the whole thing, I applaud you. Don't forget to comment and leave tags!

Bah-ren-tai-een-deh

2007-02-14T15:10:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Instead of a real update, I decided to do a quick exposé on that most dreaded of holidays, Valentine's Day, or as the Japanese put it, bah-ren-tai-een-deh (say it slowly aloud to hear the resemblance). If you don't already know, today is Valentine's Day and it's already too late to go out and get something for that special someone.

In America, Valentine's Day, also known as Single Awareness Day, is that one special day of the year where women engage in fierce chocolate-giving battles and men are forced to go bankrupt from roses and expensive dinners. It is the day of pink teddy bears, candy cupids and Hallmark cards. It is the day which greeting card companies, candy manufactuers, flower stores and restaurants love; a manufactured, overmarketed-to-the-point-of-meaninglessness holiday.

You might expect the Japanese to have more sense than that; after all, there's no Hallmark here. But once again, the Japanese have borrowed from American culture and adapted it to their own, endowing the already monstrously marketed Valentine's Day with the sense of meticulousness, uniformity, categorization and obligation that characterizes their society.

Firstly, the Japanese like Valentine's Day so much that they split it up into individual holidays: Valentine's Day, when women give chocolate to men, and White Day, when men give chocolate (and/or other goodies) to women. Valentine's Day is celebrated on the traditional Feb 14th, but White Day is a month later on March 14th. I'm just as perplexed as you are about why they felt the need to split it up as such, but Wikipedia sheds some light on the issue:

"There are many theories about the origins of White Day, but according to one, the holiday began in 1965, when a marshmallow maker started marketing to men that they should pay back the women who gave them chocolate and other gifts with marshmallows. Originally it was called Marshmallow Day, and later it was changed to White Day.

Soon, the chocolate companies started realizing that they could capitalise as well on this day, and began marketing white chocolate. Now, Japanese men give both white and non-white chocolate, as well as other edible and non-edible gifts, such as jewellery or objects of sentimental value, to the women who gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day a month prior." - Wikipedia.org

So, now we have some idea. Imagine a marketing campaign so vast, it CREATES another holiday out of nothing just to make some profit. That, ladies and gentlemen, shows the power of commercialism right there.

In the meantime, we poor ladies are forced to shell out some dough on this Feb 14th day without any immediate return. "Ah," you may say, "but not all ladies need buy chocolate. Surely, as in America, you don't really have to get anyone anything unless you have a significant other". Aha, you may think so, but this is not the case. Remember I said that the Japanese have applied their ingrained sense of uniformity and obligation to this holiday, and you know what that means? That's right - everybody gets chocolates. Let me break down the various categories：

本命チョコ - Honmeichoco, or "prospective-winner chocolate" (isn't that name a riot?) This is the traditional variety, given to a lover or a spouse in whom you have significant romantic interest.

友チョコ - Tomochoco, or "Friend chocolate". This is given to your friends.

マイチョコ - Maichoco, or "My chocolate". This is the chocolate bought for oneself, or the common "I-was-buying-chocolate-and-it-looked-so-delicious-that-I-bought-some-for-myself(justalittlebit)" syndrome. I fell prey to this too, as described later in this post.

ぎりチョコ - Girichoco, or "Obligation chocolate". The most interesting category of them all: Women are required to give these chocolates (hence the "obligation" part) to their co-workers, bosses, underlings, and most other types of acquaintances. Apparently it is an embarrasing thing for a man to receive no chocolate at all, so women buy these cheap girichoco (usually less than $3) to give out to nearly everyone.

For the past two weeks at least, every store I've been in, from the Burberry-selling mall in Kyoto down the the 7-11 across the street has been carrying Valentine's Day chocolate, from the $50 variety to the 80 cent ones. It's absolutely incredible.
Speaking of the mall in Kyoto, that place is absolutely extraordinary. I will make a proper update later, but suffice it to say that the first three floors sold Burberry purses and golf outfits, and the ninth floor was entirely devoted to chocolate. I mean, ENTIRELY. And knowing the Japanese, they have turned selling chocolate into an art. Glass cases full of carefully crafted chocolate, made to look like toys or fruits or jewels. Women in matching uniforms with kerchiefs, men in tux-like suits, all calling out words of welcome and thanking you for even glancing in their direction. It's clearly a very serious business. I will show you this jerky video that I shot of the place, but it doesn't do it justice:

I was absolutely amazed by the variety, look, and price range of the chocolate. In the end, I bought some for my host family (they don't quite fall into any of the categories, but I think I owe them some), and of course, some for myself (falling securely into the "my choco" category). Each boxed set was beautiful, handmade in Kyoto and crafted in the shape of clovers. It was good too! And I will give my host family their chocolate tonight. I hope they like it.

Now, before I go, let me put in a few words about White Day, which I will no doubt cover more in detail as the date approaches. Let me just shoot out one phrase at you: 三番帰し. This means, "three times return". In other words, however many chocolates men receive, they have to return in threefold what it was worth......Absolutely Awesome.

Well I've got to go to class, so I'll just wish you a Happy SAD (Single Awareness Day), and I guess a good Valentine's Day too. Ja ne!

I will update further as events warrant. Don't forget to comment/tag!

PS: Here's more info on Single Awareness Day:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singles_Awareness_Day

another third of a post....

2007-02-13T18:01:00.000+09:00

Sorry! I have had little time today to write, since I have a big kanji test tomorrow. But this weekend we went to Kyoto and it was fun! More info to come tomorrow!

Dewa~

A Third of an Update

2007-02-08T15:05:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I have been trying to make a post for the past two days, but somehow I've run out of time each day. This week has gone by so fast. Today I dropped the gender class, finally. Now I have some more time.

This weekend is a three-day weekend, and I'm not quite yet sure what I'm going to do. Plans include: going to kyoto with Haley, or doing karaoke with Sam. Also, I intend to study some of the time; I have a big kanji test next week that I'm not at all ready for.

Ah, I'm so tired. I will definitely make better posts later. I don't know if I'll be able to access the internet anytime this weekend, but if I do, I will definitely update with more info. After all, there's so much more to say, but my mind is pretty blank at the moment.

That's all for now! More info as events warrant.

Thanks for all your comments and tags.

Manga and Mochi

2007-02-06T16:48:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Wow, I guess I haven’t updated recently. I meant to update yesterday, but I was too lazy. In any case, I think you all want to know about my weekend, right? It’s the only thing worth talking about, anyways. Nothing happened yesterday (Monday). Ok then, here we go.

On Friday, I stayed late at school, wanting to get in my internet access before a long two days without it. I was the only one left in the lounge, so I was surprised when a Japanese girl sat right down next to me. She actually wanted to sit next to me, and talk to me! We ended up having a nice conversation about studying abroad and classes. Turns out she’s in my Art of the Kansai Area class. She was worried that she would not be able to understand the teacher in that class, but I told her that I would try to explain anything she doesn’t understand. Then she left when her friend came to pick her up.

I was glad to finally have a real conversation with a real Japanese person. And it was a REAL conversation. She didn’t even try to slow down her Japanese for me, and yet I understood most of it, and she understood mine. I was gratified. So far when Japanese people have spoken to me, they either want to test out their English, or they use baby Japanese. I really want to go the next level, as it were. I hope I will get to do so before the end of my stay here.

Friday was uneventful, as always dinner with Okaasan and Mayu. But, I stayed up late because Spirited Away was on TV, and I watched it. I hadn’t watched it in Japanese yet, so it was good. For those of you who don’t know, Spirited Away is a famous anime movie that was released by Disney in America a few years ago. It’s not bad, but then again I’m not a huuuge Miyazaki fan like everyone else in the world is. I prefer more mature stuff. But anyways….

Saturday was the big day! Okaasan had promised to take me to DenDen Town, Haley and I had promised to go together, so in the end Okaasan took both of us to DenDen Town. I called Haley using the actual home phone! (Okaasan said it was ok. About 10 yen per three minutes, which is really really cheap). We agreed to meet at Hirakata-shi station. The route was complex and varied and I can’t remember how to get back there, even if I wanted to. We walked from the house to the bus stop, as when I go to school. Take the bus to Hirakata-shi (Hirakata City) Station, which is on the Keihan train line. (As I just found out today, take the Kyo- from Kyoto and put it with the –saka from Osaka, and it spells Keihan, which is a train line that services both Kyoto and Osaka. Pretty neat). After the train ride to Osaka, we transferred to the subway and rode that for a stop, then got off. Alltogether, transportation was about 1000 yen, or about 9 bucks. Not that cheap, but not too bad either. Then we stepped outside at Namba…

My first impression is…omg, Times Square. That’s what this place looks like. There are billboards galore, blinking and flashing lights, loudspeaker voices, cars and lots of people. This place was hoppin’. Okaasan and Mayu decided to go shopping at the mall district, while Haley and I stayed around and explored DenDen Town. We set up a meeting time and place, then parted ways. I felt a little bad at not spending time with my host family, but I’m sure we’ll come here again and then they can show me the mall.

Here's a picture of DenDen Town, courtesy of Haley (Why, why do i always forget my camera at the most important times??)

Haley and I wandered around. There are basically three types of shops in DenDen town: Manga/Anime sellers, figurine shops, and electronic appliance stores. Of course we’re not too interested in housewares or appliances, so we tried to find the manga/anime shops. We also went into three figurine shops along the way. These are stores full of glass cases in which many small plastic figures are displayed. The majority of these figurines come from anime. And these shops were always packed full of relatively old men, even in their forties, peering through the glass at plastic figures of scantily clad females. Although that made me slightly uncomfortable, I was just happy to see characters that I recognized, and to be in a place where other people clearly shared the same interests as I. Haley and I saw a few figurines that we’d like to buy, but I don’t think I will. I know that if I take back a figurine, it will just sit on the shelf and get dusty. I don’t really appreciate them that much. Maybe if I was collecting them it would be different. But anyways, there were shops upon shops of these things, and each shop had multiple floors, and each shop was packed full of nerdy old men. It was very interesting. Then we went in a store that sold anime itself (DVDs) and that was interesting also. Clearly a lot of thought is put into the packaging of anime DVD in Japan, much more than in America. The packaging and cover art is absolutely beautiful, but the DVDs are absolutely too expensive. Plus they are a different region and we couldn’t play them back home. It’s not worth it to buy it at all. I’d say the same with the manga, but here it is cheaper. However, it’s all in Japanese and neither Haley nor I are quite up to that level to be able to read it.

Then we found…the store. So far, I had seen a lot of stuff targeted at guys, you know, big mechas and scantily clad girls. But, we saw a store that said, on the front, “Ladies Only”, and so we went in. Turns out it was a Ladies’ manga store, selling only shoujo stuff (girls), which is, of course, the kind I read. So, it was very exciting. But we didn’t really have much time to look around, because we had to meet up at our meeting place with Okaasan. I vow to return there and maybe buy a manga or two. We met back up with Okaasan and Mayu, who had fun, it seemed. Then we walked back to the station, through the busiest food marketplace you have ever seen, and somehow made it out the other end, alive and unharmed. Haley thought she was going straight home, but Okaasan invited her to come to the Setsubun. For, the setsubun time it was.

I had first heard about setsubun (festival of the seasons) in class on Friday from my Onna to Otoko professor. He said that this festival celebrates the turning of winter to spring, and is supposed to encourage fertility for the new season. He said we should all go to the temple in Nara to see the famous fertility celebration in which two masked priests act out a scene of intercourse (!) onstage in order to ask the gods to bring fertility. Sounds kinda out there to me, and Nara is really far, so I knew I wasn’t going. But later I did ask Okaasan what her family did to celebrate Setsubun, and she said they usually go to a small shrine. So, right after DenDen Town, we met up with Otousan at the station and went together to the shrine.

I’d have to say that it was a really incredible experience, far surpassing the greatness of DenDen Town. After all, how often to you get to see mikos and houshis walking around in formal outfits, and the making of mochi? You guys probably don’t know what any of that stuff is, but let me tell you that it is cool. At the least, though, you need to know what mochi is. For the unenlightened, mochi is a kind of sticky rice. It’s rice that has basically been beaten to death until it is like a taffy texture. Then it is shaped into balls and covered with flour. I didn’t know this up until this weekend, but mochi itself is actually pretty neutral in taste. I always thought it was sweet, since the mochi I’ve had up till now always had some sweet stuff in it, like red beans or ice cream. But mochi in its natural state is just jellified rice, so it tastes just like white rice – pretty boring. But, at the festival they were serving mochi with zenein (or something like that) which is warm red beans (sweet). Haley took a picture of it. It’s like this – mochi is the piece of toast, and the red beans would be the jelly. Toast is pretty boring by itself, and the jelly is too sweet to eat alone, but put them together and you’ve got a dynamic combination. Especially when the red beans are warm. Yummy!

Here's the dynamic duo of mochi and red beans. You can see that the red beans have a lot of water in them, making it into a kind of hot red-bean sweet soup with white balls of sticky rice floating in it. Delish!

After we ate, we watched them inside the shrine doing dances and little ceremonial things. We also saw them actually make the mochi in the back - it’s like a mortar and pestle, but instead large men swing an even larger hammer into a large pestle and some other guy kinda kneads the mochi dough in between strokes. Then a bunch of women with identical aprons and head kerchiefs mold it into ovals and flour it. Very interesting and efficient.

Guys wielding large hammer and pummeling the poor mochi:

The kitchen women in their matching uniforms shaping and flouring the mochi:

It seems the crux of the Setsubun is when the aforementioned mochi is throw by the helpers into the waiting, breathless audience. With the mochi are thrown tiny bags of soybeans. All around me were eager children, hands outstretched to catch it. Why throw that stuff? Honestly, I have no idea. Alls I knows is, everyone wanted to get some.

The mochi, which is frozen before it is thrown, is rather hard. One bounced off my head. It hurt.

Clearly, this proves that I am neither fertile nor very lucky. Or maybe my hand-eye coordination is bad. In the end, I only caught one mochi and three bags of soybeans. Those were easy to catch, and didn’t hurt so much. After the hordes of screaming and running children had somewhat dissipated, we received free, fresh unfrozen mochi from the kitchen ladies and headed on back home.

On the way home, okaasan picked us up some sushi (apparently, it’s tradition to eat a certain kind of sushi on setsubun night) and at the train station, she showed Haley how to get home while I went home with Mayu and Otousan. Once home, we ate the sushi. Apparently, you are supposed to face the lucky direction of the new year (this year, it happened to be northwest) and eat the sushi without talking, silently making a wish for the new season. I think it is similar to our tradition of making a silent wish over a birthday cake, then not telling anyone what you wished.

However, have you ever tried to hold some sushi in your hand, without a plate or NAPKIN (of course, why would there be a napkin in the house) facing a curtain, trying to be reverent, but yet afraid that the contents of the sushi are going to end up on the floor? Yeah, I didn’t think so. You are technically supposed to eat the ENTIRE roll of sushi in this manner, but I had to stop at less than half, because stuff was falling out of my roll. And don’t bother to ask me what was in it, because I don’t remember. I know there was some crab and some vegetables, but that’s about it. I’m sure the ingredients were very traditional…. Guess what we ate for dessert? You guessed it, Mochi! Guess what we ate for breakfast the next day? Yup, the frozen mochi that was chucked at us by the temple helpers. Guess what I don't want to see again for a long time? You got it - mochi!

After dessert, Okaasan finally explained what the heck to do with the soybeans. Apparently, there is a small ceremony involving the throwing of soybeans out the window, in much the same manner they were thrown at us during the ceremony. You are supposed to take a handful of soybeans and chuck them out the window, saying the equivalent of “Devil, outside! Good luck, inside!” I wanted to chuck the beans at the cat (the devilish creature who has scratched me up since day one) but Otousan did that for me. It was actually quite amusing. I chucked my beans out the window, hoping that they did not hit the neighbor’s wall too hard (yes the houses are THAT close), saying the magic line. I hope good luck came inside, for me and everyone else.

Overall it was a very fulfilling day, and I got to see both aspects of Japan in one day – the hi-tech, manga/anime aspect, and the traditional, religious aspect. It was great.

Sunday of course, wasn’t nearly as exciting. I went to Kansai Gaidai to try to get some work done (read: access the Internet) but absolutely no one was here. Plus, the CIE building wasn’t even open, nor the library! I mean, what kind of college’s library isn’t open on Sundays? When are people supposed to study? The policemen at the front gate (yes there are policemen there, resplendent with white gloves) made me sign in in order to even enter the grounds. Eventually I found that the student lounge was open, and I was able to plug in from there. But I don’t think I will try to go on campus on a Sunday again. It’s very lonely.

I just realized that Sunday was the Superbowl. I do believe that this is the first time I have missed the Superbowl in a great long while. I miss my buffalo wings and commercials. Buffalo wings are impossible here but, I did manage to watch some of the commercials over the internet. The Doritos one was funny, wasn’t it? Well, that’s a little piece of home that I miss.

Hmm I’m not quite sure where to end this update, but I think it’s long enough. Subjects to be discussed next time include: the lack of free press in Japan, the recipe for Tiny Fish Bread, my Okaasan’s belief in ghosts, the duration of the fermentation of Miso soup, Barberpoles, and of course, Melon Pan. Until then!

Don’t forget to leave comments! Remember, longer than 200 words = comment. Less than that = tag. Thanks!

PS- Did you know that pink mochi is pink because they put in crushed shrimp? Yuck!

Mostly Pictoral

2007-02-02T16:37:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I realize that my posts have been somewhat lacking in visuals lately. Therefore, this post will be mostly pictures. But first I will just shortly tell what's been going on. Yesterday I only had one class, but I ended up sitting around the lounge most of the day waiting for other people to be able to go somewhere. It got late in the day, so we only walked about a block or so to the 99 yen shop (even cheaper than the American equivalent, the Dollar Store). We mostly all bought some snacks. I tried to buy some cheese and pepperoni, but the cheese was kinda weird. But the pepperoni was just....indescribable. It was pepperoni, but it wasn't. As Haley said, "It tasted like the wrong part of the pig...maybe it was an entirely different animal. I don't know." Yes.

Then I went home, and after watching a new ep of Naruto, I played with Mayu a bit. I taught her how to do the American clapping game; the one I did with her was "Miss Mary Mack". Sara and Gracie will know that one. She really, really likes it. I get the feeling she is warming up to me. Meanwhile, okaasan kept making miso soup. She boiled the beans some more. But she says it has to ferment for six months before its ready! Amazing. So I certainly won't be able to taste it. Luckily, she has enough to last until then. Last night at dinner she made something called "karage" which is basically fried chicken. With it, we had vegetables, potato salad, rice and miso soup. And okaasan had me try some salt that tasted like..eggs! I didn't like it too much. If i want to taste eggs, I'll eat eggs, thank you very much. I told okaasan that the Japanese dinner is different than the American one. Okaasan said usually that there is one (small) meat plate, three vegetables, and rice (and miso). Very interesting.

In class today, I had a review test. Then we wrote a self-introduction in Reading/Writing (I am so sick of self-introductions. This should be the last one). Then Onna to Otoko, in which we discussed the meaning of the word "Gender". Bleh. We will see about this class.

Ok, enough talking, here's the pics! You know that you can click on them to make them bigger, right? And don't forget to comment/leave a tag.

Here are the beans that Okaasan is boiling for the miso.

Here is a picture of the street my house is on. An extensive, sprawling suburbia.

Here is the field that I pass on the way to the bus station. At the same time, everyday, the same old men play croquet.

Here is a snapshot of police training in action at the police academy that I pass everyday. They always are shouting stuff. I saw them doing anti-crowd training today.

Here's Mayu-chan!

Here's the bus station where I get the bus every morning.

Here's the apartments that I pass by on my way to the bus station. There are at least five of these complexes in a small area.

A look at the individual dinner plate setup.

A picture of the inside of the Japanese cafeteria. This is the last day Japanese people will be on campus, since today is the last day of final exams for them. You can see that they are busy using their cell phones and making sure they look fashionable all the time.

Here's the ramen I had for lunch!

And lastly, here's a video of my room so you all can see.

Footnote: An Interesting Encounter

2007-02-01T14:03:00.000+09:00

Here's just a short post to illustrate two very different types of encounters I've had.

The other day I was coming to school. I was walking on the sidewalk, and a very nicely dressed Japanese girl who was probably also a college student was walking in front of me. I was walking slightly faster than her, and I quickly caught up to her. But since the sidewalk was too narrow to easily pass her, I stayed about six steps behind her. Perhaps seeing my shadow, she risked a quick backward glance to see who was following her. Gasp! It was a fearsome foreigner! Oh noes! This girl IMMEDIATELY crossed the road without even looking for cars, and continued walking in the same direction on the other side of the sidewalk. I must say that I was slightly shocked. Am I really that scary?

That same day, I was walking back from school to catch the bus home. I turned a corner, and saw approaching me what some people would call a "bag lady". This lady clearly was kindy kooky, judging by her unkempt manner and style of dress. Immediately when she saw me, she came towards me. She put her hands up to her face and said something like, "Oh! Do you like Japan!" and I said yes. Then she said, "Oh! Your skin is so white and pure!" (it isn't). I stammered a thank you, and she continued raving about how beautiful I was. Then she kept saying I looked like someone called "Diana-sama" (suffix for royalty). I kept thinking, Who is Diana? Who is Diana? I made a confused face, and she got even more emphatic. Then she pulled in some old guy who was walking down the street, and asked him if i "don't look just like Diana-sama?" The guy clearly didn't know what the heck was going on, and just mumbled a "Ah, I wonder..." By this time I just wanted out, and so I bowed, quite literally, out of the situation. Heh-he...and because of this, I nearly missed my bus. Of course, it was only five minutes later that I realized Diana-sama was probably the late Princess Diana....and I don't look ANYTHING like her. But I told my Okaasan about it, and she thought I kinda did. Oh well.

Last night Okaasan began the tortuous process of making miso soup. It's a many step process that I don't quite understand. The night before, you must put beans in water and let them soak overnight. Then the next morning, she boiled something and put towels around it to keep it warm. At some point you add miso. I will take some pictures later of the whole process. It's interesting. Also, she made some bread using a bread machine. It reminded me of when Mom used to do that all the time. It was pretty good.

I make more and more leaps in understanding and being understood by my host family. I now begin to understand some of Otousan's speech, and Mayu pretty much understands what I say. To think that only four days ago I started living with them.

Today we went to get my Alien Registration card. But, I forgot my pictures!! So, okaasan took me to the nearest picture booth, and for about 6 bucks I got ID photos, which is much less than what I paid for them in America. BTW Dad, you were also wrong about the ethernet cable. I should have waited till I got here to buy one; they're only about 7 bucks. With the photos, my passport, and the form, the office was able to begin processing. But the card won't be reading until at least next week. The card is useful because you don't have to carry around your passport. Also, you need one in order to get a cellphone.

Lots of my friends are talking about getting a cellphone. At first I thought I wouldn't get one, but....I don't know. Certainly it would be useful, but is it worth the $120 it will cost? We'll see. But having a cellphone is most assuredly a part of this culture. Everyone has one, everyone's phone is amply decorated, and texting has become an art. Even more than America...

I think we are going to either go to Hirakata-shi today, or just walk around. Either way, today I only have one class so there's time to do something. As for the weekend, I asked my family to take me to DenDen Town (electronic HQ of Osaka). It will be fun, I'm sure.

Well, that's all for now. More information as events warrant.

Don't forget to leave a comment, and to write on my tagboard! If you have a lot to say, you can make a comment; but the tagboard is for something quick and easy. Check it out!

Much thanks to John for helping me continually improve the design of this blog. John, I owe you big time.

Iroiro (Various)

2007-01-31T17:40:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Well I've officially had all my classes now, which means the semester really has started. Now all the course overviews, examining the syllabus, and self-introductions are over, here comes the studying. I find that I'm already behind in Japanese Reading & Writing as compared with the rest of the class. I will have to do some extra studying to bring myself up to their level. Speaking is opposite - I find that I am slightly ahead of most of the class in that area. Well, at least I will know where to throw my energies. I could probably move up a level, but why make it that much harder for myself?

Mass Media in Japan is already turning out to be an interesting class. We took a look at Japanese newspapers today - did you know that the five major Japanese papers are also the top five most-widely-circulated newspapers in the world? Compare 14 million subscriptions for Asahi Shinbun with a measly 2 million for the New York Times. Japanese people just take their newspapers that seriously. In fact, that's what Otousan does after dinner - meticulously reads the paper. And each of the five major Japanese newspapers owns the five major Japanese commercial TV stations - a huge media monopoly. In any case, I know this course will be great and the professor too. However, Onna to Otoko didn't impress me. The topics covered are moderately interesting, but not enough to offset the mediocrity of the professor. I will take some time deliberating, but if I have to drop a class, that will be the one. We'll see...and of course, I have nearly zero interest in Art in the Kansai Area, but I have to take it to fulfill Colby's art requirement. It shouldnt' be so bad because we take four field trips throughout the semester to actually see what we're studying. The rest of the time though, I'm stuck in a dark classroom at 5 PM looking at slides....booooring.

Textbooks have been insanely cheap for the most part. They are all paperback compilations of various readings that each professor puts together, and the average cost per class is about $16. And the Reading/Writing textbook is free- the professor just gave it to us! I was very worried about the cost, but it looks like those worries were unfounded. It seems like almost free compared to the normal Colby cost of $500 per semester.

Last night I had a good night with my host family. I actually communicated with Mayu-chan just by myself, no okaasan necessary for interpretation. She likes to show me her sticker collection. She helped me do my Japanese homework (not really, just looking for something to start a convo about) and we talked about favorite foods, and we drew pictures together. I think she and Gracie would really get along. I showed her that video I took of Gracie at my birthday, and she said she would like to play with Gracie. Okaasan seemed pretty busy last night; she made salmon for dinner (such a tiny piece, and overcooked. Unfortunately, I am spoiled because of Mom's professionally cooked salmon), and there was a spinach-like vegetable (again, only a tiny amount), and a very strange cole slaw-like mixture of some thinly sliced root that she couldn't translate. Otousan did not eat with us; he came home very very late (about 9 PM). Mayu was also up late doing her homework, which her mother meticulously checks. Her mother also checks to make sure she practices her violin and piano for an hour each day.

Actually sleeping last night was a lot better. I made various improvisations, such as putting one of the blankets that's supposed to go over me, on top of the futon instead, thus providing extra padding between me and the floor. For the pillow, I took the chair pad as well as some of my sweatshirts and folded them up under it. In this fashion, I managed to get a decent sleep. Thank goodness for that.

Getting back and forth on the bus usually has not been a problem, though yesterday I left the house a bit late and was running to it. My legs are hurting a lot because of all the walking/running/going up stairs that I have been doing. I suppose that is a good thing. Tomorrow my bus pass finally becomes active, so I will no longer have to lose 220 yen each time. Tomorrow I will also get my alien registration card, and thus will no longer have to carry around a passport.

Ok I will make a better update tomorrow. There's also an interesting encounter on the street that I have to write about, but right now I have to catch the bus to go home. Ja ne!

Don't forget to comment! At last I know it's working!

Beginning to Get Settled

2007-01-30T11:53:00.000+09:00

Well finally the day came - the day when I would meet my host family. I met them in a room on campus with an official interpreter to make sure both parties understood what was going on. My okaasan (mother) and my imouto (little sister) came to pick me up; otousan (father) was sleeping in the car. We went over basic rules, etc. It was kind of annoying that they spoke only to the translator and not to me, but they didn't know how much Japanese I knew/didn't know. Finally, I went with them to their car, and we picked up my luggage and went home. On the way, my okaasan took me to get a bus pass, since that's how I have to get back and forth from campus. Here was my first shock - in the States, I barely carry enough cash to buy a pack of gum. But here, its normal to carry around hundreds of dollars worth, apparently. My okaasan somehow expected me to have the $210 required to buy my bus pass, right then and there. Of course I didn't have it; instead, she bought it and I paid her back later.

Yikes! My first real money expenditure. But it was absolutely necessary - there's no other way I can get to school. Also included in that price was a temporary card, because my bus card won't go into effect until Thursday. But now that I paid for it, I intend to make the most of it. The bus pass is not only good from home to school, but all over the city. So I will be taking the bus a lot, I think. In fact, I intend to make an entire blog about the bus later.

Ok so I went home on the bus with my okaasan, who wanted to show me how to get back and forth from school. On the way we talked about various things, just getting-to-know kind of stuff. She told me that my Japanese was very good, although I know it's not. But she has hosted 8 foreign students so far, and of those 8 my Japanese is the best. At least that makes me feel a little better. We walked for about 15 mins in a suburb-type area, past aparment complexes, a police academy, and the ubiquitous construction projects. Finally, down a small side street full of swinging clotheslines, we arrived at the Shibata residence.

My first impression is - small and cold. I'm not exaggerating; this house is extremely small and old. It's hard to describe. It's old, with rust stains and cracked walls, but it's kept very neat. There are soo many things in each cupboard and drawer, but they are all kept in their place. Everything is small - a tiny dishwasher, a tiny washing machine, a tiny fridge. Its so different from American appliances and American homes. There is no central heating, of course - each room has its own floor heater which is on only when people are in the room. When you leave the room, you must turn it off. Thus the rest of the house is freezing, including my room.

My room is on the second floor, about 10x8 feet or so. (That may be really off, but I'm just estimating). There is a small desk and chair, and some bureaus, which are full of things already. That's it - I sleep on the hard wooden floor. Therefore I haven't slept very well these past few nights. If i thought the futon at school was bad, well, this is ten times worse. The pad between me and the floor is less than an inch think, and the pillow is very bad. Not to mention that when I wake up, I can see my own breath. That's how cold it is in the room, and the heater does absolutely nothing. Plus, before I go to sleep, I have to turn it off anyways. So I've abandoned my usual t-shirt and pants pajamas for a fleece and fuzzy socks when I go to bed. It helped, but still the hard floor is really tough. I suppose I'll get used to it...

So I got to know my host family. Otousan is a postal clerk, and is gone most of the time. He gets up at 6 and is gone by 7 AM, and doesn't come home until after 8 PM. So I don't see him much. But I know he likes music, since, like my own father, he must have some music on while eating. Also he's got quite a setup near the TV, as far as electronics go. He has a Japanese version of TiVo, and was able to copy DVDs with it quite easily, as far as I was able to determine. There is a device that hooks up to the DVR and copies the DVD to the hard disk of the DVR, and the DVR then burns it to a blank. Very interesting, and a much better way to do it than what I've been doing (if it actually works). Okaasan is a stay at home mom. She does everything in the house that needs doing (shopping, etc). Every morning she walks Mayu-chan to school at around 7:45, and picks her up (I assume). She also does things like craft class every Monday. Mayu is 9 years old, exactly one month older than Gracie (my own sister). She's pretty cute. The only one who speaks any English is the mom. At one time, she studied abroad in America. That's why she likes to host so many foreign students, and that's why she can speak some English. But I talk in Japanese as much as I can, although she often has to translate my Japanese so Mayu and otousan can understand. That's something I need to work on. I want to make my Japanese understandable to native Japanese, after all. But what's good is that I have plenty of opportunities to do so. Each night, as soon as I step through the door, is another chance to practice.

On Sunday night for dinner we had okonomiyaki - it's a vegetable pancake. Savory, not sweet. Basically, you mix up some batter and cabbage, and then put in some meat or whatever, then there's a special sauce. Okaasan cooks it in a central pot on the table, and everyone serves themselves. With every meal there is also rice, made in the rice cooker, and homemade miso soup. You can bet that I am excited to eat miso soup every meal. Okaasan doesn't put tofu in it, though. She likes to put lots of daikon (Japanese radish) instead. But it's still good. I tried lots of things the first night - natto being one of them. Natto is one of those notorious foods that every culture has; a traditional and traditionally disgusting favorite. Like haggis for the Scots, I think. But unlike haggis, lots of people here actually eat natto. Like my family. They eat lots of it, and so I was pressured to try it. It's actually just fermented soybeans, which doesn't sound so bad. But the texture is just....gross. Slimy and gross. So, no, I don't like it. I didn't pretend to like every Japanese food - I just like most of them. But I certainly won't have a problem eating okaasan's food. For drinks she makes green tea and then cools it in the fridge, so its basically iced tea. Or there's water.

Oh and I was wrong about Japanese people not wanting anything on their rice. They will dump anything on their rice. In one night I saw natto, kimchi, daikon, and various sauces/spices being put on rice. I tried this really good sea salt type stuff on the rice and it was really good. And for breakfast, okaasan said I can eat whatever is in the fridge, but I'm generally too afraid to touch anything in the fridge because it seems like it will all just topple over if I remove anything. Also, I don't know what alot of that stuff is. But luckily, okaasan showed me where the bread for toast is, and she bought me some cereal when I requested it. Acutally that was pretty funny - I asked for cereal, which is "se-ri-aru" in Japanese. But otousan thought I said CD-R, which would be "se-di-a-ru", or something like that. In any case, they are very similar. But it was an amusing mistake.

So we eat at 8, then Mayu goes to bed at 9, and Otousan goes into the ofuru (Japanese bath). Btw, I tried that too. Though I normally take a shower in the morning, and will continue to do so, I was so cold that first night that I went into the ofuro after Mayu and okaasan. This is how it works - you take off your clothes, then OUTSIDE the bath, you clean yourself with a handcloth and soap. Then, once you're sparkly clean, you may enter the bath. It's a very short but deep tub. Everyone uses the same water, since it costs so much to heat it. That's why you have to be clean before you go in, so the people after you can also have clean water. It's basically like a jacuzzi without chlorine. I'm glad I went into it, just for the experience, and to warm up. But I probably won't go in it again, since I like my morning showers.

I gave my okaasan and otousan the book about Connecticut that I bought, and they liked it. More looking at the pictures than anything else, but I tried to explain what each thing was. Some of those things, supposedly items that CT is famous for, I had never heard of. But I did my best. All in all, it was a successful present. Okaasan kept a japanese-english dictionary for reference. I tried to explain that I was half Jewish and half Christian. They had never heard of a Jewish person before! I didn't know how to BEGIN tackling that one. We'll get there, I expect. Mayu-chan likes have me play with the cat with her. Of course they have a cat, although I'm not a big cat person. I think he can tell, and he hates me too. The first night he scratched my arm all up. But oh well. Mayu also plays the violin and piano. She's quite good, waay better than me and her violin is better than Gracie. I think that's because she's already been playing for a while - they start them early here.

Here's Mayu playing the violin in the living room:

Ok I think that's all I have to say about my host family. My classes have started though, and that's a whole nother story. I think they will go well. As usual, I may have bitten off more than I can chew by taking 5 classes instead of 4. But there were just too many good ones to pass up. We'll see - I have the next two weeks to drop a class. If i do drop, it will probably be Reading and Writing Japanese, which promises to be difficult. But we'll see.

Here's the CAT, Jappi, curled up on top of the space heater:

Aggravating things:
Not a napkin or paper towel in sight, anywhere! They have disappeared off the face of the earth, and thus my main means of preparing food on my own is also gone. Also, don't Japanese people ever spill food on themselves, albeit rarely?

Multiple redundancy - In order to buy a textbook, you must receive a coupon from your teacher, go to the ticket machine in the admin building and purchase a ticket for the price of the book, then go back to the CIE and present the ticket WITH the coupon in order to get the book. How ridiculous!

No wireless anywhere - and for that matter, I haven't been able to access the internet much. And just useful stuff, like looking up the nearest movie theater, I can't do! I guess it's because I don't know where to look, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to understand it.

Ok folks that's all for now. More information as events warrant.

Leave comments please! So far, I only know that Julia is reading. And don't forget to check out Haley's blog, haleyinjapan.blogspot.com. Ja ne!

Weekend

2007-01-28T11:50:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

Whoops I haven't made a post in a couple of days. So I guess this one had better be extra long to make up for it. Well, on Friday I got up and made it to campus for the homestay meeting just in time. The guy who's been giving the meetings is soo long-winded, I can't stand it. He just goes on and on and on about every little thing and makes me want to scream. But in any case, I did learn some important information about what you should expect from your host family and what your host family should expect from you. There are little things, like you can't put anything wet on tatami mats, because they'll rot. And there are the bigger things, like not taking showers in the morning - I can't do that!! I need my morning shower to wake me up. I hope they let me take showers in the morning instead of baths at night. But we'll see. I have yet to meet my family - I'll be meeting them in about two hours, and I am excited.

But I am not looking forward to the commute - 90 mins each day, an hour walking and half an hour on the bus. Sam and Haley are talking about getting bikes, but that scares me more. I really don't want to have to deal with bike laws, learning different traffic rules, etc. Riding a bike here can be scary - there's poles sticking up from the sidewalk, little room on the edge of the road, and that whole driving-on-the-other-side thing that would take a lot of getting used to. I'm not nearly confident enough to be able to do that. So, long commute, here we come.

Continuing on - after the homestay meeting, we went on the school-sponsored trip to Kyoto. They had us break up into small groups of 6 or 7. I went with Haley, Sam and her boyfriend Jake, a girl named Kate, and another guy whose name I can't remember. We had a student who had been at Kansai Gaidai before show us around. He showed us how to use the bus system to get from the university to the train station, and then we took a train to Kyoto. Bus is 220 yen and the train to Kyoto was 340 yen. Not too bad. But without our guides, we would have no idea where to get off in order to come out at the right place. I didn't even really know where we were going, but they decided to take us to Tourist Hotspot #1: Kyomizudera, or Temple of the Pure Water. But walking there was tough. We went thru Gion, the geisha district, but of course failed to see any geisha. It was kinda dead actually. Must have been the time of day. But i've been there before, when I went to Japan 3 years ago, and so it wasn't new to me. But we continued on, passing many smaller temples on the way. One of them had a big Buddha in it, and I managed to snap a picture.

Finally we made it to Kyomizudera. I took some video, mostly of the walk up to get to the place.

It's on a hill, and that means stairs. MANY stairs. I felt like i was doing a marathon. I suppose its good for me, but my feet felt like they were going to fall off. At teh top, you come to the multiple spires of the Chinese-style construction of most Buddhist temples. It's a pretty big, impressive place - very old, wooden, got lots of statues and bells and antique-y things.

We wandered around, but it was getting cold and dark, so we began our long descent back to the train station. On the way I bought some mochi- Kyoto style, triangular. But i was tired and cold and hungry and not much interested in staying around Kyoto.

You may be able to tell that I was not very impressed. The problem is, when I was here 3 years ago I saw all that stuff - each day on the tour we managed to see at least three places of historical interest. I saw so many temples that I would be glad to never see another one again. But here I am, seeing temples again, and being in some of the exact same spots I was before. This stuff is no longer exciting to me. Everyone else may have been excited, but I was just ho-hum. I'll be far more excited when I find myself in Akihabara or Harajuku or DenDen town in Osaka. That's the Japan I love - the modern, fast-paced center of style and technology. Not the old Japan of temples and nature. Others will of course disagree with me, and that's their perogative.

We took the train back to Hirakata-shi and ate at a place near the station. It was all you can eat nabe (hot pot) for 15 bucks, which so far is the steepest price i've paid for a meal in Japan. But, its all you can eat. Eating nabe is also an experience. There's an electrice stove in the middle of the table, upon which the waitresses put a bowl filled with water. Then they come out with plates of vegetables, raw meat, dumplings, whatever you want. You throw it all in the pot, and wait till the water gets hot and it cooks. Then, with chopsticks or a strainer, you fish out what you want and put it in your small individual bowl. There's all kinds of sauces to put on it for flavoring as well. It's all you can eat, so you just keep pressing the call button and ordering more stuff to dump in. Finally we finished and got on the bus and went home.

Both Haley and Sam went to their host families on Saturday, so I had no one to hang out with and nothing to do. I was very tired from Kyoto and wanted, above all, NOT to walk anywhere. But, when you've got to buy your own food, you have to go somewhere. I'm so used to having a cafeteria two steps away, or at least some food in my room that I can eat when I don't want to go anywhere. But here I have not that luxury. So at around 5 pm I roused myself and went out the door in search of food. I found a small grocery store about 10 mins walk from the dorm. It surprised me how busy it was at that time - do Japanese people wait till after dark to do their shopping? But I took my time in looking around, for there was many things to look at.

Not knowing what half the stuff is puts a damper on things, but there are some things that I readily recognized. I was able to get ready-made sushi and tempura for under 500 yen, and I consider that splurging. I wanted something other than instant noodles, which I've been having all week. But you can get one, a whole dinner's worth, for only a dollar. There are also many snacks that you can get for a dollar. They have entire sections of the store which are like a tiny dollar-store. Except here the magic price is 105 yen - that's 5 yen for tax. And considering that the dollar is worth ~120 yen, its' a deal. I think I've figured it out - Japan truly is expensive. However, you can eat cheap if you want to. If you can survive on instant food and pre-packaged snacks, you can save a lot of bucks. However, if you want to do your own homecooking, you've got to buy raw veggies, fruits, meat and eggs, and those are VERY expensive. Melons can go for ~$15 apiece here, and as to everything else - if you add one or two dollars to the american price for produce, you'll get the Japanese price. So, I am lucky so far. I won't be cooking anything, and soon I'll be getting breakfasts and dinners for free from my host family.

I went back along the road, avoiding bikes and mopeds and cars along the way. Its very awkward, you know, trying to pick a path among so many moving things. Did you know there's a cultural taboo against eating or drinking while you walk? It's getting a lot more lenient, but still its strange. I went back to my room and ate while marathoning Kamisama Kizoku (anime) and finishing it too. This morning I moved out of the room while my roommates were still sleeping. Had to move all my suitcases down by myself, as well as all the bedding to be cleaned. Then I watched Anpanman for an hour (equate it to Bugs Bunny). Now I'm just waiting to meet my host family. That'll be an adventure in of itself.

Well, goodbye dorm room. Goodbye heated toilet seats and showers in which you have to push a button every 10 seconds to make the water come out. I'll miss you - or maybe I won't, depending on what my host family's house is like. More information as events warrant.

Please leave a comment! The Comments feature is finally working now, courtesy of John. Thanks!

-Kim

Orientation Week

2007-01-25T11:17:00.001+09:00

Hey All,

This week is pretty busy and it's flying by fast. Yesterday was the big orientation day - I attended the general meeting, took a placement test, consulted with faculty, paid my tuition bills, and a bunch of other stuff. Haley and I went to the convenience store on campus to check it out, and to get dinner.

I got one of those instant ramen things that are pretty good. Basically, each meal has been about 300 yen, which is not bad at all. We got some melon pan too, and it was really good. At the cafeteria today, we are going to get ramen! even though that means you actually have to talk to the serving lady to tell her what you want. I think I've worked up enough courage to do that. It'll be an adventure, my first real ramen. Exciting!

After orientation, Haley and I were both pretty tired, so we just went straight back to the dorm at around 4. On the way back there's a clothes store, and we went in there.The store is like a TJ Maxx or something, but it has this little section that's devoted to miscellaneous kids stuff. I saw tons of Pokemon. DBZ, and surprisingly, Keroro Gunsou merchandise. Appears that stuff is big here. We saw some cheap slippers, only like 300 yen or so. AFter wandering around a bit, we went back to the room. We watched the final (FINAL) episode of KKM, which was very good, and then i made my instant ramen stuff. I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out the Japanese TV schedule, and I determined that Bleach would air on TV Tokyo at 7:26 PM (not 7:30, not even 7:25, but 7:26). So, I flipped thru some channels, and found it!

Some of you reading this may not understand how big a deal this is for me. But I have been watching Bleach for about two years now, and to see it actually on TV, actually airing, not having to wait and watch it later, it was just amazing. Commercials are funny too, and I never get to see those. Of course it was just in raw Japanese, no subtitles, and it was hard to understand. But i picked up the key plot points. Tomorrow, I will try to catch another of my favorite animes, Naruto, same time and channel.

But just being down in the common room watching TV allowed me to meet some more of the international students that came. I hadn't really explored my dorm yet. The kitchen is quite expansive, and there's a big lounge too with two TVs. I just stayed the rest of the night in the room, there's really not alot in the dorms' immediate surroundings to explore. But Haley just went to Hirakata City today to go to the bank, and she says there's more stuff there, which is exciting. We'll go soon, now that Haley has money and the brunt of Orientation week is over. Tomorrow there's a school-sponsored trip to Kyoto, which'll be great in really getting to know the area.

Guess what! We found our first example of Engrish in the convenishop. It's a cute little folder with a whale on it. (For those of you who don't know, Engrish is mispelled or mistaken English that is used for effect by Japanese people who don't bother to hire a translator). Here's a pic of Haley holding it:

I'm sure many, many more examples will follow. We have vowed to be avid Engrish hunters, and even submit an example to Engrish.com.

Guess what #2! I just got my homestay info in my mailbox! Here's the specs: a Dad, a Mom and a little sister Mayu, who's in elementary school. They live 45 mins from campus, and I can take the bus. They have a pet goldfish and a cat. My room size will be 6 tatami mats, which is about....110 sq ft. I have no visual conception of how big that is, but I bet it's not too big. That's ok. I'm really excited to meet them on Sunday and go to their house.

Ok that's all for now. More information as events warrant.

-Kim

And I'm here

2007-01-24T07:42:00.002+09:00

Hey All,

My flight was pretty uneventful. I met Haley at four in the morning at the Portland Airport, and we boarded our flight. (Oh btw, guess who I saw at the airport, sitting right across from me - my math professor from last semester! (Otto, the one who gave me a bad grade in DiffEq)) So we pretty much slept on that flight from Maine to Detroit, and then hung around in the airport from 9 - 12 waiting for the connecting flight. I met up with Sam, whom I haven't seen in months, and her boyfriend Jake. We were pretty excited to all be going together. The plane ride itself was long, but not entirely boring. We were generally angered that we didn't get the plane where there are individual video monitors in the seat in front of you, and so we only saw where we were flying over for like, the first hour, and after that they just showed stupid movies. Haley and I watched KKM (anime) on my laptop for a while. Airplane food is not good, but the novelty of it makes it good, at least to me. Then we got off, went through a very minimal amount of customs, and met our pickup guy. There we were!
Long ride, like an hour and a half, to campus. I really really wanted to fall asleep but I resisted the temptation. I was told I was living in dorm #4, and lugged my stuff (quite alot of it) to the building. I was greeted by both Japanese and Americans who clearly wanted to me nice to me, but I was in absolutely no mood to be social so I said little to nothing and just let them lead me to my room. I'm only staying in the dorm for the rest of the week until we go to our homestays. In this interim, they cram us in already fully occupied rooms. I had to squeeze in amongst the two other girls who are living in there. The room is pretty small, all tatami mat with a little desk section in the back. We sleep in the floor on those mats, which aren't bad but are hard on my back (I'm just not used to them). So I crashed and slept late into the next morning.
Next day, I got up and decided to walk to campus. What a long walk! From living at Colby, where all buildlings are 5 mins max away from each other, this was insane. It took a half hour to get there! But on the way I got to look at my surroundings more closely. It's part rural, part industrial area. We pass a Komatsu (maker of construction equipment) plant on our way to the university. There's shops and houses, minor construction going on, and lots (LOTS) of bikes and mopeds. This is the only country where you'll see some granny zipping along on a moped. I got a little lost, and must have looked it, because some Japanese guard laughed at me as I passed, and a Russian exchange student came up to me and asked me if I needed help. I had her lead me to campus, and the international building. I thought I wouldn't see Japanese students, but here they were - but they won't be around for long. They're taking their final exams right now, so by next week the campus will be deserted. The most striking thing about these young Japanese is what they wear. Each and every girl looks like she came out of a fashion magazine, and no less for the boys. I feel so unkempt and uncool walking among them, sticking out like a sore thumb in more way than one. Even the guys are very well-kept, often putting as much effort into fashion and hairstyles as the girls. And there are very few exceptions to this rule. Its such a far cry from what you see on an American campus, where everyone walks around in hoodies and jeans, and showers only once in a while. I saw the grand total of ONE Japanese girl who was wearing a sweatshirt. It's a very interesting cultural difference. And intimidating too.
I attended the session on how to set up a bank account with Haley. It's very very unnecessarily difficult to do it. You need to sign forms in triplicate, matching your address and name exactly how they appear in your passport, including caps or commas. The reason is, Japanese bankers wont' be able to read our address or names. They'll just be able to tell whether one picture looks like another - whether the image of our address on our passport looks like the image of what we write on the form. Therefore, we need to copy it exactly. I got it at the first try; Haley had to redo a form. But we wont' even be able to access our bank accounts for two weeks, and Haley had to change over some Traveler's checks. So we walked around looking for a bank that would do it. Two hours of walking, and no luck. I understood enough the ladies were telling us that there was no bank in the area that would do it; we'd have to find a bigger one. We'll do it later this week. Then Haley and I went back to my room and watched some more KKM and chatted with my roommates, who also like anime, as we discovered.
Today orientations starts in full swing, and I've got to go now and get ready for it. I'll update later with more events, and pictures when I take them. Cya!

And I'm Off.

2007-01-20T14:47:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I've finally started to get this blog working. Well, as you can see, this blog will be devoted entirely to my semester abroad in Japan. I'll update with my experiences, pictures and videos as time goes on. Please come back regularly and see the updates!

So I'm finally leaving tomorrow! I've got alot to do before I go, though. So much to pack, so many little administrative things to take care of. I think I might go crazy. But if all goes well, I will arrive in Japan by Monday night. Then starts our three day orientation at the school, Kansai Gaidai University. Then I will move in with my host family.

Much better and more interesting posts to come! In the meantime, watch this video:

~~~Atashi no Nippon Bouken~~~ My Japanese Adventure