mactokyo

Sunday in Nagano to Narita Drum Festival

Mon, 25 May 2009 14:39:35 GMT

Trying to get as munch uploaded before I head out to Okinawa!

On Sunday morning, my host father and I did the other objective in coming to Nagano: filling a large container with fresh spring water to take back with us:

After that (I tried carrying the plastic container for a little bit. It was like my Anime Expo 2006 suitcase) we packed up to leave, and I noticed the room I’d slept in had some really nice carvings:

This is the little house where my host grandfather lives. It’s close to the main house, but far enough away that it’s not too noisy. He’s about 80, but still is able to get around, cooks and bathes for himself, etc. I met him for a few seconds, but he had just woken up and was a little sleepy for conversation.

And a few more pictures to remember the place by:

A fairly typical street corner:

The be careful of wildlife sign. Monkey!!! In the northern part of Nagano prefecture there are the onsen that monkeys also enter, but we were too far south for that.

Some pictures from the rest stop. This first one. I suppose there MIGHT be people who have never used a Western-style toilet before, but this just made me laugh!

The herb/tree garden next to the rest stop. Seriously, the rest stops in the US look like complete garbage after seeing what Japan has to offer.

A very hazy shot of Mt. Fuji:

More driving photos.

Check out this highway map!!!

The sakura were in full bloom near our apartment:

Now, I was very tired after the drive and decided to take a nap. My host mom offered to wake me up because the local cherry blossom festival was going on and I wanted to see it.
Four hours later, I wake up at 6pm and was confused. My host mom said she thought it would be nicer to let me sleep, but she brought back food from the festival for dinner, so it was okay. Well, I really did want to go… we went after dinner, but it had finished, and was mostly people taking stuff down.

sigh… at least I got to see the sakura at night and from the car.

The next day they were still in bloom on campus, so it was really okay. I ate lunch under one of them.

After class I went wandering around the area with some friends. The obscenely loud game arcade:

Hey IU anime class people!! Your teacher would approve of this game machine!!!

For lunch, I had omerice with croquets, very tasty!

After lunch we decided to go to the Toys R’ US between school and the station two of us use. It was pretty much like any in the US, except for all the anime-based toys:

It’s not terrible uncommon to see a small building between two large ones like this, but it still looks kind of weird:

Fish pond on campus:

All the students in out program had a tea ceremony cultural activity one afternoon. Here is one of the special snacks we were served:

Equipment and room:

We tried missing the tea ourselves, but it was more difficult than expected. You aren’t supposed to use your arm, but your wrist. There’s a reason no one under 50 is ever considered a master of the tea ceremony:

A few days later, I went with some friends to Harajuku. This is an ACTUAL TACO STAND

I know the Japanese are into layers now, but this is ridiculous!!

At least the clothing has amusing labels:

I tried the teriyaki chicken burger at McD’s. I was not impressed.

More pictures of sakura:

On the way home that day, I heard the unmistakable sound of a band playing--- well, next to the university are a middle and high school. It was the middle school entrance ceremony, so you think they’d play something Japanese and tradtitional, right? Wrong! The band was playing Stars and Stripes Forever ?!?!?!!

Now, let's move on to the Narita taiko festival! I saw this neat trolley near Narita station, but couldn't quite it a closeup shot of it:

On of the station. And a bonus taxi. There are always taxis at the train station, but I rarely see anyone using them, since they cost about $7 or so just to get in, so I imagine they stay in business by ferrying people who miss the last train of the day.

Once everyone appeared, we made our way to lunch. There were many stalls like this one along the way:

and all sorts of banners and kites

Besides taiko, there were many other dance and drum groups performing:

The street was quite interesting to walk (literally) down:

Eel (a local speciality) drying in the sun:

My eel lunch!

An adorbale fat cat ornament:

After lunch, we wandered around the main temple.

Doggy cutoffs...

Stalls selling all the souvenir junk you could ever want:

We had some free time at this point, so we wandered up the street to see more performances. I realized I could probably use the movie function on my camera, so I tried taking some videos. Please excuse the quality on these.

Then, I filmed the rest of it:

A street performance that I only caught the end of:

And an orchestra performance. Short because I didn’t know if it was recording sound or not.

Then we headed back to the temple for a tour.

Drinking fountains in Japan are tricky, as they shoot water straight up.

It was then time for the evening performance.

A friend and I decided to do a little shopping, and walked to the largest book-off I have ever seen:

I saw an express train from the airport while waiting for my train:

The next day, Mini decided she wanted to explore the inside of both of my suitcases:

Japan is full of fun drinks in vending machines. Sometimes the bottle is an interesting shape as well!

sometimes with odd ingredients:

My cafeteria serves fishdogs.

phew!! More soon, if I have the energy!!

Finally have time to update again! Let's go back in time.

Mon, 18 May 2009 15:38:31 GMT

First, you may notice that I've added the "Read more..." links so this page will not take forever to load. Just click on them, and you can see the pictures!

This was the day I went to my interview at the gallery. Because it was rush hour, and they had them, I decided to ride in one of the women-only cars:

Twice a man got on by accident. The first one stood there for a bit before realizing something was odd and than moved down a car; the second was informed by someone that they were on the wrong car. I was going to say something to the first guy, but they had one of those faces that looks both male and female, and I was afraid I'd make the wrong gender assumption, which would have been horribly embarrasing.

KFC delivers in Japan:

On April 3 and 4, I went with my host father to Nagano prefecture, which takes about 4 hours by car. The main reason we were going was for him to change the show tires on their car. There's no room to keep 4 tires where we live, so he keeps them at the family home in Nagano, where his older brother lives. Here's a picture of the car we drove in, which is quite large by Japanese standards:

It had GPS, a voice warning about traffic jams and on-ramps, and a tv. I was impressed.

fruit grove:

what the Japanese schoolkids crossing sign looks like:

Onto the highway! Which are all tolled in Japan :(

The sakura were in bloom:

I made a joke about the powerline tower being shaped like a padoga, but they aren't all like this:

We stopped at a rest area/shop for lunch. In Japan these places are seriously nice and clean, with plenty of tasteful souvenirs to buy for family and friends in case you forgot to do so coming or going. I had some tasty curry for lunch:

Stuff on sale:

a hot food vending machine!

mountains in the distance:

These nikuman looked really really tasty:

Ah, trash sorting in Japan. Burnable trash is well, burned, and used for energy. Aside from that, there are many different things to sort out for recycling.

Trying to find a trashcan for non-recyclable or burnable trash is a PAIN in Japan. Sometimes I carry trash around for 15 minutes until I find a place I can throw it out.

On our way out of the parking lot, a lady came up to us and apologized because she had backed into our car. We had a few scratches, she had some dents. Now, in the US, I'm pretty sure insurance cards would have been exchanged, possibly the police would be called, and we would have been on our way. Not so here. I sat there for
OVER AN HOUR
as they talked, went back and forth looking at both cars, and called a highway policeman. Both my host father and the lady called their insurance agents. After the policeman arrived, they again went back and froth between the two cars pointing at the dents and scratches at least another 10 times. It looked something like this:

Finally, were were ready to leave, and my host father appeared from the back with a Nausicaa DVD in hand. "Let's watch this," he said. I didn't object. I don't think I've ever seen such a clean copy, so at times it felt like I was seeing the movie for the first time. This is also why I don't have pictures of the rest of the drive, but at that point it started raining and visibility was very low.

However, when we arrived at the house, we were just in time for the portable shrine from the local spring festival! It makes stops at all the houses in the neighborhood. I look many pictures of it and the scenery around the house: (by the way, my host father's brother fixes Japanese-style roofs for a living, hence all the tiles and such)

After the people finished their break, which involved a lot of beer, they entered the shrine and played music:

After a bit of music, it's time to move to the next bend in the road, and everyone pulls the shrine to the next stop. Some people sit inside while this is going on, which I would pass on, given the beer consumed and the three foot ditches on either side of the narrow road, but hey, what do I know :)

After this, we went to visit my host mother's parents for a few minutes. No pictures this time, but there will be plenty later, since I went there for Golden Week. We started dinner, then partway through decided to go look at the sakura tree at the city's (non-portable) shrine. This nighttime viewing is called yozakura. Please excuse the quality of these pictures, as it was dark and raining.

I am pleased with this one, however:

While we were there, we saw the mayor and one of his secretaries. My host uncle, more than a little tipsy by that point, called out to him "hey! How about taking a picture with an American!?!?" The mayor agreed, and greeted me in very nice English. Of course, my host uncle was in the picture too. On the way back, my host aunt remarked she was surprised that her husband had recognized him. "Why not?" my host uncle said. "He's on TV all the time..."

So, hospitality in Japan. When visiting someone's house, you're pretty much guaranteed a nice meal. LOOK AT THIS SPREAD. This is after we had been eating for an hour, and I couldn't fit it all in one shot. The lower left plate in the first shot is gohei mochi, and it is absolutely yummy.

Here is the room I slept in, very nice traditional style:

More coming soon!

Goal!

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:49:59 GMT

During orientation, we were asked to state a goal we hoped to fulfill in Japan. After hearing about 30 people say their goal was to get better at Japanese, I decided it would be more interesting to say something fun, so I said "I want to go to the Kishidan concert in April." Kishidan are a Japanese rock band known for dressing like biker gangs of the 80s, crazy concerts, and bizarre music videos:

Today, I will fulfill my goal! The concert is being held at the Nippon Budokan, which originally was for martial arts and other sports tournaments, but know is also used as a concert venue. The first concert there was the Beatles in 1966, and at the time there was a lot of complaint that having a western group perform would ruin the Budokan. Obviously, it turned out okay, but that's my interesting tidbit for those that have no interest in Japanese music :)

Sadly, it's raining all day, but I'll try to get some pictures of the building.

Mon-Thur

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:31:16 GMT

So, on Monday afternoon I did a bit of shopping with some of my friends. One of the places we wandered was the Nike store, where I saw this thing on sale:

Maybe it’s just me, but I think it looks hideous. One of the Nike store employees talked to me a little bit and asked where I was from. When I told him Indiana, he thought for a second and said “Pacers! I like basketball!” That’s likely the only time someone will know something about Indiana over here. It doesn’t bother me much, since when travelling in another country you can only expect someone to know the really big cities, and vice versa.

We took a break at a gelato place downstairs, and I decided to order two of the weirdest things on the menu, cream cheese gelato and pink salt gelato. It tasted, as you might guess, like cream cheese and salt.

Here are some schoolgirls sporting pigtails walking down the street. Most of the schoolgirls I’ve seen wear similar uniforms.

This sign is on my train line often: “Are you also a dangerous youth?” The guys on the end are punk and thugging, and the one in the middle is a nerdy anime fan, but I can’t tell at all how the girl is dangerous. She’s not wearing any of the extreme getups I’ve seen in downtown Tokyo.

C.C. Lemon seems to be quite popular among Americans in Japan, and I can see why: It tastes like lemon Fanta.

On Tuesday I went to an onsen/spa in Ikebukuro with my host mom and a friend of hers. Here’s a shot of Ikebukuro:

Before the onsen, we went to an aquarium in the top of one of the buildings of an area called Sunshine City, a large shopping center. There was also a planetarium, and I was amused to see they wee showing the same black hole show that Dave and I saw at the museum in Denver.

On the way into the aquarium, we walked by an animal show, so I snapped a few photos:

Photos of the aquarium:

Afterwards we took a break, and I tried the aquarium’s special ice cream flavor: Sea salt. It was less salty than pink salt.

For obvious reasons, I couldn’t really take pictures of the onsen, since you have to use it naked. There were several warm pools inside along with a sauna that knocked the wind out of me when I went in, and another pool and a hot tub outside. After showering off, we changed into sweats provided by the staff, and relaxed in reclining chairs with warm blankets. I promptly went to sleep, which my host mom and her friend found cute, and told me when I woke up that I’d been making a very peaceful face, like Mini-chan the cat.

A few more shots of Ikebukuro:

Wednesday was nothing interesting: some orientation about the computer facilities, and the Japanese placement test, all in places I’ve already taken pictures of. I won’t find out how I did on the test until Tuesday. I discovered that there was another Book-Off between school and home, which means I can use my pass and go there for free. On the way home, I stopped buy and bought a few more cheap things. Really cheap, I paid $2.50 for a Japanese region 2 DVD, which normally go for about $60 US.

Yesterday my host dad took the day off and took me to alien registration, and then took me to where I’ll be doing my Wednesday field placement, an anime/manga gallery in Aoyama near the fashion district of Harajuku.

Mini-chan was being an adorable ball of snooze in the morning:

Here is one of the pillars marking the entrance to Omotesando, another shopping area.

An add for a cat café, where you pay hourly to drink coffee and play with cats, a popular option if you live in an apartment that doesn’t allow pets.

We then stopped in a toy store that had a MOUNTAIN of toy capybaras. That giant one on top was going for about $152.

Sushi USB drives!

Japan, this is why people say you’re weird.

ALLIGATOR SHIRTS!!!!

A look back at Omotesando.

At the top of the hill was the entrance to Meiji-jingu Shrine, definitely a change from the constant week of city I’d been having. The trees were all very tall, and they blocked out most of the surrounding buildings, so it felt a little like we were going back in time.

These lined the long walk up to the main part of the shrine. There wasn’t a bench in sight. On New Year’s, when the Japanese visit a shrine to pray, this shrine might see 2 or 3 million visitors in a day :o

There was a visitor’s center with a gift shop full of stereotypical Japanese items, and the nastiest bathroom I’ve seen in Japan. I don’t know if it was because it was a tourist area with a lot of foreigners or what, but they had some serious funk. The toilet seats looked so nasty I decided to squat over a Japanese-style toilet rather than touch those seats with ANY part of my body.

Back towards the entrance to the complex, there were a lot of banners advertising the fact that Tokyo is a candidate city for the 2016 Olympics. The slogan translates to “If it’s Japan, we can do it. A new Olympics!” I’ve seen these a few other places around the city, but kept forgetting to take a picture.

These are all empty barrels of sake!

Before you enter the main shrine area, there is this little area for you to wash your hands, so you meet God in a clean state.

Here is the main building gate:

And building:

These two trees represent a mother and father, and two people getting along. My host father said that since I’m getting married soon, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to offer a prayer, so I tossed a few 1 yen coins into the box and did the bow and clap routine.

My host father asked me which I thought was the mom and which the dad tree, and I said I thought the one on the left was the mom tree because it looked kind of pregnant.

There was a giant ceremonial drum inside the main shrine.

The main building, which only the shrine people enter:

And a zoomed view of the inside:

These were prayer tablets you could buy for about $5, in order to write a wish on for the shrine deity.

We walked over to one more structure where I bought a charm for a friend back home. The ladies selling them were wearing the traditional priestess outfit, with the white kimono top and red hakama, but we weren’t allowed to take pictures ;_; On the way out, my host father explained that traditionally one would walk to one side or the other of the large paths, because the middle was where God walked. These days, people don’t really pay attention to that.

After the shrine visit, we went to Harajuku. Here’s a view down the incredibly crowded main street. Imagine trying to leave Disneyland after the night fireworks show, and that gives you a fair idea of how crowded it was.

I saw these girls near the entrance. After he saw me taking this shot, my host father asked them if they would pose for a picture with me, and they said no. Oh well.

I didn’t take pictures walking down the street due to the sheer number of people, but it was mostly filled with clothes stores, crepe stands, and a ton of girls who, to quote an old editorial about Hash Bash, were all “dressed individually alike.” By which I mean boots or heels, tights, short skirts or shorts, and a combination of shirts that anywhere else would make someone think you were a homeless bum.

Here’s Harajuku station, which “looks like Disneyland,” to quote my cousins on our various travels when we were younger.

At my home station, the sakura are blooming more and more, so the festival this weekend should be quite pretty ☺

Today I have my actual field placement interview, which I’m a little nervous about, and then the rest of the day off. I’m going to go to the city hall to finish my alien registration, but aside from that I’m thinking of going to Akihabara again, since it’s on the way home from the interview.

Mass photodump

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:25:42 GMT

So much to write about, so many pictures. I’ll try to do my best and cover the interesting points from the last chunk of days.

Thursday morning I saw what I believe might be the first thug dressed guy since I came to Japan, but since he was walking next to some guys on a lunch break, I’m not sure. But I’m having a hard time thinking of what uniform would require baggy red pants.

I nabbed another shot as they walked inside the mall (subtly, of course)

Lunch was a meal set from Fast Kitchen. The Japanese like to abbreviate things, so they shorten Fast Kitchen to

“Fa-Kin.” I think I’ll refrain from using that.

After lunch, I wandered around in Carrefour, and they, like every other big store in the Tokyo area right now, was decorated for sakura season. Quite pretty, really.

I couldn’t resist a picture of the large Lego elephant.

Here is a picture of a small “police box,” or koban, as they are called here. This one looks a little different than most. Koban are often located by train stations, and it’s perfectly acceptable to wander in and ask for directions, report a lost/found item, etc.

A lot of Makuhari City looks like the Technology center here. All of it is built on reclaimed land, which is why it is so flat.

We wandered into a computer store on our minitour of the city. All the electronic aisle are papered with ads like you can see here.

Several of the guys and I geeked out at this section for a few minutes before we were told we needed to get moving to the next place. There were several grumbles of protest.

This is an example of a public phone in Japan. This one doesn’t take cash, probably one of the few things in the entire country that prefers cards.

What is this big pink bus? It had “women’s health” written on the side – it’s an OYBGN on wheels!

I think we had a computer made by these guys back in the 80s…

Near where the program has its main office are several cute statues.

A decoration inside the office:

To give you an idea of how boxy the cars are here:

Clearly, this side of the convienience store is the spot of choice for the working smoker:

You find this on the side wall of the stall in some bathrooms. When you sit down, it plays a loud flushing noise for 25 seconds.

Since it is sakura season, various specialty snacks and drinks are available this time of year only:

I had a sakura mochi. The inside is anko (red bean) paste, and the outside leaf is edible. Overall, it was quite tasty.

Next to campus is one of the local high schools. The baseball team was practicing as I went by.

There was a sakura tree starting to bloom on campus!

There are places in Japan that aren’t super-clean. Here is the campus storepile/mini junk yard:

A typical train station ticket area:

KITTIES! There are two at my homestay. This is Mini:

and Tango, who is kind of shy:

At the official welcome party, they went all out on the food!!

A pretty spot near campus:

What is this yellow, bumpy line? Almost all of the sidewalks here have them. They are for blind people, so they can use a walking stick and tell where the sidewalk is, where streets are, and where stairs stop and start. A great idea, in my opinion.

It’s a little hard to tell what’s going on in this picture, but the man in yellow is directing traffic out of the parking lot, telling the cars when to turn or when to stop to let pedestrians cross. I much prefer this to darting across an exit way hoping the car will stop for me.

Some tanuki statues in a park near campus.

This is the train station closest to school that I use. As you can see, it’s tiny!

This is what I saw when walking home one street over:

One of the houses near me feeds stray cats, so there are almost always some in the yard when I pass by:

On Friday night, an exchange student from Thailand came to stay with us for the weekend, so we did a lot of sightseeing and walking. This picture was taken nearby the apartment. Even though Chiba prefecture is right next to Tokyo and pretty easy to commute to, many pieces of land are still devoted to agriculture. It’s nice that they aren’t all being turned into apartment buildings!

Inside one of the department stores, armor sets for Boy’s day on sale:

A REAL ramen shop! It was so narrow you can see both the door/windows and the kitchen in this shot!

We used this machine to make our orders, and then handed the ticket to the chef.

My oily soy sauce ramen was yummy!!

An explosion of pink and Hello Kitty. It was quite scary, really.

FANTA LEMON!!!!! I haven’t found you since Europe!!!! I drank with great relish.

I do so hate creating scum while I cook.

I’m pretty sure this supermarket had about every kind of fried meat imaginable:

There was also plenty of fresh meats!

Thus ends Saturday. On Sunday, we traveled into Tokyo. This was the most crowded train I’d been on yet:

Ueno station! The tables in the middle are filled with souvenirs from all sorts of places, in case you forget to buy one during a trip.

Almost to Akihabara!

We first went to a big electronics store, where I looked at this tiny computer:

It was crowded! This picture doesn’t do it justice, but it was like shopping on a Saturday near Christmas at a mall in the US.

We next went up to the top of the building (skipping the anime/toy floor, since I have several months to come back here) for lunch at a kaiten zushi place, where sushi passes by on a conveyor belt and you take what you want.

This is natto-maki. Yes, I tried natto, and I thought it was fairly tasty. Of course, I’m the only one that liked vegemite when I went to Australia with a big group.

A shot of the bookstore one floor down:

Outside the building:

More trees in bloom:

Look at all of these tasty daifuku. The exchange student wanted one, so I got to get one too :D

This is what I was expecting from Akiba, giant anime posters and crowds:

Gamers is one of the most famous anime stores in Japan, but I didn’t get a chance to go in this trip. I have no idea how crowded Akihabara usually is, but it seemed busy to me. I saw a few people dressed up in costume.

Wow, I recognize these guys!

And so we left. I bought two manga at one of the bookstores, but otherwise we really came to Akihabara and just looked at electronics. Next time…

From there we went to Shinjuku station, which was amazingly busy:

Colorado!

Shinjuku:

We went to the observation floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan building and looked out over the north side of Tokyo. Sadly, it was a little too cloudy to see Mt. Fuji.

HOWEVER. That didn’t matter at all, because I found a guy with PUNK HAIR. Biker gangs in the 80s used to sport the 1950s greaser look, and I was hoping I’d find someone with a pompadour while I was here, even though I’d heard it would probably be unlikely. I followed this guy around for literally five minutes getting pictures of his hair discretely.

However, it was all worth it for the money shot:

After a while, we went downstairs where this big decoration to bring good luck in the new year was on the wall:

A picture of the Metropolitan building:

There were people in the nearby park doing ohanami, having a picnic party while looking at the cherry blossoms.

Behind the people, you can see a row of tents. That’s where a lot of homeless people live.

On Monday, we had the official tour of the campus, and by far the most impressive building was the library:

Although it is a very new building, the designer seemed to have a fondness for the 70s:

However, all is forgiven once you reach the 2nd floor. There, there are areas for people to practice the various foreign languages they are taking, such as Thai:

Vietnamese:

Korean:

Indonesian:

Chinese:

Spanish:

Portuguese:

This cute display of The Little Prince in multiple languages:

The best quote of the week by far was after we left the building, said by one of the Penn State students that make up a large portion of the people in the program this semester: “Where is our tuition money going? I know we get donations of 5 million dollars over the weekend, just for winning a football game! And you’re telling me we can’t get hookups like THIS?!?”

Lastly, the kyuudo (Japanese archery) club, which I think I might join:

Good grief, that only covers to Monday. I’ll try to post the rest asap, as soon as my fingers recover!

Quick update

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:53:18 GMT

I don't want to use too much of the host family internet, so this'll be quick - pics coming tomorrow, I promise!

1. On the way back to our apartment, I took a slightly different street, and just before I turned to head back to the normal one, I spotted a Book-Off! And I only spent about $16, and got 8 manga and 3 CDs! I love the cheap aisles. I also signed up for a point card, which was fun because I couldn't really understand the vocab, but lickily I was carrying my address with me, so between me and the store people, we figured it out :)

2. My host mom helped me, and now I have a ticket to go see the first Kishidan concert in three years next month! YES~!

3. Today, without any input from me, the student from Thailand here for the weekend said he wanted to windowshop and that he likes cameras, so today we are going to eat lunch and wander around in

AKIHABARA

for those that don't know, this is the area of Tokyo famous for electronic stores, and lately as the gathering/shopping place for anime and manga nerds. On Sundays, some of the roads switch to pedestrian traffic only, and people dress up like anime characters or maids and wander around. It should be fun for all, if a little surprising to the host parents :)

4. My host mother invited me to go with her and her friend to Nagano for Golden Week! (sort of a national spring break.) My host father will be in Nepal.

HAHAHA

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:23:00 GMT

So, all the homestay students are sitting in the office, waiting for their host families to pick them up. Most went sometime between 3:30 and 5:30, but guess who's marked at around 6:00ish because both parents work???

It's like daycare all over again!

I am highly amused.

Orientation, orientation, orientation

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:07:37 GMT

Today was full of the above. To give you an idea, just stare at this for a while:

During a break, I ate a fake ice cream wafer-cream thing:

However, meals were quite fun, because today we met our e-pals! I had been a little nervous, but it turned out totally fine. A few more people complimented me on my Japanese, which was nice. We talked mostly in Japanese all through lunch, which once again was the food court at the mall containing Callefour, ~~sort of a Japanese Wall-Mart~~ a French chain, I was informed.

In honor of a friend who likes the animal, I had kitsune (fox) udon. No, there is no fox in it; it refers to the sweet tofu on top, which in Japanese legend is the favorite food of the fox.

After lunch, we had some time to kill so I suggested going to a bookstore. It turns out, there is one in Callefour. I wandered over to the manga section, and pointed out a few that were popular in America. I couldn’t resist the idea of buying a manga in Japan, so I picked up Tanemura Arina’s new one, Mistress Fortune. It was immensely satisfying to take a new manga up to the register that cost only $4.20. Can’t do that in America ;p

Also, I used the zoom function for this picture. When the Japanese have colds or allergies, they put on a surgical mask-like thing like this when they’re out and about in public. I saw many, many people wearing them, but I wasn’t about to stop and ask one of them to pose for me.

After lunch was more orientation, including a lot of things to expect and not expect on our homestays. I had wondered why so many people were in the dorms instead of doing homestays, but the lady in charge told us that there were people that wanted to do homestays, but due to a lack of availability couldn’t. I felt a little humbled about making that kind of assumption, so I resolved to think a little more before jumping to conclusions. I meet my host parents tomorrow, so I am nervous, if things will go well or not. However, I’m sure they’re nervous too, so we’ll see how it all works out Actually, I’m worried the most about taking up too much space with my suitcases…

By the way, unlike the exit signs in Europe, where the running man never gets to the door, in Japan, he does!

The bathroom in my room is normal, but I had to go looking when I heard one of the bathrooms on the second floor had the infamous Japanese-style toilet. Here it is. I’m not sure the picture properly conveys how small and narrow it is; if I put my foot sideways, I could probably stand on the edges.

After orientation, we ventured out in assigned groups with our e-pals and headed out to dinner. The main purpose of this was to take the train for the first time, a scary prospect since the Tokyo area train map is quite frighteningly complicated.

Here’s a picture of the walk there. One you get of the main streets, you can see a lot more Japanese-style roofs.

The Japanese girls with me were a little amused that I kept taking pictures; maybe later I’ll tell them about the Japanese tourist stereotype in the US ☺ Once again, I chattered away pretty much the entire evening in Japanese; my e-pal is majoring in English, but it’s been a while since she used it. I used some English so she could get some practice as well – after the semester starts I think we’ll both be more comfortable in the other language.

On the way there, I saw my first Japanese person on a really noisy bike revving their engine, but I didn’t get my camera out fast enough.

Here is a typical ticket machine, above is a map for a few lines.

Basically, you look up the station you’re heading to, read the fare listed under it, and buy a ticket for that amount. To get to dinner, we rode the train for a few stops, and got off at a different station, went up some stairs, around, down some other stairs, and got on a different train. I don’t feel at all confident about making a change correctly, but riding on the train itself wasn’t too bad. Of course, the real test will be getting on at rush hour. Yikes!

The restaurant we were headed for was on the second floor of another mall. I got on the escalator as usual and stood on the right side to relax, and was quickly corrected that you’re supposed to stand on the left side. However, on the way to the station, whenever people on bikes passed us we moved to the right and they passed us on the left; interesting.

The restaurant was unable to seat all of us, so we headed downstairs to the food court. The food at the food courts here has been pretty tasty so far, so it wasn’t too disappointing. I had a pork kimchee ramen and a day-glo melon soda:

One of the e-pals turned out to be a huge Simpsons fan, and showed me some pictures on her phone of them, and some actor from High School Musical that she really liked. Not really knowing who he was, I smiled and nodded. This is why I don’t chatter on about anime and manga incessantly here, because that’s exactly the reaction I would get for most of it. So far when they ask me about manga I like, I stick with a safe choice and say Sailor Moon, and recently Chi’s Sweet Home.

I tried asking her if she knew Futurama, which turned out to be difficult because I couldn’t remember words like “created”. Also, because I learned how to speak politely first, talking in casual style for so long is tiring because I have to constantly think (even after we learn casual-style in class, we still use the more polite form when talking and asking questions.) I’m sure I’ll get plenty of practice while I’m here…

On the way back, there was a very,very loud voice echoing off the buildings. It was far louder than anything I’d heard in public so far. We turned the corner and my friend explained what it was, but I’d forgotten the word for election, so it took a minute. However, look at this!

Our politicians should have decorated minvans and banners like this! Heh. To take this picture, I almost got left behind, so I didn’t take any more pictures outside today, since we were being escorted back to the training center in a group. Which is a shame, because on the way back we went through narrow streets with red lanterned restaurants; karaoke bars, tiny houses, and even a cat that darted past, but it gets the honor of being – almost the first cat I saw in Japan! (the first one was a kitten at the pet store. The pet store, by the way, made the living conditions at Pass Pets look even more like refugee camps than they already do.)

After we got back, I wandered into the little store in the hotel and grabbed a peach drink to buy; just before I got the the counter I realized it was alcohol, a big no-no at any program event, so I put it back and got the peach water instead. Phew!

Being quite tired by this point, I excused myself and went to bed. Of course, I’m still a little off because of the time, so I woke up around 3:30. I turned on the TV to a screen full of high school delinquent punks with bleached hair and weird piercings: apparently, I’d tuned in to the final episode of a show called Elite Yankee(a term for juvenile delinquents in Japan, probably due to the American military being rowdy after WWII here) Saburo. It was quite amusing; and they kept showing trailers for a movie version that I might make and effort to go see.

A highlight of the day: Out of all the things I could have been asked, the first question about American culture the e-pals had was why the girls got their ears pierced at such a young age.

An oops moment of the day: when someone asked me where I was from, I realized I’d forgotten to pack the maps of the US and Indiana I got from Triple A. Ack!! So I keep saying 3 hours from Chicago.

Arrived!

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:50:27 GMT

Here is my pile of stuff. It's more than the program suggests I take, but come on, it's for 4 months! Also, those two suitcases are about half full each, so lots of room for items!

The flight to Detroit was pretty uneventful, except the girl next to me noticed my Japanese textbook and asked if I was studying Mandarin. She explained about a trip she had taken to China, and the two of us had a light conversation about travel. The Detroit airport was nothing like I remembered it. Now there's a big red monorail thing inside the terminal to ride to the farther gates. I considered it training for Japan. In some respect, it is most fitting that I leave for Japan from Detroit, because that is where my interest in anime and Japan began. Here we are, waiting for our flight:

Take a look at this plane! I've never been on a doubledecker!

I'm not sure I can properly describe what I was feeling when the plane made the turn to get on the long runway to take off. Too many emotions at once. After we took off, everyone around me fell asleep, which I thought was hilarious. In hindsight, maybe they knew something I didn't, since I could smell our meals being warmed up for about an hour before I got served one. That was rather painful. However, as if to make up for it, I got a bizarre yet very tasty meal. That's green tea, not mountain dew in the picture. Shortly after this was taken, we encountered terrible turbulence, so bad that the flight attendants had to stop the meal service and sit down. I find it amazing I ate that entire meal during all the jolting and didn't spill a thing on my white sweater. After this I tried the sleeping pill I brought, but I only conked out for about 2 hours. I did feel quite rested after that, however.

Due to some volcanic ash, we were flying farther north than usual, so we flew over a lot of northern Canada and Alaska. I'm not sure where we were when I took these pictures from the window.

Not much else to say about the flight - it was cramped, I studied, sometimes looking up at whatever movie they were playing.

Landing in Japan was fun - after finally coming down out of the clouds there was the usual scenery from 10000 feet, except here there were some kanji on the roads. The event was quite normal, though I heard the pilot tell someone that it wasn't until we were 3 hours out that we knew we would be able to land. Customs went pretty quick, the COE form helped I think. Luggage was a breeze, and it wasn't hard to find the meeting point.

Look! It's the flight board from every anime and drama taking place in Japan!

The airport was pretty quiet, though.

Oh my gosh, first vending machine!!!

I couldn't resist, and added to a growing pile of change.

I chatted with some other program people, sent off a suitcase to my host family, withdrew money, and then we got on a bus to Makuhari city. The ride there, at least the first 90%, was very interesting because it didn't really look like what one might picture as Japan - lots of open areas, lots with old cars, former industrial complexes...parts of it looked like Mexico, and parts liek Europe, if that makes any sense. But there were some things
to remind us of where we were, such as driving on the opposite side of the road, and cute delivery truck logos:

If that's too hard to see, it's a black cat carrying a kitten in its mouth.

We got settled in the orientation center where we will be for the next few days. Two other girls and I wandered down the street

to a mall, which was rather like a mall anywhere, except for the spazzy colors and ROWS and ROWS of capsule toy machines.

That's a little arcade behind the sign, so we decided to take a look.

the right half of that is filled with paw toys.

and around the corner......

CAPYBARAS! I tried twice, and while I didn't get a good one, I did get one! But it's tiny...

and... a Maison Ikkoku slot machine??

Dinner was had at the food court, where I ordered okonomiyaki and takoyaki

It was tasty, but too much, so some of it is sitting in my minifridge to be breakfast if I don't feel like getting up early.

The little room I have to myself is quite nice.

It comes with hotel slippers

lots of freebies, including shampoo for more than one night for us long-haired types

and the world's most awesome shower, withsuper hot water if you want it.

Of course, anything would have felt awesome after that plane ride.

But here's the best part of the room:

All those switches? for every light in the room, so you don't have to get out of bed to turn something off. Theres a tv switch, the ac control, radio control, and alarm clock (with a flashlight below in case of blackout). EVERY hotel should have this.

Here's the view outside of my window:

I'd love to say that I'm looking at it now, but for some reason the internet is not working in my room, but I cna use the wireless spot. I'll probably deal with it tomorrow since I bought the internet in a 3 day deal, and I'm dead tired and need to be up for orientation tomorrow.

Off I go!!

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:50:15 GMT

Finally, I think I have everything assembled. After one short flight and one very long flight, I will be in Japan!