Weird Stuff: Part I

There's a typhoon coming! It's basically a Japanese hurricane, and I don't feel like getting caught in it, so I'm going to sit inside quietly and blog, instead.

I thought I'd take some time to share some unexpected discoveries about Japan. Since I'm sure I will continue to find more weird stuff in my year here, I have dubbed this "part 1 of ?". There were a lot of things I expected to be different. For example, Japan has temples and shrines all over the place, and the U.S. does not. In America, we drive on the right side of the road, and the Japanese drive on the wrong, er, left side of the road. Here are some things I was not expecting:

Cute Manhole Covers

How cute is that?? Pretty much every manhole cover I've seen has been nice-looking. What a random and pleasant way to decorate streets and sidewalks.



Huge Toilet Paper

This is one piece of toilet paper. It's like 2 1/2 squares of U.S. toilet paper! I first encountered huge toilet paper in my hotel room, and I wasn't sure if it was a normal thing or a fancy hotel thing. Then, I got a complimentary roll of T.P. when I moved into my dorm room-- 1-ply, but still huge. When I bought my own from the store (the one shown in the photo, complete with cute animals on it), it was also huge. It kind of makes sense to me, though. I mean, who only uses one little square, anyway?



Using the Honor System for Booze
So, I bought some beer and sake from the local convenience store. They don't care to see your ID, you simply have to touch the button on a touch-screen that says you're older than 20 (the drinking age in Japan). I thought maybe it's because I am clearly older than 20, but my younger-looking classmates had the same experience. I have always heard that Japan is a relatively safe country with a lot of honest citizens, but I didn't expect it to go quite this far.



Pee Pole?!?
Students at Nagoya University have to have a medical check-up, which involves a health self-assessment, a chest x-ray, and a urine sample. My university doesn't do this, but it doesn't seem that strange...
 until they hand me a really complicated-looking urine container called the "Pee Pole II". Uhhh...

They gave us English instructions, so I'm thankful for that. I suppose it's better than a cup with a lid, but I'm still a little nervous about it. The really Japanese part is the cute illustrated characters peeing into the pee pole. If this is Pee Pole II, I wonder what the first pee pole was like...

Settling in

My first few days have been pretty busy. For the first time in my life, I have more storage space than things, so I promptly went out to buy things to fill up the empty space. Some volunteers from the university took us to the local super-store where I was able to buy everyday things like soap, dishes, and groceries. There was even a food court in the basement where the volunteers helped me order takoyaki and melon soda. おいしかった！

It was a little challenging to find everything I needed with my poor Japanese skills, but I did pretty well by looking at the pictures on labels and using my Japanese-English dictionary. I am lucky to have lived near Japantown in San Francisco, so I know how to cook some things like miso soup and Japanese curry.

This is a picture of curry I made and a cute spoon I bought from the 100 yen shop. My room is very plain, so I decided that everything I buy needs to be colorful and/or cute.

Also, check out these huge grapes I bought called ぶどう！ They look enormous even when I hold them with my big man-hands. They are very sweet and I think they taste a little bit like plums, but maybe that’s just me.

Food is pretty expensive, especially meat and produce. Another student who has been here for 6 months claims it’s because they grow everything here in Japan instead of importing from China like most Asian countries do. I try to look at the bright side and say that it will put me on a forced diet and make me look really cute soon. There are some filling and relatively inexpensive things at the nearby convenience stores, so I expect I will be going there for onigiri and instant ramen pretty frequently.

I made it!

Well, I'm in Nagoya! And I have some sort of internet! I get wireless in the lobby of my building right now, and I get internet in my room in a week or so. It's really great so far, and it's been an exciting adventure these past few days, and there's still more adventures to come. Whee!

So the trip was long, and mostly uneventful. I spent a little while with Alvin at O'hare Airport before saying goodbye and crying a bunch. Now that I think of it, we must have looked really silly trying to have a normal conversation with tears streaming down our faces. After I went through security, I sat and read some sweet letters from Alvin and from my mom, and cried some more. When I made it to Honolulu, it was the middle of the night, so I napped on an airport bench. Once the sun came out, I went to the beach!

The water was so blue! It was beautiful; I hope I can go back someday for more than just a few hours.

After getting some sun, it was time to catch my flight for Japan. As I got to the boarding area that I noticed I was the only white girl on the flight. I figured I may as well get used to being a weird foreigner now. When we flew away from Hawaii and the U.S., I nearly cried again. On the plus side: there weren't many passengers, so I got a whole row to myself. Plus, there were 2 meals and 2 movies- All with a coach ticket!

After landing, I got my luggage, was issued an ID card, and went through customs. I even got to use some Japanese to ask directions to my hotel and again to check in. I was pretty pleased with myself. I had enough time to take a much needed shower before heading off to meet some other exchange students for dinner. The restaurant was very nice, and the food was delicious. We had salad, pork, fried chicken, noodles and lots of beer. It was a relief to finally get to know some people in Japan. The next day, I had a nice cup of tea in my hotel room before checking out and moving in to my dorm room.

My room is tiny, and the building is old, but overall it is a nice place to live. It's close to campus and the subway, and I have my own stove and fridge. I'm still settling in, so I'll post pictures when it looks a little more presentable. I can't believe I'm living in Japan!

A place to stay!

No longer homeless! With exactly one week until I fly away from the States, I still didn't know which dorm I was going to be living in. Today, I finally got my assignment:

International Residence Higashiyama

I haven't been able to find much information on this building. All I know so far is that it is on campus, and each room has a kitchenette, bath, toilet, bed, dresser, storage, desk, chair and refrigerator. Good enough for me!

So, yeah. One week to go. I still can't believe I'll finally be going to Japan this soon. I've been on "vacation" for the past month and a half, which means I've been unemployed and out of school, so I've had plenty of time to prepare. I'm feeling pretty good about things. I'm basically "packed", meaning I have a pile of the things I want to bring sitting next to some suitcases. I always have this problem where I want to be packed and ready to go, but I also still want to wear the clothes I'll be bringing, so I can't really pack everything until the night before I leave. I know, first-world problems, right?

PS: If I wasn't poor, I would totally be taking ANA's Pokemon Jet to Japan

I'm a little nervous about my first international flight, but I'm pretty optimistic. I fly out of O'hare airport on the 18th, layover in Seattle, then land in Honolulu. I'm hoping I'll get a chance to lay on the beach before flying out of Hawaii on the 19th. The flight from Hawaii to Japan is only a few hours, but since I cross the international date line, it will be September 20 when I land. Then, move-in at the dorms is the 21st. Apparently, some other students are arriving on the 20th, too, so we're all going to try to get together that night. I was a little concerned about not knowing anyone in Nagoya, so I'm looking forward to meeting my classmates.