Lazy

 So, classes have only sort-of started. Japanese language courses begin next week, and this week I have been going to regular classes. Once all of my classes have begun, I'll have Japanese all morning and some afternoons with a few other classes sprinkled in there.

Monday was "Economic Theory and Applications II". Most of the class missed out on "Economic Theory and Applications I" which was last semester, but the instructor is going to try to review the basics for us before going into more advanced theories. It isn't terribly exciting, but I think it will have important information for my field of study.

Tuesday was "Japanese Culture: Language and Communication". I think it will be a very interesting class discussing the importance of cultural context in conversations.

Wednesday I will have a hardcore "Kanji 1000" class which teaches me the 1000 most common kanji characters I need to know. In the evening I went to "Pre-war Japanese Cinema". I mostly attended because I need more credit hours. I originally thought it would be very boring old movies, but after sitting in the first class, I actually think it will be pretty interesting. It deals with social issues like nationalism and colonialism in Japan's history.

Thursday I have only Japanese classes, so this week I had a free day. I sat around and watched Japanese TV and played cards.

Friday(today) I went to "Outline of Japanese Culture Since the 16th Century" only to find out that the class doesn't begin until next week. Another free day!

All of this free time feels really weird. It's nice to have time to explore, I guess, but I don't really have money to travel around and see much, so I just sit around, update blogs, and hang out with other students who are feeling the same way.


Anyway, I've already been yelled at for not posting pictures of my food, so I guess now I will have to be "that girl" that takes photos of all of her meals : P  It's not really such a terrible thing, just something I'm not used to. So, here's the first food photo:

This was an especially green breakfast from the cafeteria. Green tea and kabocha melon pan. "Kabocha" is Japanese pumpkin. "Pan" is the Japanese word for "bread", which they learned from the Portuguese. "Melon pan" is only called that because it kind of looks like a melon. It is not usually melon-flavored.

Also, I didn't order it today, but they sell crepes.

Here is an example of their choco-whip crepe and strawberry-whip crepe. I thought it was funny because in Japanese it's "choco hoippu", and I imagined Stewey Griffin saying it.

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.

おいしい! YUM!

I love food. I love to cook, and I love to eat, so, naturally, I am looking forward to the cuisine of Japan. Most people are probably familiar with Japanese foods like sushi or tempura, but there are many more foods that I have read about or even tried in the U.S. which I am looking forward to trying when I get to Japan. In my researching, I have learned that Japanese cities have certain foods that each one is famous for. It's like how Philadelphia is famous for the cheese-steak or how you have to eat a Chicago-style pizza pie when you go to Chicago. My future residence of Nagoya, Japan has some famous foods, too. Here are a few that I've discovered:

Tenmusu
Tenmusu is an onigiri stuffed with shrimp tempura. In English, it's a rice ball stuffed with fried shrimp and wrapped in roasted seaweed. What's not to love?

Tebasaki
This is Nagoya-style chicken wings. Fried chicken wings with a soy-based sauce. Apparently, there are two rivaling restaurant chains that claim to have the best tebasaki. I am totally okay with trying both, and loving each of them equally.

Misokatsu
Katsu is basically a pork fritter, and miso is a soybean paste you may have had in the form of miso soup at U.S. sushi restaurants. Misokatsu is a pork cutlet covered in a miso-based sauce. I even found the website for a major misokatsu restaurant in Nagoya! Check out Misokatsu Yabaton. Looks a little weird, but sounds sOoO goOod.

Hitsumabushi
Ok, so, up until now, things have basically been Japanese versions of foods we typically eat in the U.S. (fried shrimp, fried chicken, fried pork,...) Here's where things might get weird, but stay with me. Hitsumabushi is a bowl of rice and freshwater eel. Don't say "EEW"! Eel is so tasty! It's super rich and tender and delicious, and like everything I've ever eaten at a sushi restaurant here, I hear it's way better in Japan. I cannot wait to eat some!

And all of that is just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more to eat and discover. While I'm there, I'll be sure to let you in on all of my yummy discoveries, and even the ones that are less than yummy.

どうして日本語？Why Japanese?

Ugh, the assignment posts are pretty lame O.o I decided I will not subject the public to any more of those. Instead, I'm going to submit assignments separately and blog about things that I think people might actually be interested in.

Let's try this again:

I have been learning Japanese off and on for a few years now, and one question I often hear is "Why do you want to learn Japanese?" The short answer is "I dunno. I just like it," but most people aren't satisfied with that, so I've been thinking about it a lot and I've come up with some ideas about why I find Japan and Japanese so fascinating.
Many people I know started learning Japanese because they love anime (Japanese animation) or manga (Japanese comic books) or Japanese music (J-rock/J-pop). I like to watch anime, read manga, and listen to J-pop because I like Japan. I find the pop culture interesting, but it is not what got me started on my Japan-ventures. I think it started with a general interest in Asian cultures and how different they are from the U.S. First, I was fascinated by Japan's history and cultural traditions (Samurai! Kabuki! Tea! Geisha! Ninja!). Next, I got interested in Japanese pop-culture (Harajuku fashion! Hello Kitty!). And when I was able to minor in Japanese at Illinois State University, I couldn't resist.

After studying Japanese language and culture for some time, I began to realize that I identify a lot with them. A few examples:
~Japanese are generally very polite and modest. I feel uncomfortable at the thought of doing something bold and showy, and I don't like to get too much attention.
~Japanese are generally perfectionists. There is only one way to do pretty much anything from correct stroke order when writing to the correct way to hold chopsticks. I am not quite this particular, but I typically feel like there is a best way to do things, and if you're going to do something, you may as well do it right.
~The Japanese make everything into an art. Ikebana flower arranging, calligraphy, dance, martial arts, sushi... in pretty much any field, there are people who have dedicated their lives to perfecting that craft and attaining a certain aesthetic. I also believe that if you're going to do something, you may as well do it beautifully.

So this is kind of what I mean when I tell people "I wanna go to Japan 'cause, well, I just think it's awesome." This is also why I have decided to go back to school to try and make Japanese a career. I mean, hey, if I enjoy it so much, why not try to make money with it, too? Don't you think?

Anyway, I fly out in less than a month, which should mean that soon I'll have cool photos and fun stories and not just vaguely coherent ramblings...so you have that to look forward to ^-^