Sunday, October 23, 2011
WOW!
So I've been really busy lately enough to knowingly neglect this blog. I just finished working at Kishibe-Sai which for the most part was a blast! Met a guy who knew what his shirt said, so for Annie, I wore the shirt today for him. ^_^ I also participated in a pre-wrestling match skit, they wanted an "American" girl, but I'm pretty sure they just wanted my shirt which reads : Japanese Boyfriends apply here!" I am coming up on midterms the day of Halloween so I might be a little busy then, but I'm pretty sure I won't be too busy to continue my neglect. I have over half a journal written just for this blog, since actually logging on to blog has been too time consuming, but now with the festival out of the way I shouldn't really have a problem. I know my spelling's kinda sucky on this one, mind you I'm very tired and using this to procrastinate my powerpoint presentation research. ALSO! Tomorrow! I'm going with some of my friends to buy waist length wigs (hopefully, or shorter) for cosplay/halloween. :D I wanna go to Tokyo with them to Yoyoi Park, but they're taking the Shinkansen and it'll be 15000 yen just to take the train. @_@ That's really expensive, when you're debating on whether you need to take it back or not. So, I'm working on Halloween cosplays for the time being, but I am also very busy. I do miss my friends, but not as much as one might think because there's always something new to do or a place to explore, so that thankfully, I don't have time to be too hung up on all the awesome adventures I'm missing out at home. :P AGH! I'm soo sleepy, I'm really glad that I can type so fast to submit this. OH! I am really excited because tomorrow we're going to DenDen Town in Nanba in Osaka, so! There will be a lotta anime/otaku stuff in Nanba, especially DenDen Town! I've been thinking about transferring here, but I need to talk to my school before settling on anything. It's soo much fun, I really enjoy myself everyday. I'll try to post some adventures I've had here up sometime tomorrow if I have the chance. Gotta finish this powerpoint presentation first though. I'm out~!
Friday, September 30, 2011
So...
So I've been really busy these past few weeks, but now that things are starting to sort themselves out I have no problems... Well few really. Just silly things like "I forgot to pack my running shorts" or "わかりません！！" Nothing too drastic. There was a short poverty episode, but thanks to my school, they're soo helpful, that was nipped in the bud. And now that I've gotten my fundings from back home, that's even better. I am not sure whether I want to go clubbing tonight or not, since its all a matter of "when the clubs close, what will I do to fill in the time until I can get home?" Though, sometime this week there was a shift from a 13 hour difference, to a 14 hour difference from here to home. I wonder what that means. Eh, no biggies. I've made a ton of new friends and am excited because on Monday all of the Japanese students are starting school! YAYS! I can attack them with my sucky 日本語skills. :D Now that my major problem with Japanese has been mostly fixed, I am really excited to go out and talk to people. I realize that my skills with directions suck, but that goes to みちこ先生。There is also a surprising amount of "black" people here. I'm not talking tan asians, I'm talking HEY! YOU WITH THE DREADS/PERM/AFRO~! I get the feeling that socioeconomically, they're way better off than their American counterparts. Moreso there's a ton of black males here. Ahhahahahah! That's a riot, especially when I see them with some girls with really long bleached blonde hair (black roots) and are soo short. Though its really nice to see the diversity of foreigner+Japanese relationships. I saw Africans in a Kyoto Temple last week. They had a translator, and Its really cool when I run into the "black" people because we get these special little moments of "Yeah!" *nods heads and goes on with life* because thar be a special connection that others anywhere else probably wouldn't understand of get. I've taken up to crowd watching just o see how many a day I see. I mean I'm one of 2 (+?) on campus, but they're everywhere. Even in the little high school uniforms. It's really cute. Also, I paid my insurance on Friday (your thursday in America) at the post office. Yup that's where I have to go to pay my insurance (or bills if I had any.) Its really convenient. And since I'm living in Japan, I have to have their insurance, which means that if I got hurt, and went to the hospital, as a citizen I only pay 30% of the bill, and tax money pays the rest. Its really nice since people don't have to worry about making the money to pay off their health bills I bet. I'm having a hard time doing my dreads, because my arms can't reach the back well, (since they're twisted specifically to go towards the back) and I end up twisting them towards the front. The Japanese are enamoured with them! At the Welcome Party tons of host families wanted to talk to me about them and touch them and took pictures of them. They asked "mainichi?" meaning "everyday?" with the motions to twist something. I told them "ichi.... gatsu" which is "one.... month" because I don't know how to say times. like amount. @_@ Curse ye american school with your shoddy yookoso textbook and not teaching well. its okay though, because the textbooks I use here (really cheap in conversion of prices) is paying under $50 for the three I use. (I entered the prices in my phone and its converts them as of the exchange rates standards for that moment). The phones have THE WORST ENGLISH I've ever seen. Its really awkward to use when you're not using Japanese. Essentially I've become the topic of many households dinners, and made a lot of friends/been invited to other host families homes to visit as a result. There might be a few things I will have to buy, like soap and maybe new pants (or those really cute skirts--American fashion is awkward and weird right now, so its why I didn't buy much while I was there... I just need to get some bottoms so I can go running and lose weight faster.) My host mom even noticed a difference between me right now and the pictures my family emailed me that was taken at the beginning of summer. Had a really funny dream that Uncle Jamar was trying to drive one of the tiny cars here, but he had to either stick his head out of the window or drive with the sunroof open. Saw an American 70's car with hydraulics go down one of the narrow streets at school, and laughed because if the street were any narrower, he wouldn't have been able to turn the corner because his car would have gotten stuck. I wondered how muc it must have cost the poor Japanese guy to import such a vehicle. Since I am getting more free time with my schedule becoming more regular, I will start to write what I've done this past month more and more. It'll take a while since I've been writing them down in a notebook so I don't forget... and I write at least 3 pages per day. @______@ I might just rewrite it and hand out copies when I get home depending on how lazy I grow on that subject...
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Summary of the Past Few Days
As the title reads this is a summary of the past few days, including my first two? three? days in Japan. I'll start with the old and end with the new, don't get mad at me for a lack of pictures or details.
Now to find my notebook...Aha! There is is. Crud, gotta move the desk later, papers fell out of it. Great...
Arm Notes: 08-29-2011 (since I didn't have paper at the time)
Getting to the Airport (that was hectic)
Next time, I think we'll all take the light rail... Traffic was soo incredibly thick before 4pm, as well as construction and broken street lights. People really need to learn how to drive. There was RAIN! That wasn't much rainfall, but people couldn't drive to save their brakes. And grandpa covered parking when we got there.
Entering the Airport
Both suitcases were 63 lbs and each was $200 extra for the 13lbs over weight)
if I don't lose the luggage weight (Which I doubt I won't) using up some of the stuff I brought over, I will burn some of my clothes on the return trip.
Stressed from Nana changing her opinion/words soo much. That resulted in a grumpy goodbye, not that I wasn't already sleepy having only 4 hrs of sleep the night before. (I'm sure grandpa was stressed too, and Nana, but hers were probably for different reasons...)
Finding the first gate at the airport was hard because it was not only soo far away, but shoved way back into a little corner in which several other west coast flights were booked for.
Take Off!... Delayed.
My first flight was delayed by 30 minutes, which is bad because the flight attendant at the Check In to board called my name on the microphone (and I jumped in surprise) to change my flights. I was told this at 5:40pm. So that resulted in a glight exchange, so instead of having two flights from United Airlines with MSP to O'Hara, then O'Hara to LAX, I just went on Delta's 7:50 flight to LAX.
After a mad spring from one far side of the airport to the other (extreme opposite sides of the airport, gates E and G, not as close as you'd think). I got a call from Grandpa and told him and Nana the good news, then called Ann and told her and Norma the good news.
The Wait
Ran into a friend, Ashley R. who was working at a "Chili's Too!" right outside of where I was waiting. She didn't recognize me at first and thought I was waving to someone else. The restaurant had a small metal 2.5-3ft divider for the restaurant which she let me through (it's really only for exiting). The restaurant had great music that I liked anyways. Ie. Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit and Summer Loving from Grease. "Big Mouth's Burgers" is written on the side of the "restaurant". I got free cheesecake because Ashley's boss paid for it. It had strawberry syrup on the plate for eating and sprinkled powdered sugar on it. She kept giving me lots of water, at first because I asked for it, and then because I had a long way to go she said. And airplane water doesn't taste good at all. I spoke briefly to Patrick before takeoff.
Plane Ride #1
Cheesy video was great! (safety one on the Delta airplane). Two people next to me on the plane were nice non-Minnesotans. In fact they were Canadian. Original seating was me inbetween the two (mother and daughter) but then they let me sit next to the window for the ride which was nice. We were on the left side of the plane. They had hilarious stories and once we got above the gray matter outside of the windows (the clouds) there was a very pretty horizon above the clouds. An amazing fade of pink to blue. We went through the in flight catalogue, and I found "spuse" in place of spouse! The in flight movie was "Water For Elephants" and I could only remember the french word for sleep, not the Japanese word (which I now remember was nemasu.) I wrote out all of the hiragana to make sure I remembered them to kill some time and drew a picture of the plane's wing in the night's darkness. It was harder than I thought, since the lights were out inside of the plane too mostly. Then I played mind and word games with myself for a little while. The Canadian mother's name was Roxy and her daughter's name was Kendel.
Plane Ride #'s 2 &3 (Asiana Airline)
On the first flight of these two, it was a 12 hours flight. They had prepackaged in flight blankets and slippers and tiny reddish pillows for each person. The prepackaged meaning that they were in plastic. So were the plane's headphones actually. The headphones were free to use, but belonged on the plane. there was a tiny screen in the back of each chair and tons of bathrooms on both planes. Both planes had different seating. The first was 3 and 3, the second was 2 then 4 then 2. The airport's meals weren't bad, just weird to eat broccoli on the side of a cheese omlette and a cherry tomato too. A packet of ketchup as well for the ham I suppose and the blueberry muffin was really good but kind of sweet! The flight attendants gave us hot towels when we boarded the first flight. The first flight's bathrooms were also very neat (the second as well, but was only less than a 2 hour flight, so no need for the grandiose-ness of the first flight) with facial paper towels and cups for gargling and toothbrushes with tiny tubes of toothpaste with each one. The last hour of the first flight had a video with 6 different massages for flight fatigue and video commercials for the Incheon Airport (the one that I landed in Korea at.) Apparently their airports are soo awesome they have really clean and cool showers in them for people stuck inbetween flights. It looks like a freakin' spa! An they also had music videos for the country of South Korea... that was a little unusual.
When I got off the plane in Japan and passed through customs and whatnot, I met a staff member from the school and a student. I turned the $200 traveller's checks into cash because I would need it for the next few days he said. He was right. I got on a bus right after that with another student fresh off a different flight and got off at the first stop which had to be several miles away. There we met some students who took us to our host families homes. The guy and his student went on a different train than I and Miyu. We talked a lot about stuff on the train, of course anime we liked and other sweet stuff. Then We met my host mom and her doggie Joy at the Train Station and walked halfway to her house with the suitcases before calling a Taxi. They were sweating a lot, and I had the one that was the most awkward to carry. When we got to her house, we drank lots of tea and talked until Miyu had to leave and get my housemate from Korea who is also a student at OGU. I unpacked while host mom cooked dinner, and she and I ate together. That was after she woke me up when I had fallen asleep on the floor after putting most of my stuff away. Then I met my fellow student and Miyu went home. I took a quick shower and went to bed. I woke up exactly 12 hours later at 7:30am. Then I went through my day and forced myself to stay awake somewhere between 10 and 11:30 before going to bed.. The host mom showed us how to make ourselves breakfast and where the shopping center was, and where to get a taxi and the train station. All of that was in the same place. We ran through the rulebook at breakfast, though I had already once while waiting for Miyu and Soyeon. I woke up again at 7:30am, but rolled over and slept for another two hours. Then Soyeon went out to meet a friend and explore while I goofed around on the net and got accustomed to my new living space. Then host mom asked me if I wanted to go with her to the grocery store, and we went on a walk to better understand the neighborhood and just to talk in English and Japanese. We discuss a lot each time we do talk. We bought some foods and came back. Host mom cooked while I finished washing and waxing my dreads. Soyeon was late to dinner, but since we don't have cellphones and don't remember host mom's number yet, we just waited a little for her. She showed up 10-15 minutes into dinner. She was soaked from the rain. I did the dishes, since Soyeon was doing laundry and showed up late. She will do them tomorrow. Its how it works since host mom cooks. I'm listening to the rain now and figured I should do this now before I put it off much longer. I will probably post tomorrow in more detail, now that I'm all caught up.
Now to find my notebook...Aha! There is is. Crud, gotta move the desk later, papers fell out of it. Great...
Arm Notes: 08-29-2011 (since I didn't have paper at the time)
Getting to the Airport (that was hectic)
Next time, I think we'll all take the light rail... Traffic was soo incredibly thick before 4pm, as well as construction and broken street lights. People really need to learn how to drive. There was RAIN! That wasn't much rainfall, but people couldn't drive to save their brakes. And grandpa covered parking when we got there.
Entering the Airport
Both suitcases were 63 lbs and each was $200 extra for the 13lbs over weight)
if I don't lose the luggage weight (Which I doubt I won't) using up some of the stuff I brought over, I will burn some of my clothes on the return trip.
Stressed from Nana changing her opinion/words soo much. That resulted in a grumpy goodbye, not that I wasn't already sleepy having only 4 hrs of sleep the night before. (I'm sure grandpa was stressed too, and Nana, but hers were probably for different reasons...)
Finding the first gate at the airport was hard because it was not only soo far away, but shoved way back into a little corner in which several other west coast flights were booked for.
Take Off!... Delayed.
My first flight was delayed by 30 minutes, which is bad because the flight attendant at the Check In to board called my name on the microphone (and I jumped in surprise) to change my flights. I was told this at 5:40pm. So that resulted in a glight exchange, so instead of having two flights from United Airlines with MSP to O'Hara, then O'Hara to LAX, I just went on Delta's 7:50 flight to LAX.
After a mad spring from one far side of the airport to the other (extreme opposite sides of the airport, gates E and G, not as close as you'd think). I got a call from Grandpa and told him and Nana the good news, then called Ann and told her and Norma the good news.
The Wait
Ran into a friend, Ashley R. who was working at a "Chili's Too!" right outside of where I was waiting. She didn't recognize me at first and thought I was waving to someone else. The restaurant had a small metal 2.5-3ft divider for the restaurant which she let me through (it's really only for exiting). The restaurant had great music that I liked anyways. Ie. Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit and Summer Loving from Grease. "Big Mouth's Burgers" is written on the side of the "restaurant". I got free cheesecake because Ashley's boss paid for it. It had strawberry syrup on the plate for eating and sprinkled powdered sugar on it. She kept giving me lots of water, at first because I asked for it, and then because I had a long way to go she said. And airplane water doesn't taste good at all. I spoke briefly to Patrick before takeoff.
Plane Ride #1
Cheesy video was great! (safety one on the Delta airplane). Two people next to me on the plane were nice non-Minnesotans. In fact they were Canadian. Original seating was me inbetween the two (mother and daughter) but then they let me sit next to the window for the ride which was nice. We were on the left side of the plane. They had hilarious stories and once we got above the gray matter outside of the windows (the clouds) there was a very pretty horizon above the clouds. An amazing fade of pink to blue. We went through the in flight catalogue, and I found "spuse" in place of spouse! The in flight movie was "Water For Elephants" and I could only remember the french word for sleep, not the Japanese word (which I now remember was nemasu.) I wrote out all of the hiragana to make sure I remembered them to kill some time and drew a picture of the plane's wing in the night's darkness. It was harder than I thought, since the lights were out inside of the plane too mostly. Then I played mind and word games with myself for a little while. The Canadian mother's name was Roxy and her daughter's name was Kendel.
Plane Ride #'s 2 &3 (Asiana Airline)
On the first flight of these two, it was a 12 hours flight. They had prepackaged in flight blankets and slippers and tiny reddish pillows for each person. The prepackaged meaning that they were in plastic. So were the plane's headphones actually. The headphones were free to use, but belonged on the plane. there was a tiny screen in the back of each chair and tons of bathrooms on both planes. Both planes had different seating. The first was 3 and 3, the second was 2 then 4 then 2. The airport's meals weren't bad, just weird to eat broccoli on the side of a cheese omlette and a cherry tomato too. A packet of ketchup as well for the ham I suppose and the blueberry muffin was really good but kind of sweet! The flight attendants gave us hot towels when we boarded the first flight. The first flight's bathrooms were also very neat (the second as well, but was only less than a 2 hour flight, so no need for the grandiose-ness of the first flight) with facial paper towels and cups for gargling and toothbrushes with tiny tubes of toothpaste with each one. The last hour of the first flight had a video with 6 different massages for flight fatigue and video commercials for the Incheon Airport (the one that I landed in Korea at.) Apparently their airports are soo awesome they have really clean and cool showers in them for people stuck inbetween flights. It looks like a freakin' spa! An they also had music videos for the country of South Korea... that was a little unusual.
When I got off the plane in Japan and passed through customs and whatnot, I met a staff member from the school and a student. I turned the $200 traveller's checks into cash because I would need it for the next few days he said. He was right. I got on a bus right after that with another student fresh off a different flight and got off at the first stop which had to be several miles away. There we met some students who took us to our host families homes. The guy and his student went on a different train than I and Miyu. We talked a lot about stuff on the train, of course anime we liked and other sweet stuff. Then We met my host mom and her doggie Joy at the Train Station and walked halfway to her house with the suitcases before calling a Taxi. They were sweating a lot, and I had the one that was the most awkward to carry. When we got to her house, we drank lots of tea and talked until Miyu had to leave and get my housemate from Korea who is also a student at OGU. I unpacked while host mom cooked dinner, and she and I ate together. That was after she woke me up when I had fallen asleep on the floor after putting most of my stuff away. Then I met my fellow student and Miyu went home. I took a quick shower and went to bed. I woke up exactly 12 hours later at 7:30am. Then I went through my day and forced myself to stay awake somewhere between 10 and 11:30 before going to bed.. The host mom showed us how to make ourselves breakfast and where the shopping center was, and where to get a taxi and the train station. All of that was in the same place. We ran through the rulebook at breakfast, though I had already once while waiting for Miyu and Soyeon. I woke up again at 7:30am, but rolled over and slept for another two hours. Then Soyeon went out to meet a friend and explore while I goofed around on the net and got accustomed to my new living space. Then host mom asked me if I wanted to go with her to the grocery store, and we went on a walk to better understand the neighborhood and just to talk in English and Japanese. We discuss a lot each time we do talk. We bought some foods and came back. Host mom cooked while I finished washing and waxing my dreads. Soyeon was late to dinner, but since we don't have cellphones and don't remember host mom's number yet, we just waited a little for her. She showed up 10-15 minutes into dinner. She was soaked from the rain. I did the dishes, since Soyeon was doing laundry and showed up late. She will do them tomorrow. Its how it works since host mom cooks. I'm listening to the rain now and figured I should do this now before I put it off much longer. I will probably post tomorrow in more detail, now that I'm all caught up.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
A Special Blog
This is my special blog for people to follow my escapades throughout Japan. I will be adding pictures and a post almost every day if not every day. I hope that all of the readers will follow along (so I don't have to send out a billion emails all the time because let's be honest, we all know I won't. Its a huuge pain to write up long emails and to send em all out to different people. I leave in seven days from today for Japan. All adventures will begin then.
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