Tadaima!: Honey, I'm Home!

so, actually, i got back on saturday. but i've been smoothing things out here and too lazy to sign in to this blog. not a lot going on here anymore. just catching up with friends and getting geared up for christmas.

so, i'm home now, but i haven't yet documented all of my adventures. i know i'll see most of you soon enough, but i probably wont be able to tell all the stories. should i continue to write to fill in the gaps and complete the story, or since i'm back, are people not really worried/interested anymore?

i might write them anyway, just as a form of detox, but if people show an interest, i might be more enthusiastic about it, so be honest. leave a comment, send me an email, give me a call. whatever.

so that's pretty much it for now.

ttfn

Travel Plans

for those who are concerned, or worry more than they should, my travel plans are as follows:

my flight leaves nagoya airport at 8:30 in the friggin' morning on saturday here. i have to get to the airport on my own, but i've had some help setting it up. I should arrive in chicago sometime saturday afternoon, local time. i'm hoping at that point, someone will be nice enough to come get me so i don't have to wait seven hours for a 45 minute flight home, especially since i have to uncheck my bags for customs.

• (5:45am) take a short taxi ride from my school to Kanayama train station. this is normally walking or biking distance, but with baggage, this is pointless.
• (6:15am) tak a train from Kanayama to Nagoya airport. this should pull right into the airport itself at around 6:45
• (8:30am) my flight leaves for tokyo.
• fly from tokyo to chicago.
• either someone will pick me up at o'hare, or i will wait in a 7 hour layover and fly into bloomington.

that's about it. now i have to try to write yet MORE papers. fun fun.

The Final Week... in more ways than one...

So not only is this my finals week, but it is actually my "final week" in Japan. and it's got me driving up a wall.

i know i promised so many articles, but, obviously, with so many things to write articles about, it's been quite busy. i'll give the short version now, but i have a feeling, part of my winter break de-tox is going to be writing these up for anyone who is still interested. i'll give the SUPER short version now.

• Home-stay was awesome. i had to turn down their follow-up christmas party because of all this crap i have on my plate in the last week, but that's how it is.
• We did make it to Kyoto and it was was even more awesome, but it is definitely agreed that it is more than a day-trip. A bazillion and three pictures have to come off my camera now.
• i won't be going back to the onsen, but since i went with my host family during home-stay, i'm not as worried about it.
• I wanted to go to a manga kissa while i was here, but it doesn't look like i will. what is that, and why do i want to go? that in itself could be another blog, so i'll leave it at that for now.
• this past weekend, i made it back out to sakae. actualy, it's my third time now. i went a few weeks ago on my own and had a really cool time exploring the area. i also went to nagoya-jou (nagoya castle). but those will wait their turn too.
• it hasn't been looking like i'll get back to oosu (see pronunciation guide), but i may have an excuse to go in the middle of this week, so you never know.
• i also made it out to nagoya-kou, the port, with my roommate. that was awesome.
• i've sold my bike. *tear* i called the airline today and found that it was just way too much trouble at this point. plus, it wasn't really made for the kind of hills we have in BOTH towns i live in. I've sold it to a friend of mine who will move into the seminar house next semester (he lives off campus now). we'll actually carry out the actual transaction later this week.

most people don't have a clue about half of what i just said. this is fine. tanoshimi ne? just look forward to it, and know that i've been a very busy bee these last few weeks, outside of classes. All will be reveald, once i've regained my sanity.

What am i up to now?

well, finals. i'll just lay this out now, for those who are wondering.

• i have a written test on friday for my grammar class.
• also on friday, i have an oral or interview test. it's supposed to be completely on the fly.
• i have a speech and paper tomorrow in my society class (which should furiously pick up after this, but i need to detox).
• i have a short paper for religion due on thursday.
• i just emailed in my final project for my art and culture class. that's what's got me so wiped right now. i was up literally all night on it, because, as usual, it turned out to be much more of a task than i originally thought. it's a time-line of most of the stuff we went over in class, which is pretty awesome stuff. it's not what i wanted it to be, but it's still pretty cool. it's online so you should check it out, but if you comment, please do it here, not on the site, because my teacher still has to grade it. i'll put more on that later.
  

so, yeah. um... oh yeah... travel plans. i'll put that in a separate post in a second here.

so, yeah. that's what's been up here. most people have been all like "gannbatte!" (do your best!) to me, but i feel a lot more like "shikaishirou!" (Hang in there!)

*and my roommate just handed me some korean nori, some of the best sh*t on the planet.*

oh, yeah, and here's the link to my time-line. it's a pretty cool class. it's a seminar on japanese culture and art focusing on modernization. it starts in the late edo period with traditional ukiue wood prints, and progresses through westernization (and the opposite "japonaise"), kabuki, noh, and few wars, impressionist movements, ceramics, and finishes off with japanese cinema, special effects genre shows and movies (godzilla/ultraman), and even venturing into anime and manga (think pokemon, but a million times better). and here it all is in chronological order:

http://www.xtimeline.com/timeline/Modernization-of-Art-and-Culture-in-Japan

again though, please don't comment on the site itself (if you even can), my teacher still has to see it. comment here, send me an email, or talk to me in person.

Japanese Polish Potato Salad: Happy Thanks Giving Everyone!

so it's a ripe 1:00am friday here. but you guys are just getting your thanks giving settings out. tonight, we're also going to be having a celebration here in the seminar house, which is at least half overrun with americans. a thanks giving potluck. so, after a good 15 years of observing and helping, i have decided to create the next generation of potato salad.

i was talking to my mom about the ratios. she asked, "well, how much are you making?" i answered, "3 or 4 potatoes. 6 max." she came back with "i've never made so little!" but i must have done it right, because there wasn't enough room in the 'bowl' i was using to stir it. i was also stirring it with a rice paddle. i'm taking that trick back with me. it's amazing.

the ingredients were a little difficult to find. you can pretty much find vegetables and potatoes anywhere, though celery is ridiculously expensive. but mustard and dill pickles were going to be tough.

i had a heck of a time finding the pickles. in the end, i didn't even find them. i was at the end of my rope (even visited a colombian import store*) and asked a friend who was going out for her own ingrediants to keep an eye out. she found them all right. they aren't quite the same, but they're still good.

*funny tangent time: i talked with the owner (or at least a worker) of the import store for a bit. my friends had, for some reason, thought the shop was brazillian. the person i spoke with was colombian. he, too, spoke japanese, spanish, and english. but for some reason, when i revealed that i spoke spanish too, all of my spanish hid in the dark corners of brain. i guess it was because i was in "japanese mode." he asked if i spoke spanish, in spanish, and i answered "chyotto," japanese for "un pocitto," or "a little." the opposite always happens when i try to speak in japanese; for example: "necicito los meganes de sol," "i need my sunglasses," replacing "gafas" with the japanese word for "glasses," "megane." (btw, these two words are not interchangeable in ANY other context.) i think i should go back there some time and prove that i'm not a total moron. but it occured to me on the way back to the school that i've forgotten the past tense in spanish. i should fix that.

i found the mustard on top of a shelf wrapped in a cord hanging from the ceiling.

getting the sour cream was fun, too. it's a good story. i had no less than three japanese people searching the store* for this "sawaa kuriimu." one of them actually thought it was a face cream. turns out it was right next to the whipping cream that i had not only looked at but picked up and read... twice. one of the people helping me look had done the same. there were two containers about half the size of a yogurt cup (you can see it in the pictures below) with the labels facing inward. no wonder i didn't recognize it. when i finally went to use it, it had the consistancy of creame cheese. i had to warm it up by putting a bowl of hot water under the bowl containing it. all is well now though.

*(well, really, just the refrigerator section)

the mayo is also a little sweeter here, but i happened not to use much. it's not exactly the same, but it's still delicious. we'll see how it does tomorrow at the party.

so, for your eyes, unfortunately not for your mouths, the next generation of Polish potato salad, or perhaps the first generation of Japanese Polish potato salad.

Sweets Paradise

so, as promised, we went to Sweets Paradise. it is a たべほうだい tabehoudai, or "all you can eat" establishment dedicated to, you guessed it, sweets; more specifically cakes. (interestingly enough, the place is pay by the hour.) but they also had some really good pastas and カレー (karee) curry there. that's a good thing, because i've found out here, i'm not really someone who likes "sweet" so much. i'm definitely more of a salt or spicy person.

nonetheless, they had some really delicious mushroom sauce pasta, and curry. they also had mochi (a soft, sweet rice cake), and a really good strawberry-whipped cream sandwich-like thing. The mochi was nice because it was one of the japanese foods that i've been wanting to eat since i got to japan, but haven't gotten to yet. it was a little sweeter than i was used to, so i only had one, but it was good.

the place was on the sixth floor of a subway station. the stations here are often shopping centers as well. this is a little strange to me, but it was cool to go through some of the places and get a little more modern japanese culture while we were there.

also, everything was decorated for christmas. it really makes you realize how much Thanks Giving breaks up the season. some of us were talking about how, even though you see the Christmas stuff out right after halloween, the decorations themselves don't really go up until after thanks giving.

over all, the place wasn't as cool for me as i had expected, but it was still a fun night. afterward, some friends and i went to the arcade to do peliculo, which i'll have to explain at a later date. *mischievous grin* heh heh!

pictures!

the atmosphere ..................................................the view from the 6th floor


the desert spread ...............................................the strawberry thing


white chooooooocolaaaaaaate .........cool water clock in the station


the street ..........................................yes, there is a place called "Toyota"


water clock in the station

Learning Japanese: Romaji and Other Useful Things

i said that i should get some of this in here. probably should have thought about it earlier, but oh well. it's long, but it's about three classes and several years of correction worth of information here. feel free to skim. i've tried to make it skim friendly with bolding, headings, paragraph breaks, and colors. at the end in a set of words and how to get easy sound bites for demonstration.

Writing and Pronunciation

so, about, these words that i keep writing in these glyphs (mostly because i like playing with my keyboard) and then have to "subtitle" with pronunciation, a lot of those pronunciation guides are retarded approximations of the word. and they're annoying to write and look at.

as it happens, there is a systematic and standardized representation of japanese words in characters that western speakers can read. this system uses a "kana" called "romaji."

from now on, i want to write my japanese pronunciations in romaji rather than these bad pronunciation guides.

there are four ways to represent words in japanese. i will use some "romaji" in my explanations, but i will explain romaji in and of itself soon enough. (you can skip the first three if you like.)

Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji:

- the first is a syllibary called ひらがな (hiragana). it has about 45 characters, each representing what we would call a vowel or a consonant-vowel combination. the first "line" is あ い う え お, pronounced "a, i, u, e, o." the second "line" is か き く け こ representing "ka, ki, ku, ke, and ko." it continues like this. these characters are used for native japanese words, or sometimes adopted chinese words old enough to be considered "native" japanese.

- the second is カタカナ (katakana). this also has about 45 characters representing proximately the same syllables. アイウエオ are similar to, if not the same as the aforementioned "a, i, u, e, o."カ キ ク ケ コ are respectively "ka, ki, ku, ke, and ko." these characters are used to represent sounds not always necessarily words. what does this mean? basically, they represent pronunciations, sound effects/some onomonopia, and in this case foreign words adopted into japanese, but aren't considered native. katakana spellings of foreign words are often approximated pronunciations, but for some reason, truely adopted words like コンピューター (computer) have acquired "standard" spellings. it has also become common to spell native japanese words in katakana for marketing and advertising purposes like in brand and store names, just because it's "cool," similar to the American convention of spelling things like "kwik/quik" (quick) or "EZ" (easy). the sound and meaning are the same, but it's note really that word.

- the third is 漢字 (kanji). these are pictographs/characters with varying pronunciations that represent meanings and concepts stolen from chinese writing. this is the most educated form of writing, but they are often combined with other kanji and/or hiragana for grammatical purposes. for example, the kanji 大 has the general meaning "big." as an adjective, it is written 大きい and pronounced "oo" (not "oo" as in "food" but a very long/strong sounding "o" as in "abode") in "oo-kii." it can also be combined with the character 学 (school/study/learning) to become 大学 meaning "big school" or more properly "university/college" and pronounced "dai." the whole word is pronounced "dai-gaku." it becomes very complex and difficult. i think it's said that you need to know about 500 of these characters to read a newspaper, 2000? for a novel, and there are over 5000 used in japanese. i think the chinese have something like 20,ooo of them. i don't believe i've used any kanji in my blogs yet.

(skipping people, pay attention now.)

Romaji:

the fourth, is romaji. this is what i really want to talk about. romaji is the standardized usage of roman characters to represent japanese sounds. lucky us, unlike the western attempt at representing chinese sounds, this one usually works pretty well. for those who don't know, roman characters, for our purposes, are basically the english alphabet abc...xyz. i believe the system is based off of english spelling anyway.

japanese pronunciation consists of a few main features:

• vowels (pure vowels similar to spanish),
• diphthongs and vowel blends,
• hard consonants,
• long vowels,
• long consonants,
• and consonant blends.

these are reflected in romaji representation of japanese. most of these conventions are reflections of the hiragana used spell the japanese pronunciation.

vowels:
(i'm taking alot of the next part from the Langenscheidt Pocket Dictionary Japanese.)

the vowels are pure vowels pretty close to the ones used in singing or spanish.

• -あ "a" is pronounced "ah" like the "a" in "father"
• -え "e" "eh" like the "e" in "get" (except i think it has more of the element of a long "a" like the last sound in the name "Renee´" or the spanish word "grande")
• -い "i" "ee" as in "heat" (but shorter)
• -お "o" somewhat of a long "o" as in "port" (but shorter)
• -う "u" as in "put" (but sometimes more "oo" as in "food")

diphthongs (and vowel blends):
(some of this is stolen too)

• -あい ai as in "Thai" (or the spanish "bailar"):
• -あえ ae pronounced "ah-eh"
• -いえ ie pronounced "ee-eh"
• -うえ ue pronounced "oo-eh"

(most japanese double vowels like this usually emphasize both vowels. the vowel sound doesn't usually change, though sometimes they can get "mushed" due to the speed of speech.)

special consonants:
(the framework for this is stolen too, but a lot has been added)

the consonants are pretty much the same, but a few conventions need to be talked about:

• - "c" and "x" aren't usually used.
• - "g" is always hard regardless of the vowel that comes after it, like the g in "go," "girl," or "get," even when "ge" or "gi"
• - "j" (or soft "g") sound is represented with a "j" like in "jar." however, often there is a trick to the "j" because of the sound in japanese is often a variation on "shi" or sometimes "tsu"
• -"s" is always hard like in "sit," never "z" like "jars." this will always be represented with "z."
• - "y" is always a consonant like in "yet," never a vowel like "fly" or "myst." this one may also end up a little tricky sometimes because of it's usage in japanese blends.
• - "sh" is like "she." this will usually be "shi" because sha, shu, and sho are usually blends (shya, shyu, shyo) and "she" (with a short "e" as in my last name) doesn't really exist.
• - "ch" is like "cheeze." this will usually be "chi" for the same reasons "sh" is usually "shi."
• - also, in japanese, there is a character す "su," but sometimes especially at the end of a word or sentences, most commonly in the word です "desu" and verb forms ending in ~ます "~masu," this "su" is shortened to "des/dess" or "~mas/~mass." so far i've been writing these as "des'" and "~mas'," but from now, i will write them as "desu" and "~masu" because there are times that another word comming after it will change the pronunciation back to standard, such as ですよ "desuyo." so for consistency, i won't use the apostrophe anymore. the same kind of thing also tends to happen to the characters つ tsu, ち chi, し shi, and じ ji.

double and long vowels:

sometimes in japanese, two of the same or similar vowels are used next to one another. these produce the same sound, but twice as long. some examples are: ああ aa, えい ei, ええ ee, いい ii, おう ou, おお oo, うう uu.

in cases where the vowels are different, the first vowel's sound is dominant. however, the aforementioned あい ai, あえ ae, いえ ie, and うえ ue are not in this category. neither is おあ oa, あお ao, あう au, and others; these are vowel blends. this really only happens with えい ei, and おう ou.

what exatly does a "long" japanese vowel sound like? (skimming people can just check out the listening part and try to hear the difference.)

exercise:
try this. we'll use the sound よう "you" (a long "o" not the english pronoun "you"). this is actually a two syllable word よ "yo" and う "u." hold up one finger and say よ "yo," kind of short like a rapper, pointing to the finger. now hold up two fingers and say よう "yo-o" pointing to the first on よ "yo" and the second on (う)お "o."

the same can be done for へい "hei." point to one finger and say へ "heh" like a short laugh. now two, saying へい "he-e" like a greeting to a friend you've been thinking about lately.

you can try these too: さあ saa, ねえ nee,きい kii, ゆう yuu, けいこ keiko, きいて kiite*, おおきいookii

*meaning "listening" as opposed to きて kite meaning "cutting"

also, as a last note, katakana has a separate character for this, ー indicating to hold the previous vowel sound longer such as in コンピューター konpyuutaa, computer.

double consonants/long consonants:

in japanese, there is a character termed a "small tsu." it is literally a smaller rendition of the character つ/ツ "tsu" but it it pronounced as a "long consonant." in romaji, it is represented by two of the consonant following it. this is a little difficult to describe in writting. basically, to an english speaker, it comes off as kind of a 'silent syllable.' this can be illustrated in the same way as the long vowel pausing for a bit between the first syllable and the second. it may be best to check out the listening section and try to hear the difference.

some examples:

(hiragana; romaji; meaning)

• けこ; keko (plain vowels); a flower/plate used in flower scattering rituals
• けいこ; keiko (long vowel); a girl's name
• けっこう; kekkou (long consonant then long vowel); used in the phrase けっこうです kekkodesu meaning "no thank you" "i'm fine" or literally "that's fine"
• けっこん; kekkon (long consonant); pronunciation of 結婚 meaning "marriage;" also a root for mariage related words

• にっぽん; nippon; a pronunciation of "日本," a name for japan
• にぽん; nipon; not a word (as far as i know)

• いっぽん; ippon; one (of something); one cylindrical object

there is one kind of double consonant that does not use a small つ tsu, and that is "nn." instead, this uses the character ん/ン "n" (the only character in japanese without a vowel) in front of a character front the "na" line (な, に, ぬ, ね, の; na, ni, nu, ne, no). this isn't truly in the same category as "long consonant" but both sounds must be pronounced, making the "nn" sound longer.

example:
どんな donna which; what kind


as you can see, though many english speakers at first can't hear or even pronounce the difference in these sounds, the distinction is very important, especially in writting.


consonant blends:

this probably isn't difficult to pronounce, but i feel the need to draw attention to it. structures like きゃ kya, きゅ kyu, and きょ kyo. this structure is created by using characters unding in the い/イ"i" sound like き/ぎ ki/gi, し/じ shi/ji, ひ hi, ち chi, に ni, etc. followed by a "small" や ya, ゆ yu, or よ yo (there is no yi, or ye). this results in blends like きゃ kya, ぎゅ gyu, しょ shyo, ひゃ hya, じゅ jyu, ちゃ chya, etc.

closing words:

that's pretty much it. pure vowels, vowel blends, hard consonants, long vowels, long consonants, and consonant blends. it is quite long and wordy, but these are things that we learn over two or three days of classes and still get corrected on them. i hope this has been more helpful (and possibly interesting) that long and time consuming.

Listening:

here's some interesting words an pronunciations to try. you can copy and paste the terms in green to this site* for pronunciation sound bites. i've checked them, and they should come up as the first result from the search. the "" icon will give you a little sound bite. have fun.

*Jim Breen's WWWJDIC: Online Japanese Dictionary Service;
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C

(vowels)

• 亜 (あ a),
  
• 位 (い i),
  
• 卯 (う u),
• 柄 (え e),
• 緒 (お o)
  

• 枝豆; えだまめ; edamame; green soybeens (a food); (illustrates several plain vowels and consonants; a fun word)

• 名古屋; なごや; nagoya; Nagoya (city) (where i live); (plain vowels and consonants)
• 日記 ; にっき; nikki; diary, journal (long consonant; used in the name of my blog)

• 学校; がっこう; gakkou; school (in a general sense) (LC (long consonant); LV (long vowel))
• 従業; じゅうぎょう; jyuugyou; employment (LV, CB (consonant blend))
• 授業; じ ゅぎょう; jyugyou; class, lesson (academic class); (LV; and SV (short vowel) used for contrast)

• 会いたい; あいたい; aitai; a for of the verb 会う/あう au meaning "to meet (with)/to come together," this form means "to want to meet" as in: 家族に会いたい; かぞくにあいたい kazoku ni aitai; i want to meet with my family. ^.^ (vowel blend/diphthong)
• 愛; あい; ai; love (romantic/married); (vowel blend/diphthong)

• 百; ひゃく; hyaku; hundred (100) (CB)
• お客; さん; おきゃくさん; okyaku-san a formal term for a customer or guest (CB)

• 一本; いっぽん; ippon; one (of something); one cylindrical object (LC)

• 大きい; おおきい; ookii; big, large (LV)

(this group of words are used for comparison)

• 蹴込み; けこみ; kekomi; riser; footboard (plain sounds)
• 稽古; けいこ; keiko; training, practice, etc. (LV)
• 結構; けっこう; kekkou; used in the phrase けっこです kekkoudesu meaning "no thank you" "i'm fine" or literally "that's fine" (LC; LV)
• 結婚; けっこん; kekkon; pronunciation of 結婚 meaning "marriage;" also a root for marriage related words (LC)

• どんな; donna; which, what kind (LC, specifically ん/ン n)

• へい; hei; has several meanings depending on kanji, but you can plug it into the search engine for demonstrative purposes. you can listen to several different words to demonstrate intonation, which i have not gone over here. (LV; intonation)

(another group of words used for comparison)

よ　YO

• よ; yo; (a sentence particle used for emphasis)
• 世; よ; yo; world, society, generation, etc.
• 夜; よる; yoru; night
• 良く; よく; yoku; well (adv.)

よう　YOU

• 陽; よう; you; meaning: yang
• 用; よう; you; task, business, study
• 漸く; ようやく; youyaku; same as "hei"

いそがしい、いそがしい：Busy Busy

(いそがしい romaji: isogashii; pronounced eesogashee-ee)
((i suppose i should throw a little romaji lesson in here somewhere.))

yeah, i've been busy. i've got at least two backblogs in the works, but to do them i have to sort through mountains of pictures, and i'm tired. but i figured i would write something just to update people about what's going on.

~

the past:

i've been up to so much that i haven't expended the engergy to properly write about yet.

field trip

at the end of october, i went on an amazing field trip to the mountains. it was cool and we did lots of stuff like cave walking, old-school japanese fishing, eat yakiniku, go to an onsen, make plastic/wax food samples, walk up a mountain road, stay in a historical inn, and go exploring in a historical tourist town. the details and pictures of the beautiful scenery from this trip are in the works for one of the backblogs i mentioned.

bike

i also bought a bike a few weeks ago. i absolutely love it. the bikes here are rather unique, but most importantly, it's quite useful and convenient. so now i can go more places, and do more stuff, and take more pictures, and with different people; all of which i can then share about here. details and requested pictures of the bike are another in-progress blog.

matsuri/festval

at the beginning of october was a massive festival called matsuri (simply meaning "festival"), celebrating the history of japan as well as each city's and neighborhood's respective history with various events, festivals/carnivals, and, most importantly, processions and parades. we went out to see the massive parades and festivals around the city. i think i have yet to properly talk about this experience, but that will hopefully be coming in the future. it's still a lot to process.

Oosu

durring this excursion, we also went to an area of Nagoya called Oosu, which is practically indescribable except awesome. some have likened the area to Tokyo's Akihabara, a technological, geek, and otaku mecca. but Oosu also has many clothing, souvenir, food, art, and other shops as well as a massive temple. many of these clothings shops are second hand and extremely economical. they have relatively high quality goods at very low prices, including a wonderful deni jacket for 600yen, which i quickly snatched up.

housing

i also have to take pictures and such of my living quarters. i've had some requests for this.

finally... chilly?

i have to give my congratulations to southern japan. the weather has been trying so hard to become autumn/winter. the other day, it was raining and less than 60 degrees F as well as windy. as i stepped out in my jeans, sandals (because i was late for class), and still very nice denim jacket, i thought 'hm... this is... uncomfortably chilly.' the japanese, philippine, and tennessee students have been complaining of the "cold" for weeks. the alaskan, northern midwest, and canadian students have just broken out the jackets. i finally used my heater the other day, but it's still usually set to 16 or 17 degrees C. my roommate has has the heated bed pad out for weeks. poor Pusan girl. (Pusan is a city at the southern tip of the Korean peninsula well known as a vacation spot for it's many beaches.)

the future:

i can't believe i've only got a month left in japan! there seems like so much left to do.

Sweets Paradise

tonight there is a group of people planning to go to go to a place called "Sweets Paradise," a buffet style restaurant that i hear is dedicated to cakes, fruit, and... pasta? i should probably go with them, but i haven't decided yet.

homestay

this weekend i am going to an "English" event for middle school students followed by a homestay with a local family. i have emailed with them and it appears that we will be going either to see autumn leaves or a famous temple... or both. i didn't really understand that well, but i'll find out.

Thanksgiving

i believe we are also planning a thanksgiving potluck for next friday. i'm going to try to recreate the infamous polish potato salad. should be fun.

Kyoto

next weekend i have plans to go to Kyoto with some friends. for those that don't know, Kyoto, a long with Tokyo, is one of the most well known japanese cities to Americans. Tokyo is more or less well known for being modern (not to mention the capital). Kyoto, on the other hand, is most well known for it's history and the countless historical buildings, temples, shrines, and castles preserved and recreated there. It has been very high on my list of things to do in japan and since it's in the south, (just west and maybe a little south of Nagoya) it's relatively close and nice for a day or weekend trip.

onsen/tokyo/maybe/probably/huh?

there is also talk of a girls' day visit to a local onsen/spa/relaxation parlor in the near future. i don't know how feasible it is, but i would love it if it worked out.

my mom is also trying to get me to go to Tokyo. i have no idea of any details surrounding that.

~

but anyway, that's what's up here, even if it's just a skim over.

missing people back home. i'll post when i have more "articles" written. happy thanks giving.

Bike!

so, while i am writing this around early-mid november, it is dated around the time that it happened, or rather, closer to the time that i should have written it. However, as anyone who knows me is well aware, i am a ridiculous procrastinator. But, just to get my shot in at many of you who are nodding, i'm pretty sure it's genetic.

(i wanted to post this with pictures, but it's been too long and i still haven't gotten the pitures, so i think i'm just going to post this now and put up pictures later.)

when living in city in japan (or most places in japan), the purchase of a bike come highly recommended. i learned why by agonizing over the decision to get one for nearly a month. it's kind of a heafty decision considering it is over 10000yen to get one and exactly 10000yen to get rid of it, in the form of a disposal fee, if you are unsuccessful in selling it or transporting it home. this said, my parents convinced me to get one anyway, and figure out what to do with at later. i truly thank them. it is quite the most useful purchase i've made here. i haven't even bought a cell phone.

a good majority of the city bikes i've seen here (and, really, by "good majority" i mean "all i can remember") come complete with a rear wheel or seat lock/anti-theft mechanism, bell, light (on a generator), and usually a basket and/or a mount for a basket or seat over the back wheel. not only that, but a bike with old school, upright handle-bars is extremely common and readily available.

the upright handle bars are a little difficult to get used to since i haven't had them since i was a kid, but all of this taken into consideration, i am inexpressibly happy with my new bike.

there a few arts i would like to master.

the first is riding with an umbrella. it is very common; not only do Japanese people frequently ride in the rain, but it is also common to hide from the SUN with an umbrella (occasionally and actual parasol). the variety of people, clothing, manouvers, and riding conditions i've seen with relation to bikes really just goes to prove how essential a bike is to everyday life in japan; it is NOT just a fair-weather pass-time as it is in my comparatively minute home-town.

another is riding a person on the back. this is one of the things you are not really supposed to do (actually, the umbrella is too), but it is so common, the rule (law?) is really only used to pester young people and gaijin (foreigners)... wait a minute...

actually, though, in the time between when i should have written this and when i really did write it, i've learned both of these skills rather well. as it happens, the umbrella thing isn't too hard. and i've managed to ride with my roommate, a rather light person who is skilled at being a passenger, on the back. the other day, i even managed to do this while balancing a pizza on the basket. i've learned that this practice, as well, is not as natural as it would first appear.

The Last 24 Hours, part 1: Shoyu (soy) Ramen and Koalas

so, here i sit, munching on halloween themed コアラ (koalas) contemplating the events of the last 24-48 hours. they've quite interesting.

first off, しょゆラメン (sho-yu ra-me-n), or soy ramen, is amazing. in our cafeteria/food-bar type place at the school, it's awesome. Purchasing ramen at the market can be a little different. the three main types of ramen to be found in the states are chicken, beef, and "oriental." In japan, the three main types are soy, miso, and chicken. I'm not fond of miso, i've found, and i have yet to discover a quality chicken flavor; but having liked the soy in the caf, i decided the soy wasn't a bad gamble. as it happens, "shoyu" and "oriental" flavor ramen are one and the same (although the stuff here is better). i also learned that chicken is the oldest flavor of ramen dating back 900 years.

there you go, useless fact of the day.

The Last 24 Hours, part 2: Halloween Party

i was told that halloween isn't celebrated in japan, but the international club here (rather the equivalent there-of) held a halloween party. Amy, Krystal, and i went to Don Quixote for quick, cheap costume accessories and headed for the second floor cafeteria.

there were a lot of cute costumes and some interesting games. it was a little difficult because the formal instructions were all given in japanese, but with a little help, we had a lot of fun. good food, too.

there was also a really good Dr. House costume:

Dr. Gregory House breaks it down to Michael Jackson's "Beat It"

The Last 24 Hours, part 3: Izakaya

i'm told that one of the must-do experiences in japan is going to an Izakaya. What is an Izakaya? good question. it is a style of bar/restaurant almost purely japanese, at least i've never seen anything like it. it's purpose is food, drink, and cool place to hang. each Izakaya, (usually identified by the area in which it is ocated), is as unique as the owner. As i understand it, even the menu can vary.

We went to one in Kanayama with Mahou, Akari, and some other friends, some of which we met at Coe. after a walk up a narrow flight of steps, we took off our shoes at the door and were shown to a small, lounge-like, japanese/floor-seated room.


we used a button in the center of the table (bin-bon bin-bon! much like the one at sushi-lo) to summon a server. one of our hosts was a very attractive, かっこいい (kakkoii, cool/atractive) young man. anyway, one of our hosts would come and kneel at the doorway (there was no door, just a cloth) and take our order, then bring it in a similar fashion.

there was much sharing of appetizer-like food and drinks (mostly alcoholic...). overall it was great fun. it's official, i actually had my own drink for once; some apple something or other, i made amy get it for me. we were there for about 3 or 4 hours and several rounds. we talked (anywhere between 2 and 5 languages were used), laughed, and all in all had a really good time.

on sort of a technical note, Izakaya are known for being a little expensive. in proper japanese fashion, we all shared and split the bill at the end. it came out to about 1700 yen, or a little under $20 a person. so a little, but for a once-in-a-while gathering it's not bad.


also, last night, for the first time, i was the official babysitter of a drunk friend. mostly because my room was the cleanest, and i was the most sober. i had quite a bit of help though, so thanks guys. i won't go into much detail, except that it was her first time being so drunk. it isn't needed, but for anyone wondering, she's fine and even went to work this morning.

Atsuta Shrine

For our first official Japanese Society Class we went on a little walk to Atsuta Shrine. (Atsuta is also the name of the part of Nagoya that the school is in.) It was about a 20 minute walk, in the rain. Our professor pointed out some spots along the way like a fresh rice shop, a coffee specialty shop his friend owns, and the Shiratori Gardens (previously mentioned).

I have some pictures of the professor (you'll never believe he's 67), the walk, and the shrine. it was raining so lighting was a bit difficult and we didn't stay long, so we need to go back sometime when it's nice out.

Society Walk Photos at megaupload, 142 Mb .zip file

Two Weeks of Classes

here's my thoughts on my classes after nearly two weeks.

Most of the classes are pretty well-named.

Japanese Language is the JSL classes i came here for. 7 of the periods are grammar/speaking and 1 is kanji, which is the more complicated system of Japanese reading and writing based on Chinese characters. we end up with, like, 4 teachers, but the teaching style is still pretty consistent. their styles are even similar to my Japanese professor at Coe. They tend to have pretty good humor, too, so class is usually pretty fun.

Japanese Society has this fun, cool old guy for a professor who comes highly recommended by one of our friends, Kengo, who we met at Coe on exchange. He has a really good sense of humor as well and his English is very good.

Japanese Religion is what it sounds like. It's a lecture style class. The professor has decent english and writes his outlines in japanese and english for both exposure and the sake of the students in the class from asia who are better at japanese than english. However, most of our last class consisted of call and response of the notes in japanese, and then a reading of them again in english. not particularly helpful. there was also a video covering some of the festivals/rituals from the various major religions of japan. more helpful. i find the material interesting, though. we'll see how it goes.

Karate-do is an actual karate class in Japanese. His english is next to nill, but most of the class is demonstration and practice and i can follow most of what he says except the long explanations. He, too, has a notable sense of humor and i think that he kind of likes to show off, in a fun way though. I mostly took the class to make sure i got some activity, but it's proving fun as well. Amy and I are feeling the class though. For me, it's mostly im my wrists because of the types of exercises we're doing at the moment. aside from our own practices, the professor demonstrated on several of us and decided to throw Amy and i... at the same time. Like i said, i think he likes to show off.

The Art and Culture seminar has the most interesting material, i think, but the class goes kind of slow because the professor struggles with english a bit more than most of them. But i like his class because he seems very inwardly enthusiastic about what he's teaching. He, himself, is an artist (he works mainly with ceramics) and has written many works on art of both the east and west. he spends a good deal of time in eastern europe for artist events, projects, and gatherings. and, if i heard things right, he worked production on Ultra-Man; i believe the words "assistant producer" were used. He's one of those professors that's more professional than teacher. He's pretty cool from what i've seen though. the first half of the term seems dedicated to ancient art and the process of modernization of art in japan. the second half gets more into manga (comics), anime (cartoons), film and special-effects (ultra-man, king kong, godzilla, etc.), and the last week is a lecture on video game production! I still wanna stick with it.

Typhoon Melora

so, i survived my first japanese typhoon. Typhoon Melora worked it's way through Nagoya, Osaka, and southern Honshu yesterday and last night. yesterday morning it was classified as a class 5 (or so i hear), so they actually called of classes a little less than 24hrs in advance. by about 11 that night it was already down to a class 2.

it was still raining pretty hard and had some nice wind. i think it was actually pretty cool, but probably just cause it was weaker. some of the natives were more worried, but i think i was more at ease because i knew that no tornadoes were going to randomly sprout out of it.

it stopped raining in the middle of the night , but then it picked up again a little heavier. there was lightning at that point too. but that was kind of cool too. by that morning it had completely broken up. we now have clear, blue skies and a nice cool wind. So much for class 5. but it did hit Osaka first, and the center passed right though there, so they may have had worse.

most people went drinking in their others' rooms. i just enjoyed the wind. the direction of the wind was such that our front walkway/balcony was soaked, but our back was completely dry. it was interesting.

i still find tornadoes more frightening, even if typhoons are technically more damaging. you can't really see tornadoes coming and waiting for them is nerve-racking. typhoons you can see literally for days, know where they'll hit, and have a pretty good idea of what you're in for when they get there.

Anyway, long story short: for anyone who may have been concerned, everyone over here is fine.

also, i'm gonna be doing some back-posting here. i'm going to be posting new things dated before this, because they happened before this, to keep things in perspective

Class Registration

We've registered and begun classes. the system is kind of nice in the program. you don't have to register until a week after classes start. so you can visit and check out all the classes and professors and decided after you've visited all of them. pretty sweet.

a little run-down of the school day:

Class periods here are 1:30 minutes hours/period with 15 minutes between classes. there 5 periods a day from 9:10 to 18:15 (6:15) with a universal lunch/break period from 12:25 to 13:20 (1:20). With my load, i have 2-3 classes a day, but if you played your cards right, you could get down to 1 class a day for one or two days a week.

i've managed to somewhat overload myself a bit here too, but this is nothing new. i have one or two too many culture classes, but they only meet once a week and on is a Karate class.

for those interested (some people have been asking me), my classes are as follows:

Japanese Language (required, 8 credits, meets 8 times/week, J/E language of instruction)
Japanese Society (culture, 2 credits, 1/week, E)
Japanese Religion (culture, 2, 1/week, E (some J))
Seminar on Japanese Study: Art and Culture (culture, 2, 1/week, E)
Karate-do (culture, 2, 1/week, J)

Karaoke

So one of the things that i HAVE to do before i die, is Japanese Karaoke. Now i have succeeded. A group of us went over the weekend, and it was AMAZING. American Karaoke is nothing compared to this, so anyone who has a chance to go to japan, or find a japanese style karaoke parlor somewhere else, i highly recommend it.

Japanese Karaoke is much nicer than the American "karaoke bar." the concept of getting drunk enough to get up and sing poorly in front of who knows how many strangers is completely blown out of the water. For 1100 yen (a little over $11) per person, we rented a private room at the parlor for 3 hours of singing, fun, and, at night, unlimited drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Since we were such a big group we got a larger party room in the back and another smaller room.

we had both large paper catalogs and electronic catalogs to browse and choose from thousands of japanese, chinese, korean, and english language songs. We used the electronic catalogs to cue up songs for the group and passed around two wireless mics. there are also a number of back-up instruments like maracas and tambourines stored in the room.

sometimes people would cue songs they wanted to sing, but as the night went on, people started just cuing songs, and when they came up, others, or even the whole group would claim them. we sang english songs from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody to P.O.D. to Beyonce. the Japanese students and some more experienced Japanese speakers sang Japanese songs. we even sang happy birthday to one of our party members to a korean track. someone cued it up, but when it came, no one knew how to sing it, so one of us (Yobi, he's a riot) improvised. we also sang the japanese theme to the old school Dragon Ball, the Power Rangers theme, and ended the night with Cruel Angel's Thesis (from NGE/EVA). Amy and i did Poison's "Nothin' But A Good Time" together.

it's definitely something to be experienced.

In the picture files, i have pictures of the rooms, drink menus, electronic catalogs, singing, and probably more stuff. In the video files, i have several songs, including, but not limited to, A Whole New World (Aladdin, Japanese), Dragon Ball Theme, Power Rangers Theme, and "Korean" Happy Birthday (a real riot).

Karaoke Photos at megaupload; 63Mb .zip file
Karaoke Video at megaupload; 562Mb .zip file

Shirotori Gardens (video) FISHIES!

these fish are amazing. they just swim right up to you.

Feeding Fish



Petting Fish


Petting Fish


Feeding All the Fish!!!

Shiratori Gardens (pictures)

enough of my ranting. the cool thing about the tour was the Shirotori Gardens. it was... amazing. there is simply no other way to put it. it's just something you have to see:

that last one is our very own captain planet.

Placement

placement testing is now complete. The feeling that my skills are vastly inferior has been confirmed. amy and i have been placed in Japanese 1-1. they wrote the name of our book in romaji. bleh. whatever. maybe it'll be good to start from scratch. yobi, a second semester exchange student, was in 1-1 last semester and he said it was a good experience. and he's really good at japanese now, probably just from living here. classes start next thursday, the 24th.

we also had a campus tour in the afternoon. most of it came a little too late. we have been here for a week now, and they are just now getting around to showing us the market and the post office. most of us, seeking food and money, have already gathered this information from returning students. this is just one item in a long list of information labeled "that would have been nice to know a long time ago, perhaps even before we got here."

support for students coming here seems rather inefficient and incomplete. much of the information they give us is late. they don't allow students to leave things like cook ware here, even though it is certain that the next group will just have to purchase more. They tell us that we should purchase a bike, somewhere around 6000-10000 yen, and then have us dispose of it (for another 10000 yen fee) at the end of our stay, knowing that the next group will need bikes, too. it is similar with televisions, though they are not as necessary. and we are charged if we leave useful things in the room, even if they will simply be used by the next people. i think it would be kind of fun to have lottery-like room set-ups: "what did your room come with?" ours did have some dishes in it, and one girl even ended up with a TV, but we don't know if the last people were charged for that.

Kat Successfully Made Curry

the drama of the hot plate concludes. It turns out it was neither incompetence nor malfunction. we finally asked someone to come look at it and they figured out that it was the type of pot we were using. apparently, japanese appliances can tell what kind of pot we are using and won't let us cook with a cheap aluminum one. (my first reaction to hearing such a thing is, "how can it tell?!") we have since acquired heavier cook ware and conquered the hot plate.


it also happens that the dish i was trying to make was not ramen but in fact was udon. so really, kat failed to purchase ramen but failed to make udon.

the next day we went grocery shopping and made curry. we also have a giant bag of rice and various delicious things to go with it. amy has joined us for a cooking trio.

while shopping, we picked up some fried meat because it was on sale. because of prior experience, we assumed that it was chicken, so we didn't bother to check the label. actually, it was squid! that was fun. we decided we weren't too upset, because it was still delicious.

the never-ending quest for food seems to have settled into a pattern. so now you needn't worry so much about us; we will neither starve, nor go broke because we have to keep buying pre-made meals.

Kat has failed to make Ramen

I talked my roommate's ear off last night. i think it's mostly nervous. my social interaction nerves are quite shot. I'm trying though.

Much socialization seems to revolve around drinking here. i think some of it is 20-year-olds taking advantage of it. some of it may be that it makes it easier to relax if everyone assumes everyone is buzzed (including themselves) even when you know they're not. but i hear that some of that doesn't change as the year progresses.

I had my first serious conversation in japanese today. it was short, but practical and effective. someone came looking for Lee-san (my roommate) and i had to explain that i was here by myself and that she had gone to Don Quixote.

Yes, you did read the title right. i have, for the first time since i was six, failed to make ramen. it wasn't for any lack of skill in cooking though. i can't seem to operate the hot plate. i spent some time translating most of the labels and buttons, trying things along the way. then i asked someone for help, and watched someone use theirs. i followed their instructions, but still can't make my hot plate function correctly. and there is a lot of annoying beeping involved. i will try to ask someone to come tinker with it with me when people get back from their various outings. part of me hopes that it's broken so that i won't look like such an idot, but the other part of me just wants to eat my miso ramen in peace as soon as possible. i also have to discern the trick of getting hot water from the bath. cold showers/rinses are fine for now, but i'm not doing it in the fall or winter.

for those interested, my skype is functioning and my user name is babelguppy. i used it with my mom today, so though the wi-fi can be a little fritzy, it works well enough. i heard we won't get net through the ethernet until october, but hopefully, that will make things better. the net seems to have stabilized a bit though since we first got here. i'm also managing to check my email pretty regularly, so that is a good form of communication, too. i can't get a cell phone until i get and "alien card" which we will be working on as a group tomorrow.

there appears to be a dog-park accross the street that i haven't noticed so far because it was either late or raining. many of the dogs don't seem to like one another right now.

...At the Cusp of Dawn, We're Going Shopping!

Ok, so maybe not the "cusp of dawn." More like "after I mosey out the door for lunch." But we did do a lot of shopping today. Not touristy shopping, but just getting settled.

First, Amy, Katlyn, and I (Amy and Katlyn are the two other students from Coe) walked to the super market. They have the cutest, tiniest carts there. We spent a lot of time looking at pictures to figure out what things are. We also just kind of wandered the store to get a feel for what's available. I picked up a pot and some ramen - the essentials - as well as a package of chopsticks. Stupidly, i forgot my nice metal ones at home. We also got some luch fromt he store's pre-made lunches. most of the lunches consist of rice and some fish or meat. they are really good and well priced.

on the way back, i picked up an umbrella at another shop. This proved to be a very good thing because as soon as we finished lunch, Amy and I were convinced to walk to Don Quixote, even though it was raining. Don Quixote is probably the closest thing that japan has to a Walmart or Target, though it doesn't carry clothes (except underwear and socks) or appliances. It turned out to be a very long walk, but well worth it. The store is in a mall-like complex. Between Don Quixote and the 100-yen shop next door, i was able to get most of the things I need to settle in but couldn't pack; things like dishes, soap, dish towels, etc.. (100 yen is historically somewhere around a dollar. it used to be less than a dollar. now that the yen is stronger than the dollar, is is a bit more.)

By the time we got back, we were really tired, but decided to meet in a half hour to dinner. We ended up walking to a cool sushi place. we had quite a long wait, so we spent some time in the arcade next door. it was really cool and all kinds of people were there, including men in business suits with brief cases. I played a taiko drumming game with a guy who's on the drumline at his own school. it was very fun.

The sushi place was amazing as well. some may have heard of sushi places in japan with conveyor belts. this is one of those. you sit down at a table and watch the sushi as it rides by. if you see something you like or that looks good, you take it. they have green tea stations at the tables and other beverages on the belt. you can also special order dishes via a com speaker at the table. when everyone is fed and happy, you press a button that notifies a server. Most of the plates are flat-priced (this place was 105 yen a plate, usually two pieces of sushi) so the server comes and counts your plates, records it electronically and hands you a ticket with a number. you take your ticket to the counter and pay. my sushi dinner was about 560 yen including tax. not bad; really good actually.

While i was ther, i also had corn sushi - yes, corn sushi. it's really nothing special: basically corn and japanese mayonnaise on top of rice wrapped in nori (seaweed paper). but it was still funny. i had to get it just to say that i've eaten it.

in case you haven't noticed a theme, we walk everywhere. it's cool that so much is within walking distance, even if it might be a hefty walk. the school strongly advises that we purchase bikes. i'm thinking about it. there are some being sold by last semester's students that are much less expensive than getting a new one. there are bike lanes everywhere and it doesn't seems a corny to have a little bell. it was fun to see so many people on bikes holding umbrellas. it seems to be an art of sorts, but a very useful skill. most of still have to master walking on the left though instead of the right.

I have many pictures from my first two days and will hopefully get around to posting them when i have more time and get my camera recharged.