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)