Christmas Time is Here

My recent adventures via pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024618&id=1230390045&l=bf2794838a

Japan really loves Christmas. All over the place, they are doing illuminations and they're gorgeous. Hard to take pictures of though - you can't really just stop in the middle of the sidewalk (or street, of course, haha) to take a picture. It's always crowded and you will be moved.

The man who did ame-zaiku with Ayane and I came to my school to do it with exchange students. I decided at the last minute to do it again. I loved it! I'm actually really into it now, I wish I could try and try again. My bunny looked significantly better.

Last Friday, I went to an Accenture (as in the company) Christmas party. Elizabeth's dad used to work for them and has connections. Elizabeth didn't want to go alone, so I went with her! And it was really fun! Spectacular really - the food, the entertainment, etc. We met the president of the company too!

And after that really classy event, we went to McDonald's because they're selling Pokemon toys in the Happy Meals now.

School lets out for winter break on Wednesday, the 23rd. It's convenient that the Emperor's birthday is on Wednesday so they feel more compelled to give us a holiday.

Going over to the Vander Haaks to celebrate Christmas again :) I'm very excited! Yesterday, I spent the day with Emily hanging out in Shibuya. It was just wonderful! And I'll be seeing her again soon as I'll be coming over to her house on Wednesday. I'm glad I have a place to go for the holidays, it sounds so lonely for some of the other exchange students who have no plans in any shape or form.

Tomorrow, my Japanese class is going to the Natural Disaster Prevention Center...I'm not sure that's the official name for it, but we get some sort of training of what to do in case of emergency situations - like earthquakes and typhoons. Speaking of earthquakes, there was another one the other day. It was at 5:45 in the morning. I felt my bed shaking and I opened my eyes and realized what was happening. At first, I was okay with it but then it didn't stop for a while, I got nervous. I closed my eyes and just waited for it to stop; hoped my mirror wouldn't fall and break, and that nothing else catastrophic would happen.

Later that day, we talked to one of my Japanese teacher's about earthquakes. The ones that go side to side are relatively okay, the ones that go up and down are more dangerous. Up and down ones are when you should open the door so it doesn't get wedged shut permanently and you can't get out. Yikes!

Oh, and another thing about the center I'm going to - I like how my teacher said to us, "please don't wear short skirts or high heels, girls. You may have to run. And also, everyone, you may want to bring a rain coat"

Tomorrow is going to be INTENSE.

No Place Like London (Home)

Arrival, Settling in, Sumo, Random:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae

Yabusame:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020088&id=1230390045&l=e7e5b19b1f

Night Stroll!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020137&id=1230390045&l=93ef55fb67

Performances and First Night Out!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020615&id=1230390045&l=0b59e150e5

Halloween!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021650&id=1230390045&l=7d04beda4e

More Miscellaneous:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022079&id=1230390045&l=319d3e2ac2

-----

(Currently listening to Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street soundtrack. I find it amusing to put either song lyrics or song titles as subject liners when I cannot fathom one better. I will do this from now on, if I can't think of something relevant. The last one is from the soundtrack of the movie Paprika - which my gooooooooooood friend Carrie advised that I watch. I finally got around to watching it and I loved EVERY minute of it. Anyway, I digress...)

My plane ticket home has already been bought, courtesy of my mother. There goes my iron will to not come home until August. There are foreigners (such as some of the teachers at AGU) here in Japan who have not been home in years - I'm not ready for that yet, I suppose. It's just a three week visit from the middle of February to the beginning of March, and then back in Japan until I come home for good.

Only thing I'm not looking forward to are the people who will think I've become fluent in the time that I've been here. I'm not a genius and Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn, so says tons of sources. There are several times during one of my Japanese classes where I look at my assignments or just trying to process what is being said to me, and I wonder to myself: "Why did EVER I think this was a good idea?"

I could have kept up my Spanish and probably be a lot less stressed out. But no, I wanted to take Japanese. It certainly has lead me to meet the most interesting people though. My friends and I have discovered that the secret prerequisite to studying Japanese is that you must be at least little weird (in both good and bad ways). Japan seems to attract people like this, you see, for some reason. You can argue against this, but due to the intensity of the trend, I will stay true to my theory.

But as with most challenges, it's worth it right? Ganbarimasu...

In other news, today, I got to play with babies! Two little 2-year old boys who speak Russian and Japanese (Japanese fathers, Russian/Uzbekistani mothers). and the point was to start instilling English into their little heads by playing games, reading, singing songs, and other things of that nature. I was in my element. They were a little uncomfortable with us at first but they warmed up after a while and we had lots of fun. Honestly, it's Cat's job but she invited me because she knew how much I love working with kids.

I effectively got one of the children to definitely say "circle," "giraffe," and "oops."
I feel like a winner.

Meditational Field

Arrival, Settling in, Sumo, Random:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae

Yabusame:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020088&id=1230390045&l=e7e5b19b1f

Night Stroll!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020137&id=1230390045&l=93ef55fb67

Performances and First Night Out!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020615&id=1230390045&l=0b59e150e5

Halloween!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021650&id=1230390045&l=7d04beda4e

More Miscellaneous:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022079&id=1230390045&l=319d3e2ac2

----

My birthday was wonderful! The taiko performance was beyond amazing. Exhilarating and very entertaining. I loved every second of it. The man who came to teach us taiko, who gave us discounted tickets to the performance, looked so much more inhuman as he drummed for an hour straight without stopping. And when he came out, he was the same funny guy from Osaka that wanted to show some foreigners his favorite thing to do. It was great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Kymm6RNW0
The man in this video is Ikki Hino, the man who is amazing. When he and his team perform live, its much more fantastic than this. Believe me.

Afterward, we went for yakiniku which is basically when you order some raw meat and you get to cook it yourself on the little grill on your table. It's delicious. We had a toast for my 21st and my friends paid for my meal :)

That's about it really. I try to not let it get to me that two other friends of mine, had birthday parties that were thrown for them by the same people, one of which has the same birthday as me. She got a cake with her name on it. They invited me to take a picture with her as we had the same birthday, but it was still her cake. Yeah. I'm gonna let it go. I'm trying. I'm just a little....hmm, hurt? I guess. I feel like I'm not as appreciated. But whatever. I'm trying to get over it. I got something, I should just be happy. End of story.

Anyway, my mom has brought up the idea of me coming home for some time in February (preferably, after February 13th, because I discovered that Paramore will be playing at the same venue where I went to see those Japanese bands. But oh man, I LOVE Paramore! I hope I can get the tickets before they're sold out!)

I wanted to be incredibly cool and not be homesick and be able to just travel around the world now that I'm out here and I have the money to do so with the scholarship I gratefully received....

But, the idea to come home and see my family, my friends, drive a car again (which includes singing along to the radio), eat the foods I miss (Chipotle and my mom's cooking, specifically), play the video games I haven't been able to touch for the last few months, possibly go dancing - its getting more and more tempting.

And then reality hits me again and I know that I can't go to all the places I wanted, even with my scholarship. Whomp whomp. I have to make choices. And I feel bad because I want to visit all my friends but I'm just not going to be able to. I hate making decisions sometimes.

There are cats screeching outside my window again.

Good Times

The only album that has been updated is the Miscellaneous one near the bottom (if Facebook isn't failing...). I figured it would be better to put all my albums in one post so you don't have to search. I think I mentioned that already. Oh well. Enjoy!

Arrival, Settling in, Sumo, Random:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae

Yabusame:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020088&id=1230390045&l=e7e5b19b1f

Night Stroll!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020137&id=1230390045&l=93ef55fb67

Performances and First Night Out!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020615&id=1230390045&l=0b59e150e5

Halloween!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021650&id=1230390045&l=7d04beda4e

More Miscellaneous:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022079&id=1230390045&l=319d3e2ac2

Osaka!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023469&id=1230390045&l=8a70469a93

Nara!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023470&id=1230390045&l=8746393553

Himeji!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023483&id=1230390045&l=ceb8dd107f

------

In Japan, it's my 21st birthday! W00t! I will be going to a taiko drumming performance by the man that came into my Japanese class to teach us taiko. I'm so excited!

Other things that happened this week:
Thursday: I went with Ayane to make a traditional Japanese candy called ame-zaiku. It involves melting some sort of candy concoction into a waxy texture. Then, you have to take the candy mixture and mold it into a ball and put it on a stick. This gets very difficult as the candy is very hot! So, as your molding it and pulling at it to get it to be smooth, it gets hotter! Yeah, we wore gloves.

Anyway, once you've done that, it's time to make the shape of an animal. We were making rabbits. But you have to do it fast, or it will completely harden and thus become impossible to mold. The man that was teaching us how to do it made it look so easy. We tried and tried, but none of ours looked as nice. He let us take home two - one made by him and one made by ourselves. The differences are VAST.

We had dinner at a Hong Kong restaurant where one of the employees was fascinated with us. She was surprised Ayane spoke such good English and she was surprised when I spoke Japanese. She even sat with us for a while. It was a little awkward sometimes, but she was nice. She gave us an extra free dessert :)

Friday: I went to the elementary school that's part of Aoyama Gakuin and helped the teacher with an arts and crafts activity for their annual English Day. How perfect, right? My favorite! We made ginger bread man cookie-shaped cards!

I was there for four sessions, that involved about twenty 6th graders each and lasted for about half an hour or so. It was a little bit of madness but all in good fun. The kids were happy to say, "Hello!" to me and sometimes that was about all they could manage in English. I'm glad I had the advantage of knowing some Japanese so I could at least answer in English a question they asked me in Japanese. Reminding them that it was English day didn't work very well. They were great kids though. I received a meishi (a name/business card) from the main English teacher there and she was very happy to have me there (I was the only Aoyama Gakuin university student who signed up). She said if I ever wanted to come back or I needed any information, I could contact her. :D

At the end of the day, Aoyama had its annual Christmas Tree Lighting. It was just wonderful. We sang Christmas carols, the Christmas story was read, and the lights came on. It reminded me of home and unfortunately, I got a bit homesick. Although I loved the ceremony, I went home sad, terribly missing the feeling of friends and family hugging me and kissing me.

All was solved from getting a hug from Elizabeth at the dorm, her letting me cry for a moment and then she showed me a ridiculous Korean pop music video involving a giant anthropomorphic marshmallow. And then we went out to eat with Cat too, as the food at the dorm didn't look too tasty. Whomp whomp.

Saturday: Haha, I did nothing yesterday but laundry and read. I hadn't done it in a while. Cat and my other friend Yanique watched one of my new movies that I got for my birthday (I cheated and opened up my box...it just came in and I couldn't help myself!) called Paprika. It's super bizarre and really tugs at your mind, but that's why it's amazing! And also it makes more sense the second or third time you watch it! Go look it up, by director Satoshi Kon. He's briliant.

Sunday: I'm here...writing this. I've read all of my birthday cards from the family, read my card from my friends from England (Rachel, Kristy and Sophie! :D Yay! xoxo ) and getting ready for the rest of the day.

Life hasn't been necessarily peachy here, especially concerning human relationships and the difficulty of comprehending Japanese, but I'm trying my best to not let those things get me down. As we would say in Japanese, "ganbarimasu!" which basically means, "I'll do my best!" It's one of my favorite things to say.

p.s. My friend Mike has invited me to sing at one of his shows sometime in December and we've decided to do a cover of the song "Home" by Marc Broussard. I LOVE THIS SONG. I couldn't be happier! I love singing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC1v5trmB1E

There it is. Now groove.

Yahoo!

Well, I found that doctor. I got my papers signed and everything even though the IEC told me not to worry about it anymore since the health department hadn't called about me. Oh, well. At least I accomplished it.

I visited the Kansai region this past weekend to visit friends, Emi, Akiyo, and Juan, who were exchanges at UMD in the 2007-2008 school year. They were just too good for me! They took me to all the places I wanted to go to, I stayed over at the apartment of one of them and they gave me an early birthday present! It was simply wonderful. The only thing I was really disappointed about was how my Japanese failed me. I barely understood what they said to me, and if I did, it was hard to respond. Augh. It's times like this whether I even have the mental capacity to fully grasp a foreign language. Sure, I can learn some phrases, read a little bit of it and whatnot, but is that all I can do? It feels like it.

Anyway, my trip was a great reunion. I'm so happy I was able to see them. Unfortunately, my friend Ayane wasn't able to join us. She originally had planned to come, but she had a job interview that Sunday.

So yeah, here are the pictures. There are quite a lot.

Osaka!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023469&id=1230390045&l=8a70469a93

Nara!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023470&id=1230390045&l=8746393553

Himeji!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023483&id=1230390045&l=ceb8dd107f

What Happens in Eda...

Oh, another thing. I had my first earthquake. It was really only a matter of time.

At 4:00 AM or so, I woke up and sat up to find my bed vibrating underneath of me and heard this weird creaking sound. Of course, being awakened at that time, I'm incredibly confused. I thought I was dreaming. After it stopped, all I could think of was "that was an earthquake....!" or in Japanese, "jishin datta...!"

I went back to sleep.

I woke up a couple hours later trying to figure out whether I was dreaming or not. Either way, I was sort of excited. I've always wanted to experience an earthquake (a real one, the one at Universal Studios didn't count!) - I just wish I was more awake and less disoriented. I finally talked to some of my friends in the afternoon and they said they felt it too. So, it really happened!

Speaking of strange things happening in Eda, the other night I thought I heard a baby screaming and crying outside...at 11:00 at night. And then it got louder and creepier sounding. I anxiously alerted Elizabeth and while I was bringing her to my room, my friend Nikki came out of her room and asked if we could hear the noises too. We gathered in my room to listen to the variety of moans, wails, and general obnoxious sound-making. There was a knock on my door and it was Cat who came to inform us that the sounds were coming from two cats.

Having a very loud discussion across the street.

I've never heard such loud cats in my life. Sort of epic really. And once you got over how disturbing it sounded, it's hilarious.

Oy Vey

Arrival, Settling in, Sumo, Random:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae

Yabusame:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020088&id=1230390045&l=e7e5b19b1f

Night Stroll!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020137&id=1230390045&l=93ef55fb67

Performances and First Night Out!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020615&id=1230390045&l=0b59e150e5

Halloween!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021650&id=1230390045&l=7d04beda4e

More Miscellaneous:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022079&id=1230390045&l=319d3e2ac2

-----

This week seems to have been epically fail-tastic, as I would say.

There is some confusion as to whether I had swine flu or not - one of the people at the International Exchange Center told me I did have it, but someone else said I had the regular kind. The one that said I had swine flu told me that I needed a doctor's note in order to attend class again. Whomp whomp.

Before my mom went to Blue Cross Blue Shield's website to find doctors that speak English, I was depending on my friend Elizabeth's dad's suggestion (he has lived here countless times). However, finding places in Japan seems to be nearly impossible (it's hard to ask for directions for me). They're not too big on street names here in Japan and there are tons of little not distinctive alleys that you could go through. Needless to say, the first time I tried finding it, I failed. It didn't help my mood that it was raining.

Second time I tried to find it, I was with Elizabeth. I printed out directions that I found on Google maps but there was another problem with that. We took the train from Shibuya to Roppongi and ended up walking back to Shibuya in our vain attempt to find this clinic. Fortunately, because I was with Elizabeth, I felt more compelled to laugh about the unfortunate situation instead of crying about it. She's incredibly good company and a great friend.

I just hope I can find one of the places my mom suggested.

I've also bought a ticket to go to Osaka to visit some friends who were exchange students at Maryland a couple years ago and some from last year. I need to confirm with my friend Ayane that I bought the right ones. I bought the tickets by myself, which I now regret, because I'm worried I may have done something wrong. I wish I understood Japanese.

But that's what I'm here to do right?
It's all very frustrating and tiring.

Oh, and it's freezing now. And raining all the time. Do. Not. Like.

A Lot Happens in Four Days...Duh

All the pictures since I've been here. I got my copious picture taking habit from my father :)

Arrival, Settling in, Sumo, Random:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae

Yabusame:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020088&id=1230390045&l=e7e5b19b1f

Night Stroll!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020137&id=1230390045&l=93ef55fb67

Performances and First Night Out!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020615&id=1230390045&l=0b59e150e5

Halloween!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021650&id=1230390045&l=7d04beda4e

More Miscellaneous:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022079&id=1230390045&l=319d3e2ac2

---

At AGU, every year, classes are cancelled for 3 days and students end up with a five day weekend. Why? For the school festival! Full of fun, music, food...and people friendly harassing you into buying their food. I got cornered a couple times by some guys practicing their English, insisting I eat their okonomiyaki (for those who don't know what it is, it's incredibly delicious. The equivalent of a pancake, but full of spring onions, often seafood and other things - topped with a sauce made of Worcester, ketchup and mayo...I believe that's the combination. It's amazing.) or their frankfurts. My friends had to help me back them away and let me walk away.

After the festival, I made my way to Shinkiba to the concert I mentioned briefly before. The bands/singers, abingdon boys school, HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR, Do As Infinity, Hey Monday and Shuuhei Kita were wonderful! The venue wasn't hard to get to and once I asked some people how the process of entering worked, it was all good.

During really brief intermissions while each band or singer set up, they'd play popular anime theme songs and I was able to sing along for the most part with everyone. I was the only one who knew the song for one of my absolute favorite shows, Honey and Clover. The girls next to me were impressed. I felt good.

All the performances were positively electrifying, but abingdon boys school and HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR made my night. I'd love to see them perform again.

The next day, I was off to Shizuoka in a bus with a bunch of AGU friends to pick grapes, make noodles, and have the chance to talk with more Japanese students. I wasn't feeling so good but I really wanted to go, so I pushed myself. The grapes had a different texture and a little hard to eat, and I was too lethargic to bother with them. I only ate a few. We then had Japanese style BBQ (which is a lot like Korean I've discovered). There's a super hot plate and from my experience, you put bean sprouts and cabbage on first. And then the meat. You move them around with your chopsticks and once it's done, you take what you want and dip it in some sauce. Eat with rice. Drink some tea. Feel satisfied! :D

I was feel pretty energetic by then and after some goofing around with friends, we had to get back in the bus to go to the hotel. By the time we got to the hotel, I felt awful and I was sent to bed. Turns out I had a fever of 104 F. When the International Exchange Center's director measured it, it said 40 C which didn't really mean much to me because I'm still not used to using celsius yet. She just sucked in her teeth and stepped away.

Never a good sign.

A nurse came and checked if I had swine flu (which I don't, thankfully) by sticking some sort of probe up my nose. It hurt. She kept apologizing to me in English. We ended up doing this twice unfortunately. She gave me some medicine and I slept like the dead.

When I finally woke up and felt like moving around the hotel room, I went to the window, wiped away the condensation and to my surprise, there was Mt. Fuji! I didn't expect that at all. It instantly cheered me up.

I went home that day.

Next day, is when the quarantined business began. The dorm manager's wife told me a lot of things I didn't understand but what I do know is that I was prohibited to go to the dining room, couldn't use the shower, I had a specific toilet I was supposed to use, I had to use the alcohol spray bottle to disinfect, and I had to wear a mask if I left my room.

At least my dinner and breakfast are brought to my room.
Tonight, I've been granted permission to go back to the dining hall as I don't have a fever! Now I need to ask about all the other things....

I Chose You!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021650&id=1230390045&l=7d04beda4e

Pictures of my Halloween activities....which was actually done on October 30th for reasons I never found out but didn't really care.

----

Getting to Yoyogi Park was harder than it should have been as there was another suicide-caused delay on the trains. Although I can't read what the sign boards are saying but when all the text is orange and red in an ominous way, I know what it means. It's very very very discomforting. A lot of people have reduced it to "another loser jumped in front of the train again."

I wish people were more respectful.

But anyway, the trains were incredibly slow due to this and my friends and I were stuck waiting about 20 minutes per stop before moving forward. We started talking with a woman on the train who has been an English teacher in Japan for the last 13 years and she was able to help us get on to the train that would get us to Shibuya. She made a slight error though, so we ended up doing a lot of train hopping, as I would call it. We made it there eventually and the rest of the evening went smoothly.

So yes. I was a Pikachu. Everywhere I went, people would either do the following:

A) Try to stealthily take pictures with their cellphones of me and my friends (who were also wearing costumes) but their cover was blown by the fact that it makes the shutter sound. FAIL.

B) Actually ask to take my picture - this Japanese girl came up to me and asked me in English if she could and of course, I didn't mind. I sort of asked for it really.

C) Stare (as usual) but this time, trying hard not to but just doing it anyway.

D) Say, "Oh! Pikachu!" to which I didn't really know what to respond. I would just sort of wave and smile at them and fortunately, they did the same thing back to me with great enthusiasm.

E) Talk about me as if I couldn't hear them to only have me turn around and wave at them. Once they got over the surprise of me hearing them, they were nice enough to wave and smile back.

A couple of business men came up to my group of friends and asked us "trick or treat!" We had no candy and they were very disappointed but at least very amused with our costumes.

It was a good night.

I'm going to a concert tomorrow for Abingdon Boys School, Do as Infinity, and HIGH and MIGHTY COLOR (the first one is one of my favorite Japanese bands, the other two I like enough and have some of their music). By myself. It'll be an adventure. Just like every day.

Electric Rodents and More Examples of Native Response to Foreigners

I have my costume. I thought it was just a jacket. Oh no, it's the whole thing, like a one piece thing - and it fits! I was awfully surprised since I am not Japanese-sized. Anyway, I tried it on yesterday. I look like a big yellow blob of ridiculous...ness. My friends said it was cute.

I was running down the hallway in it without my slippers and as I got to my door, I totally slipped and fell. It was equal parts tragic and hilarious. I was trying to get to my room really fast so no one else would see me. I just laid on the floor for a bit laughing at myself before I snuck into my room and took the thing off.

Another little side note:

Apparently, I make people's day by just existing. Cat and I were on the way to the super market and this young Japanese guy with his big sunglasses and his host club hair (aka big and spiky and going everywhere). This guy was riding in the passenger side of someone's car and had his head all the way out the window to stare at us. (They're getting more bold at this game.) Cat and I just sort of stared back but then she made a peace sign at the guy. I started to wave. The guy in the car started waving frantically at us like we were best friends, with his arm all the way out of the window. It's things like that that make me just love this country.

But unfortunately, not everyone is so happy to see us. Cat and I were riding the train and these two boys (probably 13 and 10 years old) got onto the train. There were two seats next to me. The older one sat in the seat one over from me. The younger one started punching him and telling the older one to move over...because apparently, he didn't want to sit next to me. Whomp whomp. The older one obliged and moved over next to me.

I feel like situations like this, it's better to just laugh about it. Getting too upset about it will just make me depressed and I can't afford to be depressed right now/ever.

And now I'm off to the great outdoors...where it's cold and wet. I remember when this kind of weather would make me want to skip class. The feelings are still there but I must fight them. *sigh*

In This Town, Don't We Love it Now! :D

Oh hi.

My name is Talia and I'm the worst blogger ever.

Sorry about the disappearance of forever. I have pictures to sort of make up for my absence:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020615&id=1230390045&l=0b59e150e5
This is from my friend's performance at a bar and the night onward. This is what happens when you have a curfew at 11, but you miss it, and the trains end at 12, and you miss that too...

------

Anyway, so far my life has consisted of the following:

1) Purchasing the Leaf Green edition of Pokemon for the Gameboy Advance, but it works on my Nintendo DS Lite because Japan was smart enough to figure that people with DS Lites would like to play old games on their system. It's like I'm reliving my past, before my mom staged an intervention due to my obsession with Pocket Monsters (quick lesson: The original name is Pocket Monsters, or in the Japanese, Poketto Monsutaa but Japan LOVES shortening words so the word Pokemon was created. Geniuses.)

I'm fortunate to have friends who are just as nerdy as I am who can appreciate when I complain to them how my Vulpix got dominated by a Rattata. Also, it's all in Japanese. Yeah, that was a challenge I didn't have 10 years ago.

2) I had a presentation to do with my two American friends, Mike and Cat, for our cellphone culture class (talking about cellphone technology in Japan and how we use cellphones in our daily lives...for much more than just talking and texting). Now, this class is all taught in Japanese. We ended up not having any Japanese people in our group for the presentation. We managed to come up with an idea, make a power point and come up with a script of things to say. During class, after one guy finished his presentation, the teacher pointed to us to go next. Cat wasn't really too thrilled but we got up there anyway because we figured we'd just get it over with the sooner the better.

A Japanese girl referred to us as the "gaijin chiimu" which essentially means the "foreigner team". I feel like I would have been more okay with that statement if she said it the less rude way, by saying "gaikokujin" at least. Oh well. I still laughed.

Now, when the first guy did his presentation, nobody was paying attention except the teacher. So, we figured we'd have the same luck. Nope. No such thing. We were walking up there and every single person was looking. They clapped when we got up there. Mike introduced us...they clapped again. I couldn't stop grinning. It's like we were heroes in an absurd way. During our whole presentation, as far as I could tell, everyone listened to us. In our presentation, I included a special barcode which is only done in Japan called a QR Code and it lead to a website. I actually saw one of my Japanese classmates scan it with his phone while Cat was presenting her portion. Class interaction GET! (by the way, the GET! statement is a sort of joke between my friends because on soooo many advertising things, they use the word "get" and it's hilarious).

When we finished, everyone clapped again. It went much better than I had anticipated. We got back to our seats and the same girl who called us the foreigner team said we did well. Thank goodness.

3) Halloween is coming up and Japan is excited. I'm not even sure if kids trick-or-treat or something. But there are costumes and Halloween paraphernalia EVERYWHERE. I plan on going to the nerdiest place in Tokyo (Akihabara) to find my costume. I plan on being a Pikachu because I can't think of anything better and people have suggested it....and I'm shamelessly in love with Pokemon again. And everybody loves Pikachu, right?

4) There are just little things that I do here that just make my day. For example:

So in Japan, there are people on the sidewalks everywhere trying to hand you things. Little packs of tissues with advertisements on the outside, cards with promotional info, posters, etc. trying to get business. As you can imagine, they are all requesting you take their things in Japanese. Sometimes, I'm offered things just because I'm walking past them and other times, I don't get handed anything because they figure it would be a waste as I am not Japanese and they don't think I understand it (which is true for the most part...). However, two times walking down from AGU back to Shibuya Station, we walked past one of those people and he said,

"Hey guys, how are you doing?"

In English. Needless to say, we weren't expecting it. We still kept walking and as we laughed in surprise, we said, "Fine thanks, how are you?"

"I'm good, thank you!" He responded.

"Yay!" I said as we continued to walk by.

Next time I see him, I'm taking whatever he has to offer. And next time, we plan on responding in Japanese to shake things up a bit. The goals we have in life are fantastic.

With all the Force of a Great Typhoon!

More pictures of Japan!

From the Yabusame trip:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020088&id=1230390045&l=e7e5b19b1f

From my mini adventure with my friend Cat:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020137&id=1230390045&l=93ef55fb67

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Yeah, so we had a typhoon the other day. I was coming back home late on Wednesday evening and it felt like a monsoon - not that I've ever experienced a monsoon, but it was raining incredibly hard! And then through the night, the wind came. The next morning, you could here things being tossed around outside. Including my screen door which happened to fall off. Fortunately, it didn't go anywhere but it was so loud!

My friends and I were intent on not going to school but the day started to clear up. So, by the time we left the dorm around 10:30 in the morning, it was a bright and sunny day, with blue skies and big puffy clouds! Sure, the clouds were practically racing across the sky from all the wind that was trying desperately to blow us over but it turned out to be a very nice day.

That's the same night I went to a Thai restaurant with some of my friends. It was absolutely delicious and pretty authentic, as my Thai friend was very pleased by the end of the evening :)

I think it's funny that even though I had no intention to come to Aoyama Gakuin University originally (my top three choices of schools for study abroad were Keio University, Rikkyo University and Kobe University...in case I didn't tell you this before) but the study abroad committee picked this school for me. And I absolutely love it here! I love the people and friends I've made, both Japanese and international/other American students. I love that my school is in Shibuya, which has tons of things to see and do and just a great place to explore. Everything is working out so well.

p.s. (if you caught the reference in the title, you're a winner ^__^ )

Discrimination - It Happens

Well, I forgot to point this out in my last entry but I figured that was too happy of a post to ruin it with this topic. But here it is anyway.

While we were in Kamakura to watch the Yabusame, there were lots of middle school children with clipboards and paper, "hunting down" foreigners to talk with them in English for a school assignment. They eagerly came up to my other exchange student friends who were white but they didn't dare come up to me (or my Thai friend). We laughed about it at the time because it seemed so ridiculous. For the next 10 to 15 minutes, we were determined to have a student come interview us. As a person who is interested in children's education and possibly teaching English in Japan in the future, I was really interested in the little chance that presented itself.

I was clearly speaking English and I was standing by my friends who had been picked to be interviewed previously. One of my friends even invited one of the kids to come talk to me, telling them that I speak English. I smiled as nicely as I could but they just sort of looked at me, looked back at their friends, started talking, looked again and walked away.

Ouch.

I was jokingly sad when we had to leave and not one kid spoke to me, but the more I think about it, it bothers me. What perception of black people were in these kids' heads that made them seem afraid of me? I'd rather not think of it as discrimination or racism but when it comes down to it, that's what happened and they were just kids. I hope they grow out of it. It sort of makes me wonder what adults are thinking when they see me - did they grow up the same way and did they get over whatever preconceived notions they had of not only black people but other non-Japanese people? Or are they still like those kids who would wish to have nothing to do with me based on my appearance?

I never thought Japan was perfect but this is definitely a huge disappointment.

Yabusame and Yakitori!

On Sunday, I had the awesome opportunity to watch Yabusame Shinji - Japanese archery while riding a galloping horse. It is a Shinto ritual, dating back to 794 AD during the Heian Period (I don't know much about Japanese history yet, I'm just reading this off the packet they gave us!). The whole ceremony started at the temple were several men and a few young girls all assembled and spoke ancient Japanese that I didn't understand. There was music playing, chanting and some prayers. After a while of watching this, we were escorted to another area - right along the track where the horses would be running. An official lead us to the side next to a "Press Seat" box (it was just a bunch of big wood planks put together really) and for a while, we just all crammed together standing next to it. The finally told us that we could sit there. So basically, we had some of the best seats, right by the target that the archers would be shooting at. It seemed that a lot of Japanese people were staring at us and trying to figure out how a bunch of foreigners got the good seats.

Anyway, a priest purified the track and the archers enter the track with their horses and walk back and forth the entire length of the track. After that, the target shooting began. Well, actually, before the archer comes barreling down the track, two people at each end of the track have a fan to indicate when to start. One with a white fan and the other with a red one. When we saw the red fan come up, we knew it was time for them to start coming.

The archers yell, "iyoi iyoi iyoi!" (sounds more epic when you actually hear it) when they approach their target and then fire! Sometimes they missed but when they struck the target, everyone cheers and claps. Most of the horses were going so fast! So fast that at the end of the track where the horse has to suddenly come to a halt, a few archers flew off the horse. They were alright though. One of them had a slight limp, but he still looked like a champ.

I can't remember how many times they did this but it was so exciting every single time. Maybe after 30 minutes or so, they ceremony ended and we were just so stoked that we were able to come see the event. We went our separate ways, me going to eat yakitori or grilled chicken on a stick with two other exchange students. One of them had been to this place two years ago and it was his first time coming back since then. It's a small little place run by a husband and wife - they recognized him immediately and were happy to have him back. We ordered so much and it was all so delicious. I also had my first taste of sake (pronounced "sa-kay" not "sa-key" by the way. You have no excuse to pronounce it wrong from now on, hahaha). I don't like the taste of alcohol at all, so, it's no surprise I didn't like it. But I feel a little more official now that I've had Japan's famous drink.

I can't believe I've been in Japan for nearly a month. It's still pretty magical to me. The magic is dulled a bit by the fact that it's raining all this week (yay for typhoons....). Except for Friday, when me and some other exchange students plan on going to the river (Futako-tamagawa) we see every time we are traveling to school. It's the perfect spot for a picnic. When it's not raining, I often see several people there with tents for camping, people fishing, playing baseball and other sports. It looks positively delightful there. I know I'm going to miss seeing it every day when I go back home. One of those simply beautiful places not overrun by buildings and things like that - a little pocket of serenity.

There's Always a Dark Side to Good Things

The trains in Japan are almost never late. In fact, they come into the station to the minute that the digital sign indicates. So, it's always really strange when it comes even a minute late. It was late today by at least 10 minutes - which in Washington D.C. is not so surprising but here it is.

Unfortunately, an infamous reason for delayed trains are people who jump in front of them to commit suicide. One of my friends speculated it and although I have heard of it several times, it left me feeling a bit sick and really upset. I eventually asked my friend if we could stop talking about it. I had to keep myself from crying. Some people may think it a little excessive to have such a reaction, especially since I had no idea whether that actually happened or not. But that doesn't matter - the idea of it is incredibly disturbing and it's depressing that suicide is such a "popular" thing in Japan. I don't know the statistics but they are high in this country. I'm just praying I won't ever have to see it happen.

*Sigh*

Besides that, I've been doing fine. I'm registered for all of my classes for this semester. I've tried going to some more classes that are taught in all Japanese but it just doesn't work. I apologize to the teacher and explain as much as I'd like to take the class, it's much too hard to understand. They're sympathetic and say it's alright.

On Saturday, I'm venturing to Roppongi for a hair appointment. It should be interesting I believe. It may not seem like such a big deal, but as a black person with different needs for my hair, it is sort of is one. I fail at explaining it to people, so sorry if my reasoning didn't sound so fantastic. I don't mean to sound vain or uptight, but I can't just go anywhere to have my hair taken care of - bad things happen.

And with that, it's time to eat dinner, watch Heroes....and then do homework. ^^

Not So Angsty Talia is Not So Angsty

Pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae

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Okay, so, first day of class...not as awful as I imagined it. I got into the class I was worried I wouldn't be able to get into - it's called Performance Studies in the catalog, but the teacher calls it "Acting Social Justice". Oh, another thing, this class is taught in English. The teacher is incredibly enthusiastic and friendly, so that's a huge plus. Because the school year at AGU actually starts in April, and I'm now starting in the second semester, I've missed the first half of the course. But apparently, they talked about the issues surrounding racism, ableism, and sexism. And not only discuss them but also some roleplay is involved and they learned theater techniques. We started out yesterday talking about heterosexualism, and other sexual orientation related matters. I think it's going to be a class I will enjoy. I'm sorry if my description doesn't make much sense - I'm a little unsure of exactly how we're doing things too but I'll find out soon!

However, there is also Nihongaku or Japanology that I have to take - all taught in Japanese. That's going to take some getting used to - I can't even summarize what I think he talked about, it'd be too disjointed and confusing.

So yeah. I won't be looking forward to that one as much...or maybe I will in time. We'll see.

Today, I'm finally getting a bank account! W00t!

More than Your Average First-Day-of-School Jitters

Pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae
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School starts tomorrow, Thursday the 24th. Not as excited as I hoped to be - the language barrier is starting to bother me a lot. So much is going right over my head. I still trip up over basic things, my brain freezes, I get embarrassed, and I feel like I've failed. Every day.

I met up with my friend, Jasmine, who I have not seen in eight years (it's a long story and the fact that we both ended up in Japan at the same time is beyond phenomenal) and after a dinner of delicious yakitori (grilled chicken on a stick), we went to her favorite bar called Orange County. It's full of American paraphernalia, (American) 60's/70's music and very friendly people. Jasmine told me ahead of time it's a great place to practice Japanese. I tried talking to the bartender. It didn't really work. I didn't understand what he was saying - it was all too fast. I looked to one of Jasmine's friends constantly for help, as she is much better. I felt so pathetic. And when I finally figured out what he was saying, it was a lot of piecing things together in my head to sound like a functional human being.

I know, everyone says, "you must think in Japanese" - telling me that isn't going to help me anymore. It's hard. Despite how long I've been trying to do this Japanese thing, I haven't managed to get it down. I'm pretty bummed about it. I'm worried about taking classes in Japanese. If I can't understand conversational Japanese, how could I possibly understand it in an academic setting? I just don't know what to do. The first few days of classes starting, like I said, are a look-and-see period. So, I guess I'll do just that.

And along with that issue, as you can imagine, I feel pretty out of place and more self-conscious than usual if I'm traveling on the train alone. It's not like I want to fit in but at the same time....I do. I sometimes wished I didn't look like so much of foreigner...or maybe, I wish Japan had more of them so I didn't look like such a random piece of the scenary. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I feel like everyone is watching me. Thus, I worry about every single thing that I do. I stand out too much. At least I think I do.

Maybe it's just because I'm in a lousy mood. Oy vey.

Not Dead Yet!

Pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae

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Sorry I take forever to update and when I do, it's like 10 pages long. I've only had one day in which I did absolutely nothing but I never thought to do anything mildly productive. I needed a break from the usual, "let's go out for the entire day and come back home completely exhausted".

In the last few days I've managed to get a cellphone or keitai.
http://mb.softbank.jp/en/products/sharp/831sh.html It's really pretty and therefore, it is a win. The people from Softbank put it into English for me. Some exchange students keep their phones in Japanese as practice. I understand the idea of it and all....but it's weird enough using a different phone, I can't deal with it when I don't understand the language it's in. Or rather, not enough of the language to understand.

I've watched sumo wrestling as well. I was invited to come along for an all-day sumo tournament event by the Vander Haaks - the parents of a good friend of mine. They used to teach at Washington Christian Academy (where I spent middle school and high school) until their family moved to Japan six years ago. When I was 16, they provided a place for me to stay for my first trip to Japan (I spent Christmas with them!). It was a short 10 day trip and I wanted to come back to Japan the moment I got on the plane to leave.

And here I am now, in 5 years time! :D So yes, sumo. As you will see in the pictures at the top of this post, we got there super early to get tickets. We got some coffee after we purchased our tickets and after we ate, we went back inside to watch the preliminary rounds with the younger guys. They were still in training so they weren't massive yet, but they were quite entertaining to watch. After a while, we went back up to our seats (which were at the top of the arena), and I sort of passed out.

When I came back to consciousness, we went for a walk around the area we were in called Ryougoku. There were gardens, memorials, and museums and after some exploring, we had lunch. We came back to sumo again and after a while, I was getting a little bored honestly. I didn't have any favorites, as I never watched it before or taken interest really - I just knew I wanted to have the experience. But it got really exciting near the end when all the higher-ranking sumo came out and people started getting super enthusiastic. The cheering. I loved it - people screaming their favorite sumo's name, hearing kids yell "ganbare!" (good luck) at the top of their little lungs. A lot more fanfare was displayed when these sumo, called yokozuna, came out to wrestle.

There are all sorts of ritualistic things that go on in sumo, such as salt throwing to purify the ring (the ring is sacred by the way....so sacred, that women aren't allowed to set foot on it. To this day. Thanks guys.), stamping the ground to rid it of bad spirits, and drinking some water to purify their bodies as well. These are Shinto (an originally Japanese religion based on ancestor and nature worship, polytheism and animism - thanks Wikipedia!) based practices. At least they let non-Japanese men do sumo as well. There are a few guys from Estonia, Bulgaria, and Georgia (as in the country) and apparently, a lot of Mongolians as well. I cheered for Mr. Bulgaria (aka Katsunori Kotooshu...or his real name, Kaloyan Stafanov Mahlyanov) because he was the only one I knew of vaguely. He won his match! YES! Oh, by the way, his stable master (because sumo train and live in stables....) gave him his Japanese name.

So yeah. Less significant things I've done would have to be going to the 100 yen store (equivalent to a dollar store) and scoring big time on lots of cheap, but good quality stuff. Japan knows how to do it right. I'm going to take some time tomorrow (which is Wednesday for me) to get prepared for class starting on Thursday! But you know what is weird to me? We don't register for classes until the 29th - so, the time between the 24th and the 29th is like a look-and-see period....which is kind of nice but so different from UMD's system, I was a little baffled.

It's Silver Week here in Japan. The last little break before school starts. There are good and bad things about this Silver Week business. Sure, I get a few days to play and hang out before I have to buckle down and be a good student again. However, Silver Week is a holiday. And during holidays, the staff of the dorm disappear - including the cooking ladies and the maintenance ladies. No food and the facilities are not cleaned. The hair monsters that clog the drain and reside inside the showers are a huge turn-off, as you can imagine. Not to mention it reminds me of the Japanese version of The Grudge 2 (I know that the hair isn't going to start coming towards me, magically turn into a terrifying dead girl, make an awful sound and whisk me away to who-knows-where-but-I'm-definitely-dead-land but...my imagination is quite overactive. It's a blessing and a curse.) The food part isn't so hard to deal with as there are conbini or convenience stores. And they are so convenient. I've also discovered that there is a really nice Chinese restaurant next to the Eda train station, which is 15 minutes away from the dorm. Well, I always knew it was there, but I ate there for the first time with Nicole the other night and it was delicious!

All hope is not lost.

I Couldn't Be Happier

This one is a long post - sorry about that. And also, here is the link for pictures, as I promised:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae

Wednesday was fantastic. It started out a little bit rough but it only got better.

The easier part of orientation had ended when course registration time came up. We will have our tutors to help us pick classes later but just looking at schedules on our own was very stressful. As expected, only a few classes are taught in English - everything else is in Japanese. Trying to find the right classes is stressful enough in American university. Not being able to understand the class names, their descriptions and the fact that you know you won't understand everything in class was upsetting.

*Sigh*

However, the day started getting better after orientation and some of my friends and I decided to eat at a kaiten-zushi bar or "sushi merry-go-round". The 2 pieces of sushi are on little, different colored plates (which indicate the price, ranging from 126 yen to 316 yen...which is close to $1.00 to $3.00 for a most basic conversion). The plates are placed on a conveyor that goes around the bar. You pick up which ever one you like and just eat! You can make requests as well! So far, my favorites would be salmon (shake - pronounced sha-kay), tuna (maguro) and eel (unagi). Eel is cooked with a special sauce poured on top and the other two are served raw. It was so delicious, I can't wait to go back again!

After that, we decided to go to a karaoke place. For two hours, the four of us sang to our heart's content and one free drink was provided. I had this overpoweringly sweet milk/caramel drink that I should have mixed together to make it less strong. Oh well, next time!

They had plenty of popular English songs (like Lady GaGa, Phantom of the Opera, Bon Jovi, etc.) and all the Japanese songs I love and know (like YUI, Younha, and Abindgon Boys School!!). Better yet, for those who do not read kanji very well, the screen provided the hiragana reading on top (which is called furigana) for those less educated as myself. XD So, I was able to read everything! I absolutely must go back to that place. Also expected, Japanese karaoke is much better than American karaoke place, even with basically the same set up.

[By the way, a mini lesson on the writing in Japanese for those who don't know - bare with me as this is sometimes hard for me to explain. This could be long...:

The characters in Japanese that look like, 日本 (Japan)、青山学院大学 (Aoyama Gakuin University)、写真 (picture)、are called kanji or 漢字. These are Chinese characters that the Japanese borrowed forever ago to use as their written language. Unlike Chinese however, Japanese uses a syllabary (instead of an alphabet like English or Korean) to make the sounds. So, when you start learning Japanese you learn:

a i u e o / あ、い、う、え、お
ka ki ku ke ko/ か、き、く、け、こ
sa shi su se so/さ、し、す、せ、そ
ta chi tsu te to/た、ち、つ、て、と

And so on and so forth, with r, h, p, b, y, m, w, n, d, sounds. The characters used there are hiragana which is used for Japanese original words. So, you use different hiragana to build words such as, にほん (Nihon = Japan)、あおやまがくいんだいがく (Aoyama Gakuin Daigaku = Aoyama Gakuin University)、しゃしん (shashin = picture). As difficult as it is to read kanji a lot, it's weird to have everything written in hiragana as there is no space in between words. For example, 私の名前はタリアです which is "my name is Talia" or "watashi no namae wa taria desu." If it was all hiragana it would be, わたしのなまえはたりあです...this wasn't the best example, but I'm running out of ideas. Is this making any sense?

To make things more complicated, there is also katakana or カタカナ which is (mostly) identical to hiragana in sound but look a little different and used for foreign words.

a i u e o/ア、イ、ウ、エ、オ
ka ki ku ke ko/カ、キ、ク、コ
sa shi su se so/サ、シ、ス、セ、ソ
ta chi tsu te to/タ、チ、ツ、テ、ト

Words like bus, Harry Potter and America would be written like バス（basu), ハリーポッター（Harii Pottaa), アメリカ (Amerika).

So yeah, that's Japanese written language in a cracked nutshell... ]

Moving on! After karaoke, went to a party for the new exchange students (about 40 of us). Met some new people, international and Japanese - had a splendid time at a place called Dande Lion. A friend of mine, Elizabeth and I decided to head back early. All was going just as normal until we were waiting for the train to leave after we transferred. I think I was laughing about something and I threw my head back. My sunglasses promptly slid off my head...right into the gap between the platform and the train. Elizabeth and I just sort of stared in disbelief. My habit of laughing at unfortunate events such as this started and I was just so shocked. It just had to fall in between - not in the train, or not on the platform. I had already set up in my mind to get over it and just buy new ones - despite how much I loved those glasses and the fact that I bought them in Barbados when I visited family with my mom and grandma made me love them more. As I stared at it lying by the tracks, a woman sitting near us told us in English we could ask for help by the train officials

I knew that would require knowing Japanese I couldn't think of, so I told her I didn't know how to do it (feeling very pathetic). At that moment, she bolted out the train looking for someone. I was trying to tell her to come back and to please don't worry about it, but she proceeded to hit the SOS button and the alarm went off. Train officials started running and I wished so desperately that I hadn't caused a scene, thinking, "It's not like anyone jumped! No one is hurt! It's just my sunglasses! Please don't come over!" So embarrassing.

People started staring in my direction and the train officials asked me to step off the train. Elizabeth and I got off the train and as the train left, the woman who pressed the button was still with us. I started apologizing and bowing and she said it was fine. She explained to the train people that my sunglasses fell and a few moments later, one of them came back with a grabbing device. My sunglasses were neatly folded on the side, far away enough from the tracks to not be damaged in the slightest. One of the officials took it out for me and again, after I received them, I started apologizing and thanking them all again.

Everyone else left but the woman who essentially saved me from losing my sunglasses, turned out she was going to the same stop. We talked to her about how we were exchange students from America, how we liked Japan, and other things like that. We got on the train and continued to talk in a mix of Japanese and English (she kept responding in English, I guess she wanted the practice). We went our separate ways eventually and I thanked/apologized to her again, bowing several times. Again, she made nothing of it and just wished I had a good time in Japan!

I wish more people could be this kind. I wish I asked what her name was - she made my bad-to-good-to-much better day possible.

Whirlwind!

Hey! A lot has happened in the last few days. I've had the chance to get used to the area I live in, called Eda. There is a great store called Recycle Garden that sells everything for super cheap - I think I will buy a mini shelf because I don't have as much desk space as I did at UMD (I have a lot of books already from home!). There is a McDonald's and a 7-11 (it's called 7 & i Holdings over here though), and have gotten a little more used to buying things without feeling really nervous about speaking and understanding what people are saying to me. I love how polite people are here. The service is super fast and I feel like I'm a valued customer.

I've made friends with the other exchange students who from all over the world, such as Canada, Korea, China, Germany, Thailand, etc. It's a great mix of people - I haven't met everyone yet, but I still have lots of time! When I was at UMD, I always noticed how the exchange students stuck together - now I understand their feelings. It's comforting. We're trying to speak more Japanese with each other but for the most part, we speak in English. We help each other out though when we stumble through our Japanese. It's been easy making friends here. Everyone is so nice.

And speaking of friends, I was able to meet up and have lunch with my friend Ayane who came as an exchange student for the 2007-2008 year. She was my freshman year roommate and we became great friends. We kept in touch and we were both so excited that I would be coming to Japan. It was fantastic spending time with her and I can't wait to spend more time with her.

Yesterday was my first day of orientation. I had a tour around the campus (it's TINY compared to UMD's campus, by the way. I can walk from one end to the other in about 15 minutes) with Yuri, my wonderful tutor who I've been emailing for at least a month before my arrival. She's very nice and I know I'm going to have so much fun with her. I have orientation all this week to get prepared for school next Thursday.

I have so much to say, but I feel like I would be writing a book! So, for now, I will provide pictures. I have trouble uploading them to this blog, but it seems to work on Facebook. Fortunately, Facebook has a feature where I can share the album anywhere with a link. I will provide this link in each of my posts so you don't have to always come back to this one to see them. I take so many pictures, my album will probably have several new ones every day for a while. I'm still in tourist mode! I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017965&id=1230390045&l=fe935f12ae

One more thing before I sign off - a little story about how the Japanese say no without saying no:

There are a lot of rules about shoes. We take off our outdoor shoes upon entering the second lobby. We put on indoor slippers. We must take off our indoor slippers before entering the shower room, the toilet room (other shoes are provided there), and the room where you can iron your clothes. Apparently, I'm not allowed to just not wear slippers either.

The first full day of living in the dorm, one of the kitchen ladies was concerned about my feet because I didn't have slippers at the time. She essentially told me it was dangerous. I bought some slippers that day but I have rather large feet and Japanese shoe sizes (for women at least) don't go up to my size. They're a bit uncomfortable, so last night, I just went without them. The same lady caught me again and asked whether I had bought them yet. I couldn't think of how to say they hurt my feet (of course, now I can, but at the time....not so much), so I just said I did buy them and that I forgot to wear them.

...

She told me again that I should wear them. That's when my Japanese culture lessons in my head kicked in and reminded me that essentially, she's demanding I wear slippers in the dining hall. I don't know that much Japanese yet, but it was obvious that not wearing them was not an option. She makes it sound like a suggestion, to be polite, but it's not just a request. So, until my mom sends me slippers my size, I'll just deal with the ones I bought.

I Made It!

After a 2 hour flight to Toronto, a 14 hour flight to Tokyo, and a 2 & half hour bus/train ride to the dorm, I finally made it. Too much traveling! But I managed to have a bit of fun doing it :)

Each of the flights went smoothly, a little late, but nothing too bad. I slept for most of them so that was very good - except for the jet lag I'm experiencing. I woke up promptly at 4:30 this morning after I went to bed around 1:00 am. I was able to talk to my mom though, so I'm not too bitter about it.

It has finally sunk in that I'm in Japan. I've been anticipating this moment for years and now I'm finally sitting in my single room with my plethora of Japanese dictionaries, text books, and other miscellaneous things that will assist my learning. When I look outside my window, it's so obvious I'm in Japan from the architecture of the houses, the signs, etc. There is a vending machine full of various teas, coffees, water and juices in the lobby. We have to take off our shoes when we get through the front lobby and we put them in a little locker with our room number on it. It doesn't get more Japanese than that :D

We are provided meals Monday through Saturday, breakfast and dinner. The little old ladies that serve us are sweet and made me smile a lot. There is a public bathroom on my floor (with both Japanese toilets and Western toilets...pictures up soon for those who don't know the difference) and a shower room downstairs.

The internet is being a little bit iffy (no wireless, just an ethernet cord), so, I'll try again later to put up some pictures.

A lot of things in Japan are bilingual but of course, the emphasis is on Japanese. I'm not as proficient as I hope to be but I know that will change in a positive direction very soon. I'm already getting the hang of listening to instructions and keeping up with conversation, even though it is sometimes difficult to create a response. Everyone is really nice and patient when it takes me longer than it should to convey my thoughts. A lot of it goes over my head but so far, I understand enough. It can only go uphill from here :)

I Love Technology

I'm leaving in just a few days and the fact that I will be in Japan for a year, starting on Friday, is a bit overwhelming. I keep saying my last "see you laters" (because saying "goodbye" seems far too depressing) to friends and family and it gets harder every time. As happy as I am about the experience that awaits me, I still cry and wish I wasn't leaving the people I love.

Waiting for the 10th to come reminds me of how I feel before I go on stage for anything. That stage fright feeling. Butterflies in my stomach, my heart is racing, my palms sweat. But once I get out there, I start to calm down and everything goes smoothly.

I'm sort of hoping that will happen once I get on the plane...or at least, get into the country.

And while I'll miss people here in America, I know it won't be so bad, thanks to the internet! I'm grateful for services like Skype, which allow me make free (video) calls with people who also have Skype. I'm still connected to home. :)

Granny, my mom's mother who lives with me, got her first look at Skype a few days ago. I went to another part of the house and we talked for a few moments, explaining the concept to her. She's 86 years old. All she can say is, "what will they think of next?" and laughs.

In other news, I've finally finished packing! 0__0 Oy vey!

Still Getting Closer

I just got my visa from the Japanese Embassy yesterday; it's right there in my passport. I feel so official now. :) I also received my welcome package from Aoyama Gakuin University (which from now on, I will refer to as AGU). Among its contents, was a map of the Tokyo Subway. Please observe (You can click on it to see a larger image):



And some people find the Washington D.C./Virgina/Maryland Metro map was hard to follow...

Anyway, I've started packing - a process that I do not enjoy. I'm trying my best to only bring two suitcases and make them as light as possible. It's working so far. But I'm waiting until it gets a little closer to the day I leave to pack it all in for real.

In the time being, I envy all my fellow college friends moving back into their respective campuses, especially those at UMD moving into Dorchester Hall. I went by yesterday to visit some of those people and was giddy from being inside the place. Best dorm in College Park, hands down. I'll be back there a few more times before I'm shipped off.

Before the Leap

I just purchased my ticket through Air Canada, leaving on September 10th and will be coming back August 3rd, 2010. I won't be coming home during that time, it's too expensive unfortunately. My parents plan on coming to me instead~

Also, I hope to visit places like South Korea, Hong Kong, and maybe even England while I'm away. Lots of friends from different places I want to see again.

I still can't believe I'm going and that my time here is getting shorter. Of course, I'm excited, but also a little nervous. Okay, really nervous. But I'm comforted by the fact I have lots of friends there already. And the fact that Japan is awesome. So, it's all good.