Is it morning?

So remember when I said that I wouldn't post until I got back? Well I lied. I have a little bit of free time now, so I'm going to post some more. I'm pretty much just going to post a list of things I did and/or found interesting.

Kobe Luminarie -- Went with some friends, saw some Christmas lights, had a lot of fun.

Spanish World / Ise Jingu -- Did I write this already? Went with my host mom's sister's family, saw the shrine, rode a roller coaster.

Hyogo Museum -- Went with my host family, we decided it was lame and went to a little kids' amusement park and an onsen instead.

Art Exhibits -- Two different ones with my host family; one with tricky pictures and another with normal pictures.

Onsen -- Have been like 6 or 7 times now. My host family really likes them so if I'm around on Saturday or Sunday nights, we normally go to one. So far I've been to Arima twice, Maple, Taiko twice, and two random ones that I don't know the name of and one that was in a hotel. I think I'm missing some, too. So more than 7 times. Sorry. I lied.

"Up" -- Saw the movie with my host family, in Japanese. Surprisingly, I understood most of it. But it doesn't have much dialogue anyways, so not that big of an accomplishment.

"This Is It" -- Went with my host dad, thought it was really cool. Not a huge MJ fan, but that would have been a really good concert. And the music, of course, was good.

Mister Children Concert -- Went with a friend using the tickets that my host dad's brother gave me. Absolutely awesome. Must have missed the choreography class that everyone else took before going to the concert or something, though.

Arashi Yama "Light-up ... Bamboo" -- Don't know the real name, but it was pretty cool. Really cold though. And we kind of got lost and did 500 laps around the city.

Kiyomizudera "Light-up" -- Went with a friend in the fall. Very pretty, good atmosphere.

Sang Karaoke with some friends, had a really good time.


I am inevitably missing some stuff, but oh well. I also have a couple things that I am still planning on doing / hoping to get done:

Trip to Disney Land, return trip to Nikko.
Trip to Kyushu. Trip to Tokyo.
Karaoke at least three or four more times.
Actually make it to my bus stop right before the bus leaves instead of after the bus leaves and then end up waiting half an hour for the next bus.
Would really really like to join a club or circle (maybe volleyball, but not sure).
Sounds weird, but I would like to take calligraphy lessons.
Possibly attempt to teach someone English (right now my host brother is a maybe).
Have a day where I speak only Japanese / hold all of my conversations in mainly Japanese.
Take at most one class taught in English next semester so I can really push hard on improving my Japanese speaking skills.

And now, things I find entertaining. Pretty much all of them are about my host kids. I still can't get over some of the things kids say.

Jion seems to have a problem understanding time. The other day we were driving to school in the car and it was still a little dark, so he asked my host mom, "Is it nighttime?" Another time, it was clearly the middle of the afternoon and he asked "Is it morning?" But he doesn't just have a problem with the times of day, either. On a mid-fall my host mom was talking about how it might snow in the winter where we live and Jion asked "Will we wake up tomorrow and it'll be winter?" Finally, my favorite is when my host mom was talking and she said "this year" and Jion asked "Is this year now?" (今年って、いま？）.

Another good story is that my host sister still thinks she's going to marry me. After she met one of my friends at our Christmas party, she decided that my friend was her competition. Aoi tried to convince me that she was better than my friend because she is taking Kumon (basically an accelerated pre-school/kindergarten) and my friend isn't. I agreed with her on that one. Perhaps she has a chance after all.

Hmmm... let's see. Yuta is doing pretty well. The other day he was hanging out in my room (it's become the new place to be in our house, I guess, but I don't really mind) and writing dirty words on my electronic dictionary. Well, as dirty as you can get for a fourth-grader. Feces, urine, fart, etc. He also wrote enema, which I have no idea why he knows/needs to know that word in Japanese. But in the end, he decided he would make me a kanji name (絵理九 -- pretty much the crappiest kanji name ever "picture reason nine") and then scribble on the screen. His scribbles made a nonsense sentence (絵理九ノリンゴ泣き門主) to which he laughed so hard he cried. He eventually had to leave my room cause he was laughing so hard. I don't really know why this nonsense sentence is so funny. I'm by no means a Japanese expert, but if I translate it I think it means... Eric's apple cry gate master. Yeah. I told you it was nonsensical. But I guess I'm glad he got such a kick out of it.

Today I started my first day where I made a conscious effort to interact more with each member of my family. Well, ironically, my host dad is staying at his parents' house out in the countryside (right next to the family hospital) tonight, so I didn't get to talk to him at all, but I did talk a lot with my host mom and the kids. I think it went pretty well. From here on out I'm going to try even harder!

Alright, I know that's a pretty lazy post. I'm not even going to edit it. That's how lazy I am right now. But you should be happy with what you get, right? No complaining.

Which reminds me, I don't know who's actually going to see this post, but I am flying home in exactly a week (!) so if there's anything you want from Japan / want as a Christmas present, tell me and I just might be able to make your wish come true ;) (Just nothing bigger than I can fit in my suitcase.)

I'm Still Alive!

Just wanted to take a second and post to say that I'm still alive :) I'm having a good time, but I'm very busy so I haven't had time to write a blog entry.

I'll be heading home for a week soon, so I hope to have time to talk to everyone when I get back!

Knee Vaccinations and Missing Fingers

Wow, I haven't written in forever! There's so much to write about... I don't even know where to start.

Our college has its "Culture Festival" this weekend, so I was lucky enough to have all of my afternoon classes cancelled today, and I don't have class on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, either. It's nice to finally have a bit of a break, but I still have plenty to do (my midterms start on Thursday of next week) so I know I won't be bored!

Speaking of festivals, I went to the culture festival of one of my college's other campuses (the Kobe Sanda Campus) last weekend, so I'll talk a little about that. Basically, the festival is just a way for all of the school's clubs to sell food and put on shows, dances or presentations. I was lucky enough to make friends with a Japanese person who goes to the Sanda campus, and she took me and a couple other exchange students there and showed us around.

First off, the Kobe Sanda Campus is much nicer than the campus I go to. It's about half as busy as my campus, and the scenery is nicer. The campus is on top of a hill, and the whole area is surrounded by mountains, so you get the feeling that you're in the mountains in the countryside. Of course, it is actually pretty close to a massive city, so you're not really in the countryside at all, but it feels like it.

The festival itself was a lot of fun. The clubs all set up little booths to cook and sell food, and to advertise their food they send club members around telling people to come to their club's booth and buy food. The people trying to sell the food especially enjoyed coming up to our group of exchange students and trying to sell to us in English. A lot of the times their English wasn't very good, but I was impressed that they had the courage to speak to random people in a different language. Actually, one thing I noticed about the whole festival was that Japanese people truly become totally different people when they're working some sort of job -- they go from not caring at all about people they don't know to running up to random people and talking to them.

My life at home is going pretty well. I think all of the kids are getting more used to me being here, so I'm not really as much of a novelty anymore, which is nice. Also, now that I spend a lot of time on campus -- either in class, studying, or just talking with friends, I haven't been able to spend a ton of time with them. Still, I think my relationships with the kids are improving as my Japanese improves. Here's a small update on the kids for those wondering.

The youngest (Jion) is doing pretty well. But he's still absolutely crazy. Last time I talked about how he bit a kid in his class, and the other day while we were on our way to drop the kids off preschool, he revealed to his mom (and me) why he bit the other child. Apparently, the child that Jion took a bite out of is "super mean" and "crazy violent." I was glad to hear that Jion at least had reasoning behind his biting, and doesn't just run around biting random people.

I guess Jion also told the teacher that he could speak English. Apparently, Jion thought that since I understand him when he talks to me, he is speaking in English. We had to explain to him that he was still speaking Japanese. I'm still not sure if he understands, but he seems to understand that the words "one, two, three, and four" are pretty much the only English he knows when he doesn't talk to me, so that's a start.

I think this is funny, so I'm going to stick this in here. Last night I was doing homework in my room, when Jion walked in carrying a little plastic briefcase. He plopped down on the floor, opened it, and told me that he was a doctor. Inside of the box there was a little fake stethoscope, some plastic scissors, and a toy syringe. The inside of the briefcase also had a little button that you could press, and then a one of four words would light up: fever, injury, cold, or healthy. After consulting his briefcase, he told me I had a cold and was going to need a vaccination. (Yes, he used the word for vaccination, I think because my host dad just vaccinated our family the other day.) He then proceeded to give me two "shots" in the side of my knee. I couldn't help but think how painful that would have felt in real life. He pressed the button again and informed me that I had an injury -- I wasn't surprised after receiving the knee vaccinations. He then happily told me that he was going to have to cut off one of my fingers. After a little convincing, he agreed that my pinky would be okay, even though he had originally wanted to do away with one of my thumbs. (But even in pretend I didn't want to agree to lose a thumb.) After cutting off my finger, he checked and I had come down with a cold again. This time he decided that he would use the stethoscope to get rid of the cold. He pressed it to a couple places on my leg, and said I was cured. Then he packed his briefcase up and left. I was pretty impressed. 

Aoi's a little bit crazy, too. She has her funny moments, like Jion, but she can be really cranky sometimes, too. Girls. Today her preschool class took a walk across the city, so I'll have to ask her how that was tonight and get back to you.

Here's a random story kind of about Aoi. Yesterday during dinner Aoi decided to go to the bathroom.  At the same time, Jion decided he was going to get up and run around the house. After a couple minutes of Jion running and Aoi being in the bathroom, Jion must have hust himself somehow because he started crying. My host mom, who was busy taking care of the kids plates, asked if it was Aoi or Jion who was crying. I couldn't help but  laugh. I mean, if Aoi had been the one crying, something was probably seriously wrong. I mean, who goes to the bathroom and starts crying? Actually, quite the opposite: when Aoi is in the bathroom she normally sings. Random things. Well, now that I think about it, she sings random things all of the time. 

And on the topic of Jion hurting himself, I've come to understand that it's just part of who Jion is. The other day we were walking as a family when Jion decided that he would run ahead a little. He immediately triped and fell over. He then got up, checked to make sure he wasn't bleeding, started running, and fell over again. I've honestly never seen a kid so reckless in my life. His reactions to his injuries are extremely unpredicatble, too. Sometimes he'll smash his head into a wall and giggle, or fall flat on his face and get up looking only a little dazed. Other times he'll barely hurt himself and start bawling. I hadn't realized how desensitzed I had become to all of his injuries until the other day when we were at a restaurant and Jion, like he normally does, fell out of his chair and hit his head. My whole host family (including Jion) and I continued to eat like normal, but two of the waiters watching let out little screams and came running over to see if he was okay. (And he was giggling, so I'm assuming that's an okay. Actually, now that I think about it, hitting your head and giggling probably isn't a good sign, right?) But yeah. He's a kind of different. Anyways, on to my Yuta summary.

Yuta came down with the flu last week, so he took 3 days off of school. Actually, there's a pretty crazy story about this. Yuta woke up sick on Sunday and spent the whole day in bed. He was also pretty sick on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday he felt a lot better, but his parents decided he should sleep in on Wednesday morning, and if he still felt good in the afternoon, his dad would take him to the art museum (which he missed out on when the family went on Sunday while he was sick). I thought it was a really cool thing for parents to do because Yuta is always so busy with all of his school work and studying that he deserved a day off of school, and also because he really wanted to go to the art museum. 

When Yuta went back to school on Thursday, he was telling some of his friends about the art museum when the teacher overheard him and yelled at him in front of the class. Apparently, the teacher was disappointed that Yuta would skip school to go to an art museum. Also, the kids in his class had written a note to Yuta telling him to get well, but some of the students stole it back and crossed it out, all during class. And when Yuta's mom went to pick him up, the teacher also scolded her about taking Yuta to the museum.

I felt really bad for the little guy. My host parents told me that the teacher was and extremely traditional Japanese teacher, and that a lot of teachers were like that when the were little. Still, I can't see how it is any of the teacher's business if the parents decide to let the child go to an art museum instead of class. Yuta seemed to take it surprisingly well, though, so I'm sure he'll bounce back right away.

Hmm... there's a lot of other stuff I've done that I didn't write about, so if I get some more time I'll post again later, or at least a couple more times during my break.

That's all for now!

Gahhhhhh~!!!!!!! I just wrote a whole section about all of my classes, then accidentally deleted it when I went to check the spelling of "explanation." And I spelled it right in the first place! ARRRRRGGGGGHH. And the draft didn't autosave because my connection went out! AHHHHH. What a crappy streak of luck. Well, at least I know what I have to write about later. Sigh.

~ Chapter 3: Normal Life ~

Well, not exactly normal, but you get the idea. I don't think I'm able to say I'm settling in anymore because tomorrow will be my 6th week in Japan.

Expect my first post in a long, long time in a couple of hours!

Did You Bite Anyone Today?

I have tons of homework like always, but writing my blogs is too fun to pass up :) So here we go.

I have kind of gotten into the swing of things lately, so it's been nice to start feeling like I have a routine. I would love to add more stuff to my schedule, though, so I'm going to have to start searching out opportunities to do new things. After all, no matter how much I study, there will still be more studying to do, and I can't just study my life away!

Last weekend we went to my host dad's house again. I don't know if I described my first trip there, so I'm going to describe my second trip as well as I can so you know how it went. Because I'm assuming that you want to know how it went. Because you're reading this blog.

My host dad's parents live about half an hour away, in a smaller city in the country. They live in a huge house, especially by Japanese standards. My host dad's dad (I think I might call him my host grandpa from now on) owns the practice/hospital/whatever you want to call it that my dad works for, so he makes a fairly good amount of money. But not too much money. I'm actually writing a report on doctors for my Japanese government class, and I've found that doctors' salaries in Japan are much less than in the US. But back to the story.

My host grandpa's pretty much the typical Japanese grandparent -- loves spoiling the grandchildren and drinking beer. He also loves to give stuff away. He tried about a hundred times to get me to drink beer and wine at dinner. When I left their house, he insisted on giving me $100 just like he gave the rest of the grandchildren. And, like most elderly Japanese people, I can't understand a single. word. he. says. But really, any time I feel like I'm understanding what's going on, he'll say something and I'm completely lost again.

My host grandma seems to be a pretty strong lady. She has a pretty big personality from what I can tell, and she is used to taking care of everyone in the family. She's very nice, but I get the feeling that it's more of a politeness than a genuine niceness. I mean, she's definitely a good person, she's just one of those people that while you know they always have good intentions, you're still a little scared of them. Also, to support my claims, my host mom told me that my host dad's older brother had a falling out with the mom and that they don't really communicate that much anymore. 

But anyways, we went there this weekend and saw a festival. This festival was a lot bigger than the one I went to in Nishinomiya, and the people were a lot more drunk. Sorry, but it's the truth. Instead of one shrine, this time four smaller shrines were carried around. I guess there's a slight competition to see who does the "best" job carrying the shrine, but really it's not about the competition; it's about being together.

My host parents explained to me that festivals like these are starting to disappear because people live in cities where they tend not to be close to their neighbors, don't really feel attached to the area, etc. For example, at the festival, my host grandma seemed to know and talk to pretty much everyone, and after the festival a few neighbors came over and helped cook dinner at my host grandparents' house. My host dad explained to me that traditionally families would cluster together and tend to help eachother get by, and that his family is in this way a very traditional family. 

But for all of the Japaneseness (did I just make that word up? yes.) of my family, I think there are some things that every family, no matter where they're from, goes through. For example, here's a conversation from the dinner table tonight:

Host mom: "Jion, did you remember our promise?"

Jion: "Yep."

Host mom: "And did you bite anyone at daycare today?"

Jion: "Nope!"

(Backstory: Jion bit a kid at daycare the other day and the teacher scolded my host parents for a couple minutes  when they went to pick him up. When they told me the story, I thought it was cute that my host dad closed it by saying (in English) "We try to make him behave, but for now we love him just the way he is.")

So yeah, I guess I'm just trying to say that there are both differences and similarities between what I've experienced in Japan and what I see in the States, but there are definitely more similarities than differences. Make sense? I hope so.

Also, here's a story I can't help but laugh about every time I think of it. It's probably one of those "you had to be there" types, but I'm going to tell it anyways.

Yuta is in charge of taking the dog for its nightly walk. I go with him a lot of the time because if I'm with him, he likes to ride his skateboard-like thing  (picture somewhere around here  -- you can't miss it) while I hold Louie's leash. Last night I thought it would be a good idea to give Yuta the leash and let Louie pull him. You know, like Cesar Millan. And at first, it worked just like it does for Cesar. Louie took off at a pretty good paced jog, and pulled Yuta at a pretty good pace behind him. But unlike Cesar's dogs, Louie is not trained. So when Louie saw another dog a couple hundred feet ahead, he took off running. 

So Yuta was flying crazily behind Louie, who was running at full speed. Got the image in your head? Good. Yuta spent a couple seconds screaming, but luckily he's Japanese, and the little bit of ninja in him came to the surface (or at least that's what I like to think). Somehow, Yuta jumped off of the board and managed to land and run behind Louie without falling, then he slowed Louie down. It was pretty cool.

And yeah, that's all I have to write for today. I just skimmed a little bit of what I wrote and noticed that my vocabulary today is completely AWESOME, and for that, I apologize. But even with all of the "I think" and "I guess" and "yeah" crap, I hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time!

There Was, Of Course, Much Confusion

I actually wrote this post yesterday, but it seems that I forgot to actually post it. It's not super exciting, but here you go:

Two of my classes this morning were cancelled because of the typhoon, so that was a plus. On the downside, I had to spend the whole morning working on homework anyways, so it's not like I got to relax too much.

There was, of course, much confusion because there are the strangest rules for when/how classes get cancelled. Even though we were all sent a form telling us how they will cancel the classes, the form was pretty much gibberish in both English and Japanese, so it didn't help. Another thing that didn't help was the fact that the international office texted everyone this morning telling them the wrong information. But I figured it out eventually, so it's all good.

Yesterday I went to a giant electronics store to get a camera, dictionary, and possibly a new phone. I looked at both the cameras and the dictionaries, but there were about a million and a half of them and I really had no idea what I was looking for other than the very basics, so I gave up on trying to buy them. There were some cameras that looked just like others, but they were about $100 more. It probably would have helped if I would have done research before I went and/or if I understood Japanese. Oh well.

On a positive (for me, but maybe not for my parents) note, I ended up getting an iPhone. It's probably going to end up being a lot more expensive than my other phone, but it can access the internet, and has a GPS/train schedule app so I will have to try really hard now if I want to get lost. Just pointing out, too, that the iPhone was one of the cheapest phones they offered with a plan, so it's not like I tried to buy the most expensive phone.

The house has been kind of crazy since my house dad is gone all week. With three little kids, it seems like all they do is argue all of the time, but I guess that's what kids do. I've been trying to help out, but the college isn't helping me with the crapload of homework I have. And now I bet we're going to get a ton tomorrow since the two classes that were cancelled today were my two Japanese classes.

On the topic of Japanese, I can't really tell if I'm getting better at speaking/writing Japanese, but the one benefit I have noticed is after only one week of my kanji class my ability to read things written on signs, etc. has about doubled. If I keep up with the homework, I'm hoping that I'll start to understand a lot more of the written language, which would be awesome. 

Alright, lunchtime!

Luckily, I Knew How to Gallop

I don't really have that much to write about today, but I'm trying to avoid studying so I'm going to post something anyways. I thought that I'd just kind of jump around and talk about random stuff that I haven't written much about yet. So if this is too random, my bad. I'm going to start with this past Saturday. Here we go.

Slight background info:  The youngest boy (Jion) and the middle girl (Aoi) of my host family attend the same pre-school (that's actually a part of the whole KGU system). On Saturday I went to their school event that is similar to Field Day in the States. The main difference between the Japanese "undoukai" and the US "Field Day" is... well, there are a lot of differences, actually. The main differences, though, are 1) the students spend a lot of time preparing for undoukai, and 2) tons of people come and watch. From now on I think I'm just going to call it field day, but keep those facts in mind.

I got up early on Saturday even though I was extremely tired because I really wanted to go and see the kids at their field day. Actually, I don't know if I've talked about this yet, but a couple weeks ago I went to some random field day at a school near where my host dad grew up. We ate lunch, I broke a folding chair, and Jion ran around like a maniac. It was fun. But I wanted to see Jion and Aoi at their own field day because they had been talking about it for quite a while, and I got the impression that Aoi wanted me to come. (I don't think Jion cared if I came or not, because he didn't really want to go himself.)

The whole thing was a lot of fun. One thing I didn't know was that a lot of the activities included the parents, which was really entertaining to watch. Notice that I said watch. 

Jion's "events" were pretty much all at the beginning. He had a mini race (which he won, though they really don't place emphasis on winning when the kids are this young), some marching, and some dancing to a song while waving pom-poms. I guess Jion especially hated the pom-pom song (I can't blame him, honestly) but he did his best because his mom was watching.

When Jion wasn't involved in one of the activities, he was always sitting in the teacher's lap. I guess he's quite the troublemaker at daycare, which surprises me because he's usually pretty well behaved -- for a 3 year old -- at home.

In contrast, Aoi, who can be quite the devil at home sometimes, seems to be one of the best behaved students in her class. She did all of her activites quite well, and she seemed like she was having a lot of fun. 

The oldest kid, Yuta, also came to the field day even though he was supposed to be at school. I still don't exactly understand, but I guess since his school's field day is coming up, they have school on Saturday. But he really wanted to go to see Jion and Aoi, so his mom called in and said that he was having problems with his asthma.

After all of Jion's events were done, he came and sat with me and my host mom while Aoi was doing her events. It was about this time when my host mom handed me a red scarf that I thought was Jion's, but it turns out it was for me. Yuta helped me tie it around my head, and I got to participate in one of the events. The event was really weird. They had a giant beach ball, and it was basically a relay race down to the end and back while holding the giant ball and galloping the whole way. Luckily, I knew how to gallop so I didn't make a complete fool of myself.

After the field day we went and had some really good food, then headed home.

Yesterday I spent the whole morning doing my crapload of homework, and in the afternoon I headed to the Osaka History Museum with my family. Side note, I'm super lucky that my family is so active. I mean, I know they're doing a lot of this stuff for me, but I get the feeling from the way the kids act and from all the places they say they've been that my family likes to be out-and-about. End side note. The museum was pretty interesting. 

I learned that somewhere around the year 750, Osaka was the capital of Japan. I guess a long time ago, the capital used to move a lot, so even though Osaka was the capital, it didn't stay the capital for very long, and therefore it's not widely known that it used to be the capital. There was also tons of other information on Osaka and an awesome traveling exhibit of treasures from the Ise Shrine. I'll try to explain the Ise Shrine a little, but everything I say probably won't be 100% correct, so I apologize. Basically, the Ise Shrine is related to the main god of Shintoism, Amaterasu. People go and visit the Shrine to pray to this god, and since she's the main god, it's a very important and famous shrine. I guess it's one of those "you should go once in a lifetime things." There also is the tradition that the emperor visits the Shrine once a year, if I'm not mistaken. Or at least it used to be a tradition.

After the museum, we took a boat ride around on the many rivers that run through Osaka. The city is beautiful. We took the boat ride during the sunset and there was also a full moon pretty low in the sky, so it was especially peaceful.

A funny aspect of the boat ride was the overhead commentary. The recorded commentary played in both Japanese and English, but there was a definite Lost in Translation feel to it. By that, I mean that the announcer would speak in Japanese for like 5 minutes, then the English announcer would come on and say like two sentences. But they weren't saying the same thing, either. At one point, the Japanese announcer talked about a festival in the city and then described all of the different types of trees that people came to see bloom in the Spring. The English translation commented on the festival, butsaid not one word about the trees. I felt like they assumed that people who speak English didn't care about that type of stuff. Which doesn't surprise me, because I think a lot of Japanese people are aware that Japan is one of the only countries in the world so deeply interested in viewing the blooming of sakura. I felt slighted. Luckily, I could make a little of what they were saying in Japanese.

After the boat ride, we went out to dinner, then headed home.

Today I've just been hanging around doing nothing, pretty much. I mean, I'm doing homework, but it's all in English, so I'm not super excited about it. I've been trying to help out a little more because starting this morning, my host dad left for the week. My host mom is already crazy busy with the three kids when the dad's there helping out, so I can't imagine what this week is going to be like for her. We'll see.

On a random note, I think this is interesting entertaining so I'm going to post about it.

The other day I was telling my host familiy about how much I dislike writing mini-compositions in Japanese. It's a lot of work for me even though I can't say very much, and I always make a ton of grammatical errors if I try to say something other than "I like food" or the like. My host mom cheered me up a little by showing me one of Yuta's (the oldest, 4th grader) composition homework sheets. Apparently, they signed Yuta up for an extra composition class because he isn't very good at writing (which surprises me because he loves to read). Anyways, the sheet had a section where it told you to imagine that you were going swimming. A sentence read (my host mom translated it for me) "Your feelings as you are about to get into the pool." After that, there was a little blank where you could fit two or three sentences. Yuta had written "Doki doki". That's all. No punctuation or anything. (Doki doki is a onomatopoeia for excitement. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be the sound of your heart fluttering.) Later, there was a similar-sized blank after a sentence that said "Your feelings as you get out of the pool." Yuta wrote "Tanoshii". Which simply means fun. In present tense. Like getting out of the pool is fun. My host mom found this extremely entertaining (she was laughing the whole time). I also thought it was pretty hilarious. She explained, though, that Yuta had only written like that because he was still mad at them for making him take the class. But in all honesty, my compositions probably aren't much better.

My host parents comment a lot on how much trouble they have getting Yuta to study. He definitely does not like to study, but really, what 4th grader does? But in Japan, entrance exams into middle school and high school are very important, and if you don't study, you won't be able to get into the good schools. This is especially important for Yuta, because he wants to get into the private middle school. The private middle school allows students to wear what they want and become more individually-minded, while the public school is traditional Japanese schooling, complete with strict uniforms. Yuta is quite independent, and he doesn't like being forced to be like everyone else, so he wants to go to the private school. But he hates studying. Kind of a conundrum.

All in all, though I think Yuta is actually really smart, it's just a parent's job in Japan to talk down your child. Well, not really talk down, but to encourage them to keep working -- don't let them get a big head. My host parents showed me Yuta's report card from his cram school the other day and he was ranked top (#1) out of the 48 students in his grade in at least 5 or so of the subjects listed. His parents said they were proud, but that Yuta shouldn't stop working hard because the cram school he goes to isn't one of the best in the area, so he wasn't really doing as well as it seemed. It all seems a little cut-throat for 4th grade to me, but I understand how serious this is for all the younger kids in Japan.

And to end my post, picture time! First, here's a picture (from my iPhone, so it's not the best quality) of the view from my walk to and home from school. It was cloudy that day so you can't see the tops of the mountains, but you get the idea.

Second, a piture of the  traveling shrine  that they carried around in the festival I went to downtown a week or so ago. We were in a park at the time, so as an added bonus you also get to see an extremely rare photo of a Japanese swingset, complete with random child swinging. Lucky you.

Alright, that's all for today!

It Was Like a Scary Movie

A lot has happened since I last posted about my time in Japan. I went with my family to Kyoto and saw an opera concert in a temple. I met both of my host parents' parents and went to a random field day at a school. I went to a parade-of-sorts in a nearby city. I got a 45% on my "grammar you should know before taking this class" test in Japanese. These are all probably things that I should write about (and may write about at one time), but this weekend was truly crazy and deserves a post of its own.

First, I need to give a small intro. As I've talked about a little bit before, my host dad is a doctor and my host mom is a psychologist. Both of them are interested in the effects that the mind has on a person's health, especially a person with cancer. Therefore, they set up a seminar this weekend and invited a specialist on the Simonton Method to come and speak. The Simonton Program/Method is basically a program for cancer patients and their supporters to improve their quality of life. It helps patients think more positively and work towards a happy life with cancer. I can't say I completely agreed with all of the program, but it definitely has its merits. But really, I don't think anyone wants to hear my thoughts on the program anyways. On to the good stuff.

Last week my host parents asked if I would like to come to the seminar, and I told them yes. At the time it sounded like a good idea. In hindsight, I'm extremely happy I went, even though the seminar was all in Japanese and I only understood like 25% of what was going on. But by going to the seminar, I was able to have my first big adventure in Japan.

The seminar started Saturday afternoon. I went and helped set up the room (though I honestly wasn't much help), then I sat through the first day. I was pretty gung-ho about paying attention and trying to see what I could understand on Saturday, so the session went by pretty fast. Afterwards, I rode home with my host mom. Also in the car was a friend of the family. Also a psychologist, Ryoko (the family friend) studied/worked at the University of Michigan for 3 years (pretty recently, too, I think). Right away, I could tell that Ryoko was a pretty energetic, spontaneous person. She also spoke really good English, which was kind of fun because she liked being able to speak in English with me.

That night, our family hosted a dinner party for the lady speaking at the seminar, Ryoko, and another doctor that helped out at the seminar. It was a lot of fun to get to see everyone communicate with each other, and the food was really good, too. On a side note, the lady that hosted the seminar spoke English almost perfectly (I think she lived in the US for more than 5 years at one time), and she liked trying to explain different Japanese words/phrases to me, so I think I learned a lot at the dinner. 

The next morning before we went to the second day of the seminar, Ryoko and my host parents asked me if I wanted to go to Hiroshima. Ryoko had told me she was from Hiroshima, so I figured they were probably trying to plan out a family trip together where we could meet her and travel together. I told them I definitely did. Turns out it wasn't a future trip; they were talking about going that day. And then I figured out that it wasn't a whole family trip, because it would have to be a multiple day trip. Ryoko had invited me to go there with her and she would be my sightseeing tour guide. A little flustered, I agreed.

I mean, I wasn't scared or anything, and I definitely trusted Ryoko even though I had only known her since Saturday afternoon, but I'm definitely not the spontaneous type. Truthfully, going to Hiroshima and sightseeing so suddenly seemed like a dream. I didn't have to do any of the advance planning or anything. Ryoko had work off on Monday, and I don't have classes on Monday. Ryoko lived in the area and knew what trains to take, had a place for me to stay, and knew the best places to go in Hiroshima. It seemed too good to be true.

So I sat through the second, much longer day of the seminar spacing out, thinking about my trip that I was about to go on after the seminar. Also, the lady running the seminar gave me an English packet, which I read through a couple times until I felt like I knew what they were talking about even if I wasn't paying attention. After the seminar, we cleaned up, stopped by the house one last time, then my host mom drove Ryoko and me to the train station.

I just want to note here that I can't believe how lucky I was. This weekend I basically accidentally accomplished at least 3 of the goals I wrote about earlier in my blog. You'll see what I mean right... now:

When we arrived at the train station, I realized that we weren't going to be able to take a normal train to Hiroshima. We were taking the Shinkansen! The tickets were a little expensive, and it was dark outside when we got on the train, but it was still awesome. The Nozomi was the name of the train/line we rode, and it was pretty much like an airplane. 

On the train, I agreed with Ryoko that I didn't mind speaking with her in English during my trip because it was only going to be a short time and she really wanted to speak English. Still, throughout the trip, she constantly spoke back to me and Japanese and made efforts to try to teach me new Japanese words/phrases. I really appreciated it.

Okay, here I think I'm going to talk a little bit about Ryoko. I'm going a little out of order because I didn't really discover all of this stuff about her right away, but I think it's necessary that I write it so you understand more of what the trip with her was like. I'm going to start out by saying that if I could compare her to anyone, she is without a doubt as close as you can to a real-life equivalent of Luna Lovegood. If you've read Harry Potter, then I assume you already understand enough about Ryoko for me to keep telling my story, but I'll clear it up for everyone who hasn't read the series. Ryoko is short, a little mysterious, and very energetic. And she believes in some of the weirdest stuff. She's not afraid to talk about whatever she feels like. She told me how she thought that the mountain we were going to visit in the Hiroshima area used to be visited by aliens a long time ago, and that she thinks astronauts commonly see UFOs in space. She said she doesn't like watching the news because a lot of the stuff seems fake. Etc.

But don't get me wrong. Much like Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter, there's something about Ryoko that makes you want to hang out with her. During our trip she alternated between saying some of the most insightful things I've ever heard, and some of the most random, wacky things I have ever heard. For example, she asked me a lot about myself -- what I liked, what I thought my personality was, etc. Then she asked if I had any pets, and I told her that my family has two dogs but I really wanted a cat. I explained that I liked both dogs and cats, but cats are definitely easier to care for and much more independent. Her response? "You want a cat because you're a cat." I didn't know what to say, but when I thought about it, I had described myself just like I had described a cat. It just takes someone like Ryoko to say something strangely true like that, right?

But anyways, now that you know what she's like, back to the story. After we got off of the Shinkansen line, we took a normal train and then a bus to Ryoko's house. Well, actually, it was her parents' house because Ryoko is going through a divorce right now so she is temporarily living with her parents. I was jealous, though, because her parents' house, where Ryoko grew up, was about 30 seconds from the bus stop and only one or two stops away from the main station in Hiroshima. (Quite different from my host family's house which is more-or-less out of the way).

Also, their house was quite different from a normal house. Ryoko's dad owns a nursing home/hospital of sorts. Their "house" is the third floor of the building. It was really cool -- definitely something I'd never seen before. The first two floors were truly a nursing home, then the third floor looked like a normal Japanese house on the inside. The final surprise of the night was that Ryoko told me that since she was living in her parents' house, they were all out of rooms so I would be sleeping in one of the hospital/nursing home rooms. For some reason, I found this completely awesome.

Another side note, even though it was a hospital/nursing home, Ryoko's dad stopped keeping patients overnight because he was getting too old to manage all of that, and he only did outpatient stuff during the day. So the place was completely deserted at night.

When Ryoko walked me down the stairs and through the hallway to my room, it felt like I was in a scary movie. The lights were dim, fluorescent, and flashing a little bit. The hospital itself was a little worn-down and had a spooky feeling to it. Definitely cool :) My room was truly a patient's old room. It had a hospital-style bed, small bathroom and a sink. Even though I was excited for the next day of sightseeing, I fell asleep almost instantly.

The next morning Ryoko went to visit a patient in a hospital in a neighboring city, during which time I ate a breakfast prepared by Ryoko's mom. Ryoko's mom said she was 72 years old, though I would have put her in her early-60s. Like Ryoko, she was friendly and energetic. She was also a really good cook. When Ryoko returned, we headed off to do our sightseeing.

We had decided the night before that I would not have enough time to see everything in the Hiroshima area worth seeing, so we skipped going to the Peace Memorial and A-Bomb dome this time and I said I would come back some other time to visit (which I intend to do). Instead, we chose to spend the day at Miyajima (Island), home to the Itsukushima Temple/Shrine.

The coolest thing about the trip to Miyajima was that we had to take a boat to get there, something I did not expect. Oddly enough, you purchase tickets for the boats in the exact same manner as you do for the subway. Efficient, right?

Simply put, Miyajima was awesome. Itsukushima Shrine was beautiful. We were there when the tide was low in the morning, and then we walked by the Shrine again before we left when the water was higher. We also went to the top of a mountain on the island (I forget the name right now, but the whole mountain area is a world heritage site). For me, going to the top of the mountain was the unexpected highlight of the trip. We took a ... I don't know what they're called in English ... rope way? Anyways, we rode a ski-lift type thing up to the peak of a shorter mountain, then followed some paths up to the top of the tallest mountain on the island. From the peak of this mountain, you could see the whole city of Hiroshima. But even better than that, you could see the large islands that all stuck out of the inland sea.

For some reason, I hadn't realized that I would be seeing the inland sea from the top of this mountain, so when I understood the view, I was thrilled. It was honestly like nothing I'd ever seen before. Also, since it was a little bit cloudy that day and it was sprinkling on and off, Ryoko pointed out that if you let your mind wander, the sea looked like clouds, not water, and the islands looked like they were tall mountains poking through the top of the clouds. I tried to take some pictures to share, but they didn't turn out very well. I'll post a few of the pictures, but the ones from the peak don't show the view very well. You can get the idea of the mountains poking out of the sea, but in real life I was able to see much much farther than you can in the pictures.

Side note, we saw a bunch of deer and a bunch (!) of monkeys on the top of the mountain. The little monkeys were cute, but I didn't get any pictures because... well... let's not talk about it. Let's just say that I'm buying a new camera soon.

Well, it's past bed-time for me now so I'll wrap it up by saying that I headed back home that night (Monday night) around 5 o'clock. Ryoko took me to the station, and I took the Shinkansen back to Kobe, then the subway and a bus to get back home. I made it back with (surprisingly) no problems. All in all, a great impromptu trip. 

One important thing I learned, though, is that impromptu trips are great only if you're with someone who knows what's going on. This trip gave me a taste for sightseeing, and helped me realize that if I'm going to start visiting places, I need to buy some guide books and begin planning out some trips. I can't rely on my luck all of the time!

Alright, there's tons more I should write, and there's probably a lot of mistakes in this post, but I'm too tired to write more or proofread. If there's something you want to hear more about, or something you want me to comment on, or anything, please comment. I love reading everyone's comments (even if I don't respond, though I do plan on responding more often), so please feel free to post. Sorry for the massive wall of text. I'll do my best to break my posts into more digestible pieces from now on. Also, I'll try to post all of my photos on Facebook, so keep an eye out for them!

Until next time!

~ Chapter 2: Settling In ~

I finally found time to write!

I'm officially starting to settle in now, so my posts should start improving in quality (but I'm not going to promise an increase in quantity). The professors here know how to pile on homework from what I've seen so far, so I'm pretty much always busy. Therefore, I'll try to make sure to post interesting things that happen, and I'll avoid posting complaints on how much homework I get! I have a lot of work to get done tonight, but it's been so long since I last posted that I can't put off a new post any longer. Plus, I definitely have something to post about.

So here starts what I am going to call Chapter 2. No more posts about jet lag or anything. Here's the real stuff!

I Live by Important People

I'm just starting to get to the main part of my cold now (the stuffy nose and sore throat) so it should go away soon. Until then, I'm doing my best to stay lively.

I went on a walk tonight with my host dad, Yuta (the oldest), Jion (the youngest) and Louie (the dog). Their house is in a very nice neighborhood basically on the side of a mountain. My host dad explained to me that the farther up the mountain you go, the larger the houses get. At first I didn't really understand the reasoning behind wanting to live high up on a mountain, but after about a 10 minute walk up some pretty steep roads, we turned around and could see the lights of Osaka in the valley below. It was really beautiful.

I realized today that I didn't have my house key the second I arrived at the door. It was an instant blow to my high spirits from successfully taking the trains and the bus home by myself. As I sat in front of the door deciding what I would tell my host family if I had actually lost the key instead of just forgetting it, a lot of people walked by and stared at me. I have to admit, I probably looked pretty shady emptying the contents of my pockets and backpack on the front porch.

I was lucky that my host dad got home about 20 minutes after I got to the door. Normally, my family doesn't get home until 6 or 7, so when he pulled up at a little after 5 I was relieved. I didn't know the word for lost, so when my host dad asked what was wrong, I told him I forgot my key (and prayed that I didn't actually lose it). He laughed, told me Yuta does it all of the time, and let me in. A pro at misplacing things, I have become pretty good at looking in places I would likely leave something. The first place I checked for my key was yesterday's pants pockets, and that's right where the key was. I'm not sure how I had the key in my pocket all night last night without noticing, but I found it so I'm not complaining.

I rode with my host dad to pick Yuta up from cram-school and do some last-minute dinner shopping, and on the way he told me that the back screen doors of the house are normally open and I could get in by jumping over the fence and coming in through the back of the house if I ever forgot my key again. Honestly, I had thought of doing this while I was sitting on the front porch, but it probably would have been suuuper shady had anyone seen me. I agreed with him that I would do that in the future, but secretly I decided that I'll just never lose my key again so it won't be an issue.

At the supermarket we ran into some people my host dad knew. I tried my best to speak properly and politely, which was good because when we got back into the car he told me that they were some extremely wealthy people that lived up higher on the mountain. Hence the reason we took a trek up the steep streets tonight.

As we were walking back down the mountain streets, my host dad pointed out some houses of important people. The couple we met at the supermarket had an amazing house. I guess the husband is president of an electric cable company and the wife's father is the president of a large bank. My host dad said that they actually liked the couple's house so much that they had the same architect build their much smaller, but still very nice house.

We passed a house where the dean of KGU lives. Another house is home to the former owner of the Hanshin Tigers, a Japanese professional baseball team. There were quite a few other houses that were lived in by the "president of ~" or the "owner of ~." A lot of times I didn't even understand (in English) what the people's positions were, but it was still really fun. Of course, I also spent half of my time either carrying Jion because he was too tired to walk or walking Louie on the leash.

I know that this trip has a more subtle cultural lesson to it, but I'm too tired to attempt to write it down, so I'll just think about what experienced before I go to bed and try to see what I learned from it. I didn't give all of the details, so I might have sucked the meaning out of it, and if I did I apologize. I hope it was at least fun to read about the area I lived in.

Alright, I'm going to bed! 

Goodnight.

Another Long Day

Today I went to get my something-or-other foreign registration card. There was a lot of sitting and waiting, and a lot of broken conversation with my language partners. I guess this doesn't really make sense if I don't start from the beginning, though, so let's see how much I can write before I pass out from exhaustion.

Yesterday I had my first day of orientation where I met my two "language partners." They're supposed to be around to help me practice Japanese later in the year. They're both really fun (two girls) and they don't speak very much English. I'm taking them not speaking English as a good thing because it really forces me to talk in Japanese, no matter how awful my Japanese is right now. After they showed me around campus, they rode the bus home with me so I could find my way (which was awesome on my first day).

This morning, my host dad drew me about 10 maps of how to make it to campus, so I was able to successfully trek there on my own. It's a pretty simple route, really, because I just take one bus for a while, and then walk straight along a street until I get to the campus. (Well, that's one route at least -- as my host dad explained to me, there are about a hundred ways to get there that all take about the same amount of time.)

I sat through orientation classes all morning, then in the afternoon I met with my language partners again, we ate lunch, and they took me to register as an alien and get my health insurance. The bus ride to the building was long, and we had to wait for about 45 minutes total after filling out a bunch of forms, but we finally got everything done. Honestly, by this point I could have fallen asleep on the sidewalk anywhere, but I somehow didn't.

So I had some fun conversations during our waiting periods. They taught me how to tell people that I have absolutely no sense of direction, which will undoubtedly be extremely useful. I learned some other random stuff, but I truly can't remember it all right now.

I guess my exhaustion from walking everywhere combined with the fact that I'm coming down with a cold has made it hard for me to take everything in. I feel a little blah. But I know that I'll get better, so I'm not extremely worried; it's just inconvenient.

But anyways, after I got home I got to play legos with Jion (the youngest) while my host dad was working and my host mom was driving the other two kids around. It was definitely the highlight of my day. I don't really understand Jion a lot of the time, but it's fun to talk with him because if I don't understand something he doesn't care and he just moves on to talking about something else. We built a zoo with legos, which he destroyed with a truck, then he told me I was tall and asked if I fit in the tub when I took a shower. There was a lot of other random conversation -- most of which I didn't understand -- but I'm sure half of what he said probably doesn't even make sense in Japanese, either, so it's okay.

Alright, there's tons more I should/could write, but I'm suuuper tired. I apologize if this post is awful, but like I explained earlier, I'm not at 100% (or even 75%) right now. Oh well.

Busy busy!

I've been super busy lately getting settled in and trying to interact with my family as much as possible. I don't have homework or anything yet, but somehow I'm still always doing something. But even though I've had little alone time, I don't really mind.

The downside is that my blogging is awful. I hope that I'll become more able to blog once I get a set schedule, but until then I'm not sure if I'll have time. We'll see.

Tomorrow I go to the university for the first time on my own. I've tried to explain to my family that I have absolutely no sense of direction, but I'm not sure they understand the magnitude of my inability to navigate. Oh well.

Alright, it's almost 10 and I have to get up at 6:30 tomorrow, so I'm going to get some sleep!

~ Chapter 1: Beginning ~

I made it to Japan. The flights were both super long, and then we had an hour-long bus ride to the station, but I'm here!

My host family is very nice, and the kids are awesome. I'm terrible at communicating, though, and I can't really express enough gratitude yet. I'll talk more about all of that later.

Right now I am completely pooped!

Goodnight!

Loose Ends, Part 3

I head out for Japan tomorrow, so this ends my pre-departure posting. From now on I should be posting about things I see and experience in Japan. As I said earlier, I'll try to post as much as possible, so check back often.

I don't have much to say tonight, other than that I am tired of packing. I managed to fit everything into two large suitcases and two backpacks. I'll be bringing a ton of clothes, assorted toiletries, my two computers, my camera that hated me last time I was in Japan, chocolates for gifts and tons of other things. I've got some books, videos and games easily accessible in my carry on bags for the 16 hour trip tomorrow. I'm not very good at sleeping on the plane, so I tried to bring a lot of stuff to distract me. If I could fall asleep, though, that would be awesome.

I looked over my old Japanese textbook on my way to the airport and realized that I have forgotten a lot. I probably should have studied more during the summer (like my mother told me to), but it's too late to worry about that now. I'm looking forward to getting back into learning the language, and the tiny amount that I knew and forgot shouldn't matter much because I plan to learn TONS more this year!

Well, I'm going to get everything ready for tomorrow, so that sums up my last post in the States. From now on I'll be blogging live from Japan!

~ (: End Prologue :) ~

Loose Ends, Part 2

I thought I'd say a few things about Japanese culture. I'm by no means an expert, but it might be informative to some and it'll be nice for me to look back on later and see how much my grasp of Japanese culture has improved.

Uchi-soto

The idea of in-groups and out-groups is huge in Japanese culture. Commonly known even by English speakers in its proper Japanese terms, the uchi -(essentially the in-group) soto (the out-group) relationship is arguably the most important concept in Japanese society. Sadly, I am not an expert on the concept, and therefore not the best person to explain it. I linked to the Wiki article which you should read if you're interested. 

I will note, though, that the article points out that becoming part of any uchi group in Japan is especially difficult for foreigners. I would love to become close enough to be considered uchi with my family (and if I stay with them for a year I think it would be almost inevitable -- either I become uchi or they kick me out). Of course, it all depends on my family and how I adapt and interact with them. As a college student, I'm used to being relatively free, deciding most things for myself and having limited duties/obligations,  so I can't pretend that it will not be difficult for me right away. Also, while I tend to catch on to language pretty well, I'm not as good at catching on to cultural differences. I'm hoping that if I work hard, I can overcome these mini-obstacles and become close to my family.

Honne-tatemae

Similar to uchi-soto, honne and tatemae are also important and commonly discussed aspects of Japanese culture. The Wiki article describes it well, but essentially honne is what people really think, while tatemae is what they show around others. A website I just recently read called tatemae the "wrapping" that people use to soften their ideas and speech around others. Of course, it made much more sense when the website explained it, but at least I tried, right?

To be fair, there's a good amount of "wrapping" in American culture, too. But trust me when I say that it's more important and prevalent in Japan. People rarely directly speak their minds and are expected to understand the truth behind the tatemae in all situations. (This will be especially difficult for me with my small grasp of the Japanese language, but I hope to catch on.)

I was also interested to read that a lot of students try to avoid the problems honne-tatemae might cause with their host families by telling them to just "be honest" with them and skip all of the soto/tatemae parts of the relationship. The website made a good point in showing that the Japanese host families in these situations find this extremely uncomfortable, but will usually agree because they feel responsible for comforting ("wrapping") their guests. Thus, the host family has been forced to use a huge degree of tatemae while the student thinks that they have fixed all future problems.  Not a good situation.

I'll try hard to learn more about Japanese society while I'm learning the language so I can share what I learn with everyone. Most importantly, I'm determined to not give up on trying to become close with my family or to feel intimidated by the different culture to the point that I stop trying to learn about it. I know that I will make mistakes, and I know that I will never perfectly fit in. Still, I'll work hard to make a positive experience out of whatever I get. 

Loose Ends, Part 1

I'm finally back! I've been trying to think of more blogs to post before I head to Japan, but I'm still drawing a blank. So instead of having themed entries, I'm just going to post a series of more random thoughts. Today, I'm going to test out using videos on my blog. Here it is:

One of my favorite Japanese bands, Asian Kung Fu Generation (Ajikan or AKFG for short) is pretty easy on the ears. The music is relaxing, lyrics seem to be good from what I can understand, and their sound is distinct but inviting. The band has been together for quite a while, but they still keep pumping out a lot of good music.

AKFG is pretty popular, and at least three of their most upbeat songs have been featured as openings for popular anime series. I tend to prefer their more relaxed songs, but I can see why people like their upbeat music.

Here's Yui, another one of my favorite Japanese musicians. Her songs are clean, simple and cute. And this one's actually a video, not just a picture, so it might be a little more interesting!

In all honesty I'm not normally a big fan of Japanese music. A lot of the popular music is too R&B sounding for me, so it took some searching and luck for me to find both AKFG and Yui. I hope to find some more music I like while I'm there, and if I find something good I'll be sure to post it!

 

Planning Ahead, Part 3

I'm going to finish up on this planning ahead series since I'm getting tired of it already. So instead of individual summaries of each topic, I'm going to make a list. Here it goes.

Places to see:

The Inland Sea

Hiroshima

Kyushu

Anywhere in Hokkaido

Tokyo (again)

Things to do:

Pass the JLPT 3 or above

Eat at a kaiten sushi restaurant

Meet up with friends

There's tons more that I plan to do, but I've decided that I'm not going to be able to preview everything I want to do in my blog. The summaries I've written so far aren't that exciting, either, so I don't think anyone is missing out if I discontinue the planning ahead series. I'll be able to post much more interesting information after I've experienced each goal!

I'll continue to post before I get to Japan, but I haven't decided what each post is going to be like yet. I don't want any of my posts to just be pointless rambling, so don't worry! I'll think of something.

Until then!

~ Interlude ~

(Warning: Long post ahead!)

I'm interrupting my list to talk about my trip in more detail. I'll resume normal posts again tomorrow, but I think it would be nice to talk more about what I know that I'll be doing in Japan.

I am going to study for a year (two full semesters) at Kwansei Gakuin University (KGU) in Nishinomiya, Japan. Here's a picture of where Nishinomiya is on a map: 

I chose KGU for a few reasons:

    1) KGU is one of Drake University's direct exchange programs, which means I am able to use all of my scholarship money from Drake to pay for the program. 

    2) KGU has a serious language program. Since my main goal in Japan is to learn Japanese, a serious Japanese program is important.

    3) KGU is not in Tokyo. I went to Tokyo for 6 weeks the last time I was in Japan, so I am ready to see somewhere else.

    4) KGU offers a winter semester. More time to study!

(If you haven't realized by now, I like making lists. The numbers make me feel important.)

Studying at KGU will add an extra year to my college education, but I hope it will also help me gain the skills and experience to work and think globally. I was in the pre-pharmacy program for my first two years at Drake, and while I plan to continue with pharmacy when I return from KGU, I would like to incorporate some sort of global/international aspect into my pharmacy career. I'm not exactly sure how I will accomplish that, but I am certain that studying in Japan will increase my chances of finding (or making) a career in pharmacy that I will enjoy. 

I will arrive in Japan on September 12. Classes start a week later. I will be living with a host family for the first semester, and probably the second semester, too. (The program said that they can only guarantee one semester, but I hope to be able to stay both semesters!) My family has three children ages 10, 5, and 3, and two young parents. That's really all I know for now. I'm sure I'll talk about them a lot more later on.

My last week of classes at KGU will be the last week of July, 2010. When classes are out, I'll fly back to the states, rest for a week or two, and then start pharmacy school at Drake. It'll be a quick transition, but I know it will be worth it.

If I get enough credits in Japan, I may officially add an international relations (IR) major to my pharmacy degree, but I'm not too worried about that. Even if I don't get the label of having completed an IR major, I've already taken a few international relations and politics classes, and my experiences in Japan should give me tons of international experience. I also, of course, plan to take more IR classes in the future. Combining my knowledge from classes and my time in Japan, I should be more than ready for an international career -- even without an IR major. After all, my knowledge from IR classes and experience abroad will be just as valuable as an IR major. (A lesson I learned from my advisor.)

So that's about all I can think of for my trip details. I'll post my next entry in the "Planning Ahead" series tomorrow, so be ready!

Until then!

Planning Ahead, Part 2

Today I'm writing about two more experiences I would like to have in Japan. They're both experiences I've already had, but if I don't do either of them while I'm in Japan, I will consider my trip a complete failure!

Gyu-don

Anyone who has talked to me about Japan knows that my favorite food was Yoshinoya's gyudon. It's awesome. A bowl of white rice, meat, onions and a delicious sauce. I can't even begin to explain how good it is. So I'll stop wasting your time and just show a picture of it... and we're done.

Karaoke

Karaoke, another awesome thing from Japan, may be aimed more at younger people (at least people younger than me), but I am definitely going at least once! I hope that I'll be able to go to a karaoke box with some of the new friends I make in Japan. Here's a picture of a sign outside of a karaoke building. Brings back good memories!

I went shopping all day, so I didn't get to write very much today. Expect more tomorrow! 

Planning Ahead, Part 1

I am going to break my pre-departure posts into sections. Each section will have a certain aspect of something I want to do, see, or experience in Japan. Sound good? Let's start with my real blog! 

Itsukushima Shrine

My first place to see is a common tourist site. The gate (a picture to the left) is the biggest attraction at the shrine. I would like to go at either dusk or dawn, so I may have to plan a short trip to visit the shrine. 

The Itsukushima shrine is located in Hatsukaichi (other picture), so it will be at least a day-long trip. Since Hatsukaichi is in Hiroshima prefecture, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to make a 2 or 3-day trip to the area. I'll talk about the rest of that trip later!

If you are interested in reading about the history of the Istukushima shrine, Wiki has a little blurb on it -- I linked the shrine name (above) to the Wiki page, so just click on it to get there. It seems the shrine is dedicated to the daughters of Susanoo, the Shino god of the sea and storms. 

Shinkansen

Here's an experience I would like to have: ride a bullet train on the Shinkansen. Last time I was in Japan I stayed mainly in Tokyo, so I  only rode the normal subway trains. This time, I want to ride on a bullet train! When I do ride on the Shinkansen, it will probably be to Tokyo. I'll talk more about visiting Tokyo later.

I posted a picture I found of the Shinkansen near Mt. Fuji for maximum awe effect. I might not ever ride a train past Mt. Fuji, but no matter where I go I still think taking a bullet train will be a worthwile experience.

Alright, that's all I have for my first post. I pieced it together quickly, so sorry if it's hard to read. I'll spend more time on my posts when I get to Japan, but right now I'm just trying to write everything down!

Until next time!

~ Prologue ~

Well, first posts are always the hardest, right? So I'll try to get it out of the way right now. Here we go!

I created this blog to share my experiences in Japan. So I guess it's more of a travelogue than a blog. (I'm going to avoid making some awful conglomeration of the words 'travel' and 'blog' right here to protect my blog's integrity.) I plan on posting here at least weekly -- maybe even semi-weekly. The posts will probably contain some pictures, news, videos, or anything I find interesting. I'm not an eloquent writer, so expect a lot of random punctuation and some confusing sentences. Still, I'll do my best to make my posts interesting and intelligible.

I decided on the name JapanGo! for my blog because:

    1) The word for 'Japanese' in Japanese is nihongo, a combination of nihon, meaning Japan, and -go, a suffix used to denote a language (I guess -- I can't think of another way to describe it). So I translated nihon into Japan, but left -go as go, making the title of my blog a pun on the Japanese word for Japanese, and also something like 'Let's go to Japan' in English. 

    2) I'm not very creative, and decided to settle for something cheesy.

    3) I thought it would be easy to remember but still original. (Of course, after I decided on the name I found out that someone had already stolen! the name for their blog -- except it's called japan-go, nowhere near as cool as JapanGo!)

    4) I wanted to use my super-awesome computer art skills to make a logo, and JapanGo! is short enough to make lots of different logos with!

But enough about the name of the blog. I leave for Japan on September 11, so until then I will be writing about what I want to do while I'm in Japan. I'm not sure how serious I'm going to be, but I definitely have some goals for my trip to Japan that I would like to write down. By writing down my goals I'll have more motivation to accomplish them so I don't feel like a failure! (Or something like that)

Also, on a final note, I'm going to try to make my posts as fun as possible, but I'm not experienced at posting in blogs. Some of my posts may have awful formatting, broken links, etc. I'm certain it will happen. But I'll get better. I promise!