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!