October 3rd, 2008

After classes, Julie, Meredith, Jess, and I went to Sakae to look around and get dinner. We shopped some and were very happy at our discovery of a store where all the clothing was on sale. I bought a very cute (and very Japanese) shirt for about US  $18 (pretty cheap for a nice shirt). It’s hot pink and has pearls (fake, of course) and a big pink ribbon in the neck (picture in Flickr ‘shopping’ set). We also had dinner at the nummy pasta place called Park Cafe. I got a tasty seafood doria (picture and more info in my Flickr ‘food’ set).

After that, we rode a giant sight-seeing ferris wheel. I don’t really know what they’re called other than per chance an observation ferris wheels, but they’re the ferris wheels that have entirely clear seats-box-things (I guess you call the part you sit in a ‘car’ ?) so you can see the view all around you. I took a few pictures that I need to get onto Flickr.

We then wandered about in the movie/music rental place that was basically attached to the ferris wheel. You bought your ferris wheel ticket inside the rental store *nods*. But yes, we wandered in there and had fun pointing out dramas/actors with whom we were familiar. I would also like to point out that I was like ‘o.O woah’ when I turned around and there was a gigantic poster for The L Word. I know it’s popular at home but I didn’t really think Japan would be like ‘yes, let us stick this giant poster up and encourage everyone to rent a lesbian-focused TV series.’ As much seemingly gay themed and gender ambiguous stuff there may be in Japan, I didn’t think the general public was very okay with things that are out of the norm. I actually remember my hostmom and host sister making disapproving sounds at a couple of transgender celebrities who appear pretty regularly on Japanese television. But yes, I was very surprised at seeing the giant advert and tons of DVDs from various seasons. Part of me is morbidly curious as to how Japanese people react to it… I wouldn’t think a lot of things would translate so well o.O Plus, this is the country where even today, couples kissing in dramas is basically the two characters standing with their lips touching (but not moving at all) for a painfully long interval. If you think I’m nuts, click here to see for yourself, although this isn’t quite as bad as what I remember seeing a few years ago (and described above)… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpHeehHjXGM)  So there does seem to be progress… but nothing like what you see on premium channels like HBO and shows like The L Word  o.O

We then went in search of a giant manga (comic) shop we’d heard was in the area, but failing to find it, we instead listened to some street performers called ‘elmer.’ I took video of them as well, which I’ll try to get onto Flickr in the very near future. (Really, I mean it! ) At this point, we decided it was time for a snack. One of the joys of Japan is that convenience stores are everywhere. This could also be a negative though since I tend to buy things that aren’t at all good for me… like chocolate ^^;;  In any case, we grabbed snacks and went to the green area near the station that had lots of (very uncomfortable benches). It seemed to be a popular couple hangout, or so we deduced from the large number of different gendered pairs sitting about on them. Another bad thing about Japan: you sometimes feel like you’re in a little bubble where you can just talk about absolutely anything, in broad daylight, because chances are the people around you won’t be able to understand much of what you’re saying. For example, on the train to Sakae, there was totally a young guy with fantastic hair. I’m talking Dragon Ball Z-esque but real… his hair had to have been at least a foot and a half in diameter and there was so much of it, you couldn’t even really see his face. Julie and I sat on either side of him… and we totally discussed him whilst he was between us! I feel we should probably work on this subtlety thing ^^;; Although I must admit, if I could have taken a picture in a not-too-obvious manner, I totally would have… he was shiny and his hair was really amazing!

But I digress; back to the benches near Sakae station. We just sat around munching and talking about the possible couple around us and our lack of relationships. I find it very interesting how Japanese majors/people studying in Japan tend to have a few characteristics in common: we’re all rather far off the ‘normal’ scale (in oh so many varying ways) and there seems to be this trend of I’m-not-dating-anyone or I’ve-never-dated-anyone. It’s rather intriguing, actually. I don’t know if it’s just that being into Japanese also leads to secluding oneself to enjoy your Japanese stuff or what, but somehow we’re just socially awkward.

On a somewhat random note, I’ve noticed we tend to gossip a lot about the other exchange students. We totally did that whilst sitting on the painful benches. And apparently, the exchange students in the dorms are always talking about the other exchange students. While I don’t want to live in a dorm, I would like to hover about sometime and learn what the gossip is ^^;;;

Julie and I also had fantastic group effort fail going on. We missed the last train that went to my stop by like 5 minutes and had to take a taxi back. Thankfully, my stop is only one stop beyond the big station all the trains stop at, so it ‘only’ cost us like $8 a piece. Also, upon arriving home I realized I didn’t have my house key but thankfully the door was still unlocked. Yes, it was just a big mess of fail that I don’t particularly recommend imitating during your stay in Japan. It makes for entertaining news to others, but at the time you’re like ‘o.O oh god.’

October 4th, 2008

So, this was the big “performance” day. Unfortunately, I did not get video of it because I didn’t think of it and didn’t see the comments regarding recording it until after the fact, so sorry!

Once again, everyone was amazing. I did take a few videos of some performers though, so I’ll try to put those up shortly. (Disclaimer: In Alicia-language, ‘shortly’ may indeed be a matter of weeks >.> )

I’m also rather glad that there isn’t a video of my performance because I definitely started crying towards the end ^^;; The lyrics were all like ‘I never really appreciated the kindness of my mother and now we’re apart and I wasn’t honest with her’ or something along those lines and I was just like ‘I miss my mommy *fail*’… so yeah, probably better this is not immortalized on film.

Hostmom also sang a Japanese folk song and she did a really great job. I wish I had actually thought to, you know, film her >.< I do have a brain, really I do.

Nothing particularly interesting happened yesterday, other than a comment from my host mom that relates to the title of this entry. Yesterday, out of the blue, she said to me: ‘Starting tomorrow (Oct. 1st) everyone will be wearing long sleeves.’ I was just like ‘o.O what?’ Apparently, October 1st is the beginning of fall in Japan and everyone (particularly high school students) starts wearing long sleeves… even if it’s still 70 degrees out. The word for it is 衣替え (koromo-gae) and literally it means ‘clothing change’ but it’s the term for the changing of clothes with the season. So apparently June 1st marks the beginning of summer and summer apparel and October 1st is when fall is ushered in. Since I’m a foreigner I’m ‘exempt’ but my Japanese youth will dress according to this.

I found this very interesting, since in America you wear pretty much whatever you’re comfortable in, irregardless of the beginning of one season or another. But this way of thinking makes sense for Japan. Ever heard the expression ‘the nail that sticks up gets hammered down’ ? That’s Japan. Everyone is ‘issho’ (together).

As for what actually happened today, I had language class and writing class as usual, so there wasn’t really anything exciting there. For lunch, I finally tried ‘Craig’s’ which is a little express cafe on campus. I’ll have to take a picture of it as I am amazed how they fit three or four people in there plus all the food and drink they need to sell to customers. It’s really small. I had an onion bagel with tuna, cream cheese, and lettuce. It was reaaaally tasty. Also of note, the brownies at Craig’s are addictive. They are probably the best brownies I’ve had in my life. They have actual chocolate chunks in them and seem almost like fudge, they’re that moist. I rather suspect they’re hand made. I haven’t gotten one with ice cream but I’ve gotten just a brownie like… five times now XD It’s all Julie fault for introducing them to me! *shakes fist* I think the ‘lose weigh in Japan’ is slowly but surely going down the toilet ^^;;;

Also of note is that today was Nanzan’s Study Abroad Fair. I went and represented UNC but no one really talked to me. UNC requries crazy high English proficiency scores, so I think that’s part of it… no one could go even if they really wanted to, most likely. I talked to three girls who were Spanish majors and wanted to study in California but no one from California was present so they chatted with me. Also, a girl who wanted to go to Australia talked to me because no one from Australia was present either. The last person I talked to was actually male *shocked gasp* I know, right? There really weren’t many guys there. But he was really sweet and spoke in -masu form the entire time (polite verb form). He’s magoring in Administration so I told him how Kenan-Flagler was famous and such *nods* It was pretty fun. I do wish that someone had actually wanted to come to UNC though *pouts*

On yet another note, okaasan and I are going to perform at a little cafe where amateur performers can get up and show their stuff every first Saturday of the month. We went at the beginning of September and it was so fun to watch and listen that we found ourselves wanting to perform as well. Okaasan has a friend who plays guitar and he said he’d provide instrumental backup, so we each found a song we want to sing and we’re going to do it this Saturday evening So yes, earlier tonight we spent about 2 hours practicing, which I’m very glad for since I need it!

Ja, sore de owari (On that note I shall end this thing)

Bai bai!

~ Alicia.

We did dinner at 8pm Friday night and it lasted quite a while, probably near an hour. There were many different dishes and I put pictures of them in the ‘Food’ set of my Flickr page.It was nice to finally talk a bit with host dad and to actually meet my host sister, Reina. The family was very cute together but I couldn’t help feeling a bit like I was intruding. Reina is actually staying with us until mid this week because she’s on vacation from work so hopefully I’ll get closer to her before she heads back to Seto.

After that, it was time for onsen. For those that don’t know, onsen is Japanese for hot springs. In many cases, however, the word is used for bathing facilities at hotels and places near actual onsen. What it boils down to (no pun intended) is a combination of public bath and hot tub, minus the swimsuits.Onsen are gender divided and nudity isn’t a big deal here. It’s actually quite neat. I tried to tell myself to just go with it, but I couldn’t quite get over the voice in my head that was going ‘you’re surrounded by a bunch of naked Japanese ladies and you are naked too.’  I can now say I have seen both my host sister and host mom stark naked. And they weren’t at all bothered by being with each other completely naked either. They were totally cuddled up together in the water and at one point Reina gave host mom a foot massage. As much as I love my mom, I can’t see us ever being completely cool with being put in the same situation. I must say that I rather wish I was that comfortable without clothes around others. It’s rather amazing how certain facets of societal thought become so ingrained in us. I thought I’d be fine with it but I was distinctly aware of my and everyone else’s lack of clothes both times we used them (Friday evening, Saturday morning). I think with time I’d get more comfortable but I don’t think I’ll ever get to the same level of comfort as the Japanese women.

Saturday morning, after breakfast we did another onsen visit and then hit the road to head back. I slept some both ways so I’m not really sure how long the trip is, but I’d guesstimate around 2 or 2 1/2 hours. We made a stop, though, at a mall/supermarket for lunch and to see some amateur performers doing a mini-concert.

The first two groups were units (two people). The first, called Yamayuri, was a young man and woman. I really wish I’d taken pictures or video ’cause their style was really unique. The guy does vocals and guitar and the girl does backup vocals, percussion, and keyboard. The second duo was called ‘the veridian clover’ and they had a distinctly more professional feel than the other two groups. This was also a young man and woman, except this time the woman had the main vocal parts, whereas her male counterpart played guitar and provided backup vocals. The final group is actually comprised of four young men but only two performed the songs that day. They did acoustic versions which, after buying the three song CD, I’ve decided I much preferred over their normal sound. The surprising part was that all four songs they sang were completely in English but I only understood maybe 40% of what they were saying because their accents were so strong. Overall, it was really nice and I bought each group’s CD  ^^;; I feel slightly better in that I only spent about $15 for the three together.

We got back about 6:30pm and I spent a good chunk of the night working on gathering pictures from like.. four different memory cards and trying to catch up on this blog. I also called home and talked to mom, dad, and Yaya for nearly three hours, which was really nice. For anyone planning to study here, I’d strong recommend buying a simple plastic computer mic either online or at some local store and using Skype to call home. If you family also has a Skype account and a mic you can talk for free. If, however, your parents don’t have a mic or there computer won’t cooperate with Skype (this is the case with mine), you can get virtually unlimited minutes (10,000) to one country for about $7 a month. If you need to contact people in more than one country or you don’t think you’ll be talking for that many minutes, you can buy Skype credit in $10 increments and use it to call any country you want. The rate varies from country to country and for the US it’s $0.021 a minute, which equates to about 476 minutes of talking time. I tend to spend about two hours conversing, since we only talk once a week, and that would put me at at least 480 minutes a month. So for me, paying $7 a month is the way to go, as it’s cheaper and I can call other relatives and friends as well. It’s really pretty amazing. I highly recommend internet calling since calling to or from a phone in Japan is extremely expensive.

As for today, I’ve just been chilling out and catching up on these blog entries and uploading/tagging my pics on Flickr. I think I’ve finally caught up, so yay! Tomorrow I have a vocab test for lesson three but I’m prepared. I actually know most of the words already, so yay. I also have calligraphy tomorrow and I’m going to try not to apply as much pressure with my brush this time!

Well, that’s it for now and I will do my best to keep up with this from now on! Ganbarimasu! <3

~ Alicia

On Sunday the 21st, I went with some Japanese Nanzan students and other exchange students to Nagoya castle and the Tokugawa art museum. The castle was a complete re-creation as the castle was burned down from US bombings in 1945, so I actually wasn’t as excited about it as I thought I would be. A voice in my head kept reminding me none of the stuff there was actually old at all and it felt far too touristy for my liking. The museum had lots of old texts that were entirely in Chinese so we were all like ‘o.O what does that say?’ and the Japanese students were like ‘hey, no worries, we can’t read most of that either’ and then we felt a bit better XD All in all, it was a lot of fun, although a lot of us were just like ‘okay, I’ve seen the castle, I’ve seen the museum.. can we go to karaoke now?’ pretty quickly.

The karaoke place was really nice and it was tabehoudai, nomihoudai (all you can eat and drink) plus ice cream. So we sang for three hours and ate like five or six pizzas (Japanese size mind you, so they weren’t really that big), at lots of ice cream, and had a few glasses of juice and it was only about $15 a person. That’s crazy cheap when you consider it would probably cost around $10 for one pizza, let alone the fact that we’re using their AC and electricity in the karoake room.

On Wednesday the 17th, Julie, Meredith, and I went to open our bank accounts with Nagoya Ginkou (Nagoya Bank). This was an adventure but we did it sucessfully. Now I just have to wait until the second week of October and Nanzan should deposit the first installment of my scholarship money.

On Friday the 19th, we had a loooooot of rain because a typhoon was moving up from Kyushu towards Nagoya. One of my watches broke but it’s not that big of a deal as it was only like $8. But, I feel I should place a warning of those of you planning to come to Japan for study/work/the rest of your life:

Japan will break things.

My watch broke today and a few days back my shiny silver sandals broke as well when the side straps pulled clear out from underneath the sole of the shoe. Something about the humidity seems to destroy adhesive used in products not from Japan.

Alright, so this may be a bit of an exaggeration, but the humidity really is an issue here and you may discover new complications with clothes/accessories/appliances. I’ve found my laptop runs hotter in japan and that the voltage difference seems to lessen my battery life. Just a heads up, some things you bring from home may be different once you’re here and especially by the time you go back home.

On Saturday the 13th, I went to a festival in Seto with okaasan and her friend Chizuko Hashiba, plus the Swedish woman named Ase who’s staying with Chizuko for about a month. Her name is pronounced ‘oh-say’, by the way ^_^.  There were sooo many handmade pieces (pottery/cups/plates/bowls etc.) and they were all gorgeous. I’m really in awe of the people who make them. And since it was a festival, there was also lots of tasty food for sale. I really enjoyed the whole festival atmosphere, all the little tents, lots of very excited children, the mini-parade that happened *nods*

I ended up buying a gift (still not quite sure whom for..so I won’t talk about it here) and a somewhat small black bag because it was only 10 dollars and it was very cute! ^^;;;

On the 14th there was a festival here in Nisshin, ‘Nisshin Yume Matsuri’ (Nisshin Dream Festival). We went at around 5pm but everything started at 2-ish. When we got there, we stopped by a stall that was owned by friends of okaasan’s where they were selling handmade, wooden toys. They were absolutely amazing. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of some of the husband’s work.

By 6pm, Chizuko and Ase joined us as well. There were also lots of dance performances going on and we watched them for quite a while. I forgot to ask okaasan about this, so I’m not 100% sure, but I got the feeling the dance groups were from local schools. Some of them were comprised of members that seemed about the same age, but others definitely had young children, somewhat older (I’m guessing middle school aged) children, and high school students all together. A few actually had adults as well but I’m pretty sure this was more to help the very young children remember what motions they were supposed to be doing than anything else! ^^ And afterwards, we were just sitting and chatting a bit and one of the dance groups was near us and okaasan was like ‘can she (me) take a picture with you?’   I’m just like ‘…  o.O ‘ and next thing I know, I’m posing with the dancers and an American friend of Chizuko’s.

The festival ended with area businesses giving awards to various dance groups and a big ‘all the groups dance together on stage’ finale. I must say that these couple days of festivities may very well be my favorite part of Japan thus far. It was quite an experience! ^_^

So, Wednesday September 10th was the first day of classes.  Though they originally placed me in 500, they decided it would be better if I did 400 because my kanji writing ability is so low it’s pretty much underground. Also, I suck at the ‘write the correct particle in the blank’ section of Japanese tests… I don’t know why. So, I’m now in that level. I do fear it will be very easy though.

I also had Japanese Writing III. We had a little test of sorts (I think it was just to see what we can write) and then we had to write a short sakubun (composition) in 10 minutes. It wasn’t that hard but I write slowly and need to work on that.

The exciting part of today was that I went with Julie to Sakae and we bought cellphones. Mine is very blue and shiny! *nods*

Afterwards, we ate at a nice restaurant called Park Cafe. I got a creamy tuna pasta dish that was really yummy. For some reason, I didn’t actually take a picture of my food but I have a couple pictures of fun English from the menu and the sign outside the cafe, so check my Flickr Engrish photo set for that.

September 11th, 2008

All I had today was language class. Nothing really eventful because it was basically general class information and orientation type stuff.

September 12th, 2008

I had language class again and then I had ‘Japanese Culture.’ The teacher for this course is fantastic! And by fantastic, I mean she is lively and possibly a bit crazy. She also goes off on tangents and asks for class input on many things, which leads to more tangents. This may end up my favorite class XD

Today we finally got to register for classes! The only problem is that I want to take like…everything XD Buuut that’s impossible. I can take a maximum of 18 credit hours. As of now, I’m planning to take, of course, Japanese Language, and then Writing III, Japanese Culture, Calligraphy, and Japanese Literature III.

Writing III This is a course that’s meant to help students improve their writing skills. We’ll review kanji, write paragraphs and short essays using previously learned grammar patterns to further reinforce and understand their usage, and we’ll learn about kanji ‘stuff’ (radicals, affixes, development of kana from kanji, kanji with the same on-readings, and such).

Japanese Culture This class sounds pretty darn amazing. We’re going to discuss/learn about the relationships between language and culture/society. We’ll look at women’s language, sexism in the Japanese language, universality of politeness in the Japanese language, etc. I think it will be both very interesting and also beneificial to language learning.

Japanese Literature III  This class looks at a couple of works by Haruki Murakami and also at The Great Gatsby in both their respective native languages and in their English/Japanese translation. One of the main goals is to better understand the narrative techniques & such used by the translators and their reasoning behind these choices.

We also had our scholarship orientation today. That part was nice in the ‘I’ll get some money in the near future’ kind of way.

Calligraphy  This will probably end up being my easiest course in that there won:t be outside of class work. I’m very excited about growing better at balancing my kanji!

September 9th, 2008

Today we just purchased text books and got keys for lockers to store art supplies from arts classes.

Actually getting to head home at a pretty early hour was very nice.

I just realized I should probably put a slight disclaimer here. Since there’s a lot happening everyday right now, I’ll probably talk about each day in some length. But later, when things get busier and there aren’t so many “new” things because I’ve adjusted more, I may not post as often. For now though, there should be lots of information here.

The first day of orientation was Wednesday, September 3rd. It was very busy but also really fun. Well, perhaps I should rephrase that. After I got the placement test, realized it wasn’t really that bad, and started working on it, all was well. There was a listening part, and then a five part grammar and comprehension portion. The test was, of course, entirely in Japanese.

After that we had the entrance ceremony which was very nicely done. All of the CJS (Center for Japanese Studies) staff introduced themselves and the dean of the school made a somewhat long but very nice speech. It’s in both English and Japanese. You can check it out here if you’d like:

http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/cie/news/pdf/08F_CJS_entrance_ceremony.pdf

This day also marks my first experience with the university’s cafeteria. The food is actually surprisingly good and cheap (at least, as far as Japan goes). I got a ‘RANCHI SETTO (Lunch Set)’ that had a big bowl of ramen, a small dish of マーボなす丼　(MAABO nasu donburi), and a little bowl of fruit in syrup for dessert.

The MAABO nasu donburi looks somewhat like the dish here, minus the green peppers and placed on top of rice: http://www.yamasa.com/mama/recipe/details/n47lfn000000ny7t.html  It’s basically eggplant, pork, onions, garlic, sesame oil, cooking oil (perhaps vegetable?) and some other stuff. It was amazingly tasty despite that picture making it look rather unappetizing. I also drank a couple glasses of water. It was all very yummy and it only cost about 400 yen (or US $4). I will try to take pictures of my school lunch in the future.

After that, we got packets of information and then proceeded with a campus tour. It didn’t really help me that much but our tour guide was really pretty, so that was nice. And he was very tall (at least by Japanese standards). He had to have been 6 foot. I’m also very easily distracted, so I was looking at lots of different things and not remembering where the buildings are ＾＾;;

Once that was done, there was a very nice welcome party for us. I got to meet three 2nd year Japanese Nanzan students and I met Daisy Montessa, who works with CJS and helped me when I was having some trouble with the wire transfer of the security deposit and room/board cost. She’s very friendly and I really like her personality; she has a very positive outlook on life. After that I just headed home because I was very tired. Host mom and I went to the station later that evening and I bought my 3 month commuter pass. One of the advantages of being a student is that you get a significant discount.

September 4th, 2008

Today we learned the results of the placement test. I got into IJ500 which is like.. upper intermediate->low advanced level, I believe. We will, however, have two more tests. One will be on the first day of classes (Septemeber 10th) and the second will be the next week. I’m not sure which day is which test, but basicall one test will be on the materials we should already be familiar with for our respective levels (in my case, IJ 500) and the other test will be on what will be covered during the course of the semester. So, if we do really well on both, we move up a level because we already know the material for our current placed level. If we do well on the older material but not the upcoming, we are correctly placed and won’t move. And there’s also a possibility of dropping a level if you don’t do well on the test for material you should already know.

We also had Student Life Orientation, Housing Orientation, and Ordering of Inkan/How to Open a Bank Account Orientations. None of them were particularly thrilling, so I won’t say much on them here. The inkan (name seal) part was kind of fun. I got to choose kanji (Chinese characters) with sounds similar to my name to be my signature. My name in Japanese is ARIISHA (ah-ree-shuh) and I chose 亜理沙 which is made up of the initial Ah sound ( 亜 ) from AJIA (Asia) and carries an idea of asia with it (I think),  ’ri’ ( 理 ) which means ‘truth, justice, reason’ and ‘sa’ ( 沙 ) which means sand. These kanji are generally pronounced as the name ‘Arisa’ but it’s close enough. And I could always politely correct the pronunciation, if I wanted to. The interesting thing about the whole inkan thing is the reason why you need one. In Japan, you don’t sign with a pen, you use a stamp of your name. So, in order to sign official documents, like those you’d encounted when trying to open a bank account, you must have an inkan.

September 5th, 2008

This morning we went and got my health insurance card and certificate showing I’ve done my alien registration. Once I get the actual card and my inkan, I can go open my bank account. We get our inkans on September 11th and I think I get my alien registration card about the same time.

We had library and internet orientation/email set-up, but really it just felt like we were being babied. I could have figured out the email bit in about 5 minutes on my own versus spending an hour going over it. That was really the only negative part; the feeling you aren’t being taken seriously because you’re foreign students.

Once we made it through the orientations, I had lunch with Julie and Andrew. I think my favorite part of the day was us being complete dorks while eating our food outside the conbini (convenience store).After we finished lunch, we went to Osu Kannon. We saw some of the Osu Kannon shrine. You can see a pic here http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E9%A0%88%E8%A6%B3%E9%9F%B3  Unfortunately, Wikipedia doesn’t have that article in English. I would have taken my own pics, but it was rather dark when we got there, so I doubt the lighting would have proven bright enough.

We started getting hungry again and ate at a small izakaya (a pub, I guess you could call it). We each orderd something different and split the food up amongst ourselves. I orderd shuumai (steamed dumplings with meat and vegetables; I think this time was pork) and potato salad, Julie got yasai itame (stir-fried veggies), and Alex got yakisoba (a noodle dish) and beer. It was all really tasty, especially the yasai itame and potato salad.

We headed home around 8:30 and I probably got home around 9:40. I showered and nearly immediately passed out! I think the time difference and not-enough-sleep finally caught up to me!

September 6th, 2008 (Saturday)

Today was a somewhat free day. I tried to get together with Julie but she couldn’t come over because she had to run some errands with her okaasan that day. My okaasan ended up taking me around the area a bit. We got soft cream, which issort of like soft serve in that it’s very light and melty, but it’s actually real ice cream I believe. I’m sure it’s absolutely horrible for you but it tastes fantastic. We both got matcha (green tea) flavor ^_^ After that, we went and saw a small castle called Iwasakijou (Iwasaki Castle).

We then returned home and okaasan made okonomiyaki. It’s kind of like a giant vegetable and meat pancake. It doesn’t sound very appetizing I suppose but it tastes amazing! I love it ^_^ I know Wikipedia isn’t exactly the most academic of sources, but it’s very useful for things like this. Take a look and learn ne! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki

During dinner, apparently Papa’s television set broke and okaasan was very amused XD She’s like ‘he always watches TV! Television is his life!’ and then the picture went out and she had much fun chuckling at his pain *snorts* He was comparing prices online and then next thing we knew he was heading back to his room with the TV from the patio XD

Once we’d finished eating, we went to a little cafe called Tsubakikan　（椿館）. Apprently, on the first Saturday of each month they have a sort of ‘western style’ karaoke night. Amateur musicians play folk songs and sing. It had really great atmosphere and some of the singers were incredibly talented! We want to got back next month and, if we can find someone to accompany on guitar, each sing a song or two.

September 7th, 2008 (Sunday)

Today, there was a festival okaasan’s daughter’s high school. Apparently it doesn’t matter that Reina is now a college senior, it is still perfectly fine to go to the festival. Of course, the reason may be because it’s basically a school fundraiser. I really like this way of raising money for the school. Rather than handing students catalogues and sending them from house to house like we do in America, Japanese high schools have a ‘festival’ and sell things the students have made or things that are brand new but not needed/not being used by students’ families for very low prices. Even though most items are very cheap, there are some more expensive items (like parasols that cost about $20). Also, even though one might think the school won’t make that much money with such inexpensive items, it’s rather amazing how much people will spend when things are ‘cheap.’ Okaasan spent nearly $100 there. And since all of the earnings go to the school, it seems better than magazine-sale-fundraisers in the States where the school only gets a percentage of the sales.

Also of note is this year’s theme, which is 一つのpieceがpeaceをつくる. There’s a whole page written about this theme in the pamphlet they gave out but I’m trying to think how to explain it in English……The jist of it is, everyone has different thoughts on what peace is. But, if we take these ‘pieces,’ all these different thoughts and feelings, and connect them, we can create ‘peace.’ I thought it was a very nice choice and the English doesn’t quite do the Japanese word choice justice…

After the festival, we went to lunch and had ‘Ebi donburi’ (a big bowl of rice with fried shrimp), misojiru (miso soup), tsukemono (pickled vegetables, in this case cucumber), and green beans with sesame seasoning. I once again really wish I had thought to take a picture of it.

After lunch, we went to many small shops around there. There’s a cat festival coming up, so there were many stores with cute cat figurines. I bought a really cute phone charm that I will take a picture of and put up soon.

We then proceeded to go do karaoke for an hour. It was really fun but also amusing in that hostmom only sang old, kind of folksy Japanese music and I was singing Jpop from within the last 10 years. I also sang a couple of English songs but she was like ‘Are you sure you’re a foreigner? You did better at the Japanese songs than the English!’  >.<

I’ve also discovered that while I prefer to do one or two things in a day and spend a good deal of time on each activity, okaasan is not like that. She seems to like to going to many different places but not really spending much time on any particular activity. But oh well. It’s a new experience. If it gets to where it really bothers me later, maybe I’ll bring it up. At this point, it’s really not worth any potential drama ^^

I will edit this post soon and add pics, tags, and maybe a bit more! Ja ne!

<3 Alicia

That first night, I ate reimen (cold ramen) that we got from a conbini (convinience store) because I was a little hungry and it was very good. I also highly recommend cream puffs!! I’m sure they’re horrible for you but they’re so delicious XD

Earlier today (Sep. 2nd) okaasan and I went to a restaurant called Cannery Alley (I think they were going for canary but got the spelling a little off ^^;; ) and it was also really tasty. We split a pizza that had pepperoni, bacon, garlic, shrimp, and green peppers on it. You might think that a rather odd combination but I promise it’s yummy. We also split a seafood spaghetti that was good. And then okaasan is like ‘you have to eat dessert!’ and while I love dessert, I was rather full at this point so I thought I would decline, but she looked to enthusiastic about me eating it that I had to say yes. And it was soooo worth it XD You get to choose three different things!  Of course, the amount of each is small, sort of like a dessert sampler, but it was all amazingly good! I had a little piece of a blueberry cake,a little bit of grapefruit jelly, and a little bit of raspberry sherbet.  I realize ‘grapefruit jelly’ doesn’t make much sense in english… but it was little pieces of grapefruit with a rather sour somewhat jelly-textured-grapefruit…thing. I promise I’m literate, but I really don’t know how to explain! Now I really wish I’d taken a picture!! >.<

After lunch we went and shopped for breakfast. This trip only furthered my understanding of how expensive everything in Japan is. I was, however, surprised to learn that Japanese meat is nearly always more expensive then imported meat. 150g of beef from Australia was ~550 yen (about US  $5) but the same amount of Japanese beef was about 1,100 yen (a bit over $10). I knew Japanese beef was expensive, but even chicken from within the country is more expensive than the imported stuff. This really boggles my mind because I generally think of imported goods in Japan as being more expensive… and, of course, everyone buying imported foods doesn’t help Japan’s economy. It’s not a particularly good situation, ne?

Despite the abundant expensiveness, we finished are shopping and returned home to relax for about an hour before doing dinner. We ate some of the chicken we bought earlier, along with tsukemono (pickled vegetable; in this case, I think it might have been eggplant but I really don[‘t know… the vegetable didn’t look familiar), an egg stir-fry like dish, rice, fried tofu (age-doufu), and ocha (green tea). After dinner we both studied. I stared at kanji while she worked on her English school homework but very quickly, perhaps 10 minutes later, I started explaining some of the parts in English that she didn’t understand in Japanese and after she finished her assignment she started quizzing me on my kanji. After that, I helped her make three sentences about my arrival that she wanted to share with her English teacher. I think it was good practice for both of us! ^^

And on that note, if you’re reading this and are thinking of coming to Japan, you’ll probably find that a lot of people want to practice English with you. Okaasan really wants to become fluent, so I help her with her studies. I think a lot of exchange students don’t want to speak English with their host families because they want to learn Japanese. They think ‘Japanese only’ is the way to go. However, I would argue that by helping your host family with English, not only are you being kind and giving back just a little for all of the things they’re doing for you, but you also learn more that way. When a Japanese word that I don’t know comes up in conversation or I see kanji I can’t read, I’ll ask okaasan. She’ll explain it in Japanese (and hopefully I understand!) and then I’ll tell her the English word/expression when I know it. That not only helps her by hearing the English word and it’s pronunciation by a native speaker, it also helps to reinforce my understanding. Or at least, that’s the way I look at it. Honestly, I don’t help her with English because I want to reinforce things for myself, I do it because she deserves the chance to practice. I got the impression from her when we talked a bit about it that a lot of exchange students don’t want to speak English. She said she’s provided housing for exchange students for nearly 20 years now but she still can barely speak any English and that’s because so many students just don’t hear her when she tries to speak English with them.  Or rather, they act like they don’t hear, or perhaps just don’t care, I’m not sure which. But it made me wonder if they realize how much time and effort it takes on the part of the Japanese family (or whatever nationality of family you stay with when studying abroad) to do homestay. It takes time and energy of both kinds; energy from the body and the cost of electricity/water/fuel.  I figure the least I can do is help her become better at English. It makes her happy and that makes me happy.

And now I feel like I’ve just lectured a child who’s been naughty or something. I don’t mean to say ‘oh, not speaking English with your host family is horrible! I do speak English with them, so I’m better!’ … which is how I fear this may come across. I just want to encourage others who study abroad to want to share that joy of language learning with their host families. It always feels great when you can suddenly read new kanji or understand some new grammar structure, right? If your families want to experience that too, give them the chance, ne? I promise there’s plenty of time yet to learn Japanese!

Well, since I have a language placement test tomorrow, I am now going to get some sleep. I have to get up in about 5 hours o.O Tomorrow will be a loooong day but I really wanted to get this all written down before I forgot anything else!

Love from Japan,

Alicia <3