I went to the Sentou Palace and the Shugaku-in Imperial Villa in Kyoto, which was an incredible experience. Even with what I knew before about Japanese culture, I still would think of a castle and imagine grandeur and tall towers. This is completely the opposite. It's strange to see how simple the castles here are. I walked in and was astounded by how small the actual Sentou Palace (palace for retired emperors) was, and yet how large the garden was. Once we entered the garden, we first saw a tea-house surrounded by momiji facing a very large pond.
05/17/2007
Kyoto Imperial Palace and Villa
04/28/2007
Why I love Hikone: Ramen Shack and YAB
As much as I love traveling around Japan, I'm always just a little bit homesick for Hikone. On short weekend trips I'm normally okay, but at the end of my week-long trip to Tokyo I was more than ready to come back home. Until recently I thought that perhaps this was just because my friends were here, but now that many of them have returned to America, I think a bit differently.
Tonight I went with Hannah, Shaye, Yoshi, Miki, and Ami to the Ramen Shack. I'm not entirely sure if that's its name, or if the place even has a name, but it's a small ramen restaurant in a storage-trailer sort of thing. It's right in front of the owner's house, which is very large for a Japanese home. Ueda-san (the owner) does things with film, and I think his ramen business is more of a hobby than a job. We asked him about it and he said it was his business, but I think it's the type of business where he's well enough off that he chose to do that and really enjoys it.
Nevertheless, I really enjoy myself each time we go there. Ueda-san makes just amazing ramen and is pretty funny, though it's difficult for me to understand him. The first time I met him, he introduced himself as "Mr. スケベ” which is almost like saying "Mr. Dirty Old Man" or something fairly similar. If we talk to him a lot, or in my case, attempt to talk to him a lot, he often will give us free drinks. He mixes them himself, normally starting out with sake, making really unique drinks. He manages to get many of the students at JCMU who rarely drink quite piss-drunk, and once offered to drive Katie P home because she was so drunk. Jason turned him down because he had other customers, but it was a very nice gesture.
Tonight's visit wasn't all that much different from the others (though I got gyoza instead of karage and I went with different people) but that makes it that much more enjoyable. I know what to expect, and I can relax. Tonight he kept asking Miki if she had a boyfriend, and when she replied with a "no," Yoshi would tell Ueda-san (who is an older man) that this was his chance. When he's finished making the ramen, Ueda-san always plays guitar for us. I'm pretty sure he plays enka, which is Japanese folk music. I always leave there warm, happy, and satisfied. There's really nothing better than a good meal and good music, and I doubt I could find a tiny, 9-seat ramen shack in any big city.
After the Ramen Shack, I went with Hannah, Shaye, and Aya-chan to YAB, the sports bar I've been to quite a few times. The first thing that happened when I arrived was Yab-san handed me a magazine. Looking at it, I realized that it was Konki Klub, and it was open to a page with my picture on it. I, along with a few other JCMU students (including Shaye), wrote about why we loved Hikone and it was printed in the magazine with our picture.
I hadn't been to YAB in a while, so I was surprised he recognized me, and after that, whenever anyone new would come in he would tell the customer that Shaye and I were famous, and show them the magazine. Aya, Shaye, a friend of Aya's whose name I forget, and I stayed late at the bar telling stories and talking about different English phrases, which YAB likes to try out on us each time JCMU students or other English-speakers come in. The drinks might be a little bit more expensive than they were at Sound Bar, but I really enjoy it.
Lastly, there's Biwako. It's not quite the same as the last two reasons, but I loved seeing Lake Biwa every day from the window of my classroom.
03/10/2007
An Exchange between myself and Hannah
Hannah: I could be the Anti-Christ.
Me: Hey, if you're the Anti-Christ, you're supposed to tell me. We're friends right?
Hannah: I'm sorry hunny, the Anti-Christ don't have friends.
03/05/2007
01/19/2007
01/08/2007
Day 6 - Food and Discoveries
This is my 6th day here.
Food
Until today my experiments with food haven't been superb. I ate a kariimon (dumpling-type thing with curry inside - good but not filling and more of a snack) and Cup Noodles my first night, I ate out at CoCos for lunch my second afternoon and dinner was pizza done with a group. It was delicious, but it was almost like having someone else cook for me. Lunch my third night was my leftovers from CoCos and the udon I ate my that night was disgusting (I disliked the sauce/seasoning stuff on it). On Sunday I slept the entire day (recovering from Osaka - you'll read about that in my next entry) so I didn't eat other than McDonald's breakfast that morning, and Monday I had Cup Noodles and some fried gyoza (like pot-stickers), but the gyoza was burnt since I didn't have any cooking oil. Then I got fed up that night and ate Macaroni and Cheese (which my parents had sent me from home).
So needless to say, I felt like a bit of a failure at this entire "living and cooking on my own" thing. I swore to myself that I wouldn't become the kind of person who ate ramen for four months, or like Paul did in Belgium, bologna and lemon-mayonnaise sandwiches.
So today I decided to experiment (and I had a bit more food in the apartment from my trip to the grocery store yesterday). I threw three gyoza, a package of udon, and some broccoli into the frying pan and added some oregano, soy sauce, and some kind of oil on it. The oil is used for making sushi-rice but also can be mixed with soy sauce to top things. It was DELICIOUS.
I have no clue what I'm going to do for dinner, but I'm not daunted. I've got some potatoes and eggs and more gyoza and udon and soba and some cheese sauce and bread, so I have some options. We'll have to see!
Random Discoveries
- Outlets here aren't grounded. Everything has only two prongs
- Outlets also have less power, which means that the fridge and freezer is a little warmer always, dryers don't get as warm, and hair-dryers are a little cooler too.
- Lake Biwa is beautiful. Sure being next to it makes everything a bit cooler, but it's worth it.
- I need to study some of my kanji and vocab from first year - I've apparently forgotten more of it than I realized.
- Spending three hours speaking absolutely no English isn't as hard as I would have thought.
- They don't heat classrooms - or at least not here.
- Jello is not common, but I think I found something similar.
- There is a manual control for water heater - it can be turned on in either the kitchen or the bathroom, but only one at a time.
- Waking up at 8am isn't as hard as I thought.
- People wear face-masks when they are sick. It's not uncommon.
- Cold medicine that makes you drowsy is apparently illegal here. Meaning, no NyQuil, Robotussin, etc.
- They like the scent of grapefruit, which is good because I do to, but I've never seen so many things grapefruit scented before in my life.
- The flusher to the toilet moves in two directions and has arrows, pointing to two symbols - the symbol for "Big" and the symbol for "Small."
01/07/2007
Introduction
So I'm in Japan now, the land of karaoke, electronics, and a whole lot of weird food. Gas stations are gas stations and convenience stores are convenience stores - they're never combined, everyone separates their garbage for recycling, bikes have lights on the front tires that run on the power you make while cycling, most public restrooms don't have hand soap or toilet paper, and people wear face masks in public when they're sick.
I'm not going to say much about the plane ride other than that it was long, but I will say that three of the most beautiful things I've ever seen were on that trip. One was the full moon over Lake Michigan while approaching Chicago, another was flying over Alaska, and the third was Mt. Fuji from the airplane.
Arrival
I
travelled from the airport with three guys who also flew into Nagoya.
We had the option of waiting another hour for a third plane to get in
and then travel with Karen (from JCMU), or to make our way to Hikone
ourselves, and so the four of us opted to have an adventure and do it
ourselves rather than wait. It really wasn't hard, since Karen gave us
specific instructions, and I'm glad we did because besides arriving
earlier, I got to sit behind this really adorable Japanese toddler on
the train who kept calling his mother "old lady" and she kept getting
mad. He also kept staring at us because we were gaijin (foreigners).
We arrived at the Residence Hall of the "Mishigan Sentaa" (or the Japan Center for Michigan Universities - JCMU) to find a whole bunch of drunk people in the lobby. Apparently they were very excited for the arrival of the new people. :D I put my stuff in my room, talked to some more people in the lobby, then headed over to Lawsons (the convenience store) with Jason (a returner) to get something for dinner, which consisted of a "kariimon" or a curry-filled dough-ball thing. I also had some Cup Noodles with Jason, and while they were cooking I met Choi (Dan Choi, a returner), Hannah (a newb) and Travis (another newb), and Volker (a returner), and afterward we headed out to Sound Bar.
Mishigan Sentaa
The
Residence Hall is two floors and houses at least 60 people. We have 55
in the program right now and there are also a bunch of faculty living
here. The entire building is very cold and doesn't have central air,
though our individual rooms have air conditioners that are set to heat,
so I can heat up my room if I want. There's a main hall, a laundry
room, a weight room, a TV room (which sometimes has a Wii in it, since
two people here have them - one American and one Japanese), and a room
for drying clothes. Each residence room (for students - there are
singles for faculty) consists of a kitchen/main room/dining room, a
bathroom, a little entryway, and two bedrooms. My bedroom has a futon
(which looks like a bed but doesn't have a mattress, but instead it has
a hard board with a pad on top) which I really like though some people
don't, a desk, a bookshelf and some drawers and closet-cabinets built
into the wall. It's very simple but I really like it, and since I
don't have much stuff, it's very clean. From my window I can see Hikone
Castle in the distance and some other buildings, including "Hotel
Ride." Hotel Ride is a "love hotel," where there is a rate for "a nice
rest" which is three hours long, and also a nightly rate. We think
there's a swimming pool on the top, and a bunch of us want to pitch in
and rent a room just to see what it's like and to see if we're right
about the swimming pool.
There's also the Academic Building, which has classrooms on the second floor, all of the flags from the affiliated schools (such as all the public universities in Michigan etc), a main lounge, the office, our mailboxes, and a traditional tatami room. Once classes start, we won't be able to speak any English on the second floor or risk being yelled at. We took our placement test in the large conference room upstairs, and we had the oral part of it in the classrooms. I placed into level 2, which is what I expected.
Between the two buildings is the bike-sheds, where our bicycles are stored. They provide them for us to use, and helmets, though they are taken away from us if we're caught without a helmet three times. The bikes have only one speed, though they have a light on the front. The seats are hard and my behind is already sore from riding around on it a lot.
People
My roommate is Kristina from Eastern
Michigan. We get along well and we're friends, though I don't think
we'll be best friends, but that's because her best friend is here,
Kurtis from Eastern, who is also pretty cool and likes showtunes. At
some point we're going to watch High School Musical since I
haven't seen it yet. Kristina and I are both Ai Yazawa fans, and she
likes a lot of Korean bands (though none I've heard of) and music from
various countries, so I am excited to hear some of her music. She
doesn't eat beef jerky, but that just means there's more for me! (My
parents sent me some and I am going crazy over it.)
So far I've been hanging around with mostly guys, specifically Jason and his brother Chris from Northern, Dieter from State, Kevin from State, Biorn from Boston College, Choi from K College, and Pat from Texas. I've also met quite a few other people I'm looking forward to getting to know, including Lizzie and Danielle (who you'll read about in my next entry), Dana, Hannah and Travis, and Annette.
It's an interesting feeling, being here. It's like I'm thrown into a family, and it's a feeling not too different from how it was living on 3North, but more sudden. I guess it makes sense, as a group of gaijin in the middle of Japan and many of us being from the same state, we kinda have to.
Photos are forthcoming, once I download a driver for my parent's digital camera.
Next Entry: My first three nights in Japan, at Sound Bar, Paru Karaoke, and Club Pure in Osaka.
07/21/2006
Waiting
This used to be a post that said "test."
Now it is a post informing you that no, I did not just get this blog and forget about it. Well, that is a lie. I did get this blog and forget about it. However, I do have a purpose for it and will be using it.
Starting January 3rd, 2007, this blog will document my travels and adventures in Japan.
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