Monday, September 24, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Class orientation day
Japan means koi ponds! The fish are roughly 18 inches long. I really want to pick one up and squeeze it, but I might be deported for that.
Both the sun and the moon LOVE Kasuagai!Hey everyone-
Well, I think the touristy feeling is finally starting to wear off. Today I went to orientation for my Japanese classes, and tomorrow I have Japanese culture class. First, lets talk about yesterday.
Yesterday nothing much happened. There was a welcome party for us, but these old Japanese men gave speeches, and I couldn't really understand them. There was some food- fruit and little egg salad sandwiches, and Japanese drinks like tea and fruity orange drink. Everyone got dressed up nicely, but it was really hot, so that was kind of unpleasant. Almost everyone has taken to the power of Japanese fans because the Japanese don't use air conditioning like we do in America. I'd have to say the worst part of the party was when they had us stand in front of everyone and had us introduce ourselves. Imagine that feeling when you're speaking to a crowd and you forget what you're going to say plus literally not knowing any words TO say. Luckily, I didn't have to say anything too strenuous; it's not like I had to give a speech about how great it is to be in Japan and how this small act will boost foreign relations or anything, but it was still a nerve-racking situation nonetheless.
This is our group. Just FYI, the guy on the far right in the suit and pink tie is Chris, my roommate.
We're so cute! We didn't even plan to match, too!
Laura and Shizuko from Malaysia
Laura, Lisa (OU), and Grace from AustraliaAfter the welcome party, we returned to the dorm, and Laura and I watched some anime. After dinner, the guys decided to get dressed up and go out drinking with their friend Kazuya. Some of the girls were invited to go along, and I decided to go too. First, we went to Roco Roco, but they didn't have 19 seats. We then went to this place that had nomihodai. Nomihodai means "all-you-can-drink" (for 2 hours,) and it's only about $15.
Because the restaurant didn't want nomihodai-ers to pass drinks to non-nomihodai-ers, Laura, our friend Ryan, and myself had to sit on the other side of this cloth. The three of us got ice cream and french toast while everyone else got pretty drunk. When we left, we were joined by our friend Jen (who was not drunk.) When we returned to the dorm, we played euchre. Funny thing about euchre- Ryan is from Ohio, but it traveling half way around the world to learn it. It was pretty late by this time, so we decided to go to bed. My roommate came back from a separate party and tried to get me to watch the 300 at 2:00AM in the morning, but I was able to resist and get some sleep.Today
Breakfast, then class orientation. I'm in W3, the lowest level, but that's just fine for me because it was hard enough. It was also a little too easy too. There were two senseis who passed out the syllabi and class schedule and explained the classes. The first class they explained, Nihon-jijou I didn't quite understand so I felt really dumb, but I understood the aim of the rest of the classes. So here's my class schedule:
|
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
| 9:30-11:00 | Japanese Way Suzuki sensei | Vocabulary Asano sensei | Grammar Ikuta sensei | Reading Ueda sensei | (culture period) |
| 11:10-12:40 | Grammar Ikuta sensei | Reading Ueda sensei | (culture period) | Composition | Japanese Culture class Homma sensei |
| 1:30-3:00 | Speaking and Conversation Matsuoka sensei | Speaking and Conversation Matsuoka |
|
| (culture period) |
After orientation, we went to building 25 to find King sensei. See, every week we get 5,000 yen for lunch and stuff, but we have to pick it up from King sensei. He was still at the bank, and we were early, so we found Australian monopoly and started playing.
For lunch, I had these really good udon noodles with mild wasabi and green onions. The noodles were just the right texture- chewy, but not slimy; they were so awesome.
Here is a fountain outside our classroom building.Well, it's taken me a really long time to write this, so I'm going to end it here. My next post will be after I return from Hiroshima- get excited!
-Jonathan
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Blueberry danish of DOOM!
This guy says, "Let's lower our carbon emission! Dokoishou!"
Sunday
I got up at 8:00AM and decided I would do some laundry. I should post some pictures of these washers and dryers. They're pretty small, and everything is in Japanese, but the big red start button isn't hard to find. I did find out that I chose the wrong wash cycle- "zabu zabu" instead of standard. While I was washing two loads, I decided I would take a shower and cook some breakfast as the dining hall is closed on Sundays. It was going all right- I made some tofu with soy sauce and orange juice and some soba noodles. I had just finished making it when I decide to go back to my room and eat. I walk back to my room and discover my roommate has left. And he locked the door. And I didn't have my keys. I figure, "Ok, I can just go to the front desk, indicate that I can't get into my room, and have either of the Gohtos unlock it." However, due to forces I was not aware were in action at the time, the Gohtos were out. (Triumph for me-I said a complete sentence in Japanese to a stranger!) About this time, Laura returns with our friends Lisa and Sandra who had decided to go out to breakfast. Laura informs me that the bus we are taking to the train station which will take us to the subway which will take us to Nagoya Castle leaves in 7 minutes. I perry with a "I got locked out of my room and no Gohtos." She counters with a "get dressed using your clothes from the dryer and I'll pay for everything for you today." Touché. Quickly packing my breakfast into a tupperware from the kitchen, thanking the Japanese for their cultural idea of keeping shoes in lockers OUTSIDE of the dorm room, and sprinting to the bus stop, I hoped against hope that the bus hadn't left yet. It hadn't. We boarded, and on the ride to Jinryou station, Laura, Lisa, and Sandra explained what was causing our bad luck. It all started when Lisa accidently bought a blueberry danish.
Sandra tried to get something from the vending machine by pressing 1 and 5 instead of 15 twice. After that, she didn't see a couple steps and face planted, scraping her knee. Suddenly, getting locked out of my room made sense. It also started to rain on and off, and some of us forgot our umbrellas. Regardless of our bad luck that morning, we were determined to have fun at Nagoya Castle. 
When we arrived, it was raining on and off still-clearly the danish influence. That's when we spotted the cha-shi-tsu- the tea house. 
Thompson-sensei paid for all of us to have green tea in this tea house. 
First this woman in a full kimono served us kaori- bean paste and yam jelly with bean paste inside. The kaori leaves a sweet taste in the mouth to counter the bitter taste of the green tea.
Next, she served us the green tea. It is not called GREEN tea for nothing. The color of wheat grass juice and the taste of seaweed and, well, tea come to mind. A little bitter, but hey, the kanji for tea partially derived from the character for bitter.
Afterwards, we found salvation. Our host told us about this procedure for purifying the spirit. One takes the little dipper, fills it with water, and pours it over the bamboo lattice. One then puts one's ear to the large bamboo tube and listens to what sounds like a cross between a Jewish harp and a bell.
Really it's the sound of the water droplets. The ringing sounds purify the spirit. Needless to say, we were anxious to cleanse the bad luck from the blueberry danish. The first test of whether it worked or not- no one slipped on the stones in the garden. Yosh!
Although the green tea was cool, it wasn't filling, so we decided to head to the udon shop for a bite to eat. 
While the omnivores ate cold soba noodles in miso (plus fish) broth, I ate my breakfast, and Thompson-sensei explained the finer points of Japanese contextual based communication. For example- ikaga desu ka? means "what do you think about...?" and relies solely on the context. If a waitress were to say it, it would mean "would you like me to refill your glass/take your plate away/etc." If I were to say it after we all have finished a meal and were just sitting around, it would mean "are we ready to go?" If I were to say it to a waitress, waving my empty water glass, it would mean "what do you think about how awful you are at your job?" or "I hope you feel like a horrible person..." J/K. Full of filling food, we proceeded to climb the many floors of Nagoya Castle. 
The castle has been reconstructed from when it was bombed during WWII (btw, if Helen ever wants to watch a movie called A Grave for the Fireflies DO NOT let her. I just watched it; it's really really sad. Really.) Interesting story here: the Japanese had time to remove one of the giant golden shachihoko (ferocious golden dolphin) from the roof of the castle before it burnt down. However, the gold from the destroyed dolphin was melted down and made into a large teapot, in which water is boiled every Friday (Friday=Kinyoubi, kin=gold, get it?) for a tea ceremony. Well, anyway, we made it to the top of Nagoya-Jou and took some pictures of the city. 
It was getting pretty late, but first we had to go back to Sakae the mall to get more cell phones for those of us who weren't there on Saturday. We went to a different au cell phone store this time, and they were much more helpful, and, though they reminded those getting cell phones that they are marketed toward senior citizens because they are more "easy to use" (still 5 years ahead of US cell phones,) everything went through without a hitch. Yay for purifying water sounds! To top that, we found an ATM that will take American issued VISA cards. It was at that point that we decided to eat the danish. We ate at a french bakery for dinner (I had a melon cream muffin- SO GOOD,) and left for home.
Mr. Gohto had returned, so we gave him an omiyage we had picked up at Nagoya-Jou, and I had him unlock my room. Well, that's all for now. It's really late, I hope I can get up at 8:00AM.
-Jonathan
PS. Emily called me on skype today. If any of you want to talk to me and see me, look up giraffe1089.
Start here and go up...
Hey people-
What a crazy two days it has been! Woo, I am bushed. I was just about to go to sleep when I remembered I hadn't blogged in a long time. I've got some great pictures. Let's go back in time, shall we?
Saturday
Breakfast and then I returned to my room. I was messing around, playing HP games, waiting for the Chubu support group to come pick us up for the party they were throwing when I received a phone call. It was Mrs. Gohto. A little back story is necessary here; the dorm is watched over by a slightly elderly couple- the Gohtos. They are so cute, but they don't speak a word of English, so understanding them is a bit of a challenge for me at times. Well, there I was, in a one-on-one conversation with Mrs. Gohto. I got a little nervous, but, amazingly enough, I understand every word she said! She told me everyone was waiting for me outside; I didn't really know how to respond, so I just said yes, ok. Well, I rushed out of my room and down the hall and put on my shoes quickly, but luckily, our Japanese escorts hadn't arrived yet. They arrived a few minutes later and, because it was raining, we went into a cafeteria to party. There were some onigiri (rice balls) and weird, unholy cheetoh-dorito hybrid corn tubes, but they tasted like an American snack, so they weren't so unusual. We mingled with the Japanese students, most of whom spoke English to some degree of functionality, so we communicated in Japanengrish.
After the party wound down, we proceeded to our next item of business-getting cellphones. According to Greg King, our local connection, the au store in downtown Nagoya was sure to have the best deals. So we took the bus to the train station, took the train to the subway station,
and took the subway to Sakae- a MASSIVE department store.
Let me lay it out for you- 9 floors, 3 sub-basements, a bazillion restaurants, 50 times as many shops, a smattering of goths (sorry, no pictures of those, but I really wanted to,) and crazy fish smells. Pictured is the Crystal Hiruba- the Crystal Meeting Place. It's a pretty crazy glass fountain. Once we found our way out of the mall, we headed for the au and met the colonel on the way...
Unfortunately, at the au cellphone store another, less popular Japanese past time reared its ugly head- xenophobia. This experience was more annoying for me than anything, really. They waited forever to serve us, took a long time to serve us, made us wait to get our cellphones, and, although the prepaid cellphone people got theirs, the contact people were denied as they were only going to be in the country for 6-9 months. While some of that, I'm sure, is just the way the store operates, but there was a distinct feeling of unwelcome. It was just a gentle reminder of how the Japanese, while enchanted with western culture, feel cultural superior to it. That, of course, is a generalization; not all Japanese are hostile toward outsiders, but it's generally accepted that Japan as a whole is more exclusive to foreigners (denying them rights, discriminating, etc.) than the whole of the US. Well, enough gritty reality, let's get back to awesome reality! We had dinner at this awesome awesome awesome awesome authentic toufu restaurant. We even had to take off our shoes and everything.
Man, the food was good! That's toufu on skewers covered in red miso, rice with vegetables, the soy bean remains from soy milk, silken toufu, and this strange yam jelly that was really chewy, and miso soup (but that had clam shells in it, so I didn't eat it.) It was good, but it was a different taste than I'm used to. I was exhausted after such a long day, so as soon as I got back to the dorm, I went to bed.
What a crazy two days it has been! Woo, I am bushed. I was just about to go to sleep when I remembered I hadn't blogged in a long time. I've got some great pictures. Let's go back in time, shall we?
Saturday
Breakfast and then I returned to my room. I was messing around, playing HP games, waiting for the Chubu support group to come pick us up for the party they were throwing when I received a phone call. It was Mrs. Gohto. A little back story is necessary here; the dorm is watched over by a slightly elderly couple- the Gohtos. They are so cute, but they don't speak a word of English, so understanding them is a bit of a challenge for me at times. Well, there I was, in a one-on-one conversation with Mrs. Gohto. I got a little nervous, but, amazingly enough, I understand every word she said! She told me everyone was waiting for me outside; I didn't really know how to respond, so I just said yes, ok. Well, I rushed out of my room and down the hall and put on my shoes quickly, but luckily, our Japanese escorts hadn't arrived yet. They arrived a few minutes later and, because it was raining, we went into a cafeteria to party. There were some onigiri (rice balls) and weird, unholy cheetoh-dorito hybrid corn tubes, but they tasted like an American snack, so they weren't so unusual. We mingled with the Japanese students, most of whom spoke English to some degree of functionality, so we communicated in Japanengrish.
After the party wound down, we proceeded to our next item of business-getting cellphones. According to Greg King, our local connection, the au store in downtown Nagoya was sure to have the best deals. So we took the bus to the train station, took the train to the subway station,
and took the subway to Sakae- a MASSIVE department store.
Let me lay it out for you- 9 floors, 3 sub-basements, a bazillion restaurants, 50 times as many shops, a smattering of goths (sorry, no pictures of those, but I really wanted to,) and crazy fish smells. Pictured is the Crystal Hiruba- the Crystal Meeting Place. It's a pretty crazy glass fountain. Once we found our way out of the mall, we headed for the au and met the colonel on the way...
Unfortunately, at the au cellphone store another, less popular Japanese past time reared its ugly head- xenophobia. This experience was more annoying for me than anything, really. They waited forever to serve us, took a long time to serve us, made us wait to get our cellphones, and, although the prepaid cellphone people got theirs, the contact people were denied as they were only going to be in the country for 6-9 months. While some of that, I'm sure, is just the way the store operates, but there was a distinct feeling of unwelcome. It was just a gentle reminder of how the Japanese, while enchanted with western culture, feel cultural superior to it. That, of course, is a generalization; not all Japanese are hostile toward outsiders, but it's generally accepted that Japan as a whole is more exclusive to foreigners (denying them rights, discriminating, etc.) than the whole of the US. Well, enough gritty reality, let's get back to awesome reality! We had dinner at this awesome awesome awesome awesome authentic toufu restaurant. We even had to take off our shoes and everything.
Man, the food was good! That's toufu on skewers covered in red miso, rice with vegetables, the soy bean remains from soy milk, silken toufu, and this strange yam jelly that was really chewy, and miso soup (but that had clam shells in it, so I didn't eat it.) It was good, but it was a different taste than I'm used to. I was exhausted after such a long day, so as soon as I got back to the dorm, I went to bed.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Quick post
I have just a little break before I'm meeting Laura in the lounge. Today was probably the hardest day so far. Breakfast, studying, then it was off to the Center for International Programs to take the placement test. There were three parts- the first part I had to give the different forms of verbs; easy. The second part I had to give the readings of kanji in context; fine for the first few, blank for the last two-thirds. The third part was 50 multiple choice. I knew a couple for sure, some I had heard from Laura, and some I had learned from the test itself, I think. That part made everyone depressed, but for me, it was fine. It was only a placement test, and I think I reflected well upon my OU teachers. After the placement test, we went to the curry cafeteria I mentioned earlier, and I the same thing minus the ham miso soup and salad. Back to the Center for International Programs to meet Deguchi-san, who would take us to the bus stop to go into downtown Kasugai to go to the town hall to get our gaijin card (alien registration card) and the exchange traveler's checks for yen. If I thought there was a lot of red tape yesterday, today was the prom scene from Carrie in a 3M factory. My super sloppy signature didn't help- I had to sign five times because the first three didn't match. I really want an inkan-one of those stampy things that serves as a signature in Japan. We then went to the bank, and I got my money without any snafus. We took the bus back, and I just arrived in the dorm now. In a month, we have to return to city hall to pick up our gaijin card- I just hope we remember the way! Well, I gotta meet Laura, ta.
-Jonathan
-Jonathan
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Picture mania!
hey everyone-
Today was pretty cool. I got up at eight, went to breakfast (American again, so no pictures,) and started to study for a while. Then a group of us decided to go into Kasugai and find some lunch. We decided of Marino's- a fairly authentic looking Italian restaurant. We ordered a margarita pizza and two pepperoni pizzas. The margarita pizza was interesting; the tomato sauce was very light and mild, the crust was very thin but not crispy, and the cheese tasted a little different. On the whole, the pizza was more mild-not bland, but just not the usual bursting-with-flavor pizza one is used to in the US. We had some time to kill after lunch, so we headed over to the hyaku en ya- the 100 yen store. It was called Daisoh; I'm not quite sure what that means. Despite being a "real" 100 yen store (everything was really only 100 yen,) it had some quality merch. I bought some interesting snacks, two mechanical pencils, and lead all for 630 yen- about $6.30. I wanted to get some ceramic bowls and stuff, but, of course, that would be too heavy to bring back on the plane. We went back to campus to the Center for International Programs for orienteishon. Translation: 3 hours of the handbook being explained to us and more Japanese fun! For this round of soul-sucking, bureaucratic red tape, we needed to know our birth year in terms of the reign of the emperor. Did you know I was born September 26, Showa 61? Now you do! We also had to write a lot of kanji (borrowed Chinese-type characters that give you no indication of how to read them or what they mean)-most of which I didn't understand, but that's fitting, as I didn't understand any of the kanji on the forms. They passed out enlarged copies of the forms with red circles where we needed to write our information and then told us what to write. To sum up the experience: nerve wracking. Why? Because if you make a mistake, you can't cross it out or white it out; you have to start over. A scratch out might be an attempt at fraud and doesn't look neat.
We then took a trip to the Circle K, the nearest konbini. I bought some more interesting snacks there, one of which was the nestle Aero. A candy bar, chocolate on the outside, what looked and felt like a piece of thick, stale bread on the inside. That is, until you chew it, at which point you realize it is a new form of chocolate. While the weather has been fairly hot and muggy, Kasugai is so gorgeous I really don't mind. There are some cars and the roads are awfully narrow and scary at times, but the houses with their handkerchief size garden are so pretty. Even the drainage ditches, which are about 8 inches deep and 5 inches wide (treacherous for the unwary) are beautiful with their mosses and random flowering weeds. Dinner was cool spaghetti with tomato sauce, cabbage salad, a banana, miso soup with leeks and tofu in it, and rice. Sorry, no picture today; it wasn't that interesting anyway. After dinner, I started studying for the placement test tomorrow, but Laura fell asleep in the lounge and wanted to go to bed, so I came back to my room and well...that's my life up to the minute. Now some random pictures taken yesterday!
Some house in Kasugai. Most of the trees on people's properties are cut like giant bonsai. It's pretty sweet.
Another view of someone's property.
Some cool ferns on campus.
A view of Kasugai from a hill on campus. Looks cramped, eh? This is considered rural Japan.
More Kasugai and the surrounding hills.
Rice patties!
This river used to be really wide, but the Japanese dug the river deeper, cemented it in with high banks, and developed the surrounding area. Now, tons of plants grow in it, despite the river being so disturbed.
A bamboo grove on campus. It's huge!
This is a fountain on campus. I just thought it was cool.
Hello "akachan"- akachan means red cutie or baby!
Risaikuru! Jen recycles. The categories are steel, aluminum, PET bottles, paper, burnable, and the rest (unburnable.)
Vending machines- conveniently placed...absolutely everywhere.
O shizuka ni! (Quietly, for chrissakes, or your mouth will be replaced with a red X!) Taken in the library.
Oh, funny story here. So we were taking a tour of the library when we stumbled upon the Chubu University folklore museum. It had some really cool artifacts from cultures around the world for all different time periods. We were looking around, admiring stuff, when this cute, elderly Japanese woman came up and started talking to us in English (btw, cute and elderly are redudant when talking about the Japanese.) She was showing us around when she saw Nick here admiring some Middle Eastern battle gear. I don't know what he said, but she told him he could try it on. First, she helped him put on the leather back armor. Then she helped him put on the parachute pants. She was working on getting him to put on the boots, but his feet were too big. Needless to say, it was pretty awesome.
Well, until tomorrow,
Jonathan
Today was pretty cool. I got up at eight, went to breakfast (American again, so no pictures,) and started to study for a while. Then a group of us decided to go into Kasugai and find some lunch. We decided of Marino's- a fairly authentic looking Italian restaurant. We ordered a margarita pizza and two pepperoni pizzas. The margarita pizza was interesting; the tomato sauce was very light and mild, the crust was very thin but not crispy, and the cheese tasted a little different. On the whole, the pizza was more mild-not bland, but just not the usual bursting-with-flavor pizza one is used to in the US. We had some time to kill after lunch, so we headed over to the hyaku en ya- the 100 yen store. It was called Daisoh; I'm not quite sure what that means. Despite being a "real" 100 yen store (everything was really only 100 yen,) it had some quality merch. I bought some interesting snacks, two mechanical pencils, and lead all for 630 yen- about $6.30. I wanted to get some ceramic bowls and stuff, but, of course, that would be too heavy to bring back on the plane. We went back to campus to the Center for International Programs for orienteishon. Translation: 3 hours of the handbook being explained to us and more Japanese fun! For this round of soul-sucking, bureaucratic red tape, we needed to know our birth year in terms of the reign of the emperor. Did you know I was born September 26, Showa 61? Now you do! We also had to write a lot of kanji (borrowed Chinese-type characters that give you no indication of how to read them or what they mean)-most of which I didn't understand, but that's fitting, as I didn't understand any of the kanji on the forms. They passed out enlarged copies of the forms with red circles where we needed to write our information and then told us what to write. To sum up the experience: nerve wracking. Why? Because if you make a mistake, you can't cross it out or white it out; you have to start over. A scratch out might be an attempt at fraud and doesn't look neat.
We then took a trip to the Circle K, the nearest konbini. I bought some more interesting snacks there, one of which was the nestle Aero. A candy bar, chocolate on the outside, what looked and felt like a piece of thick, stale bread on the inside. That is, until you chew it, at which point you realize it is a new form of chocolate. While the weather has been fairly hot and muggy, Kasugai is so gorgeous I really don't mind. There are some cars and the roads are awfully narrow and scary at times, but the houses with their handkerchief size garden are so pretty. Even the drainage ditches, which are about 8 inches deep and 5 inches wide (treacherous for the unwary) are beautiful with their mosses and random flowering weeds. Dinner was cool spaghetti with tomato sauce, cabbage salad, a banana, miso soup with leeks and tofu in it, and rice. Sorry, no picture today; it wasn't that interesting anyway. After dinner, I started studying for the placement test tomorrow, but Laura fell asleep in the lounge and wanted to go to bed, so I came back to my room and well...that's my life up to the minute. Now some random pictures taken yesterday!
Some house in Kasugai. Most of the trees on people's properties are cut like giant bonsai. It's pretty sweet.
Another view of someone's property.
Some cool ferns on campus.
A view of Kasugai from a hill on campus. Looks cramped, eh? This is considered rural Japan.
More Kasugai and the surrounding hills.
Rice patties!
This river used to be really wide, but the Japanese dug the river deeper, cemented it in with high banks, and developed the surrounding area. Now, tons of plants grow in it, despite the river being so disturbed.
A bamboo grove on campus. It's huge!
This is a fountain on campus. I just thought it was cool.
Hello "akachan"- akachan means red cutie or baby!
Risaikuru! Jen recycles. The categories are steel, aluminum, PET bottles, paper, burnable, and the rest (unburnable.)
Vending machines- conveniently placed...absolutely everywhere.
O shizuka ni! (Quietly, for chrissakes, or your mouth will be replaced with a red X!) Taken in the library.
Oh, funny story here. So we were taking a tour of the library when we stumbled upon the Chubu University folklore museum. It had some really cool artifacts from cultures around the world for all different time periods. We were looking around, admiring stuff, when this cute, elderly Japanese woman came up and started talking to us in English (btw, cute and elderly are redudant when talking about the Japanese.) She was showing us around when she saw Nick here admiring some Middle Eastern battle gear. I don't know what he said, but she told him he could try it on. First, she helped him put on the leather back armor. Then she helped him put on the parachute pants. She was working on getting him to put on the boots, but his feet were too big. Needless to say, it was pretty awesome.Well, until tomorrow,
Jonathan
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