Kansai, Hokkaido, etc.

It’s been awhile since I wrote, almost a month. About three weeks ago most of the JSP group, along with the JSP coordinators, a tour guide, and Matt’s boss, went on a trip to the Kansai region of Japan. So much has happened between now and then that I am having trouble thinking back to that week. But we started out by taking the shinkansen (bullet train) for about 3 hours. I thought I would like the shinkansen, but I didn’t. It didn’t feel like it was floating, or even going super-fast. It felt like I was on a train that was constantly going under mountains and making my ears pop. It was like being on an airplane on the ground. Our first stop was Hiroshima, where we got on a train and then a ferry and sailed to the island of Miyajima, which was absolutely beautiful. The island was thought to be a goddess at one point because it’s so beautiful and there are all sorts of gorgeous buildings and Japanese arches and things like that. We took a trip up the mountains in a cable car and I could see the moon up there and the ocean at the same time and it felt really surreal, like I was the farthest I’d ever been from both the earth and the moon at the same time. We spent a night there in a ryokan, or Japanese-style inn, in rooms of 6-10 people. The hotel had an onsen (hot springs) that I went to. And there were lots of deer roaming the island. They weren’t shy at all and approached us, especially when we had food.

The next day we took a ferry to back to the mainland and took a train to the main Hiroshima city area. We had a few hours to look around, and most of us took the bus to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. My group didn’t actually make it to the museum for about an hour and a half because we got recruited by a free tour guide, who told us all the details of the bombing and introduced us to her English teacher, who I think was also a tour guide. His mother was pregnant with him when the bomb went off, so he was actually one of the youngest survivors. He told us about growing up with radiation sickness and told us all about his family and what had happened to them during and after the explosion. After the tour ended, we all went to the museum, though by that time we only had about an hour to look around if we wanted to get lunch before our train left. The museum was interesting and sad, of course, like the tour had been. But every time a country starts experimenting with atomic weapons the mayor of Hiroshima writes a letter asking them to think about what happened to them and please to stop making them immediately. There were a lot to George W. Bush and Kim Jong Il.

We took the bus back to the train station and tracked down an okonomiyaki restaurant for lunch because Hiroshima is famous for its okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is a pancakey thing with tons of noodles, bean sprouts, meat bits, and okonomiyaki sauce. I really don’t like okonomiyaki sauce, so I didn’t love the okonomiyaki, but I did eat most of it. After that we got on the shinkansen again and headed to Kyoto. When we got to Kyoto we wandered out of the huge-ass train station (it’s got 11+ floors of restaurants and shops) and toward a really nice hotel. We were all very excited until we turned the corner and realized there was another hotel, not shabby but not exactly nice, that we were actually heading to. Everybody thought that was a trick.

I roomed with Samantha and Vedette. That night Vedette hung out with her friend Kyle, who’s studying in Kyoto, and got ridiculously drunk. I had a headache, so I went to bed early. When I woke up the next morning my head felt no better and Vedette was retching into a garbage can because Samantha was in the bathroom. It was a bad morning and a bad day for Vedette, who couldn’t eat any of the really delicious buffet we had for lunch. We took a bus tour and saw all the temples in Tokyo. We saw the Golden Pavilion and went to a temple that had squeaky “nightingale” floors to detect unwanted visitors. That was really neat. I bought a crapload of presents for people back home. The next day was fun too. We had a free day and I went with some people to Heian Jingu, another temple, and later that night I went with Vedette to Gion to meet with Kyle again. We met up with a bunch of his friends at an all-you-can-eat pizza restaurant called Shakey’s. It was good, but the pizza in Japan is a little weird. They have a lot of seafood pizza and they had a custard and corn pizza (which I didn’t try, I don’t like corn on my pizza… and I know this now from experience…). Then we followed his friends to the river, which is a main hangout for Kyoto-ers. It was fun, almost everyone was drunk, but I met some people who were pretty nice. Nathan from JSP was there too as he also knows several people from Kyle’s school. Vedette left with Kyle, so Nathan and I tried to find our way home and got lost.

We headed back to Tokyo on the bullet train the next day. We still had about 4 days off of school, and most people were looking forward to sleeping in. However… Daniel and I were planning to go to Hakodate in Hokkaido the next day so I set my alarm for 5 AM after re-packing my backpack. Since we had so many days off and I really wanted to go to Hokkaido we figured we would go. So we got up early and took the JL train from Kawagoe to Omiya, where we got the shinkansen again from Omiya to Hachinohe, then switched to Hakodate.

Hakodate was COLD. There was a LOT of fish. There was a mountain. We got lost looking for our ryokan but when we found it we decided we would tell everyone about it because it was SOO nice: http://bb-hakodatemura.com/eng%20welcom.html

The two-person room was huge. It had heaters and a loft (where I slept) and the owners were really, really nice. I was really cold so the lady lent me a sweater to put on under my coat. Her breakfasts were soooo good, I almost died. But I was actually pretty lonely there even though Daniel was there, because it soon became apparent that Hakodate is the kind of place couples go to together and my boyfriend is all the way in Sweden. I couldn’t help but think about how nice it would have been to have him there, so that was unfortunate, mostly for Daniel because he knew that’s what I was thinking. Sorry Daniel.

We were so cold we saw two movies in the theatre, the Japanese remake of “Sideways” and the movie “The Proposal.” We also wandered around town a lot freezing our butts off. We caught the first snow, lucky us! And then we went home, totally exhausted. We had two days of school to attend in the next two days and we attended them sleepily.

Then on Sunday my computer broke and I caught a cold. The power button on my computer wouldn’t work and I had a paper to write for a week from then, and I started having a duck act/panic attack. Shosuke, my PA, took me to Shibuya to get my computer fixed and I spent the week taking down notes for my paper by hand. Luckily, my computer was fixed by Friday and I had Sunday to write my paper. On Saturday we had Nihongo Happyokai, in which we all presented speeches or skits and Vedette and I teamed up to do a two-person speech about Kansai. Jonathan, Kate and Chris did a great Alice in Wonderland skit and Jonathan definitely stole the show as the Mad Hatter, directly after Chris P. who came in 2nd place (in my opinion) as the train conductor’s voice in class B2’s skit.

I’m going to finish this up. Today’s is not very well written, sorry, and it’s mainly because there was a lot to cram in there… a lot that has happened. I’ll wait until absolutely nothing happens and write all about that next time and it’ll be the best damn blog entry I’ve ever written.

Just after halfway

I might as well finish it all up, so here’s another question I will now venture to answer: “Describe the perceptions of the U.S. in your host country. Are there a range of perceptions or are they general? Are they what you expected? Do host-nationals ask you about the U.S.? What do they ask? What creates these perceptions?”

I haven’t outright asked anybody about their perceptions of the US, but for the most part I have been able to get a wide range of reactions from people and might be able to answer this question at least somewhat coherently. First of all, Japan is not a place for a blond girl to go if she wants to fit in. I stand out like godzilla breathing fire and holding a grenade – or at least, sometimes I get looks that make me think that’s what people are seeing. Of course, there’s really no way for people to know for sure that I am American, so I can’t say this is a reaction to the US as much as it is a reaction to all gaikokujin (foreigners, gaijin for short). On the other hand, most Japanese people seem to either assume we’re all Americans or just guess right every time. When I am just wandering around or standing on the train, I get either outright stares or heads turned firmly in the other direction. I haven’t really been asked anything by people who don’t know me, though yesterday Daniel, Chris and I were accosted by a crowd of elementary school kids who looked both fascinated by and terrified of us. They asked us a lot of questions but the only one we understood was “are you American?” and when we answered yes, they said, “wow, they are not Japanese!” over and over. The reason we get these reactions is because there simply are not nearly enough gaijin wandering Japan to make people used to seeing us. As for our host families, I am not the only one whose host parents (or host mom, in my case) absolutely love anything having to do with America – or at least, American pop culture. The downstairs bathroom has an American flag themed toilet seat cover, carpet, and slippers. There are Campbell’s soup and Kellogg’s cereal posters all over the living room, empty animal cracker containers and cereal boxes propped on the shelves, and Snoopy mugs, slippers and other paraphernalia (even a Snoopy kiddie table) all over the house. She has never actually been to the American mainland (she has been to Hawaii) and isn’t too familiar with anything but the pop culture icons. I was talking to another JSP student (I am pretty sure it was Jonathan) who said that his mother is the same way and he was a little unnerved by it. I didn’t really expect to find so much American stuff in my host family’s house, and I can’t really explain to you the surprise I felt the first time I went into the downstairs bathroom. I don’t know why Japanese people like American pop culture so much and are still surprised to see us standing next to them on the train.

On Tuesday the JSP crowd is heading on the bullet train to explore Kyoto and Hiroshima (and maybe Osaka, if I feel like going there on my free day in Kyoto). We’ll be out till Saturday, and I’m pretty excited about it – I just hope I don’t catch the flu my host brother has. Then we don’t have school again until Thursday, and Daniel and I are thinking about bulleting up to Hakodate in Hokkaido for a couple of days. It will be expensive but Hokkaido is one place I really would like to see in Japan, so I hope we can go. I expect that my next update will provide details of these trips.

and some pictures…

Ayano and Alex are both thrilled by this photo op

smiling after subway

karaoke, happy birthday Alyssa (behind Kate)

Margarita getting hair extensions

hard at work, studying

Kawagoe matsuri

Mid-October update

Hi, sorry I have been slow in updating. There has been a lot going on, with midterms (I did my Japanese one on Friday and history today), adventures, and the unexpected death of Yasuyuki Sampei, a TIUA student who is known pretty well on the Willamette campus (this was about two weeks ago). So there has been a lot going on. Today we went to visit an elementary school, I guess to give us a cultural experience, which it definitely was. My mom is an elementary school teacher and some of the best times of my life were in elementary school, so I was pretty interested to find out what kind of places these schools are in Japan. The first thing we noticed is that it looked like a mixture between an apartment building and a prison. It was a giant concrete box with an enormous yard that, of course, looked a little like a prison yard. It looked more like a prison than South Salem High School, which some of you reading this might be familiar with. I wish I had taken a picture so you could see exactly how much of a prison this place looked like. But anyway, the first thing we had to do upon entering was (surprise, surprise) remove our shoes and leave them in the genkan, and stuff our feet into oppressive, slippery, and stifling plastic green sandals. All of us were sliding down the halls. Then we went into a room to await our chargees. While we waited, the principal (I think) came in and told us we wouldn’t be doing an introduction in front of the whole school to avoid the spread of swine flu (that was reassuring). Soon our chargees appeared with big signs that said “WELCOME MS. so-and-so san” and “WELCOME MR. so-and-so san” It was adorable. I was with Chris and Lisa, and we were led to a third-grade classroom by a couple of kids and then, to my horror, were placed in desks in front of the class where we had to sit for nearly an hour, first to introduce ourselves and then to listen to the morning announcements, which included a long story read in both English and Japanese about a bear named Ufu (I think it was a bear, I don’t remember). The English recording was cringeworthy. I wonder how much the had to pay the woman who did the recording to say things like “oh, dear! I wish my boiled egg was ready!” over and over and other horrendous sentences. The three of us at the front could barely contain our laughter. I really hope we didn’t offend the teacher, but most of the kids were laughing too, so it was probably okay. Anyway, then they asked us all questions. I couldn’t understand the questions when they asked me, but somehow I understood most of the things they asked Chris and Lisa. I must do okay if I’m not in the hotspot, because they were all questions like “what is your favorite color?” and things like that, which I should actually understand. Then we made origami with the kids (after a ten-minute get-to-know-the-gaijin session in which we were all trampled). My crane looked like a pterodactyl. It was awful. But anyway, the kids were pretty cute and it definitely was a cultural experience. I can’t imagine going to school there, mostly because my elementary school was so awesome and for some reason I remember my classroom seemed more comfortable. As my dad always says, “it’s all been downhill from there.”

My study abroad assignment is due pretty soon, so I’ll get my butt moving to answer this question: “What did you assume before you left that you are not finding in your host-country, host-culture and/or host family and friends? Why did you make those assumptions?”

I don’t really know exactly what I was assuming, but there is something I have noticed about Japan – or at least the area I am in – that is different from really anywhere else I have been (except for China, though I was only there for 3 weeks, which I am beginning to realize barely counted). Everywhere in most of Europe and the USA (as far as I know) it is part of the culture to sit outside, even in really big cities. You can always find places to just sit and relax in Salem, Tacoma, London, Athens, etc., whether is it an outdoor cafe or just your front porch. It’s usually a pretty social thing too, to sit outside and just hang out having a barbecue or a cup of coffee or a glass of ouzo with your friends or family. Not in Japan. At least, not in Tokyo, but it’s a big city – but so is Paris and though I’ve never been there I’m pretty sure they have places where you can hang out. Obviously there are places in Tokyo where you can just sit and hang out, parks like Ueno and such, but they’re more like rest areas for when you’re tired or just taking a break or something. They don’t really seem to have the purpose that they do elsewhere. I may have seen one or two outdoor cafes, though I honestly can’t think of any offhand. I really miss sitting outside. They do have balconies here, but they are strictly for hanging laundry. They are pretty compact, like everything in Japan, but Becca and my mom and I had a tiny balcony in Spain and we still managed to squeeze out onto it for a snack or people-watching. I think it might be that everything is so compact here, though, and crowded. The crowds are unbelievable. But you’d think that if it was part of the culture to hang out outside, they’d have found a way to work around the crowds and compactness and squeeze in some outdoor restaurants or something. I asked my JSP friends if they have noticed, but most of them haven’t or have offered explanations like the ones I mentioned (crowds), or the heat, but it’s not exactly cool in Athens in the middle of summer and they still spend a lot of their time outside. I asked a couple of TIU students also but they didn’t really know how to answer, I guess they haven’t really thought about it. I remember somebody mentioned that Japanese people aren’t very tactile, but I don’t understand what that has to do with it. Anyway, though I didn’t have anything specific in mind, I guess I took it for granted that I would be able to hang out outside if I wanted to. It hits me almost every night when I am biking home, because a lot of the time I can see the moon when I am biking and I wish I could just plop down on a bench and look at it, but not only are there no benches on my route, I would get a great view of the train hurtling by 10 feet away every 5 minutes. Oh well. It is all part of the experience.

Culture Shock

Sorry I ended my last post so abruptly. I had to leave pretty quickly and didn’t have time to do much else but press the “publish” button. Right now I’m in literature class, and the teacher has spent the first 30 minutes talking about things that have little to do with literature and enjoying the sound of his own voice. This seems like a better use of my time, sadly…

I guess I have had culture shock to a certain extent. I always have trouble figuring out what “culture shock” is because I don’t really have real shock when I’m abroad, just small surprises. I don’t think it actually is supposed to be “shocking.” But the other day I finally had a moment (well, it was a really long moment) of what I would describe as culture shock. I won’t go into too much detail, since I’m not really sure my host parents want me telling everyone on the internet about this, but I will do the cliffnotes.

The other day I bought some chocolate, a bagful of individually wrapped chocolate-covered almonds, very delicious. I bought them to send to Phil in Sweden. I have been slowly compiling a box for him and poured these little chocolates into the box. The next day I went to school, leaving the box on the floor of my room where it had been for the past couple of weeks. When I came home that evening, a noticeable amount of the chocolate was gone. That made me a little angry because that meant my host siblings had been in my room when I wasn’t home. I don’t mind if they’re in there when I am, but even when I am in there they go through absolutely everything and ask about everything. My host sister even goes through my dirty laundry. It made me very uncomfortable to think about what they might have moved or sniffed at when I wasn’t home. I went downstairs and asked my host sister if she’d eaten my chocolate, and she just smiled and shrugged and said something I didn’t understand. I figured I would just let my host parents know later and they could tell the kids not to go into my room when I’m gone. After dinner the kids went upstairs, and I told my host parents. And then I found out what Japanese discipline/punishment is like. It was really, really painful and long and I felt terrible for having told on them, though on the other hand the kids don’t go into my room anymore, and I always feel bad when I’m in my room. It’ll get better, but I had no idea how intense Japanese punishment could be and that was definitely a half-hour of culture shock.

Yesterday I went with Vedette on a mission to Tokyo, 1/3 of the mission we completed (getting Vedette’s new green contacts) and 2/3 not completed (piercings and finding a charge for Vedette’s computer, even in Akihabara, which I SO did not go to… at least, I swore I’d never go there and now I did… but at least I got some yummy mochi out of the deal). While we were in Tokyo I felt myself coming down with a cold, and this morning it was worse, so I finally got to wear one of those surgical masks on the train. It was uncomfortably warm. One thing about Japan that I don’t like too much is that households are usually in such close quarters that Japanese people just accept that sickness is inevitable, whereas in the US the quarters aren’t quite as cramped and there is a way to avoid sickness. On the other hand, one thing I have complained about the US is that we don’t have close quarters and people get close to their computers and TVs rather than other people, so I guess I approve of close quarters and I disapprove of sicknesses. Sickness is just something I do not accept…too bad I’m human.

A month in

So today marks one month since I got to Japan. That is 4 weeks exactly, not necessarily the same date a month later. I guess you could say I am getting used to Japanese life. This week was a national holiday, so we didn’t have school for 3 days. Tomorrow we have school again. Usually I have Japanese lit on Thursdays, but tomorrow the class is cancelled. The professor didn’t tell us, though it’s on the syllabus. My friend Vedette told me yesterday that we don’t have class tomorrow and I was pretty surprised. I asked why and she said that the teacher just decided he’d give us the day off. That’s nice, I appreciate it because it’s probably the dullest class I have ever taken, but really?? What kind of teacher lets you have the day off just because he can? Vedette said it was to give us an “eight day vacation” but it’s not really a vacation because we have Japanese class in the morning anyway. I’m not trying to complain, because that class sucks, but really?? That’s pretty unbelievable to me. Oh well.

So something I have noticed about life in Japan is that despite how convenient this place is (all the trains run on time, etc.), this country’s attitude is “deal with it.” In America, if anything breaks down, people start complaining and getting angry. If my computer stops working, I throw it across the room. In America, most people drive unless they live in a major metropolitan area. In most areas, you see people driving, not riding bikes – but here everyone rides a bike or owns a bike. Most people own a car, and one person in the family drives it and the other rides a bike. I don’t think many households own more than one car here. To get to school, I have to ride my bike for about a mile and a half, park it, then take the train for 5 minutes. Most people have to ride a bike or take a bus or both, then ride the train for up to 2 hours to get to where they need to go. It’s just part of life. If a car breaks down in an American household, the world stops. In Japan it’s like “oh well, I’ll ride my bike.” Or walk… or whatever. They literally just deal with it and move on. I came home one day and the power was out and my host mom took me to an onsen (Japanese bath) so we could shower with hot water. In America you don’t really have many options unless you make them for yourself (buy a bike or a bus pass), and that’s why it’s so frustrating when something stops working. But in Japan they know things break down and they always have a way with dealing with them. And they don’t get mad about things, either. I mean, they do, but you won’t see a Japanese businessman yelling at the conductor of a train because it’s late.

Some pictures

Harajuku with Yuki and friends

First glimpses of TIU. these are out of order.

orientation

meeting my host family

Shosuke, my PA

Yohei, one of the other PA’s. and Nick’s ice cream

my bike

karaoke night

host siblings climbing on my bed

seeing old friends

First week of school and homestay

So it’s been about a week since we moved in with our host families. We moved in last Saturday and first there was a big opening ceremony at TIU in which the president of TIU made a big long speech which almost none of us understood and one of the teachers also made a speech, which she translated for us. Then we met our host families. I was sooo nervous. It was ridiculous. But I was also hungry for the first time since I’d gotten there, and that made me really happy because I was afraid I’d have no appetite for all of 3 1/2 months. My host family seemed nice right away, so I relaxed a little. There are 6 of them: two parents and four kids aged almost 2, 5, 6, and 11. We all ate together and all the host families and host kids hung out for about an hour, and then it was time to go home. All the JSP kids went and got their suitcases and met their host families outside and took suitcases to cars and stuff.

My biggest surprise so far was when I got in the car and tried to put on my seatbelt. I fastened it and immediately the car started beeping. I was a little uncomfortable because I noticed that no one else had their seatbelt on. My host dad, through gestures and some Japanese and English (they had soon learned that I am FAR from fluent in Japanese) explained that you’re not supposed to wear your seatbelt unless you’re on the freeway. That makes no sense to me, honestly. Most things here I can understand or put into a cultural context or at least try to, but this one I couldn’t. Oh well. I can wiggle around with the kids in the backseat as they hit each other (all the older ones beat up on the younger ones) and try to avoid being hit by accident.

We got home and I noticed right away that it was very messy, which put me at ease because clean and put-away places give me the creeps and make me really scared I’m going to break something or spill something. I get the room at the end of the hall at the top of the stairs and it’s the only room not cluttered with things (well, the closet is a little). There is also wireless internet here, though it’s really temperamental.

My first weekend I spent resting and hanging out with the kids. On Sunday my dad asked me to stay in the house and I couldn’t understand why until about ten minutes later I realized that everyone had left and I was alone with the two youngest kids for a couple of hours. I like the kids and all, but I was a little uncomfortable about that because I didn’t have a phone or any idea what to do in the case of an emergency. To compensate, I snatched everything the 2-year-old was sucking on out of his mouth to avoid choking. Well, except food. At TIU during orientation, Matt told us all that our host moms would probably be really good cooks because they have nothing to do all day but cook. My mom is like the complete opposite of the moms Matt was describing at orientation because she’s young and really cool and doesn’t cook at all – the dad cooks though, and he’s a really good cook.

Monday was the first day of school. My host mom had taken me to get my train teiki the day before, and usually I was to ride my bike to the train station, lock it up, and then take the train two stops to Kasumigaseki and walk to school. Well, on Monday we had a typhoon, so my neighbor took me to school. He’s also got a host kid, Audrey, who is in JSP, so we went together. The typhoon was fun and I wish it had lasted, but it did not. On Tuesday it was far too hot and sunny and I wore long pants and wished I hadn’t. I was also really worried about finding my way back from school. My host mom led me on her bike to the train station so I would know how to do it, but I was pretty sure I had forgotten. I got on the train going in the wrong direction going to school but realized it immediately and got off at the next stop. Coming home that afternoon I was sooo uncomfortable because of the dumb move to wear jeans and I got lost biking home. Biking is scary here because I have almost been hit by cars several times, and apparently lots of JSP students do get hit by cars… in fact, many Japanese people get hit by cars when they’re on bikes.

I guess since I am about to talk about school I will answer one of the questions we have to answer for our abroad assignments from Willamette:

“How is the education system you are experiencing different from what you are accustomed to in the U.S.? From your perspective as a student in the U.S. how is it beneficial and disadvantageous?
Consider the perspective of your host-country’s students, how is it beneficial to them? Is it unfavorable to them in any way?”

Okay well, the education system is different in that there are no dorms. You get to school somehow (for some students it takes 2 hours) and then you go to classes. I don’t know how long TIU student’s classes are, but JSP students have 3 classes we take. We take two credits worth of Japanese, which is 3 hours a day 4 days a week of Japanese class with a ten minute break, then we pick two classes out of four options: Japanese politics, Japanese economics, Japanese literature, and history of modern Japan. I picked literature and history. We have those classes once a week for three hours. After classes are over, we are free to do what we like. A lot of kids in JSP go hang out at karaoke after school but I usually go home if it’s a weekday, do homework, and go to bed early because my alarm clock doesn’t work and I’m afraid of sleeping in. So in Japan it’s like commuting to school and then commuting home every day. At the moment I don’t see very many advantages except that it’s cheaper, you can sleep at home, and you don’t have a meal plan. It’s very unlike the college experience I’m used to, though. I really like staying on or near campus and knowing how alive the place is even at night. Here it’s dead at night. No one is around after 8 or 9. Also, it’s a big disadvantage for the students who commute from really far away because they have to be on a train for hours on end. They can do homework on the train, but it’s not like having a desk or a library that’s open until 1 AM. I’m sure it’s unfavorable to the TIU students to have to commute from far away, but a lot of students say that they’re used to it, they don’t mind, and they like being able to go home at night. So there you go. It sometimes feels a little too much like high school to me, but it is nice to go to a home and a decent meal every night.

Okay, I’m going to head out and one of these days will upload some pictures.

The beary beginning

August 29th, 6:50 AM

Hi all,

To start off, I have to say that regrettably my post title lies… I haven’t seen any bears in Japan (yet). I flew out of Sea-Tac on Tuesday with Chris W., whom I found when I got there. We flew to Vancouver, B.C. and headed through a long, slow line at immigration, which we had to go through to get to the international flights area. Once there, we found our flight (JAL #17) on the board and realized with horror that though it was supposed to leave at 12:45 PM, it had been delayed to 6 PM. We were sure it had to be some sort of mistake, but we decided to sit down and have lunch before we figured out exactly what was going on. Soon after we ate, Brent appeared and the three of us set off to find out what was going on. We found out, of course, that the board was not lying and that we were stuck.

After camping out for 6 hours, we finally boarded our flight and Brent soon began to take advantage of the free unlimited alcohol (I took advantage of the free unlimited green tea and water, and Chris just slept). The good thing about being delayed was that so many people had switched to the earlier flight that ours was virtually empty and we got to spread out on the empty seats. The flight didn’t agree with me at all. I think it wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t just gotten back from the UK a month ago. My body couldn’t figure out why I was putting it through this torture again and I haven’t slept or eaten properly since I got off the plane 3 days ago.

When we got there, we were met by Matt, who is an American who has lived in Japan for awhile and works for JSP. We (and another JSP kid, Sam, who had been on our flight) headed to the Narita Holiday Inn on the bus and I headed pretty much straight to bed. I got my own room because there had been a mix-up about the roommates at the front desk. I slept really badly, waking up every hour and was finally unable to go back to sleep around 4 AM. I was lucky and got to talk to Phil on skype before I went down to breakfast.

After breakfast, everybody met in the lobby and we all got to meet one another. There are some really cool people in this group and I’m excited to have a semester with them. As soon as we stepped outside, a huge buzzing noise filled our ears. I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many angry cicadas. We got on the bus and were driven to TIU. For awhile I talked to the people around me (and listened to Chris P’s “what could possibly go wrong” story about setting his bathroom on fire in Korea to try and get rid of the hair that was clogging the drain), but soon I started to feel the effects of jet lag and not getting enough sleep. When we go tot TIU we had several hours of orientation and my head started to hurt and I was so tired and had no appetite. It was pretty awful and it got worse as the day wore on. When my group went to dinner with our PA (peer assistant), Shosuke, I was so tired and not hungry that Sho ended up walking me back to the hotel before I passed out. I felt bad to delay his dinner but was really grateful to be able to come back and sleep. It was 8 PM.

I woke up at 4 again and couldn’t go back to sleep, and still had no appetite, but I went downstairs and forced down some breakfast. That made my headache go away, so I’m glad I did. Then our PA (Sho had a class, so I was put in Yohei’s group) lead us to the train and we took it to TIU. Orientation again, lots of powerpoint about culture shock and chikan (perverts) and homestay, etc. I got tired again but not as much as the day before and I wouldn’t have been as tired if my headache hadn’t come back. We ate in the cafeteria and toured the library and saw some ex-TIUA students hanging around. That evening we headed back to the hotel with our PA’s and then to dinner. I wasn’t very hungry, so Brent and I split a bowl of raw fish. Afterwards, our group wandered around and went to the 100 yen store, where I bought a little hand towel with chipmunks on it.

Oh, I also got my first “GAIJIN DA!!” right after that. I was hanging around in the outdoor mall street waiting for my group and this young guy who’d put his hair into a lot of weird little buns walked by and yelled, “KORE WA! GAIJIN DA! GAIJIN DA!” He was so loud and barking that I was afraid to yell “NIHONJIN DA!” at him, which is what Matt told us to do.

Soon after that, I was really tired again so I headed back to the hotel with Nick and a guy we met called Andy, and then I went straight to bed. It was 9 PM. This morning I woke up at 4:30, which was definitely an improvement. I’m getting really tired of this jet lag. It has never been this bad, but then again I have never been forced to stay awake and doing things when I’ve been jet lagged. Today we have our placement test and we meet our host families, which I’m very nervous about.

My last day at home

Hi all,

Today is my last day in the U.S. for the next four months or so. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks gradually putting together everything I’m going to need to take with me to Japan. I’ve been figuring out which clothes to bring and buying clothes I will need (like a new jacket – red, which is weird because I very rarely wear red). My mom helped too by filling up half of my enormous suitcase with bottled vitamins. I have also been trying to figure out what to do about books, because I can’t live without books but I was warned not to overpack. I have so far settled with bringing two books for the actual 4 months abroad: a book by John Waters, which I’ve already read and is very small and easy to pack, and a book of short stories. That way I don’t have to sit down and read an entire novel. I’m also bringing some books for the plane, because when I flew to England last month I read about 3 books total on the airplanes. I’ve been having trouble trying to figure out which books to bring, though, because I don’t want to bring anything too big, and for all I know I may end up finding something in Japan. So far I have two thin books, both by Japanese authors. I might bring one more thin one by a non-Japanese author, but I don’t know which one yet.

I’m not looking forward to the flight tomorrow, but I am looking forward to meeting up with some friends. Chris W., Nick, and Brent are supposedly on my flight from Vancouver to Narita, so that will be fun. But lately I have not been doing too well on overseas flights. When I flew to England, I got really antsy on the plane. I already hate flying, and when there are 10 hours left on a flight, I get very impatient and want nothing more than to be off the airplane. I don’t care where I go, I just want to be on land. Maybe it will be better if I have people I know with me. We’ll see.

Speaking of 10-hour flights, my brother is getting married in Moscow in September and has invited us to the wedding. My mom and I have been going through the visa process, though we’re not sure if I’ll go or not. For one thing, I don’t know if TIU will be okay with me taking a week off in September. Also, I don’t know how much I want to be on another airplane. The price does not seem to be too much of an issue because my brother found a direct flight that he can use his miles on, which is really nice of him. So it seems to me that I would be stupid to pass this up, but on the other hand I could go to his unofficial celebration in the summer with his friends, but I also want to be looking for summer internships and that might interfere. The worst part is, I don’t have very long to think about it – I have to decide pretty much right away.

Well, I’ve got lots of cleaning and packing left to do. I hope Japan will be a good experience for me. I’m pretty worried that I won’t be able to communicate at all and will be the crazy American babbling on street corners or something. I’ll be updating this whenever I can and feel like it.