Those past two weeks went by so fast.

So, it's been pretty crazy, with my "kimatsu shiken" (big final), packing, getting ready to return to the glorious United States of America.

I didn't do anything my last weekend in Japan. First off, I had kind of gotten close to running out of money. But when you read this blog and see all of the things that I did, to be honest, I'm kind of surprised it lasted this long.

So, I studied, and did worksheets, and practiced everything possible. I talked with everyone, explored Nagahama one last time, and I always practiced "shodo" (calligraphy) for at least an hour at night.

So, what did I learn?

A substantial amount of Japanese, that I can be sure of. Whether it was causative-passive inside the classroom, or kanji that I had to look for every day on the train board, I can honestly say that I can get around Japan with no problem.

I've learned that Japan has no concept of any type of mexican food whatsoever. In fact, taco doesn't even mean taco. It means octopus.

I've learned that no matter how much I enjoy the people, fashion or various city events, I will always miss/love the United States.

I'll be posting up one more blog before I sign off on this one completely. I'll be starting a new blog soon about my college life just to keep everyone updated.

Nara: Founded 710 A.D.

Sunday morning I woke up around seven by myself and then I headed downstairs for breakfast with Okaasan and Otoosan. Afterwards, I started getting ready and then I left around nine in order to grab the next train to Hikone where I was going to meet my friends at the train station.

I met my friends and then we headed took the next express train to Kyoto. On our way, we met another girl who goes to JCMU who was also taking the same train, but she was going to Omihachiman instead. We all sat together and talked and when it came time for her to leave we invited her to come to Nara with us. (She had told us that she had gone to Omihachiman the day before with her frisbee group.)

So, she said yes and the four of us stayed on the train and headed to Kyoto.

Once we got to Kyoto station, we used the fare adjustment so that Katie (that is the girl's name) could get into Kyoto.

Train Note: When you ride the train, you look at a map where your city is in the center. Then, the train lines diverge form your particular city, and each city where you can stop at there is a number. That number is how much it costs to get from the city you are at to the city you want to go to. Once you buy your ticket, if you want to go farther, once you get to your destination you can go to a fare adjustment machine and pay the extra amount needed to get a new ticket. You put your original ticket into the machine so that it knows how much you have already paid, and based on what city you are in, how much more you have to pay.

In Kyoto we got a quick lunch and then headed down to the ATM machines to get some cash. Afterwards, we grabbed an express train to Nara.

Once in Nara, we had some trouble finding Jackie and Jackie's Japanese friend (best friend) Yuri. We went to Nara station, but Jackie was at Nara Station for the local Nara line. We walked around a little bit, before we found them, but the sights were pretty so I didn't mind to much.

It was just really really hot. Thank goodness I bought that fan in Kyoto the day before.

Once we met up with Jackie and Yuri, the six of us headed off to see the Great Daibutsu. Or the big Buddha. He has his own shrine and it's one of the highlights of the entire country of Japan.

We had to pay 500 yen (about $5) to get in. If one wished, one could burn incense before entering the temple. The temple's name is Todaji. I recommend looking it up and visiting if you ever go to Japan.

We say Buddha and lots of amazing statues that just towered above us. We also saw miniature models of other various famous landmarks, such as the five story pagoda. There was also a long line for people who wanted to try to fit into a hole the size of Buddha's nostril. There is a belief that if you can fit into Buddha's nostril then you will get to enlightenment in your next life or something...

I think it's supposed to be a little harder than that.

So, after Todaji, we walked to go see the five story pagoda. Now... once again, (I seem to be doing a lot of this lately) I'm going to go all nerd and connect a 1300 year old city with contemporary anime.

In the anime series, Naruto, there is a family called the Nara family. (Sound familiar??) The two males of the family, (that we know of anyway) names start with Shika. (Shikamaru, Shikaku)

In Japanese, Shika means deer. Nara is really really famous for their deer.

When walking on the cobblestone streets outside of Todaji, or near the busy roadways lined with souvenir shops, you can easily walk into a deer. The deer here are not skittish whatsoever, and will actually attack if you have food. (I saw that happen this weekend.) They walk on the same streets as if they were just like us. It's real cool, and for 300 yen, you can buy deer food and feed the deer.

Nara is also really clean-- the deer eat everything. And I mean everything.

After we saw the five story pagoda, we went to Moss Burger where we had dinner. Moss Burger is the Japanese version of A&W, they make the burgers for you when you order them. It was a really good burger, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Afterwards, even though it was only about six o'clock, the six of us were dead tired, so we headed back to the train station, where the four of us grabbed the train back to Kyoto and then from Kyoto to Hikone. I stayed on the train though, and took it one more stop to Maibara, where I switched trains and took one to Nagahama. I got home roughly around 9 pm.

And that was Sunday. I have plenty of pictures, but they aren't on my computer yet. It's hard to describe Nara because it's such a beautiful place that words and pictures don't do it justice. It's really something that people have to experience and I highly recommend it if you visit Japan.

京都：舞子になりました！(Kyoto: becoming a Maiko)

Yeah! That's me!

On Saturday, I slept in until about nine o'clock, after which I had breakfast with Okaasan and then headed to Nagahama Eki (Nagahama station) in order to take the train to one of the most fabulous cities in all of Japan, Kyoto!

Language Note: I always remembered the two capitals of Japan because they were just flip-flopped with the names. To-kyo, and Kyo-to. In reality, this isn't true.

The kanji for Tokyo is 東京, which means Eastern capital. On the other hand, Kyoto is 京都. Kyoto means capital city, (even though it technically isn't anymore.)

As you can see, the kanji are not switched, so they are not the same thing! Kanji is so useful in situations like this.

So yeah, I got to Kyoto after taking the train for about an hour. Once I was at the train station, I used a fare adjustment in order to pay for my way from Hikone to Kyoto, (because I already have a pass from Nagahama to Hikone, so I didn't need to pay and extra 230 yen) and then I asked for directions to Yumekoubou.

At Yumekoubou, the lady came over and we started discussing what I was going to do, in Japanese. I decided which package I wanted and we talked about how they could send me the pictures since I was going to be out of the country in less than a month.

At one o'clock, another lady showed me to the other side of the building, where I took off my shoes and put on the slippers provided. I then followed her into the dressing/washing room, and on the way I saw three other girls also dressing up at Maiko.

Oh, maybe I should explain. A Geisha is, in my own definition, a hospitable Japanese woman. They are NOT prostitutes. Please, completely forget the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha" because it is not true whatsoever. Geisha play various instruments, do tea ceremonies, dance and other types of entertainment of arts.

You're probably better off wiki-ing this, but I'll make it short so everyone can get a glimpse.

Geisha have "customers", or men who basically hang out with Geisha. Whether it's talking or listening to her play koto. In return for her hospitality and platonic companionship, the man pays for the Geisha fees. (Kimonos, instruments and other various knick knacks). Geisha can have several "customers", therefore can have more money to spend on nicer things.

Sometimes, these customer/Geisha relationships become sexual, but that is not the original concept.

So what the heck is a Maiko?

A Geisha apprentice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha

Go ahead and read that.

So anyways, I dressed up an a Maiko. At first I had to take out all of my ear piercings, (those who know me know that I have quite a few) and then I put on a white slip overtop of my underclothes.

I wouldn't recommend this for the completely shy ladies, because this is mostly in public. Granted, it's a women's only room, but you're still taking off your clothes while others are washing their face and others are putting their clothes on.

I also put on the tabi, (or two-toed socks) and then slipped back on my slippers and headed over to the make-up area. There, they put white make-up (that felt like clay at first) on my back, neck and face. They then covered that with white powder. I also had red and black eyeliner, red lips and they darkened my eyebrows so that they looked a perfect shape. Due to not wearing make-up for nearly three days in preparation, my eyes watered a little bit, but they managed to fix that up real easy.

Next, I was brought over to the kimono area where I picked out my kimono. I have blue eyes, so I decided to go with something of a blueish color and ended up with the one in the picture above. Putting on a kimono is tougher than all that stuff they wore in England back in the day.

Okay, first I had my slip. Then I had another thin dress with a red outline. It was tied tightly across the waist. Next was the collar, which was rested on my shoulders and tied across the waist. It's the red fabric peeking out around my neck. Then, I put on the actual kimono, the blue dress that I picked out. It involved lots of wrapping and tying off, (around the waist, once again). Then, I had another belt tied around my waist. Then, they tied the red fabric around my waist, (that's actually not part of the kimono, that's a whole other belt in the picture.) Then, I had another smaller belt tied on, (That's the black one that looks like it has leaves on it). Then, I had an even smaller belt put on, (it's a thin piece with two flowers on the front.)

Last, a big black thing, (I've sat here, trying to think how to describe it) was placed on my back. Part of the piece stuck behind all of my belts so that it would stay. You can kind of see it hanging off my back in the picture above.

So anyways, after all that jazz, I put on some Japanese sandals and walked outside where I met some other girls who were also doing the maiko dress-up. They all looked at me and said "kawaii!" (cute!) and we talked for a little bit in Japanese before the lady who had dressed me took our pictures, and then some pictures of me individually.

Afterwards, I headed into the studio, where a photographer took pictures of me using various props. When I was done, I walked outside, took some more pictures, then went back into the dressing room to take it all off.

It takes about twenty minutes to do everything: to put on make-up, get dressed, take off make-up. To take off the make-up, I was given some wet cloths, and the two ladies helped me with my back make-up. Then, I changed into my regular clothes and headed to the waiting room, where I got to see my pictures. I got to choose which four I wanted to be printed into large size and sent to Nagahama, (within two weeks) and then another one for a postcard, (which I gave to my hostparents) and then whether I wanted the CD or not. (Which I did because I can make more pictures from that on my computer).

After Yumekoubou, I took a random train and ended up in the middle of Kyoto. I had texted my friends, but none had texted back, (scratch that, only one of my friends has a phone) so I decided to explore Kyoto on my own. After living here for nearly six weeks, I have become very comfortable in Japan, and I feel very safe. Of course, I'm smart. I don't go into dingy cafes, and I stay away from dark alleys and I never walk at night unless I'm with someone else.

So, I ended up walking for about thirty minutes before I found this really awesome place called Teramachi Street. It's basically a really really long street of shops, and there I spent the rest of my day, going in and out buying everyone's "omiyage" or souvenirs.

At about seven, I grabbed the train back to Nagahama. I fell asleep right away, but it was probably one of the best days so far in Japan.

More to come soon!

Yokosuka

So, last weekend I took the shinkansen (bullet train) and headed down to Yokosuka to visit a friend who is currently working on one of the ships that is currently docked at the Naval Base in Yokosuka. When I got there we headed back to his apartment where I dropped off my stuff, and then we headed out to dinner.

Dinner was at a lovely place called TGI Fridays. It was very Americanized, and most of the waitstaff spoke  enough English so that they could take orders and answer questions. Almost all of the patrons were either from the Naval base, or with someone who was from the Naval Base.

So, for the first time in a month and a half, I had a quesadilla, (and to think I wasn't going to miss Mexican food) and it tasted great. After dinner we headed back and watched Jurassic Park until about ten o'clock. Then, I did some homework since I had a huge test this past week.

The next morning, we went stopped at Starbucks for breakfast and then headed to the train station where we took the train to Kamikura to see the "daibatsu" or "Great Buddha". At first we stopped in Kita-Kamikura, (Kita means North, so we went to North Kamikura) and walked around before we realized that this was the wrong city and then we headed back to Kamikura where we followed the "Buddha" signs until we came to the temple.

The temple was very touristy. There was a lot of picture taking, souvenir selling and even some construction work. The construction work was a little loud, so it kind of put a bummer on the sight of the tall, mint-green statue, but it was still an amazing thing to see. This weekend, on Sunday, actually, I will be heading to Nara where I will see another Buddha.

After Kamikura, we headed up to Yokohama where we hung out, grabbing lunch at Hard Rock Cafe and walking around enjoying the sights.

Yokohama and Yokosuka, Japan are very americanized. Where here in Nagahama and Hikone, you can barely find a McDonalds, in Yokosuka there are three just on my way to the train station. This is most likely caused by the Naval Base, and the fact that half of the people that one sees in town are from the Western side of the world. It was a nice little break, but I was kind of missing the whole Japan experience.

In fact, back to TGI Fridays, when the waitress came up, she asked, "Are you ready to order?" I hadn't looked through the whole menu yet, (it was all in English) so I said, "sumimasen, mada kimete imasen" (I'm sorry, I haven't decided yet). The waitress almost freaked out. She had this look on her face of complete shock, and then she started speaking to me in Japanese, (my friend, Mike just sat there with his mouth open) and I could tell that she was happy to meet someone who didn't just speak English like that was the only language of the city.

She told me my Japanese was good, (to which I shook my hands and said "sono koto wa arimasen" (No, that idea is not right)) and asked if I was studying at a university, "いいえ、ミシガン州立大学の学生ですけど、今留学生です。彦根で、日本語を勉強しています." (No, I am a student at Michigan State University, but now I am a study abroad student. I am currently studying Japanese language in Hikone). It was real nice.

However, despite the complete Americanization of southeastern Japan, I did get to use my Japanese quite a bit. For one, I had to order a shinkansen ticket back to Nagahama, and then throughout the weekend I also had to ask for directions and translate various signs throughout the cities.

So, on Sunday, I went with my friend to the Naval Base, which is basically like being home. Everything is in English and everything costs money, but in dollars.

Yeah, that's right. dollars. That green stuff that we use in the US.

We walked around, had pizza for lunch, then headed over to the ship where he works. He gave me a tour, and showed me all around and showed me where he works, (he is a welder).

The gate wasn't very secure though. Even though I had to show my passport, security was kind of null. I would be a little worried, especially with North Korea so close by.

Also, when I was getting my day pass, I remembered why I didn't join the military. When I was waiting, a man in front of me went up and showed the people behind the desk (both of them were women, but I'm not going to get into that subject. I don't have enough prior knowledge to really say anything about it. It's just an observation) his papers, and then they said something like he forgot to do this or he needs to get this done with his badge, and he flipped out. He acted worse than the crazy people that we get at Outback Steakhouse every weekend and stomped off in a heat muttering (loudly so everyone could hear) about how he was a Master Chief on leave and blah blah blah.

The ladies jumped up, "Right this way sir."

...

I don't even have anything to say to that.

If you know me well enough though, you can probably guess what's going through my head.

I have a major problem with bullying. Whether its that overgrown kid in fifth grade, high school quarter back or a Master Chief. Just because you are bigger, more popular or have a fancy title, (which I admit must have taken a lot of work to gain) it doesn't mean that you have to be rude to everyone lower than you when you don't get your way. No, I wasn't bullied when I was a kid, I just always found it rude and kind of annoying.

But whatever, that's why I went to college. So I could read books and write papers for the rest of my life.

I've got a little sarcastic streak jumping out at the moment, so please bear with me.

Other little note... but before that I'm going to mention something that I usually don't talk about... politics. This is because I'm going to mention some stuff and I don't want people to get the wrong idea.

I may not completely agree with our President, (whoever it is at the current time) but I will always support him/her because I love the United States of America. I love our flag, our song and our obsession with fried, fatty foods. The United States is just plain awesome.

I just don't want to serve in the military.

I went to the Navy Exchange, where Navy personnel can get stuff for cheaper than back in the states. I was interested in history, so I headed over to the books section to look at a book to possibly entertain myself with. (Because I have The Outsiders memorized cover to cover, so I decided it was about time to try something new.)

Lots of stuff on the American Revolution, and lots of stuff on World War I and II.

Nothing, absolutely nothing on Vietnam.

Except for a small book that was a biography about a war pilot who came from a rich military family and got some medal.

What happened to the working class war? The draft, the protests- my Japanese textbook has more information. (It actually does. One of my kanji readings was about John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, and all of the peace activities that they put on during the Vietnam War era).

Nothing on the Civil War either.

Talk about propaganda and a biased selection.

So, afterwards, we headed back to the apartment where we hung out until we walked to grab my train. It was a rather long ride home, and when I got back it was only the start of an almost entire week of rain.

Other highlights this week:

I have a new toy called a Nintendo DSi. A new game too: Pokemon Soul Silver.

Yesterday while studying for my test, Naruto (one of the few anime series that I watch) came on the television. It was really cool to watch, even though I could only understand a few words. (Which is more progressive than a year ago).

Today, I had my big "shiken" or test. I think I did fairly well on it. I missed a couple vocabulary words, but overall I feel rather solid.

I also had my last "shodo" or calligraphy class today. The next class is the same date as my graduation, so I will have to skip it. It was lots of fun, and sensee (teacher) thought that my "shodo" was very well done. Before I left, she gave me my first shodo brush as a gift. I'm going to have my Okaasan give sensee her gift when she sees her next time.

I can't speak French anymore. I tried to say a sentence the other day and it came out as "Ce denshya wa..." Ce is the only french word in that sentence. It means "this". "denshya wa" is Japanese. (If you thought that was English...)

I haven't had peanut butter in nearly two weeks. I'm on a role.

More soon! Kyoto is tomorrow!

Sunday: Friends come to Nagahama

Sunday, the first day in a long time where I didn't have any plans until the afternoon, saw me sleeping in until ten o'clock. Once I woke up, i went downstairs where I had breakfast with my host mother. Then, I started my laundry and got ready for the day. When I was done with my shower and getting dressed, I hung my clothes out on the line. I then received a text message from my friend, Jackie, and I went over to Nagahama Station to meet them.

After I went to Nagahama station, I walked around a little bit and then I found them at the festival. There, we walked down the street, stopping at almost every store on the side of the road. We saw lots of pretty purses and hats. There was also a store that was dedicated completely to chopsticks, and for 600 yen, ($6) you could have your very own pair of chopsticks that were modeled after the Shinkansen trains. Then, we all pitched in a couple hundred yen and got a bunch of food, which we all shared. Afterwards, we walked the road that I take every morning to and from my house to the station. We looked around the Nagahama shrine that I pass every morning and also my house. My host parents were out at the current moment, so we just kept going to the small shopping center down the road.

At the shopping center, we looked around and shopped in a popular store on the third floor. Then, we all did Purikura, with two of our members doing it for the first time.It was a blast and afterwards we all headed back to my house in order to ask my host mom where the "kaiten sushi" restaurant was. She gave Jackie directions, (Jackie is in fourth year and the best at Japanese out of all of us) and then invited my friends in to see the art gallery and my room.

Of course, having done laundry that morning meant that all of my clothes were hanging up everywhere, so Jackie and I, (the only girls in the group) hurried to my room and put away all of my clothes before we let the boys come up.

In my room, which everyone thought was amazing because it is about the size of the whole apartment at JCMU. We sat and talked for a little bit before we headed out to kaiten sushi.

Kaiten sushi literally translates to “rotating sushi”, and I'm going to go totally nerd for a minute by pointing out that “kaiten” is the name of the move that the Hyuugas from the Naruto series do when they turn in a circle, creating a small tornado.

ANYWAY…

So we all sat down in a booth, Jackie and Pat on one side. Myself, Tisch and Ang San on the other side. The end of the booth where there is normally a wall there is a two story rotating engineered machine. Premade stuff comes out on the bottom story, and when you see something you like, you simply grab the plate and put it on your table and start eating. 

Now, let's say you want some MELON! But, for the past five minutes, you haven't seen any melon whatsoever. What you can do, is you can go to the screen that is mounted on the rotating machine, (but it doesn't rotate, there is one per table) and you go to the menu and order melon. Then, by a cute little Shinkansen train, on the second story of the machine, the train comes with your melon on a plate, just for you! Then, you press the red button, and the train goes back to the kitchen.

Of course, right after you order the melon, some new melons come out on the bottom rack, but it's okay, because everyone wants to use the Shinkansen train food-giver at least once. 

Now, how do you pay for this? By the number of plates that you take. Every time you grab a plate from the rack, you eat your sushi/dessert/melon then you stack the plates. Once your done, a server will come by, count the number of plates then give you your receipt. Some things like dessert and melon cost a little more than normal sushi, but just about everything is about a dollar per plate. So, for someone like me who isn't hungry, I only had to pay $6, yet Ang San, who had 17 plates of sushi was paying upwards of $20. 

Afterwards, my friends headed back to JCMU, and I returned home, where I finished my homework then went to bed.

Note: I'm really sorry about the lateness of these blogs. I'm stressing out a little about my big midterm at the end of the week, because a brand new grammar structure was just introduced on Thursday, and it's going to be a major part of the midterm. This new grammar structure is called "keigo" and it's honorific language. So, when talking to a friend, the verb "to eat" is "taberu". When talking to a teacher, the verb is "meshiagaru". That's right. The Japanese language has a brand new verb just when your talking to someone that is very important. It's like learning the whole language all over again, except everything is longer and sounds more confusing. (because it's longer).

Plus, I need to review all 200 kanji that I have learned, and the millions of verbs, adjectives and nouns that can just come out of nowhere. Oh, and the readings from the kanji review sections, (which could show up word by word on the test) which vary in topics from Hiroshima to Doraemon (an anime character) to Yoko Ono, (John Lennon's wife). 

So, to be honest, I'm going to combine my entire past weekend in Yokosuka into one blog that will probably come out on Friday after my test. Then, I will hopefully get back on track until my final in the first week of August. 

書くなくてすみませんでした！

(I'm sorry for not writing!)

Saturday: Osaka and Shopping

Saturday morning I woke up early, took a shower, ate a quick breakfast then hurried to the train station. Once I got there, I hopped right on the train (perfect timing) and then rode the train to Hikone, where I met one of my friends and we both then bought our tickets to Osaka and got on the next train south.

The trip to Osaka is about two hours long and twenty dollars each way. We got on the train and talked, and when we finally arrived in Osaka, we noticed that it was pouring out.

The worst monsoon to ever hit Japan!

Okay, well, I don't know about that last part, but I sure wasn't excited to be walking all around Osaka in heels in the rain. Thank goodness I brought my umbrella.

Oh yes, Osaka is a modern city, kind of like a mini Tokyo, so my friend and I decided to dress up in normal Japanese clothes. See my Tokyo blog for more information.

When we got to Osaka, we decided to first to a small lunch, which consisted of two tiny waffles and some tea at a teahouse. Once we finished, we looked around the shops in the train station then braved our way outside.

We crossed a very busy street and started walking down the sidewalk, but eventually, we were getting a little too wet for our comforts (we even had our umbrellas) so we turned back around and decided to stick relatively close to the station.

First, we went to a very big shopping mall right next to that station. It is about 10 floors, with the top floor being a restaurant, and a majority of the center one particular store: Comme Ca. (Which is French for "like that") I liked a lot of stuff, but I wanted to stay relatively on a budget, so I ended up not buying anything from there.

We went to this one store, where I ended up buying a vest with a fringe and a pair of shoes with really high heels and some fringe. For some reason, the Japanese love Native American style clothing. Fringe, leather and feather. Then, they also like cowboy clothing. Cowboy boots, floral dresses and jean jackets. There are more American clothes here than in America. Yet, it's very Japanese.

To be completely honest, it doesn't make that much sense to me either.

After our first purchase, we headed up all of the floors and mostly just looked around. After we had finished the entire mall, we then headed back to the station and then found the "Chika Umeda" or the Underground Umeda shopping mall. There, we explored the vast two levels that were just filled with various shops and restaurants. We did some more shopping, including some more "Western" clothes, another pair of shoes and then we also went to a store that reminded me of Claire's. It was a store with lots of accessories such as jewelry, headbands and bracelets. I got some stuff there, and then we both decided that we were wiped.

On our way back to the station, we saw a McDonalds, and decided to celebrate July 4th, (again) and ordered ourselves some cheeseburgers and fries.

Second best burger in my life!

After McDonalds, we headed back to the train station, and we just managed to make it onto a train that was heading back to Hikone. The train was already going much slower than usual, and at a random city, the train stopped completely. We sat on the train for nearly an hour until we started moving again. We never found out the reason for the stop, (or maybe we did, but we couldn't completely understand the conductor) but I would like to assume that it was because of the heavy rain. The trains have always been a little late when it's raining really hard.

And so, after another three hours on the train, we managed to make it to Hikone. my trip wasn't over yet though, I swiped my paid ticket, then went back in with my card that I use to get from school to home and vice versa. Once again, I just managed to jump on a train before it left, but once again because of the rain, the train went very slowly and took twice as long to complete the trip.

So, Osaka was great, even though we didn't get to experience much of it. I plan on focusing most of my time on Kyoto and Nara for sightseeing, which will be happening within the next few weeks.

More soon. Sunday was just as exciting!!!

Friday: Shodo and a Festival

Here we go...

Friday morning I woke up early and like usual grabbed the train to Hikone, from where I rode my bike for about twenty minutes to get to JCMU.

At JCMU, I took my normal classes, but because it was Friday, class was only until noon, which after we had free time. Instead of hanging out with my friends like I normally do, I headed out directly after class to make it to the train station.

First, I stopped at Vidal's, which is a small bakery run by a woman outside of her home. She makes/sells pastries for really cheap, and it's a great lunch when we are tired of ramen and rice. The size of the shop is about the size of my closet (literally), but it's really nice. Recently, my friends and I have been saying "Tadaima!" when we arrive.

Culture Note: When the Japanese ever leave the house, they say "Ittekimasu", which literally translates to "I will go and come back". When this happens, the people within the house say "kiotsukete" which translates to "be cautious/ have a safe trip". I say this to my Okaasan and Otoosan every morning when I leave for school.

When the Japanese return home, they say "Taidaima" or, "I'm home". In response, the Japanese say "Okaerinasai" or "Welcome home". It's a neat little culture thing that I will probably bring back to teh United States. (In English of course).

After Vidals, I hurried to the train station. When I parked my bike, I looked at my watch and saw that I had a decent amount of time until the next train so I decided to treat myself to an early 4th of July celebration. That's right, I went to McDonalds.

I ordered a plain cheeseburger and fries off of the hyaku-yen menu, (100 yen/ 1 dollar). I took my bag with me to the train station, sat down between an old man, a mother and two school girls and ate my burger.

Culture Note: It's kind of rude to eat in public.

Culture Note part 2: The Japanese and foreigners use a term called "gaijin smash". "Gaijin" is slang for "foreigner", the actual word for foreigner being "gaikokujin". It usually carries a negative connotation, but because we're actually foreigners, (and we use it on each other and ourselves rather often) we're pretty chill with it. Besides, we know that we are foreigners and we are always going to look like foreigners. Might as well go along with it.

So anyways, one day the term "gaijin smash" was created. Basically, this means that we use the fact that we are an obvious foreigner to our advantage when it comes to culture and social ethics. We know it's wrong, but we pretend to not know and just go along with it. It sounds really bad, and to be honest, I have been staring at this sentence for ten minutes and I can't really justify it why we do it. I think it's because I get stared at every day anyway, I might as well have a burger to go along with it.

For example, I got a burger at the McDonalds, but I wanted to make it to the train. So, I got the burger to go and then ate it in the station even though it's considered rude and impatient to not wait until I was on the train or back home to eat my burger.

Because I'm an obvious American and foreigner, they totally ignored the fact that I was eating a burger and just left for their trains when they came. Win-win situation. The Japanese ignore the (already) painfully obvious American eating McDonalds, and I get to relish in a little bit of home.

Just to let you know: it was the best burger of my life.

So, I finally grabbed the train back and then I met my Okaasan at the train station. From there, we made a small stop at the grocery store, and then we went to Shodo class, or traditional Japanese calligraphy.

Traditional calligraphy involves ink, pens, brushes, thin paper and lots and lots of dedication. When I come back, I plan on bringing back many papers in with calligraphy and I'll be happy to show everyone too. In fact, it's on my to-do list to pick up some calligraphy materials. Eventually, I would like to get into traditional English calligraphy. I like writing and making everything look organized and pretty. Calligraphy is just that. It's art in words. (literally).

For the first two hours, I practiced writing a cursive script with a pen. From far away, the words looks like one letter that just bled all down the paper, but if you look close enough you can pick out various hiragana. I also practiced writing my hiragana with a pen. Writing calligraphy is different than writing normally. In order to make all of the characters one stroke of the pen, you have to hold the pen lower on your hand. Otherwise, you'll have to stop every now and then, readjust the pen then continue where you left off.

After the first two hours, we then had a Japanese snack. It consisted of green tea and some treats. The treats weren't may favorite because they all had chocolate on them, but in order to be polite, I ate one of each. Sensei, (teacher) was really nice and we had a stimulating conversation about Japanese history, which involved me looking over at Okaasan for a translation (individual words, not sentences) only a few times.

Okaasan and I then went home after I got some words from Sensei to practice with. First though, we stopped at the bakery shop and picked up a coffee cake. (It's really good over here).

After dinner, Okaasan and I went to the festival in town. It was raining and baseball was on the TV so Otoosan stayed in. Okaasan and I drove a little bit into town, then walked a little to the actual festival. It wasn't really much, just a bunch of Japanese festival food and some small booths that were mostly rip-offs. We hung around for about a half hour and then we headed back where I practiced some shodo and then went to bed.

More coming soon!

Tokyo: Harajuku and Tokyo Underground

The next day I woke up at seven in the morning on my own after about six and a half hours of sleep. I took a shower, (a traditional Japanese shower, see, Family Visiting for more information), but I didn't take the bath afterwards. When I finished, I got dressed then headed downstairs where I had breakfast with Bre, the Australian exchange student who is staying with Ayami's family. She currently goes to high school in Japan as a senior, but is taking only her first year of Japanese.

My breakfast consisted of two pastries from the shop where Ayami works, with some peanut/honey butter. It was absolutely delicious, and for drink I had "ochya", or chilled tea. Afterwards, we both headed upstairs where we found Ayami and then got ready to go to Tokyo for the day.

This is the part that I love about the big city and going to Tokyo. When we were planning this out, Ayami had asked me what I wanted to do in Tokyo. My simple reply was "not be a tourist". Despite the fact that I look American (and proud of it), I wanted to go into Tokyo and experience it without a camera. I wanted to blend in, and really experience what people do in Tokyo. So, we did what most teenage girls do in Tokyo on a Sunday, we went shopping, particularly in the Harajuku district.

It took us about an hour to get ready, (not including the shower from earlier in the morning). We dressed in Japanese young adult style. The idea of Japanese fashion, from my point of view, is to cover as much of yourself as possible, while looking like you aren't really wearing much of anything. Short shorts, high heels, tank tops, lace covers. However, at the same time, full leggings are worn underneath the shorts, 3/4 length or long sleeve shirts underneath the tank tops. Heels involve lots of complicated straps and buckles, (but those are just for show, they are very easy to actually put on), and most shirts worn by themselves are extremely big, to encourage the idea that the person is very small. Accessories, such as chunky necklaces, big bowed headbands, "kawaii" (cute) barrettes and socks are also added on.

Make-up is also worn a lot, with focus on the eyes. Fake eyelashes, mascara, eye shadow, and eyeliner (top and bottom) is worn a lot in order to make the eyes look bigger. The Purikura that we did yesterday actually has a special ability attached. Here in the United States, our cameras can get rid of red eye. In Japan, Purikura can adjust the picture to make the eyes look bigger and more open. At the Hyaku Yen (100 Yen) store, you can even find "eye stickers", which can be used to stretch the skin around the eyes to open up the eyelid to give the idea of a more rounder eye. Here in the United States people believe that American young adult women are having problems with tanning. Japan wants everyone to see their eyes. It seems that every country has it's insecurities. (Or maybe it's just a female thing?)

The guys tend to dress really polished. Clean, pressed jeans, tight shirts (Japanese guys are also kind of small) jackets or hoodies. Their hair is usually a little long, but not extreme. Kind of like greasers from the 1960s, except Japanese guys don't really grease their hair back. And man purses. Yes, a majority of young Japanese adult men have man purses. They come in the form of usually a small bag that sits on the shoulder and straps around the body. Sometimes it's an designer bag, like Louis Vuitton or a fancy leather bag. The outside is usually plain though, obviously used more for purpose rather than style.

Food Note: For all of you next summer or next year who want to come to Japan and have high hopes for losing a bunch of weight, don't get your hopes up too much. I talked with my friend Ayami, and she said that it wasn't necessarily the idea that the Japanese eat better, but that Japanese people are just genetically smaller. In fact, the Japanese are pretty famous for their fried foods. "Tonkatsu" (pork cutlets) "tenpura" (fried vegetables and fish), are just a few of a number of Japanese foods that are bad for you. While it is true that the Japanese walk around more, don't expect to lose two size just by walking across Tokyo for one weekend. After talking with Ayami, I looked around and decided that she was right. No matter how many dinners I skip or vegetables I eat, I'm never going to be a size 1 because my bones aren't that small. It's a fact of life. That one girl on the train who disappeared from my view when she turned sideways... she is just really really skinny. (I bet she watches what she eats too, but that's not the complete point I'm trying to make here.)

And for those who are a little over the normal weight, don't worry about Japan. Japan has just as many "bigger" people as America, whether it's kids, teenage boys, adult women or elderly couples. Everyone has a little pudge everywhere. Except young adult guys. They are skinny. But then again, a majority of them are skinny in the United States too. I do have to admit though, I haven't seen any terribly obese people. Overweight, maybe, but no one who is really really obese.

Anyway, once we were all finished, Ayami's dad drove Ayami, Ayami's mom, Bre and I to the station located near Ayami's house. Ayami lives in Ibaraki, what I can describe as the suburbs of Tokyo. It was about a 40 minute train ride, with one train exchange, to Tokyo station. At Tokyo station, I put my backpack in a locker (I wasn't going to return to Ayami's house) and then we went and had lunch at a restaurant on the top floor of a fancy shopping center.

Lunch was a four course meal, that started out with shrimp, vegetables, and something else. (I tend to eat anything these days, and I stopped questioning what type of food I'm eating.) I also had a caesar salad. We then had our main meal, which mine consisted of pasta with Japanese eggplant sauce and squid. It was very tasty, and a small portion as well. After our meal, we each received a small serving of a cheese dessert with raspberry sauce on top. We finished that off with hot tea, and were extremely satisfied by the end of the meal. Cost: only $15.00 per person.

Yeah, that's right.

After our delicious lunch, we all headed back to Tokyo station where we took a train to Akihabara station. From Akihabara (the electronics and anime section of Tokyo) we took another train to the Harajuku district, which is within the Shibuya district that we had gone the day before.

Map Note: You might want to wiki-this or something so that it makes sense. Shibuya is a district in Tokyo is that known for Japanese fashion. Within Shibuya, there are famous sections, the one that I went to yesterday was known as Shibuya. (Think of going to Kansas City, Kansas). Another famous section in Shibuya is Harajuku. Within Harajuku, we went to the most famous street, Takeshita Dori, which is about 400 meters long, with shops side to side selling trendy clothes for a relatively cheap price. (Remember, nothing in Japan is really cheap.)

So, we walked down Takeshita Dori, and entered a few shops. Takeshita Dori is very busy on Sunday, and most sales are also on that day. Some stores had everything 50% off, while others had many signs in the front, but then in the back of the store, the more recent and modern stuff was full price. Average prices were about $25.00 for shorts, t-shirts and shoes, $35.00 for jeans and jackets. Minor accessories were about $5.00 each. At one store, I made my purchase of the weekend, a pair of high heeled sandals for about $20.00. I can't wait to show them off in Southern Maryland.

After Takeshita Dori, we walked around a little more and stopped at a few stores, but didn't buy anything. We then took a train to Ginza, the fancy section of Tokyo. It's filled with famous company stores such as Yamaha Music Group, Sony Electronics and Zara, a really famous Japanese clothes store. We walked up the street and saw the previous Prime Minister's older brother talking to a group of people, while another lady across the street yelled about "crazy liberals". I guess even in Japan you have people on opposite sides in politics. (who am I kidding, that happens everywhere).

Culture Note: I got the lowdown from one of my guy friends a little while back about the Japanese government system, so I'm going to explain what I know about it. The Japanese government is called a Diet. (I don't know why.) A president has to run at least every five years, but usually it happens more often than that because the Japanese equivalent to the Senate gets to decide when to hold elections. Therefore an election usually happens when the "Senate" changes parties. Imagine in the United States, every time the Republicans got in charge, we had another election- which would mean that most likely our president would become a Republican. Then the Democrats got in charge a year later, and then they would decide to have another election. I can see the upsides to this ideology, the people have more of a control over what type of party is in charge of the government, (compared to waiting for four years), but at the same time, for someone who doesn't watch politics a lot, (it's really messy) I probably would wake up one morning and find out that we have a new Commander in Chief from my neighbor.

We went into the Yamaha Music building, where we went up to the seventh floor and saw Ayami's aunt play the Marimba, (traditional Japanese xylophone). I thought this was going to be a long event, but it turned out that her aunt only played on song, so we left after about fifteen minutes. It was really cool though, because the Yamaha Music building is also where they teach music to students. I guess it's on par with Juilliard.

After the Yamaha Music building, we walked into a couple stores. Unlike Harajuku, which was a crowded street with small shops lining the sides, Ginza stores were massive, sometimes four or five stories tall. There were popular brands, such as Forever 21 and H & M, but there were also some Japanese stores as well. It was all very expensive, so I didn't buy anything.

Afterwards, we walked to a small coffee shop and had a small break. I had hot tea, made from real tea leaves and some vanilla wafers. We sat for about twenty minutes and looked on the computer that was in the shop for directions to some book stores in Tokyo. We finally found a really big one, so once we finished our tea and coffee, we headed over in that direction.

When we finally made it to the book store, we walked in and split up to find some books. Ayami came with me and we looked on the computer to see if they had "The Outsiders" in Japanese. Unfortunately, they didn't, so instead I looked at kids books to help me with my kanji and reading comprehension. I have learned that I learn best when I read. I think that's why I can describe things rather well, it's because I read a lot when I was younger. Of course, it also means that I have a runaway imagination as well. I ended up getting a fourth grade book, and I'm already having some trouble with it. I think I may still be third grade level. But I'll work through it.

So, that was the one disappointment of the day. I think that "The Outsiders" is a lost cause. If it wasn't in the biggest book store in Tokyo, where will I find it?

Oh, there were autographed pictures of celebrities as well. I didn't get a look at the price tag, but there were some people like Madonna, Angelina Jolie and Sean Connery. Pretty fancy.

We then headed back to Tokyo Station, where we went back to the same building where we had lunch and we had an early dinner, consisting of "Tonkatsu", or pork cutlets. It was very tasty, but we had only eaten lunch about five hours earlier, and a snack in between so I wasn't that hungry. From our table though, we could see outside and see the Emperor's Castle. Yes, there is still an Emperor of Japan, but he is more a figure head, similar to the Queen of England.

We hurried back to the station so that I could find my train, and when we did, I said good-bye to everyone, before going through the gates and upstairs to the platform. The train ride back was very fast, and I was in Maibara before I knew it. It was downpouring in Nagahama, but I managed to fall asleep almost as soon as I fell onto the bed.

I really really liked Tokyo.

And I think I'm going back.

Tokyo: Shibuya and Tokyo Disney

Wow, what an amazing weekend. The reason for the late update? I simple didn't have enough time to detail all of my experiences in one go! Hope y'all are ready. Grab some popcorn and a coke, because I think this is going to be my longest blog yet!

I started out waking up at six thirty in the morning. I did some last minute packing and then headed downstairs where I had a very delicious breakfast with Okaasan and Otoosan. Then, my host mother drove me to Maibara station, about a fifteen minute ride from the house, but it saved me a walk in the rain, a train exchange, and figuring out the Shinkansen on my own. Okaasan got a small ticket, which allowed her to come onto the platform with me. I was about twenty minutes early, so we sat down and talked (in Japanese) about what I planned to do in Tokyo. Suddenly, Okaasan pointed at the tracks and said "Asoko de" (over there), so I looked in the direction and saw a Shinkansen train coming. It wasn't mine, just another one that was passing through, and as it passed, it was very windy, very loud and very thrilling. It reminded me of being in one of those roller coasters that takes off very fast, like the Rockin' Roller Coaster or the Volcano ride at King's Dominion.

The Shinkansen train (also known as the Bullet train) is an experience that I think everyone should have in Japan. It's very expensive, about $120 each way from Maibara to Tokyo, but the idea of knowing that you have traveled 227 miles in just around two hours is the amazing part. It's about equal distance from Fort Lauderdale to Daytona Beach, Florida. About 3/4 the length of the Florida panhandle. A trip that Yahoo Maps says takes three hours and forty minutes.

On the Shinkansen, a lady usually walks up and down the train every so often with a cart filled with snacks. There is a first class train, normal trains, and a smoking train. Because I bought my ticket last, I had to sit in the smoking train, but it really wasn't that bad. You have a tray table and a place overhead to store your bags. There is also a bathroom car every four or five cars or so, where there is also a "various" room, which can be used for things such as feeding and changing clothes.

I arrived at Tokyo station at eleven ten in the morning, and after some confusion through the phone with my friend, Ayami, we switched to English and she was able to find me. Together, we went back into the station and took a train to Shibuya, a popular shopping district in Tokyo. We mostly spoke Japanese, and I got to practice my short form a lot.

Language Note: Japanese has two main levels of politeness. There is casual, (short form) and polite form (kedo). There are also ways to make your polite form even more polite, but usually the polite form suffices. The only time I have used the super polite form is when I say "Thank you" to a person who has helped me. In which I just extend "Arigatou Gozaimasu" to "Arigatou Gozaimashita".

Japan Note: Tokyo, like New York, has subsections that are known for specific things. For example, in New York, there is the Upper East Side. This is a popular district known for the rich inhabitants and the fancy stores that line the streets. There is a similar district in Tokyo, called Ginza. In Tokyo, there is also Akihabara, the electronics and anime section. Roppongi, on the other hand, is known for the foreign embassies and night life. I was not able to make it to these specific parts of Tokyo, so I will list the other sections later as I visited them.

Shibuya is known for being very crowded and the shopping district that is mostly associated with young people. Shibuya, a little less than ten miles squared is home to more than 200,000 people. That averages to about 20,000 people in one square mile. It's CROWDED.

The somewhat funny part is that you have to factor in the Meiji Shrine. Emperor Meiji (the man famous for the Meiji Restoration which catapulted Japan from an average Asian country to a threat to Western colonization in the late eighteen hundreds) along with his wife, is enshrined at the shrine, which is surround by 700,000 squared meter forest, (about 175 acres) which basically means that Shibuya is even MORE crowded than the numbers first indicated because I doubt anyone is living in Emperor Meiji's forest.

The even funnier part? I wouldn't mind living there. I crave action and the big city feel, which is exactly what you would get in Shibuya, but I would probably have to pass on this one. I just can't see myself paying roughly $2,000 a month for a 25 meter squared studio apartment. And that's starting. If you even want one bedroom, be prepared to go up at least another thousand.

Once we got to Shibuya, I put my backpack in a locker in the station. For one day, and 300 yen, you can leave your bag in a locker, which can only be unlocked by a key which is already in the lock. The only way you can get the key out is by locking the locker. The only downside is that once you open the locker up again, you have to pay 300 more yen. (That way they can stop people from "sharing" lockers). So, if you forget something in the bag in the locker, you have to shell out three more dollars to get it out.

And so, Ayami and I headed to "Ichi-Maru-Kyu" Japanese for "109", which is a famous shopping center in the middle of Shibuya. On our way, we stopped at Baskin Robbins (The Japanese love their ice cream) and we grabbed what we called "hirogohan" (lunch). Then, we walked to Ichi-Maru-Kyu, but we had to take a detour because food isn't allowed in the building. So we walked up and down the street, looking for Purikura, the Japanese photo booth activity. Purikura is really really popular in Japan. It's something that everyone knows and that everyone does. (Even the guys). We didn't find any, and had finished our ice cream, so we headed back to Ichi-Maru-Kyu and went in to do some shopping.

I saw lots of stuff that I liked, and now I kind of wished that I wasn't so worried about money. The shopping center is about ten floors tall and filled with lots of modern Japanese teenager clothes. The one that we went to is for women, while across the street there is another Ichi-Maru-Kyu-2, which is for guys.

We looked at shoes, jumpsuits, pants and more shoes. The Japanese fashion is really cool, and I really like it a lot. The idea is to cover as much of yourself as possible while looking like you're wearing the least amount as possible. High heels with buckles and straps, hair accessories such as bows, headbands and barrettes. Off the shoulder tops with another shirt underneath. Shorts and skirts with leggings. Jumpsuits are really in at the moment, and I'm going to try to find one here before I return home. Also, the Japanese have an insane obsession with cowboy boots. I think I'm going to grab a pair of those too. For Johnny.

We left empty handed, and then explored Shibuya a little more before we finally found a Purikura photo booth. We did that twice, and I have a bunch of pictures that I'll show everyone when I get back.

After Purikura, we headed back to the station in Shibuya, and took a train to Tokyo station. From Tokyo station we took another train to Maihama station, which is where Tokyo Disneyland is located. All together, it took about fifty minutes or so to get from Shibuya to Tokyo Disneyland.

Once we got to Tokyo Disneyland, I put my backpack in another locker and then headed to the ticket station. We showed them our tickets, and found out that it was 100 yen cheaper that day so we were able to get 100 yen back. We then headed towards the direction of Space Mountain, where we were meeting four of Ayami's high school friends.

We finally found them in line and ducked under the rope to join them. We ended up cutting about ten people, which is really not bad because the wait was 2 hours anyway. I don't think we made that much of a difference. Some other people cut later, so I think it is something that happens every so often and people just let it go.

Two hours later, we rode Space Mountain. It was lots of fun, but my favorite part was waiting in line. Now, most of you guys are probably like, "What?!" but while waiting in line, I spoke only Japanese with Japanese college students. We used the most casual form, and a couple slang words as well. We talked about movies, music, America, parties and college life in general.

After Space Mountain, we all grabbed a churro from one of the stands and had a small snack. Then we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain. On our way we took pictures in front of Cinderella's castle. While in line for Big Thunder Mountain, after waiting for a little more than an hour,  a voice came on the intercom. I didn't understand most of what they said, but from the groans and disappointed looks on my friends face, I assumed the ride had broken down. And I was right.

But, for our trouble, we all got fast passes (which allows you to skip most of the line) and headed straight over to Splash Mountain. This was an interesting ride because all of the speaking lines were in Japanese, but once they started singing it was English. It was the same for Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.

After Splash Mountain, we came out to see that there was a parade going on, which meant that we couldn't move. We eventually managed to join a group, and got led to the Haunted Mansion. It was rather empty, so we got in with the first group. The lady who was working the ride asked me to put away my camera, in English. (Oh yeah, I got pictures of Splash Mountain)

Tokyo Note: That's the one thing I wasn't too happy with in Tokyo, was the English. Granted, Tokyo is Japan's biggest tourist city, and the place where most people go for vacations if they come to the country, but it bothered me that they wouldn't even try to speak Japanese with me. The store cashiers, Disney workers and train attendants automatically assumed that I only spoke English. If I go back to Tokyo, I think I might try to throw someone off and just speak French. So, if you do go to Tokyo, be prepared to be judged. Not in a bad way, but don't be shocked if everyone's first attempt to communicate is in broken English.

After Haunted Mansion, we headed over to the Teacups. We split into groups of three by playing Jan-Ken-Pon (Rock-Paper-Scissors), and I ended up with two of Ayami's friends. We spun the teacup around really fast, and I had to hold my stomach (not in a bad way) because I was laughing so hard.

After Teacups we walked towards the food area, (we made sure to do Teacups BEFORE we ate), where we had pizza for dinner. I had mushroom and sausage pizza, as opposed to chicken and vegetables pizza.

Culture Note: In Japan, pizza is everywhere. But they put EVERYTHING on pizza. Don't expect plain cheese here.

When we were all full, we headed near the exit as it was nearly 10:00 pm, the time that the park closes. We hurried and grabbed seats real quick on Pirates of the Caribbean, and I was shocked to see all of the new additions. Jack Sparrow is now an active member, as well as Barbosa and Davy Jones. It was quite funny, because you could tell what parts of the ride were new compared to the old parts. The new parts had more detail, because they resembled specific characters and props, while the old parts of the ride where generic pirates. I absolutely loved the movies, but I have to admit, I prefer the older version of the ride.

Finally, we left the park. We did stop by to grab some "omiyage" or souvenirs, (another thing Japan really loves). Then, we grabbed the half hour train ride back to Tokyo station, where we grabbed another train to Ibaraki, the suburbs of Tokyo. I almost fell asleep on the train, almost.

Well, that's Day 1 of Tokyo. I'll update tomorrow!

Birthday in Japan!

What an amazing day! If you don't mind though, we're going to back up a few minutes

Yesterday was my "shiken" or big test on Genki 1 and the first two chapters of Genki 2. To be rather honest, it was fairly easy, with a few problems with various particles and tenses here and there, but nothing to completely fret about. I also had my oral test, in which I "applied" for a job as an English teacher. Yoshida-sensee, who did my oral test, asked me if I could sing songs, cook and write kanji. She also asked if I had taught before. I answered everything very truthfully, which is not normal in an oral test. Usually, you bend the truth in order to use certain grammar structures and because of lack of vocabulary. I stumbled a few times with the pronunciation and word order, (I do the same thing in English half the time) but overall I had a very good feeling about it.

Another note: My Japanese has gotten more respondent and thoughtful fluent. I don't need to translate in my head what I want to say, and when I hear other people talk, I hear Japanese, I think Japanese, and then I respond in Japanese. Reading kanji has also gotten much easier and when I recognize kanji, I think in Japanese as well. Reading is my only slow suit, but with time that should get better.

Yesterday after I got back home, I did my laundry and then my host mom and I made inarizushi, it's little hand made packets of soy sauce and eggs fried in a pan, filled with rice with black peppers. They are really delicious, and it's my favorite Japanese food. After we had finished, my laundry had also finished washing, so I put the clothes in a basket and then took them outside to hang on the line. It was very hot yesterday, so most of my clothes dried fairly quickly, but I started my laundry kind of late, so not everything was able to become completely dry. I brought them back in for the night, with intents to hang them up the following morning.

The next morning I woke up a little later than usual, actually around 6:15 am. I skyped with my mom, which she told me "Happy Birthday", and then I got dressed for the day. My clothes still were completely dry, but I didn't have time to go out to the line, so I just hung them up in my makeshift closet hoping that they would dry while I was in Hikone.

I got to JCMU around 8:15, and I hung out downstairs with some of my friends. Today we visited an Elementary school in Hikone. It was about a 20 minute taxi ride to Wakaba Elementary School. We had already be divided into groups of three or four, with each group going to a different Elementary School.

When we got there, we noticed that there was a gate surrounding the school, and that there was also a pool, which was currently being used by kids who were taking swim lessons. (As part of the school day). We walked into the building, and were generally left alone, so we explored the nearby area, (the lobby and just outside the door) before the principal of the school came to us twenty minutes later, gave us indoor shoes to wear and then showed us to his office.

In his office, two fourth graders brought us Japanese green tea. One of the office ladies also asked us a few questions in Japanese. The kids were very bright and happy, and also asked us questions, though they didn't use a lot of "polite form".

Culture Note: Polite form is normally taught to kids in school, contrary to the order that foreign students learn Japanese. This is because as a foreigner, you always want to be as polite as possible, whereas the kids learn Japanese from home, where the parents use plain form.

After sitting for another ten minutes, the two kids then showed us to the fourth grade classrooms. There we had to introduce ourselves. I said that my name was Kailey, and then I accidentally said that I was 18 years old. I corrected myself, which led the kids to giggle. The four of us then split off into four different groups, where each group attempted to teach us a traditional Japanese game. In each of the four groups, there were three different games. We only managed to go to three out of the four groups, but I'll describe the nine games we had to play.

1: Similar to billiards, only you have to flick your finger and there are only two colors, the object is to get all of the small wooden objects (shaped like a wheel) of your color into one of the four holes at the corner of the box. In order to do this, you have to flick your tan object with your finger and hit your color which should go into the corner. If you accidently hit the "eight-ball" fancy wheel object, you have to take out one of your colors that had already gone into the hole and put it back on the board.

2: Juggling. We each had 2 or 3 hacky sacks and we had to juggle with them.

3: Marbles, only with flatter marbles, like those small objects you get in mancala sets.

4: Similar to Jenga, you have a stack of wooden blocks and you have to use a mallet and attempt to get rid of the bottom block without the whole thing falling over. I was pretty good at this one, and had some of the kids staring in disbelief.

5: This was a card game, where the girl would say a sentence, and we would have to find the card (they had all been spread out among the floor) which matched the first hiragana character that she had said. For example, if the girl had said "Neko..." then we would have had to find the card with the "ne" character on it.

6. Tops and yarn. Fairly simple.

7. Another card game, only instead of finding just hiragana characters, we had to find the whole sentence that the girl said. At first it was kind of confusing, but by the end I managed to just barely win.

8. A game involving a little wooden tool, where there was a stick and a ball attached to it by a piece of string. The idea was to get the ball to land on the stick. (There was a hole in the ball). I was not successful, and none of the other kids were either.

9. Jump rope, only lower to the ground. Once again, with previous knowledge, I managed to do this fairly easily and the kids were very amazed.

I had lots of fun with the kids, and after we left, and returned to JCMU, we met with all of the other groups and apparently they had a lot of fun too. I do feel as though not all of the kids play those games very often. I guess it would have been like shoots and ladders, or that paddle with a ball on the end. Every house has one, but it's not used that often. Which makes Japan in a way, just like America. Regardless, I had fun learning new, (and somewhat familiar) games.

After that, Heather and I headed over to Vidal's, which has become our regular lunch place. It's a small pastry shop, literally about the size of a guest bathroom in a normal American household. All of the pastries are handmade and sold by the lady who also lives in the shop, as it is half her shop and half her house. They are all very delicious. I have tried potato bread, cheese bread, chocolate chip icing bread, pizza and mellon bread, but my favorite is banana bread.

We headed back to JCMU, did our homework and then turned it in. Then we watched The Outsiders, (my favorite movie) in the TV room, and invited other people who were already there to join in. Xiao, (the guy I had already known from China) thought the movie was a riot. In his exact words, as Dallas, Ponyboy and Johnny were scaring some kids across a vacant lot: "American movies are always so funny!" He wouldn't stop laughing, which meant that I wouldn't stop laughing, which meant everyone else laughed, which kind of ruined the tone, but we had a good time anyway.

Halfway through the movie, I went to Nakamitsu-sensee's office to practice speaking. I ended up talking about the movie, and I described it using new grammar structures. In particular, I tried to use noun modification as much as possible. Noun modification is when instead of saying "I bought that book", you describe the noun as "That is the book that I bought". I stumbled a lot, but after I grasped the sentence I would say it again. After a half hour, I was very happy, and Nakamitsu-sensee told me that she would attempt to find where I can buy The Outsiders in Japanese. That really made my day.

Afterwards, I headed back, and we finished the movie. I then left soon after that. I caught the train back and got back to the house just before dinner started. For my birthday, Okaasan made my favorite foods, pizza and potatoes. We also had some meat, a traditional "fancy day" sushi-rice dish, cantaloupe and banana bread from Vidal's for dessert.

And now, I'm finishing up my blog before I clean my room and then get ready for this weekend. I will be heading out to Tokyo tomorrow morning, so I won't write my blog until Sunday night. I will be sure to include pictures though. Don't worry.

See you soon!

Shiken!

So, it's about the middle of week 4, and I have my midterm (shiken) on Thursday.

The midterm covers the last half of Genki 1, (and really all of Genki 1 because you would use your basic fundamentals from the first half of the book as well. It's the way languages work.) and the first two chapters of Genki 2. I've gotten 95% participation points, as well as hundreds on my past view vocabulary quizzes.

I've gotten into the system of waking up around six o'clock in the morning, eating a healthy breakfast, (usually yogurt and a piece of bread) and then walking fifteen minutes to the train station.

I can now read most of the kanji- or at least recognize them. I know which trains to get on in which direction, and what people to look out for to make sure I'm on the right train.

I'm used to the twenty minute bike ride, but now I don't bring my laptop, so my bag (which I actually just use my purse) can easily sit in my basket, so my back doesn't get all sweaty. I don't know about this rainy season. It hasn't really rained much. Of course, saying that I bet it's going to be down pouring tomorrow morning.

The classes are starting to become routine, and I make sure to listen distinctly and participate as much as possible. I now know everyone's names and who to partner up with and who to try to stay away from. I also know how each teacher teaches and what I really need to focus on during the ten minute break.

I've really settled in Japan- and I love it. The only thing that is a downer at the moment is the fact that I ran out of peanut butter... again.

So, really not much is new. I'm getting ready for my Tokyo trip on Saturday, with laundry tomorrow and  making sure I'm caught up on all of my schoolwork.

I've also started planning my second trip. The weekend of July 17-19 I'll be doing a little backpacking through Kyoto and Nara, two of the most renowned historical cities in Japan, decorated with many temples and shrines, and inhabited by traditional Japanese people such as Geisha and Maiko. I don't have class on July 19 (Monday) because it is Marine Day, so I'll be out of town for three days. It's sure to be a blast. I think that's going to be my traveling extent though, at least this time around. I already bought my Shinkansen tickets, and let me tell you- plan to pay a lot for them if you are coming to Japan. In fact, it may be cheaper to just take the plane.

But at the same time, I've heard that the Shinkansen is a ride that everyone should experience- I'll get back to you on that next week.

And so- yes, not much going on. Every night I usually have an hour long conversation or so with my host mother, as well as practice with my teachers at JCMU. It's starting to get intensive now, as we are starting new material, (for me anyway) so I'm going to be studying and using my resources a little more.

More soon. I'll probably put something else up before I got to Tokyo- and then you can expect a really long one with pictures attached at the beginning of next week!

Mata Ashita!

Family Visiting

Sunday started out with an alarm clock at eight o’clock in the morning. I woke up and immediately went downstairs for breakfast, which was waiting for me like nearly every morning. For breakfast I had an egg, two slices of ham, blueberry yogurt, two bites of cole slaw, tea, milk and a slice of toast with peanut butter cream and sugar topping. It sounds like a lot, but all of it was in small portions so when it all added up, I felt full, but not overfed. Right after I finished eating, I went to wash myself.

Culture Note: I said wash myself because I’m not exactly sure what the American equivalent would be. So, if you are ever asked to take a Japanese bath, then this is what you should expect. First, I have my own bathroom. This is very uncommon in Japanese households, as you will understand later in the note. I go into the bathroom and there is a bathtub, a drain on the floor (not within the tub), a showerhead that can be moved and a small platform. There is also a shelf with various bath soaps and body washes.

I start by filling up the bath about a quarter way. It’s about 40 degrees Celsius, or around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The bath is actually more of a hot tub that a bathtub, because you don’t wash yourself in the bath.

In the description I mentioned a drain on the floor. This is because you wash yourself outside of the hot tub, using the showerhead to rinse off. This includes body wash, face wash, shampoo and conditioner. To prevent from spraying water all over the bathroom, you have to sit on the small platform while you wash yourself. Then afterwards, you also wash the seat.

After washing, the hot bathtub water is for you to relax in. In most Japanese families, the bathtub is only filled once and the entire family shares the same water to reduce wasting water. This is another reason why it is important to wash before you get into the tub. In my experience, since I am the only one who uses my bathroom, the bathtub is only for me. However, if I were to go to an onsen (hot springs) it would be similar in the idea that I would wash myself before getting into the hot springs that are shared by other people.

The Japanese have bathed every day for many years while Europeans only started recently. (Using Europeans because most American families and culture has originated from that continent). Every day, the Japanese would wash themselves then bathe in the onsen. Nowadays, because of cost and lack of resources, I feel as though the Japanese have made their own little modern onsen in the form of a bathtub.

After my bath, I went upstairs and put on my nice skirt and turtleneck. I checked my email and then at ten o’clock I went downstairs with my bag, which included a little bit of homework and my computer, and followed Otousan outside to the car.

Today is Sunday, June 20, and I was going to travel with Otousan and Okaasan to Moriyama, when their son lived with his wife and three kids. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Moriyama from Nagahama by car. We left at ten o’clock and got to Moriyama back 11:30. Otousan drove while Okaasan showed me the map and pointed out various sights along the way. I saw Castle ruins, shrines, statues, and in the distance I could point out a castle near the top of the mountain. The arched rooks peaked out from the tall trees that bordered the road that we traveled.

The three of us had lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Moriyama. We walked in but there was a little bit of a wait so we put our names on the list. And I mean that in the literal sense as well. Otousan wrote my host family’s last name in katakana (foreign script) on the paper and wrote 3 next to 人. (The kanji for people) Otousan then went to the store across the street while Okaasan and I waited for our table.

The restaurant was very loud, but it wasn’t the patrons but the workers. At the same time, I wasn’t the bad type of loud, as they were constantly shouting orders and yelling “ありがとうございます！”“いらっしゃいませ　どうぞ！”(arigatou gozaimasu- formal thank you) (irashaimase douzo- welcome, and another word that can’t be translated.)

Culture Note: Whenever you enter a Japanese store or restaurant, the workers (manager, host, waiters) will say “irashaimase”, which basically means “welcome to the store/restaurant”. “Douzo” can be used in many contexts. I usually used the word when giving someone something, in which it means “please take this”. I have also seen this used often when people who were sitting stood up to give someone else their seat (usually to an elderly person or a woman), and will used hand signals gesturing to the seat. “Douzo” can’t really be translated, but the closest I can think of is “take/try this”. I think another translation that can be used loosely would be “make yourself at home”, but at the same time not really. It’s just one of those expressions that you have to experience in order to use and understand.

On the good side, if you do come to Japan, then you will experience it a lot. It’s one of the most common words I’ve heard here.

It was only about ten minutes or so and then we were given a table. I looked through the menu and the three of us ordered some rice, gyouza (I don’t really know how to describe this but it’s really good) miso soup and another dish that had a bunch of seafood, rice, sauce and vegetables in it. Then, we all shared everything. The water was already on our table so that we could refill it ourselves.

Culture Note: You don’t tip in Japan. The waiter/waitress usually does very little work, especially compared to the average waiter/waitress in the United States. Most of the time, you get your own water, and fill it up yourself. Sometimes, you have to get the soup yourself as well. The waiter/waitress takes your order and brings it out. Even if you try to tip, they will refuse it. Most of the time anyway, you pay at the cash register in the front of the restaurant.

After we finished, we headed to Masao-san’s house. (Their son) When we got there, I noticed they had a door that opened up (rather than a sliding door) and they had two cars in the driveway. (Most Japanese families only have one car, as you have to be 18 to get your license, and the train system is very efficient to get to work or school.) Inside, I met Masao-san’s wife (okusan) Tomoko-san.

Language Note: There are certain suffixes added to names. The suffix “san” refers to Mr./Ms./Mrs., and is used at the end of generally every name. Wife in Japanese is “Okusan”. In addition, “kun” can be used for boys and male teenagers, “chan” for small children, and “sama” for important people in a hierarchy.

The family also has three children, ages 10 and under, two boys and one girl. We sat at a traditional Japanese table, introduced ourselves, (more like I introduced myself and tried to remember all of the names), and had a few small snacks that Tomoko-san gave out. I also gave Masao-san and Tomoko-san two pins from Outback that I had brought with me from Japan as a thank-you gift. It led to many questions (which I was happy to listen to and respond in Japanese) about my part time job, and what American food was like.

Culture/Interesting Note: Food here in Japan is not like “Japanese” food in America. “American” food in Japan is not like American food back home. Chinese food here is different than Chinese food in America. (And according to my friend Xiao it’s different in China too). It’s now on my list to find a Mexican restaurant here and see what Japanese Mexican food tastes like. That would be an interesting culture mix.

After snack, Tomoko-san invited me to go shopping with the family. We all went, except for Otousan, who stayed to watch the baseball game. It was about a twenty-minute drive to the shopping center, which we passed by asking and answering questions in Japanese. Tomoko-san asked me what I was interested in and what I liked about Japan. I asked if they had ever been to America, and pointed out various things on the side of the road to increase my vocabulary.

Note: Scarecrow in Japanese is “kakashi”.

When we got to the mall, Masao-san and his family went to the pet shop (I think they are thinking about buying a dog sometime soon.) while Okaasan and I window-shopped. We eventually went into a bookstore, and I attempted to find my copy of the Outsiders, with no success. I also looked at various Japanese history books, but to be honest, I really need to increase my kanji knowledge before I can hope to get through one of those.

Afterwards, we headed into a small cute litter shop, where I bought some leggings (they are very, very popular in Japan) and Okaasan bought an umbrella. After that, we called Tomoko-san to find out where we should meet. We ended up meeting at the Baskin Robbins and I officially ordered an ice cream cone in Japanese. After that, we headed back to the house.

At the house, we sat around while Tomoko-san made dinner. Dinner consisted of green beans, fried chicken, black throat fish, squid, fried tofu and fish paste in the shape of buses. It was all very good, and I had a fun time talking with Tomoko-san about food in America and Japan.

The table that we sat at was low to the ground, so we had to kneel while we ate. (This is what I originally had thought I was going to do at my own homestay family’s house.) Even though I really enjoyed practicing the traditional way of eating Japanese dinner, I have to admit, I am really thankful for the high dining table where we usually eat. My knees were killing me within twenty minutes of the meal. I had to keep switching sides to null the throbbing in my kneecaps.

The children were all very fun, and we had an interesting time pointing out various foods and learning the English or Japanese counterpart. Afterwards, the three kids and I play Wii Sports Resort. I got to practice my katakana, as well as my bowling (100 pin), archery, table tennis and basketball. They even encouraged me to make my own Mii, which they added under “Mabuchi” family. Awww… I really enjoyed those kids.

Around 7:15 we left, after saying “arigatou gozaimasu” (Thank you) and “Mata Aimashou” (let’s meet soon). We got into the car, and then headed off back to Nagahama.

On our way back, we stopped at Nagahama station and I bought my Shinkansen ticket for Saturday. This Saturday I’ll be heading out to Tokyo to hang out with my friend from Ibaraki (just north of the capital city) and enjoy my nineteenth birthday.

Thank you for sticking with me! We’re about to start week four and it will be a blast!

By the way, I have more pictures, but I’m going to put them up later. I’m about to go to bed since I have to wake up early tomorrow to say Happy Father’s Day to my dad.

Mata Ashita!

Homestay part 1

Monday and Tuesday went as usual, waking up in the morning, going to class, having a great time and learning lots of new things. After class I hung out with friends and did homework.

I also got my first weeks scores, with 3.8s across the board. That basically means that I’m doing as well as possible in my class, (because a 4.0 is perfect, and I am having a few problems with pronunciation and such.

However, Tuesday afternoon is when it started to get a little interesting.  Right after class I headed upstairs to begin packing for my homestay. Once I had gotten a decent amount done, I headed out to take my bike to the train station so that it would be there for me the following morning. With a small map, I managed to make my way to the station, but due to my limited kanji knowledge I had to ask where the bike parking station was.

Once I got to the bike station I was met with some language barriers. I still don’t completely understand what they said, but I got the idea that I wasn’t able to pick up my bike later that day, only the day after. I took my bike to my section and dropped it off, then walked back out of the bike parking area to the train station, where I hung around for a few minutes finding various gates and grabbing a map of the train station. After that, I walked to the bus station (bus is in katakana, the symbols for foreign words, so I was able to read that fairly easily.)

I waited on the bench next to an elderly Japanese lady, and when the bus came, I let her get on first (which I would have done in America as well) then I got on, showed my JCMU I.D. to the driver and then grabbed a double seat next to the window to watch the light drizzle of rain fall from the sky and land on the bus windows.

Taking the bus was easy, as I knew that the station where I wanted to get off was the Hotel View, which is right next to JCMU. (In my first batch of pictures, it is the tall building next to the water.) The walk from Hotel View to JCMU is about five minutes, and I managed to get back into the building before the downpour really started.

I worked for the rest of the evening, cleaning up my room and packing up everything that I had left. The minute hand for four o’clock came and I hurried downstairs with my luggage. There, with one of the ladies from the JCMU administration was my host mother. We greeted each other, and then several of the other guys in the lobby helped me carry my bags to the small silver Toyota parked just up to the door. I got into the front seat (opposite side here in Japan) with my purse and my host mother got into the driver seats. We then left for my new home (for the next month and a half anyway) driving along Lake Biwa, passing a statue of Buddha, the Maibara train station, and a little shopping market on the side of the road.

In the car, my host mother told me that I could address her as “Okaasan” (mother) and my host father as “Otoosan” (father).

Japanese Culture Note:   There are at least two different ways to represent family relations in Japanese. I would refer to my own mother as “haha” and my own father as “chichi”. However, if I were to talk about someone else’s parents “ryoushin”, I would say “Takeshi no okaasan” (Takeshi’s mother). Immediate relationships have different words compared to outside relationships. By calling my host mother “okaasan” I am referring to the idea that she is my “mother” for the time being, but she is not my official mother, therefore it would be awkward (and kind of rude to my mom) to call her “haha”. Some other family relationships are listed below. The personal form is first, followed by the general form.

Grandma: sobo, obaasan

Grandpa: sofu, ojiisan

Aunt: oba, obasan (notice the short “a” sound)

Uncle: oji, ojisan (short “I” sound)

Older brother: ani, oniisan

Older sister: ane oneesan

Younger brother: otooto, otootosan

Younger sister: imooto, imootosan

When we arrived at the house, I found it to be a very traditional Japanese house on the outside, and a little more modern on the inside. My room is very big (about the size of the entire apartment at JCMU, with a cot rather than a futon.

Note: Futons in Japan are very popular, but it isn’t what we call a futon in the United States. In Japan, a futon is a very thin mattress that can be rolled up every morning when it’s not in use. Blankets are used on top, as well as a small pillow. This is compared to the United States where we generally have couches that can be unfolded into a bed. My cot is a cross between a futon and a bed. While it is off the floor, it is still a very thin mattress with blankets. The other thing is that I don’t have to roll it up every morning. (I still make my bed though).

Okaasan then showed me around the house, which is three times larger than most Japanese houses. The stairs lead only to one room, which is mine, and then, when going down the stairs, one is led into the guest entrance as well as the entrance to the Art Gallery. My Otoosan is a retired teacher and painter, and now puts his works on display in the left section of the house.

Through a tiny hallway, one is led to a door that is slightly hidden by two white lace curtains hanging down. Through the curtains is the dining room as well as the living room. It is a small, somewhat cramped space, but it is the place where we spend most of our time. There is a low couch, a low table with lots of magazines and a mirror. Then, there is a high table, which we sit at to eat. (Traditional Japanese tables are low to the ground). There is a television adjacent to the table, which can be used to watch the news, weather forcast, sumo or samurai dramas.

Behind the dining table is a cabinet with many glasses, some old and some new. There is also another tiny hallway that leads to a very small kitchen, but it is obvious that the kitchen is used often.

 The last third of the house is the traditional Japanese room. It is made almost completely of tatami mats (originally rice straw, but now made mostly of wood chip boards), and has several traditional Japanese items inside.

There is a Shinto (traditional Japanese religion) and a Buddhist shrine, as well as my Okaasan’s koto, which she played when she was a child. A koto is a stringed instrument and there is a similar instrument that was played in China. There are also pictures of my Otoosan’s parents and grandparents. Both his father and grandfather were teachers and interested in fine arts. My Okaasan told me that this means that the family would be known as an education family. In addition, she told me that the Emperor of Japan gave Otoosan’s grandfather an award. This would be prior to World War II when the Emperor was still seen as one of the highest people on Earth. Though the Emperor is still seen today as the connection to Heaven, prior to World War II this was taken much more seriously. You can compare this to Queen Elizabeth II today and the power of Queen Elizabeth I in the 16^th century.

After I was shown the house, I went back upstairs to unpack all of my stuff. I put all of my clothes away and relished in the moment, looking at my room.

My room is about the size of my entire apartment back at JCMU. There is another section which can be sectioned off by a curtain so that the room can house two homestay students at once. At the moment, I am the only homestay student, therefore I have the entire room to myself. I have a closet, a shelf, a desk, one chair, one clock, three mirrors, one cot for a bed and a low table on a square tatami mat. The low table also comes with a cushion, which I can kneel on when I get ready in the morning.

Afterwards, I headed back downstairs for dinner at 5:30. Dinner consisted of an “obento”, which is usually used for lunches, but this one was bigger and more suited for dinner. Obentos are boxes with divisions in them to separate food. My dinner consisted of “nasu” (eggplant) “shiitake” (mushrooms) “ebi” (shrimp) “yasai” (vegetables) “gohan” (rice) “ochya” (tea) two slices of an orange, a piece of fish and onions. It was a very healthy dinner, and the portions for each food was small, so at the end of the meal I felt very relaxed and healthy.

After dinner, I got my “shukudai” (homework) from my backpack upstairs and did my homework on the table while Otoosan watched the news on the television and Okaasan worked on finances. I finished it all fairly quickly with no major problems and then I watched the TV for a little bit. I understood various words that were being said and the grammar context, but I didn’t understand most of the newscast. They did have subtitle underneath though, (in Japanese, not English) so I tried reading as well, but I found my lack of kanji knowledge to be particularly frustrating.

And so, I went to bed that evening very happy. Already I feel a small change in my Japanese language capabilities. It will be interesting to see what happens at the end of the summer.

I apologize for the lateness of my blog entries. I’ll try to catch up as much as possible this weekend. As you will read and find out, my entire week has been busy and full of fun opportunities. More tomorrow, it’s about 12 am Japan time and 11:02 in the morning in Maryland.

In addition, some people wanted to know my address at JCMU. The address is

JCMU

1435-86 Ajiroguchi

Matsubara-cho

Hikone, Shiga 522-0002

JAPAN

If you are going to send me something, please put my name on the front as that will be the only way that they can tell who the mail goes to.

Thank you again!

ありがとうございました！