It's the Final Countdown! / お世話になりました！

Well, I'm outta here in less than 48 hours. When he left, Jamie said leaving Aizu felt more like going on a trip than it felt like going home. I think I would feel the same way if I hadn't cleaned out the apartment and packed everything away earlier today. Tomorrow, I'm helping Kawaguchi-sensei move everything to his apartment to store for the Rose-Hulman students next year. Spending that final night in an empty, lonely apartment is gonna be weird.

Beyond all that material stuff, I'm slowly piecing together how I've changed as a person over the past 6 months. There's no easy way to gauge something like that, though, when I've been looking through my own eyes the whole time. I'm hoping that as my plane leaves Narita aiport and I watch Japan fade into a tiny speck, some epiphone will hit me like a freight train, I'll monologue the whole thing, and then realize I've become a better person despite it all. Soon after, as the lights fade and a mellow-toned indie song that's popular with the young crowd picks up, my problems will be solved and my fears abated. Psshaw, that sort of stuff only happens in sitcoms...besides, I have to sit next the bathrooms, so I won't be able to look out the window.

Looking at it all in retrospect, I wish I'd gone more places and met more people. Don't get me wrong, though. I've met some great friends and seen some amazing sights. Things were just so different this time around compared to Kanazawa. I thought I knew exactly what to expect since I'd already done it all last summer. Instead, the Aizu program made me realize how structured and confined the KIT IJST program was. The intense language courses I took at Kanazawa lasted a mere eight weeks and barraged us with enough homework that the stay seemed to fly by in a few, fleeting days. Apartments, beds, utilities, and laundry machines were all provided for us as a part of the tuition fee. From the first day, we were introduced to a club of Japanese students at KIT University whose sole purpose was to show us around town and hang out. Despite having our hands held most of the time, I learned about Japan and made friends I can never forget.

Aizu, on the other hand, lacked some of that structure. The other Rose-Hulman students and I had to purchase many of the everyday household items that I took for granted. Within the first week, we bought beds, sheets, curtains, heaters, pots, pans, and carpets. Apartment rent, gas, water, sewage, and electricity bills were entirely our responsibility. We were able to stay in Aizu for as long as six months. Making friends and finding things to do with our time were entirely on us this time around as well. Much like moving to a new neighborhood, it meant starting over from scratch. Meeting new people, fostering relationships, exploring Aizu, and becoming familiar with the city were goals left to be completed at our discretion.

And one of these days after I'm done with school, I gotta find somewhere to live, move there, and get used to a new city all over again. Thanks to the past 6 months, I'd like to think that next the process is going to be a little bit more familiar.

Something Iwase-san, one of the coordinators of the Aizu-Rose exchange program, said got me thinking as well. He said that these sorts of international study programs enstill "competency" in their participants, something considered priceless to most employers. It's something he looks for in prospective employees as well. Perhaps my resume's lack of internship or co-op bullet points isn't such a big deal when I've got 8 months' worth of study abroad under my belt. I still realize that any reasonable amount of study is hardly comparable to actual field experience. All the same, I was pretty relieved to hear what Iwase-san had to say.

Next time I log on, I guess it's gonna be state-side. I'm not looking forward to the 30+ hours of travel, but shouganai yo ne! I just hope I can fit all those stupid souvenirs in my luggage...

色々お世話になりました、会津大！さようなら！
Iro iro osewa ni narimashita, Aizu-dai! Sayounara!
Thanks for taking care of me, Aizu University! Farewell!

暇人 / What a bum

I've got nothing to do.

As a result, I've spent several of my waking hours doing the following activities:

• Cleaning the apartment
  
  -Finally got rid of all those booze bottles that I had no idea what to do with. I think I might've gotten a little attached though, 'cause the apartment looks funny without the Absolut pile next to the trash can. And how the heck did two frogs get into my place?
  
  
• Sitting around in my underwear
  
  -It's totally as liberating as you think it'd be, and it cuts down on laundry costs. I understand why Dad did it so much now.
  
  
• Reading One Piece in Japanese
  
  -Now I know a bunch of worthless vocabulary words like pirate (海賊, kaizoku), cannon (大砲, taihou), and straw hat (麦わら帽子, mugiwara boushi). A few more volumes, and I can finally become a English/Japanese Translating Pirate just like I've always dreamed.
  
  
• Trying to flatten my passport
  
  -Why is this country so humid?
  
  
• Learning to cook
  
  -I'm making some progress! I wish I had a real oven instead of a fish cooker, though...
  
  
• Looking forward to getting home
  
  -I'm excited to see my family again, and I'm going out to Kooriyama this weekend to do some shopping for them! Other than that, the new living setup at school's going to be interesting. Can't wait to start working at Java Haute again, either. T minus 13 days!
  
  
  

一人暮らし

5 months have raced by. Elliot left the country 2 weeks ago, and Jamie split for America just Wednesday morning. Seeing as his bus left at 6:30 am, the seeing-off crowd was pretty minimal. The poor kid looked like the dam was about to break at any second, but he fought back the tears with all his might. Then again, he might have just been too sleepy to feel emotions. Getting back to the apartment was the weird part, though. Jamie's room was empty and all his stuff was gone, leaving me as the sole resident of Fragrance A-102. The room's now being used as temporary storage for all the stuff Kawaguchi-sensei will hold onto for next year's exchange students. It's an eerie feeling being the only person around when I go to sleep and wake up. I dunno if I like this whole living alone thing. At any rate, I guess I've only got 24 days left until I head back myself.

Before that, though, I finally made my way out to Kanazawa to visit some old friends. I arrived around 11am at Kanazawa Station and was immediately hit with a wave of nostalgia as I saw so many familiar sights. Luckily, Kohei came to pick me up and we went straight to the farewell party for this year's KIT IJST students. As it turns out, I picked a bad time to go. All of the Japanese students were in the middle of final exams, and all of the foreign students were in the middle of final projects.

I wanted to visit all of the places and do all of the things I did last year, so somewhere in the whole mess of it, I managed to rally everyone up for some karaoke at ol' Shidax. It was a little weird being somewhere so familiar with a bunch of folks I barely knew, but after a bit o' nomihoudai, everybody is everybody's friend.

Thanks to Kohei, I had a place to crash and a bike to use all week long. After being in Aizu for so long, I'd started to worry that my Japanese wasn't getting anywhere. Visiting Kanazawa after a whole year helped me realize that I've grown in a lot of ways, even in Japanese. I was able to express myself so much more than I could last time around, and I didn't feel like my Japanese friends were lowering their level of speech so that I could understand 'em. That being said, I've still got a long way to go!

I'm actually looking forward to going home this time around. As much as I'm going to miss Aizu and my friends here, I miss my family and friends back home even more. It's been a while, huh?


Here's the one this year's exchange students in Kanazawa loved:

けしからん！ (keshikaran!) - That's outrageous!

Japan is hot and humid! Aizu's really not so bad since we're up north and get some mountain weather, but I bet most places south of here are blazing. Speaking of which, I'm going to Tokyo tomorrow! Yeah, I didn't know until yesterday either! Jamie's cousin is flying into Narita tomorrow afternoon, so we're catching a bus at 6 am and meetin' up with Jamie's friend Nobu. Even though we're only gonna be there for about 3 days, it'll be a good time.

Things have been goin' slow in between and somedays I feel like I've accomplished nothing, but I suppose that's something I've got to take into my own hands. I've been given an amazing opportunity to get research done in Dr. Wilson's lab, and I just keep putting it off.

Despite that, at least my Japanese is getting a little bit better day by day. I study in some way or another each day, whether by spending time with Japanese people, reading textbooks, or trying to translate manga, which are Japanese comic books. I've been reading a specific manga a bunch lately, but the going is real slow when you've got to look up every other word. It turns out to be great practice for reading and kanji recognition, but the characters tend to talk in very casual slang which isn't always the real way things are said.

See, Japanese has varying levels of politeness in speech depending on several things: the speaker, the receiver, familiarity between them, social status, position rank at work, school, etc, and sometimes gender. Overall, these levels of speech are called keigo, but they divide like so:

• Teineigo (polite speech) is the standard form of speech that is first taught to those learning Japanese, and is almost always safe to use with anyone. (Times in which you could get yourself in trouble using it are with someone conducting an job/entrance interview or working as a store clerk. Both are situations in which a higher level of formality is required.)
• Sonkeigo (honorific speech) is used to praise another and his actions. This is nearly always used by store clerks to show respect for their customer, and can never be used to refer to one's self.
• Kenjougo (humble speech) is used to lower one's self and actions. The idea is to express that your actions are being done in order to assist the other party.
• Bikago (word beautification) is used to honor a word and essentially refine one's speech. As a consequence, it's often used to praise deeds or gifts received by an individual.
  

Then there's the plain ol' informal speech with is used between friends and those who know each other very well. If used improperly though, it can get you into trouble. You might end up really insulting someone or appearing extremely full of yourself. I accidentally offended a friend once by being too harsh with my words. Luckily, a lot of Japanese people will just chalk those sorts of mistakes up to being a foreigner and not fully understanding the language.

Anyway, these differing levels of speech make it really tough for non-natives to learn the language. It's one of the biggest make-or-break differences that determines whether or not someone will ever be fluent, and consequently one of the biggest reasons why people give up.

Ganbarimasu!

Bye Bye Andrew

Time is really flying by, just like I knew it would. Riding past the Washington Hotel a few nights ago reminded me that it was just over 3 months ago that we stayed there with Hirotani-sensei. Classes officially ended on the 11th, and Andrew caught a real early bus to Tokyo that morning. So to give Andrew a proper sendoff, we had a farewell party of sorts that really ended up being 4 or 5 straight days of wallet-killing fun.

The start of it all was on Friday when we went to Karaoke during the daytime with Hiroshi, then we hung out at Super Star for the rest of the night. Kawaguchi-sensei even made an appearance, which made the night one to remember. We figured it'd be the last time going with Andrew, but of course Hoshi-san asked us to come back on Sunday so he could give Andrew a farewell gift.

The first half of Saturday was spent recovering. I had a lovely Chinese remedy of sorts that's supposed to make hangovers a more bearable process, but a low-hanging doorway saw to it that my misery was just prolonged. We made some delicious hamburgers (which are really expensive here!) that evening from a recipe that Jamie practically made up. On deliciously full stomachs, we set out that night to another round of karaoke with Eri, Kanako, and Mai. The only recreational beverages this time around were melon floats and cola, though.

Sunday saw Andrew's final visit to our favorite nomiya, so everything was on the house for him. Dunno 'bout the other guys, but I assumed that was the extent of Hoshi-san's farewell gift. Instead, Andrew was given a banner sporting the local Lion's Club's name, a traditionally decorated Japanese fan, and wind chimes made from domestic Japanese iron. Of course, antics ensued and even though I ducked out a bit early due to 6 hours of class the next day, Jamie and Andrew stuck around for a good ol' time.

Tuesday was Hiroshi's birthday. The festivities were also a good chance for Andrew to say goodbye to several people he might never see again. Things started out at a nice little izakaya where people ate, drank, and were merry, but by the end of the night everyone migrated to karaoke.

Poor Andrew spent most of the day Wednesday finishing papers for class and packing. It was at this final moment that Andrew realized: we hadn't even been to eat sushi once! After much hurried tossing of clothes and omiyage into suitcases, we head into the city to everyone's favorite modern adaptation of an ancient Japanese food-art, kaiten-zushi. Kaiten means rotation, everyone knows what sushi means, and if you stick the two together, you get a veritable sushi-go-round! Sushi plates featuring everything from egg or pork to squid or mackerel make their way around the store via a conveyor belt that passes by booths where the customers sit. If you don't trust a dish's freshness, you can order a fresh one from the kitchen. Depending on its price, dishes' plates are color-coded and tallied at the end of the meal to give you a final total. Of course, this makes it really easy to slip a plate or two onto your unsuspecting friend's stack. Gochisou-sama deshita, Jamie-chan!

I've been doing my absolute best to try new things and put away old inhibitions when it comes to food. So, I'd been hesitating all night on whether or not to take the plunge and meet my childhood rival face-to-face in its uncooked, rice-accompanied form. After Jamie accidentally ordered two plates of salmon-sushi, I decided to swallow my pride (along with some salmon) and hope for the best. And...it was actually pretty tasty! Maybe my tastes have changed a bit over the years, or maybe only ever having mega-preserved, not-so-fresh fish in Indiana has managed to bias me. At any rate, dinner was delicious and Andrew was a happy kid.

And suddenly, it was Thursday. Since the bus was leaving at 8:30 a.m. sharp, a bunch of us met up at the local Mister Donuts that morning to officially see Andrew off. Andrew was happy that Tatsuki, Hiroshi, Kunitaka, Mai, and Eri all made it out. The girls made a pretty neat photo album for Andrew to remind him of all the good times he'd had in Aizu over the past 3 months. Even though we're all living together when we get back to school, I swear Jamie was going to cry at one point (but he'll deny it 'til the end!) Andrew stayed stoic throughout the whole affair, but I dunno if I'm going to be able to handle myself that well when my time comes 'round.

Speaking of which, ticket prices dictate that the return flight is most likely to be somewhere 'round the end of August. Sure, that means I'm going to have almost no time before classes start up again, but that also means less time for me to sit around and mope about not being in Japan.

Enough about the end...I've still got 2 months left and plenty of traveling to be done!

Mikoshi, Mountains, and Memories

Alright, this is getting silly. I told myself I was gonna try to get these things done once a week, if only for my own sake. The lack of schoolwork has taken an adverse effect on me, and I’ve just become extremely lazy. Besides, as the weather gets nicer, the office gets stuffier, and I want to spend less and less time there.

As soon as the academic quarter ends in two weeks, we’re forking the office over to a professor who could make better use of it. This isn’t such a bad thing for me since I’ve got stuff to do in Dr. Wilson’s Phonetics Lab. I’ll be getting some decent work done this summer thanks to the fact that he’s already given me two opportunities for research projects, one of which could very well lead to publishing a co-written paper with my name on it. Maybe I won’t be useless this summer!

Anyway, the highlight of this update happened…3 weeks ago. Whatever, it was still a blast. Hiroshi took the 4 of us out east to the coastal town of Iwaki to partake in the annual Yotsukura festival. The night before the festivities began, his lovely aunt made us a feast of a dinner and we crashed at his grandmother’s house.

Bright and early the next morning, we headed to the local train station to meet up with a whole bunch of Brazilians, Australians, Hawaiians, Japanese, and the like. Hiroshi managed to band together a ragtag group of foreigners to help cart around the mikoshi (portable, miniature shrines) all day. The purpose of the festival is for various organizations in town to gather offerings for the local temples and shrines. And, as it turned out, the responsibility of carrying one of the largest mikoshi quite literally fell upon our shoulders.

So, around 8:30 a.m., we all geared up in traditional mikoshi-carryin’ garb which included: hachimaki (headbands), happi (festival jackets sporting the name of a family, group, etc.), sarashi (a cloth tightly wrapped around the stomach to support the back while carrying the mikoshi), funky tiny shorts that gave you a wedgie no matter how you wore them, and tabi (split-toe lightweight shoes). The alternative to said restrictively cleaving shorts was the equally liberating (and revealing!) yet traditional fundoshi. It’s basically a piece of cloth wrapped around your crotch like a male g-string. We signed Andrew up for one. He didn’t know. It was pretty funny.

Things finally got rolling around 9:30 a.m. when all the different groups met up in front of the main temple to carry out their respective mikoshi. First was the ceremonious pouring of sake on the cloth-bound joints of the mikoshi base, then the not-so-ceremonious drinking of sake, and then a hearty spirit-rallying mikoshi-pumping dance around the front of the temple. It was right about then that I realized I was gonna be in pain by the end of the day. Besides our group being about 1/3 women, we were also at least 1/3 Japanese. See, I’m roughly 6-7 inches taller than the average Japanese, which meant a large part of the weight tended to fall on me. None of the other guy whities were any better off, though. Luckily, there were so many in our group that relief was often and available. Besides, free *ahem* recreational beverages all day made the going a bit easier!

And so we paraded about town for the greater part of 6-7 hours. The highlight of the adventure was definitely when 3 of the groups, including ours, took the mikoshi about waste-height into the ocean to pay respects to the ocean god. They stayed out there for a good 10 minutes or so before bringing the mikoshi back in for a delicious home-made lunch break.

That night, we were all treated to a complimentary sento and dinner by a local inn. The party commenced, and everybody let loose after a long, fun, shoulder-bruising day. Several of us hit up a karaoke box afterward, and somehow 11 of us ended up crashing at a cool German dude’s apartment. Marcus is awesome.

The next day was relaxing, though, thanks to some free tickets to a pool and spa resort called Hawaiians. We kicked it there for quite a while that day, saw a cheesy magic show, and went in about 5 sentos. Hiroshi loves him some sento.

All the pain and whining aside, it was a heck of an experience that I was really glad to have had. It was awesome to see so many people from different backgrounds and levels of Japanese proficiency come together in one place to take part in a little coastal town’s annual tradition.

So, much more recently, I climbed a mountain! Tuesday morning at 4 a.m., Jamie and two of our Japanese friends, Eri and Kanako, set out for lovely Mt. Bandai (that’s Bandai-san in Japanese). Even though Kanako took us a good halfway up by car, we hiked the last 1.9 kilometers on foot. It was pretty smooth sailing the whole time, except for the incredibly steep inclines, muddy patches, parts where I kept busting my head on tree branches, and ripping my pants wide open. Thanks to Jamie’s foresight and handy roll of duct-tape, my pants saw Mt. Bandai conquered, but have since been laid to rest for good.

Things got stinky for a while when we passed through the sulfur springs. Maybe if someone hadn’t mud-stomped the sign into the ground, I would’ve realized it says “Entry Prohibited.” Whatever. I don’t speak this language.

After about 4 hours of climbing and frequent resting on my part, we arrived at the peak. There’s a lovely sign that lets you know what a wonderful accomplishment you’ve made climbing a 1819m tall mountain. We chilled at the summit for a while and chowed down on some onigiri before heading back down. Oh, and there was a nice little rest-house on the way where I had a delicious bowl of amazake, or partially fermented rice soup. It’s way more delicious than it sounds, take my word for it.

At any rate, things are about to get a little different. In just 2 weeks, classes are ending, and Andrew’s heading back home to start up an internship. Other than that, the office change-up means I’ll be seeing less of these guys and more of my lab-mates. Maybe these new weekly Japanese classes will give my learning a bit of a boost, but I’m not counting on them for much. I need to hang out with people who don’t speak English.

That’s it, I’m going to Kanazawa.

有言実行　＝　ゆうげんじっこう　＝　yugenjikko　＝　carrying out one’s words, making good on one’s promise

会津の花見

This update is really late in coming! On the flipside, I feel like I'm getting to know Aizu rather than just being settled in. Our good buddy Hiroshi chills with us when he gets off work and shows us around town. We're heading out east to the coast for a festival in Iwaki on Sunday, so that's bound to be the focus of the next update!

I'm really not trying to rub this in the face of anybody who couldn't be here, but I can't believe I was lucky enough to witness something as amazing as the Japanese flower-viewing festival, Hanami (花見). The whole thing started several centuries ago when Chinese influences upon Japan were at their prime. Thanks to the emperor, admiring flowers gradually became a national pasttime. Nowadays, it's gotten to the point where the National Weather Bureau monitors the situation and makes announcements accordingly since the whole affair lasts a mere 1 or 2 weeks.

Besides the breath-takingly beautiful sights that could be seen around nearly every corner, I was completely amazed at the way Japanese people can just let loose. This country is so chock-full of workaholics and social pressure; even Kawaguchi-sensei comes into our office completely winded half the time. It was refreshing to see groups of businessmen, families, school clubs, and elderly folk permantly bent double from years of hard labor throw down a picnic blanket underneath a cherry blossom tree and forget about social obligations for a few hours.

We decided to enjoy the party at Aizu's own scenic Tsurugajo Castle. The castle itself is pretty dang neat, but when they go and install special lights all over the place to see the cherry blossoms at night, it's truly a sight to behold. Instead of rambling on about it, I'll just let you have a look:








Really, it's an overused phrase...but pictures don't do the scenery justice. Jamie and I even bought a tripod to get some good night-shots, but these photos are nothing compared to being there in person.

It's hard to believe I've already been here longer than the whole time I was in Kanazawa. 2 months down, and there's so much still ahead.