凛として時雨

We got our alien registration cards! Even better, that means we were finally able to get our cellphones! We were just going to buy some plain ol' prepaid ones, but apparently they were used to commit some organized crime a while back when you could buy 'em right off the shelf. Instead, we bought some fairly cheap phones and charge 'em up every 60 days with prepaid cards. The neatest part is that you can send an unlimited number of texts and e-mails for about $3 a month. The phones have already proven to be really useful, and I've even been back in touch with my friend Kohei. I'm insanely excited to take a trip out to Kanazawa after the term ends in June.

Yesterday (Happy Birthday Andrew!), we hopped a train out east. See, Watchmen just came out in Japanese theaters a few days ago, and we were all pretty anxious to see it. The closest movie theater is in Koriyama, about an hour away by train. Other than that, we wandered around town looking for food and hit up a few department stores. Jamie's been cravin' some tacos like mad, so we found a cool import store and bought some taco sauce and seasoning. There was another crazy store that seemed to have a little bit of everything, called Don Quixote. We climbed our way through a department store, too. Jamie held hands with a creepy mannequin, and we listened to music at Tower Records for 'bout an hour.

I found a band that really caught my ear. They're called 凛として時雨 (Rin Toshite Shigure), which roughly means "Rainfall of Dignity." The name...doesn't really translate so well. It's a 3-person band that employs high-range male and female vocals at any given time. Their sounds range from mellow, dreamy guitar tunes to fast-paced bass beats accompanied by an ever-evolving pace. I picked up one of their mini-albums for about $10, a purchase I'm glad I made! That's pretty cheap really. Most mainstream CDs in Japan sell for $30 a pop. Piracy must be even worse here...

Anyway, this band isn't really karaoke material, so my dilemma still exists. I'll probably just score some Asian Kung-Fu Generation off of Jamie and learn me some Japanese music.

To keep Sam from whining again, here's a Japanese lesson. If you want to say ex-girlfriend/boyfriend, you say "moto-kare/kano," respectively. If they're your second-to-most recent ex, you can say "moto-moto-kare/kano." But no, you can't say "moto-moto-moto-kare/kano." Unless it's a joke...I think.

また今度！

Settled In

I'm gonna blame the lack of updates on a lack of activity. Things are slow right now. It's been freezing outside, and only just recently is it warm enough to do any sightseeing. In fact, Jamie and I have been running our heater at night 'cause of how ridiculously cold the apartment gets. As a result, we got hit with a $99 gas bill for our first two weeks. I love this country's dedication to recycling and limiting natural resources, but it's starting to wear on the wallet. Thank goodness futon are so warm.

Speaking of warm things, have I made it apparent that everyone here is incredibly warm and accommodating? Last Saturday, Orr-sensei's wife threw a welcome party of sorts for us 4 guys from Rose and several newer faculty from the school. She prepared a whole bunch of delicious Japanese food and made us a massive apple pie. We chatted it up with everyone for a while, including Orr-sensei's daughter, Christine. She's spent the majority of her life in Japan, but she recently graduated high school and is heading for Taylor University back home in August. She took the 4 of us to a Korean restaurant for lunch today, since we were all complaining about Japanese food not being spicy. We're still not very familiar with this place, so I'm hoping we'll spend more time with her and her friends around town.

Of course, we (minus Elliot) made our usual rounds to Super Star this past weekend. Hoshi-san asked us to come on Sunday night since they don't usually get much business, and it ended up being a pretty chill night just kickin' back, practicing our Japanese, and learning the local dialect (Aizu-ben, I'll tell ya about it later). When midnight rolled around, Hoshi-san decided to take us home...but only after making a stop at the local castle, Aizu-jo. It was faintly illuminated at night, which made it a little eerie but pretty all at once. Hoshi-san motioned to all of the bare trees around the walkway and castle front and told us that when 花見 (hana-mi, cherry blossom festival) comes, each of them would be covered in beautiful cherry blossoms. He says he'll bring us back at that time to watch the parade and celebrate. Since the festival is weather-dependent, I'm thinkin' about going down to Tokyo and seeing 花見 there before it's warm enough to see in Aizu. We just gotta make some concrete plans and actually commit to them.

Just yesterday, Jamie and I were gettin' up and ready for the day when we heard the doorbell ring. Jamie answered the door to a tiny Japanese woman we'd never met. After the shock of seeing Americans answer the door abated, she cheerfully asked Jamie if he understood any Japanese. When Jamie answered, "Yes, a little bit," the lady proceeded to launch into a speech about Jesus and eternal salvation. She left us with this slip of paper and was on her merry way. As it turns out, we'd been hit by Jehovah's witnesses. Can't even get away from 'em in Japan! For a country so disconnected from religion save Buddhist and Shinto rituals still practiced at public shrines, it was a heck of a surprise.


I've tried steaming rice in a pot about 4 times. If I didn't burn it, then it came out really soggy. We got to school, and it was like finding presents under the tree on Christmas. Except instead of Christmas, it was just Wednesday and instead of finding presents under the tree, we found an automatic rice steamer next to a trash can. We were afraid it wasn't going to work, but Jamie hooked it up and it boiled water just fine! It got used for dinner that night and worked like a charm!

We're all getting restless, so some sightseeing is most definitely in order. I'm looking forward to some great stories and pictures in the coming weeks.

The Japanese for the week is a word that describes my good buddy Andrew. When Japanese people want to describe someone who has no ability to catch on to context, they call that person "K-Y." No, not the jelly. It stands for 空気読めない (kuuki yomenai) and literally means "can't read the air." It can be really, really insulting if used incorrectly, so be careful!

Gaijin out!

SHINE★２００９

Sometimes I feel a bit cooped up in the office the school has provided for us, but I guess it's not long before the students come back into town when school starts up. Besides, I've done some really neat stuff even since the last update. We've gotten completely settled into our apartments and used some free time to explore the town on our bikes. We spent quite a bit of time running errands for school business, but we also managed to have an awesome weekend.

Friday night, we decided it would be a good idea to drop in on our friends at Super Star again. We invited Kawaguchi-sensei and Yamauchi-sensei, but the former was swamped with work and the latter had "prior engagements."

So we're getting ready to head out to Super Star that night, and Yamauchi-sensei calls us and invites us to Hoshi-san's wife's bar! By the time we got there though, it was absolutely packed and we had to head elsewhere. Here's where things get real fun. We meet up with Yamauchi-sensei's buddy Satou-san and he takes us to a hostess bar called Luna where the female owners serve alcohol to dirty old businessmen who keep on buyin'.

So that's where we had the first big communication error so far. One of the girls was trying to tell us that she wanted to do a homestay in America sometime. Well in Japanese casual speech, you often drop the subject and verbs aren't conjugated according to the noun. Thus, we thought she was asking us if we wanted to do a homestay in Japan...to which we replied, "But we have apartments!" She giggled like a schoolgirl for a while, and then we realized later that we had invited her to do a homestay with us. Oh, Japan...

Well, as the night progressed things got blurrier. They kept pourin' the drinks, and I was chatting it up with Satou-san and Yamauchi-sensei. It turns out this awesome guy works for a Japanese laser company called Arai and was legitimately offering us a short-term job. Eventually they got tired and split, leaving us American kids all alone. After a while, Jamie and I figured we'd run up a pretty big bill, but Satou-san had actually picked up the tab for us! So they keep pourin' the drinks and this Japanese fella keeps trying to tell Jamie in broken English for about 30 minutes that these women just want us to keep buying alcohol. Then this guy from across the bar we'd never met stands up, points at Andrew, screams his name, and challenges him to a singing competition. So the Japanese Thunderbirds theme song comes on the karaoke screen, and Jamie and I knew it was time to get out of there. All the way home, Andrew kept trying to convince us that one of the hostesses totally wanted to bang him. Goofy kid...

So we woke up the next day, made fun of Andrew, did a bit of shopping, then hit up this semi-annual party in town called SHINE. It's this gig where several regional DJs mix it up for a few hours one at a time. Our friend Noda played from midnight to 1 am. SHINE is also for all of the foreigners in and around Aizu to get together and have a good time with a bunch of Japanese folks learning English. I met people from all over the states, Canada, Britain, the UK, and Ukraine. There was an open bar and dance floor going all night. Of course, Andrew embarrassed me in public again...but we met a whole bunch of folks around Aizu that I hope to hang with again!

For some reason, Jamie and I thought it would be a great idea to hit up Super Star after leaving SHINE at 1 am. So we did. They treated us really well like always, and we met some cool folks that said they'd be there next weekend. We managed to talk Kuma-san (whose real name is Yamaguchi Masahiro as we found out) into making our favorite drink. So from now on, he'll whip up an "elixir" anytime we order one. Hoshi-san also guaranteed us that anytime we come for a visit, no matter how long we stay or what we order, they'll charge us a low rate of 2000￥ (~$20). Kuma-san even walked us back to the main street to make sure we didn't get lost so late at night! They really take great care of us over there.

With two crazy nights already under our belts, we figured it'd be best to take it easy Sunday. We checked out the Saty department store in town that's closing down and did some kitchen shopping. We got ourselves some pans and such and bought all of the stuff to make some curry. For it being our first time cooking Japanese food in our new apartment, I think it went pretty well! Looks pretty good, eh?

The next day was spent running several errands around town with Kawaguchi-sensei and Izumi-sensei. It turns out that Izumi Kuniyasu is just his Japanese name. He used to be a missionary from Mexico by the name of Juan Gonzales and can speak Spanish, English, French, and Japanese fluently. He was called upon to return, but he was so impressed by Japan that he left the service and has been living here for the past 37 years. He married here and has a daughter now as well. He's been a big part of us getting moved in, and he's a really kind man with loads interesting stories.

The first stop was to pick up our 印鑑 (inkan), or Japanese seal. Most official documents in Japan require a signature and 判子 (hanko), a Japanese-style seal-signature. Some foreigners are given Kanji (Japanese symbols) to spell out their name based on its Katakana (Japanese alphabet used for foreign words) transcription by a teacher or mentor. Since I have yet to be accepted into Japanese society in that way, I just had my last name printed in Katakana on two lines. It's backwards for stamping, but that's マクニーズ (pronounced mah-koo-knee-zoo).

When you stay in Japan for more than 90 days, you have to get a visa beforehand. Also, you have to fill out alien registration forms in the closest city hall, which happened to be our second stop of the day. It was a relatively short process in which Izumi-sensei was a big help. We've got to come back next week to pick up our official registration cards, though.

The last stop of the day was the bank. We had to set up accounts so the school can automatically deposit our scholarship money and the real estate company can withdraw our rent each month. It took a little while longer and a small processing fee, but soon we're going to have handy ATM cards to use around Japan.

Even though classes are still a ways off, I spent a large part of today trying to figure out which professor's research lab I want to be in here at the University of Aizu. I'm a little scared since I'm entering a graduate program and I'm only a junior back home. Luckily, there's a professor here who's studying linguistics and how tongues move during speech. Armed with a Ph. D in Linguistics from the University of British Columbia, he seems like the ideal advisor for me since his work brings together the engineering stuff I'm studying and the linguistics I'm developing a passion for. Normally he doesn't direct students, but we'll see what happens when I meet with him later.

I've already got plans for most of this weekend, and it looks like it's gonna be another good one. Dr. Orr's wife wants to throw us a welcome party on Saturday, and we've got some other social obligations to fulfill!

Oh yeah, your Japanese for the week is "osewa ni narimashita." When someone takes care of you for any length of time, it's very polite to say at the end of a transaction or when saying farewells. Since it took about 30 minutes to get everything processed at city hall, Izumi-sensei said "Arigatou gozaimashita! Osewa ni narimashita!" when we took off.

Chat me up on AIM or Skype if you've got nothing better to do and I'm online!

Mata ne!

A Homecoming of Sorts

Nine months ago I left, and now I'm back again. Last time we kicked it in rainy Kanazawa, but this time it's mountainous Aizu. About three hours north of Tokyo by train, Aizu is one of the most accommodating and friendliest places I've ever been. I've already made so many friends and invaluable social connections that it blows my mind. Not just that, but I've already been to a Japanese bar with Yamauchi-sensei, climbed a mountain and watched a world championship skiing competition, helped a mega-drunk Japanese man sort his recyclables, and eaten horse meat!

Just 6 days ago, Jamie, Andrew, Elliott, and I left America from O'Hare airport in Chicago. Processing went smoothly, and the flight was long. Twelve and a half hours later though, we arrived at Narita Airport close to Tokyo. As soon as we cleared customs, I got hit with a serious case of nostalgia. Suddenly, I was the minority again and there were vending machines around every corner. It was a lot like seeing an old friend really. The most surreal part of it all, though, was meeting our Japanese professor before we hopped a train. Sure she's been teaching us how to speak and read the language for the past 2 years, but having her here to hold our hand all the way to Aizu was a big help I was glad to have had. Sure, it got annoying that she kept telling everyone we're fluent at Japanese (which isn't even close to true!), but I know she's just pushing us to try our hardest.

After about 20 straight hours of traveling, we arrived at 会津若松駅 (Aizu-wakamatsu eki), the Aizu train station. A short walk found us in front of the Washington Hotel where we stayed for two days before getting settled into our apartments. The next day, Dr. Orr picked us up from the hotel lobby. He's a professor of English here at the University, and he's been living in Japan for almost 16 years. He took us to 会津大学 (Aizu Daigaku), The University of Aizu. So we spent the rest of the day meeting all sorts of faculty and learning who's who around this place. Izumi-sensei and Nagashima-sensei have been crazy invaluable for getting us settled in. But the most important guy we've met so far is definitely Kawauchi-sensei, who I can tell is going to be one of our best friends while we're here. Heck, the FIRST night we met him he took us all out to an 居酒屋 (Izakaya), which is a Japanese pub.

The place is called Super Star. That's 'cause the owner's name is Hoshi-san, and hoshi means star in Japanese. He's the guy in green. Yamauchi-sensei told us to call him if we ever have problems with Aizu nightlife. The dude in back rockin' the vest is Kuma-san. He's the resident draftmaster.

Alright, it's Japanese culture lesson time. If you finish your drink, they refill it before you can say おねがいします. After every class he pours, Kuma-san gives a hearty "bottoms up!" and next thing you know, you're flyin' high and eating horse meat. Horse is delicious, by the way. Kuma-san is another one of those guys that we're going to be great friends with. I already promised we'd be back next weekend.

Nighttime shenanigans aside, we're doing legitimate stuff too. The next day, Dr. Orr introduced the 4 of us American students to 3 Japanese students. Yuu Ito, Kunitaka Endo, and Koichi Noda were all pretty excited to meet us and practice their English skills. Koichi already invited us to a party Saturday night that he's DJing, and Kunitaka went with us yesterday to help buy cellphones. It's really great that we're making so many social connections this early on. That evening, we parted ways with Hirotani-sensei and thanked her for the tremendous help she'd been.

We set out bright and early the next morning for the mountain town of Inawashiro. After we got to the top, there was this trashed dude who got off the train, ran into a wall, asked Elliott to help him sort his recyclables, then shook his hand. He followed us onto the shuttle bus after rocking some jumping jacks in the crosswalk.

See, Rika-sensei hooked us up with some tickets to the FIS Freestyle World Championship that just happened to be taking place in our prefecture. Here's a shot of the competition area as we were walking up to it.

It was pretty chilly, but we saw some amazing ski jumps. Freestyle jumps were going on that day. You wouldn't believe the air some of these guys were getting. All in all it was pretty awesome, but we had to leave after the first round since it was getting crazy cold. Here's a video of one of the most wicked jumps.

Speaking of mountains, the sky was incredibly clear the next day. You could see the whole mountain range really clearly, especially Mt. Bandai.


Yeah, check that out. That's behind the school. That's my back yard, man.

So even though Aizu is kind of in the boonies, it's really not that much of a change from home or even Terre Haute. The biggest difference is in the people. People from Aizu have an incredible sense of origin, and they're the most accommodating folk I've ever met. I've made a bunch of friends in just one week, and I know I'll meet so many more when school starts up and all the students come back from break. I miss all you guys at home, but these next few months are going to be incredible.

Sorry I didn't get this up sooner, but I've been super busy these past few days and we don't get internet in our apartment. I'll do my absolute best to update at least once a week!

And with that, I leave you with your Japanese lesson of the week. When you want to say "no problem," you normally say "mondai nai." But in Aizu, you can say "sasuke ne!"

Sayounara!

(You can check out Jamie's blog at http://kleemanjapan.blogspot.com. He's likely got some stuff I missed.)