Japan, Part Two

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

2009-08-22T19:18:00.003+09:00

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

2009-08-11T16:36:00.003+09:00

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

2009-07-31T17:36:00.007+09:00

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!

2009-06-24T20:01:00.002+09:00

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

2009-06-15T18:13:00.003+09:00

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

2009-05-28T21:00:00.014+09:00

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

2009-05-01T12:17:00.008+09:00

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.

2009-04-06T18:04:00.006+09:00

Spring is here! The days are getting warmer, flowers are blooming, and (most importantly) the hana-mi festival is on its way!

Meanwhile, things are still a bit frigid up on Mt. Bandai. Dr. Orr caught wind of our lack of tourist-like activities and took us on a mountainside adventure Saturday via automobile since the really neat places are rather inaccessible by bike, unfortunately.

First on our list of stops was the local Samurai school, 日新館 (Nisshinkan). Well, it's actually a replica. The original was burnt down during the Boshin War in 1868. A wealthy gentleman had the entire facility rebuilt and opened up to the public as a tourist attraction in 1987. In its prime, 日新館 was considered the very best of nearly 300 Samurai schools across Japan. From a very young age, students lived by the principles of Confucianism along with the seven rules, called 什の掟 (Jyu no okite). They are:

You must do what your seniors tell you to do.
You must bow to your seniors.
You must not tell lies.
You must not behave in a cowardly manner.
You must not bully those weaker than yourself.
You must not eat outside.
You must not talk with women outside.

With the exception of the last two, these rules are still considered very valorous principles by which to live in Japan. Students trained and studied unrelentingly every day, learning everything from astronomy to weapons combat to strategic warfare. 日新館 housed what is believed to be the first swimming pool in Japan, where students practiced underwater combat and swimming while fully clad in armor. The last stand of the Boshin war actually took place in Aizu, resulting in a people infinitely proud of their heritage even to this day.

Stop number two was 毘沙門沼 (Bishamon-numa), one of the five multi-colored lakes created as a result of Mt. Bandai erupting in 1888. This one tends to be a beautiful aquamarine tint that the college adopted as an official color. Even surrounded by snow it was a pretty sight, but Dr. Orr tells us it's far more incredible during hana-mi or fall when the leaves turn.

Last but definitely not least, we visited a Japanese-style bathhouse at Nekoma Hotel next to Lake Hibara. These types of baths are of an entirely different sort than what we're used to in America. You've got to completely wash yourself at one of the bathing stations before even entering the water. There's no such thing as over-washing for foreigners since most Japanese figure we're going to do it wrong anyway. Finally, it's time to soak in the communal pool. We decided to take a dip outside, though, in what's called a 露天風呂 (rotemburo), or open-air bath. As we relaxed in piping hot natural mountain water, we looked out on the frozen lake. If taking pictures in the bathhouse wasn't practically illegal, I'd have some incredible photos to upload.

We spent the next day with Dr. Orr again, but with his family too this time. His wife, Sakurako-san made lunch for us as we attended the weekly English discussion meeting at their apartment. Afterward, we went up to the family's condo in the mountains for a bit more scenery and relaxation. We did the whole bathing thing once more, but spent some time in the sauna too (that's where Jamie and I are in the above picture). Nobody else was there, so we sneaked a few photos. The view was absolutely incredible across the adjacent lake, especially at sunset. We're lucky to have a family like the Orrs around to show us how beautiful Aizu and the surrounding prefecture really can be.

This week: know your Japanese baths!

銭湯 - Sentou (sen-tow) - the general term for any bathhouse or public bath
温泉 - Onsen (own-sen) - term for a hot spring or spa fed by natural spring water
露天風呂 - Rotemburo (row-ten-boo-row) - usually the same as onsen, but open to the air

Thanks to this weekend, I'm relaxed and finally ready for classes to start!

凛として時雨

2009-03-30T12:08:00.004+09:00

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

2009-03-19T16:18:00.009+09:00

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

2009-03-09T10:49:00.007+09:00

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

2009-03-05T14:58:00.001+09:00

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.)