Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Pay Back

In the morning, Todd woke up before me. I was technically awake, but not yet ready to get up. Since I could not go back to sleep, I decided to put Todd to the test to see how quiet he would be. I think that, had I actually been asleep, I would not have know that he was up and doing things. At times, he left the room and I did not even know. That was just another plus in his book.

It was rainy today and Japanese class showed it. Class started with five people in it and ended up with eight. My walk to school was somewhat difficult since my right leg was stiff and sore from the soccer game. I felt like I needed a cane. Once Japanese clas was over, I made my way to the language lab to finish my oh so favorite assignment of recording my voice for the teacher. After doing that and going to lunch, I returned to the dorm to do my laundry and complete an assignment for the next day while waiting for my next class.

I found that the Japan site membership became much more lucrative today since I now had several nearby Japanese people who wanted to meet me in person. These people are both male and female (for those who were curious). And so, I alternated between doing homework, talking to people, and tending to laundry until it was class time. After class, I went to the ramen shop to eat dinner and came home to type all of my blogs.

PEOPLE PICTURES

I have been collecting some pictures of people that I would now like to share. Please also remember that you can see all of my pictures at http://profile.imageshack.us/user/exite13/ instead of just looking at the ones I refer to.

Nabil, Tokashiki Sensei, Mitch, Alex, Kim, Keisuke, Yusuke, Mizoguchi Sensei, Harao Sensei, Albert and Japanese Guy, Kimie, Japanese Class

Playing Catch Up

On Saturday, I spent a fair amount of time talking to my sister, Julie, over the internet. We discussed current events and I was introduced to her blog. After solving the problems of the world, I made her go to bed since it was after 2 am back at home.

On Sunday, I officially joined a site to meet friends in Japan. I had been on the site for about a week or two now, but you aren't able to contact anyone unless you pay for membership. After deciding that it would probably be worth it, I became a 'VIP' member. In order to make my purchase worthwhile, I began emailing some people in hopes to make new friends. Of course, emails take time, so I did not get too much response on the first day.

On Monday, I began to get some responses to my emails as I continued to send more to other people. I had dinner with Albert for the first time in awhile as well.

Tuesday brought forth many more interesting events than the other days. At lunch, I met up with Nabil and his speaking partner, Haruka. I also met three other Japanese guys. After lunch, Nabil insisted that we go play soccer. Not having a legitimate excuse (to myself) to back out from the festivities, I joined them. Before we started playing, one of the Japanese students, Kenji, started talking to me. He wanted to get to know me as a foreigner and show me around Japan some. After exchanging number, we began playing.

As I expected, I was not very good at handling the ball. After we kicked the ball around for a while, we played a mini soccer game in which there was one goalie and two people on each team. After playing for awhile, I eventually became more than useless since I started being able to take the ball from the other team. At one point, I actually got a goal. After that, we played PK, where someone kicked at the goal uninhibited and the goalie had to stop the ball. Lastly, we played soccerball, which was like basketball with a soccer ball that you kick into the goal. Of course, no one scored in this particular game. I took my leave of them before they joined in another group of people to play a bigger game. I was already exhausted since I never play any sports games.

I went to the school convenience store to get a drink and took it to the CIE lounge to drink it. While I was sitting there, a woman from the CIE office came up to me and called me by name. I know that I had never introduced myself to her, so I assumed that something important had happened. She explained that I would be getting a new roommate, which did not surprise me since I had paid for a double room. What did surprise me was that he would be moving in by 6:00 tonight. Having two and a half hours before his arrival, I decided to go home and prepare.

While I was waiting for my new roommate, Nabil came over and wanted to go eat. I explained that I was waiting for the newcomer, and so he agreed to wait until 6:30. With still no roommate in sight, we headed out to dinner. By the time we returned, Todd had arrived. Aaron had already began his childish antics, so it was difficult to gauge how Todd would act. Once Aaron was out of the picture, Todd displayed his normal personality that seemed much more bearable. As the night progressed and it became bed time, Todd ended up going to bed before I did, so I knew that I did not have anything to worry about for tonight. I think that, considering the fact I probably would have ended up with a new roommate anyway, Todd was a lucky catch; although it is way too soon to get the final word on that.

In other news, Dr. McCrillis from CSU emailed me to say that he would be on his way to Kansai Gaidai next Tuesday and he would like to meet up with me to chat for awhile. I think it will be nice to see someone from home.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Delivery Day

February 23

Today's main event was the successful obtaination of my Nintendo DS. After spending the day at school, I returned home to find the package waiting for me. I happily opened it to see that which I had bought - in all its glory. Without a game for it, all that I could do was charge the battery. I wasn't sure when I would get a game for it, but all things shall come in time.

I was planning to make dinner at the dorm, but something told me to wait a while longer in case anyone was interested in going somewhere. Sure enough, Nabil showed up and wanted to know if I was interested in going to the ¥500 restaurant. I decided to pay for him since he paid for me last time. After we ate there, he expressed interest to do something on this Friday night of ours. Before long, we were on our way to Namba in Osaka to seize the night. Since Nabil didn't want me to pay for his meal, he paid for my transportation.

Once in Namba, we eventually ran into an area that I was familiar with from my last visit. We found a bookstore that I recalled had a game section downstairs, so I went to get a Mario game and a case for my DS. Next, we visited some arcades, though we mostly just looked around since we were tight on time.

On the trip back, we were getting to the end of the trains' running time. We were able to catch one of the last trains before they stopped. The best description of the ride that I can think of is that I had a real-life simulation of how Jews in the Holocaust felt while on a train - just in a more modern setting. There was standing room only, and even that was limited. For each mass of people that got off at a stop, there was an equal and opposite mass of people getting on the train. After we got off at Makino, we walked back to the dorm.

I played my new game for a little while once we got back. I had specifically chose Mario because I knew that it wouldn't require much reading. Fortunately, the instructions were similar to my Japanese class in that each kanji character had the pronunciation written above it. The game was obviously made compatible for young children who could not read many kanji yet. Everything in the game was in katakana, which means that the words are recycled English words that I could sound out. Just as I thought, the game was a good choice for someone who cannot read Japanese very well.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Lost in Translation

February 21-22

Wednesday's events were not out of the ordinary. We had a test in Japanese, after which I went home to do the laundry while waiting for my next class. During my waiting period, I received an email from Amazon in reference to my purchase. The email would not display correctly on my computer, so I had to find a program to change it back into Japanese. Since the characters were translated from gibberish, the email was not entirely displayed correctly, which made it more difficult to translate. I was able to find enough words that sounded like the package would be sent to believe that was the jist of the email. Later, I received another email from the seller that contained a tracking link, so I assumed that all was well. All that is left is to see if it actually gets to me.

On Thursday, the natural flow of the day seemed to change. In my culture class, teacher actually started talking about Culture and Everyday Life in Japan, making today the official first day of class. In Human Resources, all we did was watch the movie Mr. Baseball to see the differences between an American egomaniac and Japan.

I learned that today was the application day for the Japanese students going to study abroad. Because of this, I was asked by three different people to check their essays for grammar and spelling. After many corrections and explanations, I was able to help each person out. After finishing the essays, I asked one of my "students," Yusuke, if he wanted to get dinner.

Yusuke had to walk with his motor bike to the restaurant, Roro. On the way there, we rode together on the backroads. Yusuke said that riding with two people was illegal, so we could only do it on the backroads. I can understand why it would be illegal considering how easy it seemed to fall off and die. After avoiding an untimely death, we arrived at Roro and ate. Yusuke's girlfriend worked at Roro, so we got free sodas just like when I went with Mami and her friends. It seems that I have connections at that place.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Access Denied

February 20

Today was my short day once again in which I went to Japanese class and had nothing further to attend. I had been thinking about buying a Nintendo DS long before the dictionary adventure and since it was the only other expensive item that I wanted to get, I figured that I might as well go for it. I decided to go on this adventure alone since I had been aided by my friends for all of my other ones.

I made my way down to the KS Electronics store to make my purchase. Once arriving in the store, I asked an employee where the Nintendo DS was located. He explained that the store does not sell games, which was strange to hear since a few aisles over there were computer games. He probably meant that they don't sell hand-held games. From that point, my adventure became more interesting after I decided to try going back to Yodobashi Camera in Osaka.

When I reached Hirakata Station, I began carefully inspecting the signs for the correct station. It was easy to find the train that I wanted. At the next station, I followed the crowd of people over to the next train line where I again inspected the signs to ensure my smooth transition to Osaka. Once reaching Osaka, I went out of the north gate which I recalled led to the store.

After my flawless journey, I arrived at the store and proceded up to the proper floor. I asked one of the employees if the Japanese Nintedo DS could play games made in America. After obtaining an affirmative answer, I asked how I might go about acquiring one such unit. It was at this time that I was informed that the eight story department store supercenter was completely sold out of the device in question. Completely astounded, shocked, and sullenly disappointed, I decided to make my way back home since I had no idea what to do by myself in a big city.

The trip back proved to be quite the contrary to the trip there. There were twelve different platforms that went to the same loop, but none of them displayed any familiar names. After walking around looking for anything that I missed, I gave up and asked a Japanese guy who was standing around. He explained that I wanted platform 2 and then insisted that he take me to the proper train. I was astounded, shocked, and pleasantly impressed that a person with no obligation or reason to help a stranger would go to such lengths just to lend a hand. On the way to the platform, we attempted to communicate about my reason to be in Japan. I couldn't explain much more than that I was a student at Kansai Gaidai and by the time that I could no longer understand his questions, we were at the platform. He showed me to the train and we bid farewell.

Switching trains was much easier than finding the first one. This time, there were actually signs with the station name on them. Once getting back to the station, I took the 45 minute walk back to the dorm.

After dinner, I decided not to let this day be for naught. I began looking on eBay and other various stores for the DS. It seemed that all of the eBay deals had high shipping costs, but some were acceptable. The problem was that Paypal would not let me enter an address outside of the US, so I could not buy a DS from eBay. All other stores that I found would only ship to the US. By the advise of my dormmate Will who purchased a DS online, I went to Amazon Japan to purchase one. The price was slightly higher than it was in the department store, but it was apparent that the extra price was for the availability. This too proved to be difficult, as I could not type the entire address in Roman characters since it would not fit. Therefore, I had to type it all in kanji which took a while since I did not know what all of the characters were called.

After finally finishing my order, I retired to study for my Japanese test on the next day. It appeared that the study material was at a slightly higher difficulty than what we had done in class, so I figured that we were in for a treat the next day.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

From Dusk Till Dawn

I awoke today to go to school as usual, but I also had another parameter to fulfill. I rushed to the school so that I would have time to return the umbrella that I borrowed before my class began. After doing so, I ran up the four flights of stairs to my class and made it just in time. After class, I went to eat lunch and attempt to read for my next class.

As usual, the reading made no sense and was poorly written, so I again discontinued reading it. I figure that if I can't understand what I'm reading, there is no sense in reading it at all. The class itself was a disgrace to mankind. The class title is Culture and Everyday Life in Japan from an Anthropological Perspective, but the way the teacher teaches it, the class should be named Anthropological Perspectives and leave out the rest. It wasn't until the last four minutes of class that he even mentioned anything about Japan. I spent the entire class looking straight at my notebook and ignoring him completly as to show my disgust for his blatant failure to do his job. If this keeps up, he will surely receive the worst teacher rating that I ever have, and ever will give. I hated my computer science class back at home, but at least I knew something about the subject by the time it was over!

After that class, I wearily made my way to my next class. Unfortunately, the teacher's promise to lecture for only 20 minutes per day was broken and he kept it going for most of the class. After class, Albert asked for me to wait around so we could eat dinner, and that meant that I would have to wait for him to get out of the next class. In order to pass the time, I figured that I might as well do the language lab assignment that I had planned to do the next day. Unfortunately, the assignment proved to be harder than expected since my first class's teacher had drugged me with his infinite amount of boredom and information that did not relate to the topic of the class. I had to write down everything that I had to say word for word in order to do the assignment and I still had to redo it several times before it was at an acceptable quality.

After doing the assignment, I met with Albert in the lounge where we proceeded to wait for a suitable time to eat dinner. I decided to do my workbook homework and I used my dictionary to help me write some kanji and look up a few things that I did not recognize.

While we waited, Albert talked with one of his Japanese classmates, Kimie, and invited her along to dinner with us. This particular girl was intriguing to Albert since she seemed obsessed with the fact that drugs are legal in Holland. We all talked while we were at dinner at the popular Japanese restaurant, Roro. I was glad to find out that there was more to her than an interest in drugs.

After dinner, we parted ways and I headed home. From there, not too much happened, though I was out and about from 10:00 to 8:30. It felt like I was back at home being at school all day...

Monday, February 19, 2007

Saved by Chance

February 18

There I was about to think that I would have an eventless weekend, when chance struck and things got interesting. My original plan was to fool around with various entertainment devices in the dorm and eventually get to studying the words that I had a test on the next day. As time passed, I decided that I had best study before I forgot. Almost immediately after I finished studying, my friend Nabil appeared in my room (via doorway) and asked if I wanted to go to Osaka to look at the electronics store. Since I had been considering buying something from there, I went along for the ride.

As we walked to the bus stop, I began to feel the irony of the situation. I was an American walking with an Arab in a foreign country, which seemed to be a misrepresentation of the American view of Arab people. As subtle as it was, I was still entertained by the circumstance.

Once we reached Osaka, we made our way to Yodobashi Camera which, despite the name, sells much, much more than cameras. In fact, those of you attentive readers may recall me mentioning a department store that was about eight stories. This was that.

We made our way up to the game section to look at the Nintendo DS, which, through various sources, we were informed had a dictionary-type game that could be useful in deciphering what the people in Japan were saying/writing to us. I was having some pre-purchase dissonance about the whole idea since it was quite difficult to determine whether the device would perform as expected or not. Instead, I insisted that we go back downstairs to look at the actual electronic dictionaries before deciding anything.

Before we found the dictionaries, Nabil wanted to look at the laptops we passed by since his current one was falling apart. There were some decent deals and some indecent deals. All of the laptops featured the recently released Windows Vista, while some also featured some hardware that surely wouldn't run it. The most interesting laptop was a disgustingly expensive one laced with some type of leather that looked like a crocodile. Nabil seemed impressed, but I thought that it was quite ugly and probably had slow hardware that was deferred by the outer design.

Once we found the dictionaries, we asked one of the store employees which one could look up words and kanji (Chinese characters). We were shown a model made by Casio that could look up words and have kanji written on a touch screen with a stylus pen. At this point, I wanted to get something to help me with Japanese, so I had to choose between the Nintendo DS for approximately ¥17,000 which may not do what I hope that it would or the dictionary for ¥31,800 which I could physically prove would do what I wanted ($170 or $310). After careful consideration and the knowledge that I could use my credit card in this particular store so to not cut into my living money, I decided to get the dictionary. Nabil also wanted to get something, but he was not yet sure that he wanted the dictionary over the Nintendo DS, so he went to think about it while he looked for a bathroom.

As expected, purchasing an item in a foreign country was an adventure. First, I discovered that in order to get the ¥2,000 discount that they were offering for the dictionary, I had to have a members point card. At some point, it started to sound like she was asking about having an alien registration card, but I later discovered that she was referring to the members card again. After explaining that I did not know my local address, she decided to drop the whole card thing and get on with the purchase. It became apparent that she allowed me the discount anyway when the register rang up ¥29,800. After completing the transaction, she asked me to wait and she went to look for something. She came back with a little pouch for the dictionary and said that it was a present (from the store). A free discount and a free carrying pouch - now that's employee empowerment!

When Nabil came back, we went to look at the Nintendo DS one more time before he decided what to do. Ultimately, he decided to get the dictionary. When we went back down, the girl who helped me wasn't there, so Nabil was helped by another person. The guy went through the same routine about the card. After he was given the same answers that I gave, he noticed that I had purchased an item already. He asked if it was the same thing to which I answered affirmatively. After checking the receipt, he found that I was given the discount and proceded to give Nabil the discount as well. I discovered that he did not give Nabil a free pouch though, which shows that such gift giving is purely a decision of the employee. We made our way back home after that.

On the train, I decided to check out my new toy. It was all in Japanese, so I had to use the click-and-see method. As we played around with it, we noticed that there was no stylus with the dictionary. Though it was a bit disappointing, it seemed that we had to purchase one separately.

Once we reached our destination, we went to the ¥500 restaurant with lots of food to eat. Nabil had not been there before and was impressed with the amount of food that you receive for so little money. He decided to pay for both of us since I showed him such a great place. As we were walking back to the dorm, he called his father and I got to hear some Arabic.

Upon arriving at the dorm, I stopped by to talk to Okaa san. We showed her our new gadgets and she showed us that she had one of the exact kind (though she paid more for it). Then I showed her the before and after pictures of my room and she almost fell out of her seat. From there, she started going on about how neat and organized I was. Soon, Otoo san came in and I showed him the pictures as well. He produced the English word "Surprise!" which meant 'that's surprising.' After that, Nabil and I headed upstairs.

In the dorm unit, we talked with Will and showed him our new investments. After looking at it for a little while, Will discovered that the dictionaries did in fact come with a stylus. It seemed that every doubt about the dictionary was removed after a little exploration. I would say that it was well worth it, especially since I later found that the more accurate translation of ¥29,800 was $250 instead of $300. After that, I spent the night studying my words and figuring out how to use the dictionary.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

It's All Purple 'n Stuff!

As I relayed earlier, I was going to see my speaking partner today. It was also the day that my roommate, Mitch, moved out. I awoke to the sound of my phone ringing. It was Mitch, who was calling to ask if the balcony was clean of any restricted cigarettes that he had been smoking out there. Apparently, his late night venture left him too far away to get back for the 10:00 check-out session that he had. As it turned out, he got back before the caretaker came up and he began packing like the police were after him. Once the check-out session began, Okaa san began to thoroughly inspect everything. It was absolutely hilarious watching the two of them (who obviously hated each other) act so polite while talking. Okaa san basically made Mitch into a slave by making him clean everything by vacuuming, dusting, and putting his bed away. After what was probably and hour and a half, the procedure was complete and Okaa san retired back to her office. At that point, Mitch collapsed on the couch to fix his exhaustion.

Prior to the 2:00 meeting, I made a light lunch of pasta in order to keep me going. When it was time to go, I went downstairs to discover that today was a lovely and rainy day. I borrowed an umbrella from the community stash and began making my 20 minute way in the rain. After finally reaching my destination, I entered the cafeteria to wait for Saki.

Once she arrived, we sat down and she produced a box from her bag. Within this box was contained the foretold takoyaki, which I hastily prepared to receive as best I could. The octopus pieces contained in the breading were small and purple. The taste itself was similar to the squid I had earlier, but it was a little difficult to think about what I was eating. The part I didn't like was whatever the rest of the filling was. It was some gooey stuff that just felt weird. Despite this, I ate my fair share of the box, which left the four that I took the picture of before leaving.

After the food, Saki began to show me some of her pictures. She had a lot of them! While we were looking at them, one of her friends called her and asked if she could join us. This friend, Aki (not Chiaki), was in several of the pictures, so I got to see who it was before she got there. Once she joined us, I thought that I'd start collecting more pictures, so I took out my camera. This is Saki and Aki, respectively.

After we finished with the pictures, we made our way to the library where students can apparently watch movies that are available. As we made our way to the book/video section of the library, I discovered that they had a gate system that required people to swipe their school ID card in order to enter. I thought that was quite interesting. We made our way to the video section where we discovered that it was closing! From there, we went to the student lounge. As we entered, we put our umbellas in the umbrella holders at the door. From there, we sat in the lounge where I proceeded to empty my pockets for show and tell since there wasn't much else to do on a freezing and rainy day. After finishing the show, someone came in the lounge and announced that it too was closing. Figuring that it was about time to go home, we made our way back outside. It was to our misfortune that we discovered that other people saw the umbrella holders as a community stash as well! Only Saki's umbrella remained, which was most unfortunate for me since I had to walk back home. Fortunately, Japanese schools are prepared for this kind of thing and they had an umbrella loaning system that Saki knew about. And so, I borrowed an umbrella from the school so that I could go home relatively dry. From there, Saki, Aki, and I parted ways.

On the way back, I seemed intent to visit the ¥99 shop so I could get the one thing that I shouldn't eat on such a cold day - ice cream. I was quite pleased to be able to purchase such a large cone of ice cream for ¥104 (tax included) while at McDonalds, I got a smaller one for ¥200. Not being suicidal, I didn't eat the ice cream yet, instead, I stocked up on some to take back to the dorm and eat when I was not frozen.

After walking back to the dorm, my hands felt colder than the ice cream, so I quickly went upstairs where it was warm. I went into my room, happy that there would be no one in it anymore, but I was surprised to find that Aaron had made his way onto my computer to chat with friends. I don't particularly mind that he was on my computer, but I didn't like finding and uninvited guest in my room, hence, I shall lock the door whenever I leave.

Next, I had dinner along with one of my frozen treats. After eating, I decided that it was time to make the room mine. After a quick rearrangement, I took a picture to compare the before and after. After that, I hung out with some of my roommates watching TV and talking before going to bed.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

A Week's Worth

Having both been too lazy to write a blog for the past week and not having done more than one or two reportable things each day anyway, I thought that it might save time in writing and reading if I were to condense the week into one post.

Monday was the designated 'off' day for National Foundation Day which was on Sunday. This holiday was founded in celebration of the first emperor of Japan who is said to have descended from the Sun god. After World War II, the USA insisted that the holiday be cancelled since it reflected back to the Japanese way that led to the war. After a few years, the Japanese people voted the holiday to be reinstated since it showed a part of Japanese history. Despite this, some Japanese protest the holiday even today because they do not want to look back upon their past since it could lead them back to their old way of thinking.

Since the day was school-free, I was left with nothing to do. Albert and I had planned to get dinner at 5:00, but it was only 11:00 when I woke up. For lunch, I decided to make the rice and shrimp dish that I bought earlier. Come 3:00, I received a message from Albert that asked for me to meet him in 15 minutes. Once I found him, he explained that he heard about a place in which we could play pool. The problem was that he wasn't sure where the place was. Our first step was to find Makino Station since the pool place was nearby it. After walking around for awhile, we finally asked someone and were oriented properly. Next, we had to find the pool place. We also had to ask someone for that, during which, we discovered that Japanese people, like others, call it billiards instead.

The building we had to go to was a giant game building that advertised bowling as its main activity. Again, we had to ask where the billiards tables were. The third floor where they were situated had two separate sections, so it was harder to find than we had hoped. Once we found the tables, we paid for 30 minutes and played. Having not played pool in years, I was, of course, awful at it. After the game, we went for bowling, which I already knew I was awful at from the last time I played. On top of that, all of the balls had small holes which made throwing the ball incredibly difficult. Overall, bowling is an incredibly expensive sport since it cost ¥600 per game and you had to rent shoes from a vending machine. Pool only cost ¥500 for 30 minutes.

After we played, we rode the train to Hirakata-shi so we could find somewhere to eat. The city was surprisingly devoid of places to eat as compared to the area around the school. We picked a Japanese restaurant (most of the others featured foreign foods) and ate there, after which, we went home.

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Tuesday was the first day of school after the long weekend. Other than that, nothing particularly interesting happened until dinner. For dinner, I went to an Okinomiyaki restaurant by myself. This was the first time that I went to a restaurant by myself. By the time I figured out what I wanted from the all-Japanese menu (which I was able to read enough to choose), I discovered that they had an English menu. After ordering, I compared the menus so I could figure out what some things said. After eating and paying, I finished the night off.

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Wednesday was Valentines' Day. It seems that many people do not know if Japan celebrates V-Day. The answer, quite simply, is that they do; just not the same way. In America, Valentines' Day is a free-for-all in which everyone gives everyone chocolate and other confections. In Japan, however, only the girls get to give chocolate. The boys have to wait until a month later (White Day) to reciprocate the favor.

I started off the day in my Japanese class, where one of the assistant teachers (student in training) handed out what is called 'obligatory' chocolate. This particular kind of giving is simply to show that the person feels a duty to give chocolate as a gesture toward a person. From that point on, I expected that I would not receive any more chocolate of any kind.

While waiting for my next class (5 hours later) in the lounge, I was joined by two Japanese girls looking for seat. Eventually, Keisuke and Albert shuffled through the area as well. A third girl joined the other two and Albert began talking with them. Eventually, he got to the point where we would all go to dinner after class. One of the girls went to a convenience store to pick up a few items and came back with chocolate that she distributed to everyone. We continued talking until class.

In Negotiations, we went over our actual negotiation from the previous class day. As it turned out, I happened to get the highest price that he had ever seen in the exercise (good thing I was the seller!). Hopefully my partner will learn from the experience and not give in so quickly next time. The teacher also addressed the issue about why he was being so hard on the Japanese students. He explained that in order to become a foreign exchange student in Japan, the students had to go through a series of very difficult tests to be accepted to the school, go through a series of training classes taught in English with other Japanese students, go through the classes available to us (as in people like me) with a passing grade, have an interview in English to ensure that the students can survive in a foreign country, and finally, have an interview in Japanese to judge their character and motives. All of this occurs without letting the student actually decide where they will go. Because of this, the teacher doesn't want to let Japanese students who aren't worthy pass his class since the students who fail bring shame upon the home institution, their family, and their country, as well as incur a heavy financial penalty if they fail abroad. I just had to fill out an application!

After class, we all met up and went to a restaurant that one of them worked at part-time. Albert seemed to have taken a liking to one of them and talked to her fairly often. On the way home, one of them separated from the group since she lived in a different direction. Albert talked to his new friend, and I was left with the one who I thought was the prettiest. We talked until we reached her appartment where we parted ways. From there, I followed Albert and his friend until our usual parting point and I went home while Albert walked his friend to her home. We did all of this and I never was told any of their names.

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On Thursday, Albert and I ran into two of the girls from last night. They were talking with some guy, so we sat elsewhere. While the girls were talking, the girl who "lived in a different direction" told the guy her name. Having learned one of their names, I was on my way to rectifying the lack of such knowledge. Before too much longer, it was time for class.

Today in my culture class, we were to do a mock interview for the big project that we are to do for the class. I chose to ask about 'Group Membership in Japan.' I phrased my questions in a way that required the person to think about the responses in order to answer. This would help keep the answers interesting and also help with the paper I have to write. My mock interviewee agreed with the idea. When we switched partners and roles, I was faced with an exclusively female interview that was done in an intense and forceful way. I advised her to change the questions to be more universal and to try to not be so strong in her method of interviewing.

After class, I went back to the lounge so I could wait for a reasonable time for dinner. I was eventually joined by Albert who told me that he would be dining with his new friend tonight. Eventually, she came by to meet him. It was at this point that I was able to learn her name and I asked the other's, who I spoke to the night prior. Finally having learned their names, Takako (Albert's friend), Masumi (the other direction), and Mami (the one I talked to), I was glad to have caught up with reality. After Albert and Takako departed, I went to the Ramen shop to quench my appetite.

While in the Ramen shop, I was joined by an old Japanese couple. They seemed to be quite roudy and at times, they spoke to me, though I did not understand. I cannot gauge what they were saying to me, or perhaps about me (if they were), but as I was leaving, the man of the couple got up to shake my hand, bow, and say goodbye. An interesting experience behind me, I went forth back to my dorm.

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On Friday, the first interesting event occured at lunch. I got to eat with two of the teaching assistants - one from my class, and her friend from another class. We spoke of various things about Japan and America while we ate. At one point, I put them to the test to see if they knew who the musician Kana was. As expected, they had no clue, even after I played a sample for them on my MP3 player. Once lunch was over, we returned to the CIE where they went to the teacher's lounge, and I went to the student's lounge.

While sitting in the lounge, I broke out my laptop that I brought with me to ease the 4 hour wait for my class. I was joined by Kim and her friend Alex who I also knew. After talking some, I began a picture show of a bunch of jokes that I had obtained from my friend Jeff a few years ago. After mentioning that I had a lot of cat pictures during a particular picture featuring a cat, Kim became interested to see the pictures. We watched a slideshow of little kittens doing various things until the class that we happened to have together.

After class, I met up with Albert who insisted that we go to the Ramen shop that I went to yesterday for dinner. I reluctantly agreed since the alternative was to eat by myself. After we finished, we walked back to the dorms in the freezing wind.

Back at the dorm, it became apparent that everyone was once again scheduled to have some late-night fun. Once they all left, I got to sit peacefully in the dorm. I did my laundry and watched a movie. I saw in my email that my meeting with my speaking partner would include her bringing some Takoyaki, which meant that I would be trying octopus tomorrow. That should be interesting...

Monday, February 12, 2007

A of Nothing and a Day of Activity Again

February 11

Once more, doing practically nothing the previous day, I awake to a day full of new experiences unlike any that I have seen before; for today, I was to go... somewhere? I met up with Albert in front of the large park near his dorm where we discussed where to go today. We decided to go to Nara, home of many temples and scenic areas. Our first task was to reach the bus, so we walked over to the school's east gate where a closer bus stop to the station was. After waiting for the bus, it came and we boarded it to begin our trip. Once at the station, we purchased a ticket to Osaka, where we could switch train lines to Nara. Since I hadn't seen Osaka before and we had to go to another station, we walked around for awhile. At first glance, one could tell that Osaka was much larger than Hirakata. In fact, Osaka seemed much more modernized than anywhere that I have ever seen before. I was amazed to see the seven-lane street in the middle of the city. There were buildings with designs that I had never seen before and even a highway that went over the city. Once we reached the station, we checked the ticket price to Nara. Having already been undecided as to whether to stay in Osaka or go to Nara, we weighed the higher than expected price to Nara (plus the cost to go back) plus the hour to two hours that it would take to get there against the things we could do in Osaka and what time it was. From there, we decided to stay in Osaka and visit Nara perhaps next week.

With our change of plans, we headed to the best sightseeing location in Osaka, the Floating Garden. When at the top of this enormous building (as I heard, the second tallest in Japan), one can see the city of Osaka in its fullest. We stayed up there to sightsee for a long while. I really wish you could have seen it. Before we left, Albert had to get his fix of coffee. While he drank, we found a surprise. Apparently, the idea of mascots is not exclusive to America.

Once we left, we returned to the station to get our bearings. Unlike New York, it seemed that getting a taxi was not a difficult feat. From there, we prepared for our long walk ahead. We were going to walk from Umeda to Namba, which was projected to be an hour's walk. Once we began, we asked a Japanese man if we were going in the right direction. He asked if we were requesting a subway, but we said we were walking. After a moment of surprise from the man, he confirmed that we were on the right path. On the way to Namba, there were many sights to see. Before we got there, we ran across a surprise shrine in the middle of the street. Finally, we reached Namba. Despite having walked all the way there, we walked around some more to look at the sights. There were stores a-plenty and food everywhere. There were also several hotels. The whole area was flooded with people. Before going farther, we stopped for dinner. Here, I had my first Okinomiyaki; a vegetable pancake made with eggs. Our particular style included pork, shrimp, and squid. The squid, as most American readers would gawk at, was actually very tasty, to the point that I would happily order more when the opporunity arises. This is funny, considering that one of my Japanese friends proclimedly hates squid.

After dinner, we went to look at more sights in the area. On the way, we stopped at another coffee shop where I decided to get an item called Frozen Caramel. I got this not knowing whether it was a coffee product or not. It turned out to be, but since there was a strong caramel taste to it, I was able to drink it. After walking through the area some more, we began to walk back to Umeda. We noticed that the taxi surplus was not an isolated incident. We made one last pit stop at a familiar place before getting back. Albert ordered a Heinekin in support of his country while I did not feel like spending the money for anything at the moment. He insisted that I take a sip of his beer so I could taste the "superior" brew. It didn't taste all that bad, but I still did not want to pay $6 for a drink that I was too full to have.

Finally, we reached and boarded the train back to the station. Once we got there, as if we hadn't done enough walking, we took the 45 minute walk back to the dorms. On the way there, we stopped at the grocery store and the ¥99 store for some food for the next few days. Having reached the dorms, we went our separate ways.

As I foresaw, my dorm became lively once Mitch came back. With him, he brought two strays who were out too late to catch the last train. It was Keisuke and his friend from Austrailia. They were going to stay in our dorm, a practice that was clearly against the rules, and sneak out early so to not cause trouble. Because of our guests, my roommates stayed up until about three in the morning, which of course kept me up as well. Nevertheless, it was fun to hang out with everyone and share my experiences.

Friday, February 9, 2007

A Day of Nothing and a Day of Activity

From what I can recall, I did nothing of particular interest on February 8, so I shall elect to skip talking about it. To make up for the lack, I shall write an excruciatingly long entry for today.

As is typical of an exchange student at Kansai Gaidai, I awoke only to begin my journey over to my Japanese class. In class, we played 'Who's Pen Is This?' in order to practice our previously learned grammar lesson. Next, we planned a pretend trip in order to practice another grammar lesson. Finally, we learned a new grammar point before departing.

My next activity was to wait 40 minutes so that I could meat Saki and Chiaki again for lunch. This time, I brought my laptop along so that I could share photographs from back home. While waiting, I was joined by Wayne, a Chinese student who I had previously met, and Keisuke. At first, Keisuke swore that Wayne was a Japanese person, but after some effort to convince him otherwise, he believed that he was not.

Come 11:30, I took my leave from the boys to join the girls in the cafeteria. Since it was rainy and drab awful outside today, Saki and Chiaki were waiting inside the cafeteria instead of the outside area where they usually wait. After getting food, we ate and talked some. Once finishing, we made our way to the CIE lounge so I could plug in my laptop and begin the show. A wise move plugging it in, I might add, as the presentation lasted about four hours. I began by showing pictures of my house that I took prior to my departure. Next, I moved onto pictures of school and work. After exhausting my home pictures, I went into my picture archives to show them various pictures of older events that I went to before coming to Japan. Having no more pictures of home to show, I entertained them with pictures of the things I have done in Japan. As a follow up to that, I showed them the humorous pictures that I had collected from the internet.

Next, I showed them a game that I used to play as a child, Fire 'n Ice. I chose this game because it was simple and universal among the sexes. The game is comprised of fire that had to be extinguished by ice. This task had to be performed in a logical order so to extinguish all of the fire and not get stuck. I let them play through the first two levels before changing the activity to avoid boredom. They recognized my Kirby icon, so I played Kirby for them for two stages. Next, I had them do an IQ puzzle game where they had to get a family across the river with certain parameters. They played for awhile before giving up and then I finished for them. By that time, I was misfortuned by having to go to class, so we bid farewell as I climbed the stairs to class.

Today was negotiation day. Aside from that term defining which class I was going to it also meant that we were going to do an actual negotiation. I was a little nervous to be thown to the art after only two weeks of class. The negotiation procedure was surprising to me. We would have time to read an information packet and ten minutes to prepare a tactic. Next, we would leave the classroom with our partner, find somewhere to talk, and do the negotiation. We had to finish before the class would normally be over, but we could finish well before then as well. In order to preserve the experience, I shall now become masochistic and type the page and a half packet so you can follow along with the activity (please excuse any typos):
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The Excalibur Engine Parts Company has been involved in the production of advanced engine parts for little over a year. It seems that the demand for their specialized pistons has not been as great as anticipated, and some shareholders are beginning to become concerned about the company's disappointing revenues. It appeared that the situation was about to improve six months ago, when the government of Switzerland placed an order for 20,000 of their Series 2.1 Intensaflus (Class "A") pistons. This contract with Switzerland was considered a real coup, because there are several other more established companies that produce the same type of piston. Unfortunately, the contract in question was not approbated by the Swiss legislature and was therefore considered to be null and void under Swiss law. By the time that Excalibur learned of the contract's imperfections, 10,000 pistons had already been produced and packaged. Since Excalibur had no legal recourse, it was stuck with an extra 10,000 pistons in a market that already had a very dissatisfying demand. Financial analysts were predicting that this latest setback would lead to a major loss in this quarter unless Excalibur's management acted quickly.

As fate would have it, a representative from Knight Engines Inc. contacted Excalibur recently and asked whether it would be possible for them to process a rush order for 8,000 fo their Series 2.1 Intensaflux (Class "A") pistons within two weeks. Representatives of Excalibur stated that this might be possible, but that certain conditions would have to be attached to such a rush order. First, in order to get some free advertising, Knight would have to agree to indicate on the chassis that their engines were fitted with Excalibur pistons. Second, a rush fee of at least 5% over the selling price would be charged for the extra costs involved for the processing of such an order.

Excalibur's random testing program ensures the maintenance of the high quality of their products. However, even with their strict standards, test have revealed that 4 to 5% of pistons manufactured contain some sort of defect. Excalibur does offer an excellent quality-control insurance program that guarantees that all pistons delivered will be free from defects. Under the conditions of this guarantee, all pistons are individually tested before delivery. Due to the extra costs involved, Excalibur charges an extra 10% over the selling price for this service. If this particular guarantee is not purchased, defects in the products delivered are the responsibility of the purchaser. As well, prospective customers are usually asked whether they require additional units, in order to provde for situations where replacements are required urgently.

You are the VP of Sales for Excalibur, and it is your responsibility to negotiate a contract with Knight for the sale of the pistons that they desire. In order to determine the contract price, the following should be kept in mind:

1. The Swiss government was willing to pay $600 per piston before that particular contract was annulled. If the Swiss thought that this was a fair price, shouldn't Knight find it reasonable as well?

2. The total cost to produce this type of piston at Excalibur is $480 per piston. Excalibur's list price for this type of piston is $560.

3. You are aware that some of your competitors sell inferior pistons of the same size for as low as $400 per piston. You believe that Excalibur's prices are justified due to the higher standards of quality that are maintained at your plants. However, there is a rumor that Knight will be using your company's pistons in order to build engines that will be sold to the goverment under government contract. If this goverment could be made aware of the high quality of your pistons, it might work to your advantage the next time the government requests submissions for the supply of engine parts. Obtaining such contracts would certainly quell the complaints of Excalibur's rather timorous shareholders. This goal could certainly be achieved if Knight were to indicate that their engines were fitted with quality Excalibur parts. It is likely that Knight will not do this without some sort of concession on the part of Excalibur. Perhaps a cut in the profit margin today would reap greater benefits in the future.

4. As mentioned before, the market for this type of piston does not seem to be as large as originally projected. If this Knight deal falls through, Excalibur might be forced to sell its pistons to the only other prospective customer who has shown any interest. Hank's Super Monster Tractors Inc. has offered to take all the Intensaflux pistons off Excalibur's hands for a paltry $100 per piston.

Your success during the negotiation process will be determined by the total score that you achieve. The score is determined by multiplying the number of pistons sold by the price per piston that was negotiated.
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I was paired with one of the Japanese students. Before we went to negotiate, we took some time to plan our approaches. Considering the story, I calculated the highest price to be $690 with the rush fee and insurance included. From there, I went down in price according to each subractable item. The lowest price that I hoped to achieve was the market price of $560, but I was willing to go lower if needed since the alternative was to get $100.

Once the negotiation began, my partner, Maya, began since she was the buyer. During her explanation of the situation, she included that she heard about Excalibur's interest to have its name branded on their cars. After being asked what I could do in exchange for this, I decided to offer removing the rush fee. Next, Maya expressed her concerns about how some of their previous pistons were defective. At this point, I introduced the insurance and explained how it worked. I was worried about disclosing the price of $660, but I was able to convince her to accept it. The last hurdle was to convince her to buy from Excalibur instead of a cheaper competitor who would take longer than wanted to get the pistons ready. I explained that this deal was more important than she was giving it credit for since it was with the government. By taking the higher price, she would not only get the quality that she desired, but she would also receive the products on time so that her company would not look bad for being late. After we were ready to close the deal, we signed a fake contract to sell 8,000 pistons (what Knight needed) for $660 (desired price + insurance).

Although my company may have won more, I still think that both companies won. Not only was the deal closed in my favor, but it also ensured the quality and speed that Knight needed which should also help in the two companies' relationship. We turned the contract in to the teacher and parted ways.

Next, I sought Albert out so we could grab some food. Before going, we waited in the lounge since it was pretty early. I showed him some of the pictures of home as well while we waited. For dinner, we went to the ramen shop again. After eating, we went back to our dorms.

When I got to my dorm, I heard excessive noise emanating from the walls. When I discovered that the door was locked, I knew that I was in for a treat. After entering the unit, I found a whole slew of people eating dinner as well as Mitch with alcohol on the table (which is prohibited in the dorms). The dinner party did not last too long since they were almost done when I got there. As the dinner guest of Will and Daan left, they were quickly replaced by noiser guests of Mitch and Aaron. These guest played loud music and eventually funneled into my room to smoke on the balcony. After what was probably an hour and a half, they all left for the pubs as I started the ventillation up to get rid of the cigarette smell that now enveloped the room. (Smoking is also prohibited in the dorm.) From there, I answered some questions about my negotiation from the teacher and went downstairs to print them.

When I went downstairs, I saw the caretaker and two RA's talking. After I printed my work, I went to talk with them just because. The caretaker, Yamamoto san (aka Okaa san), expressed her delight that I was here doing homework while everyone else was out playing (playing was meant in a derogatory way) - all in Japanese of course. As the conversation continued, I was glad to have the English-speaking RA, Megumi, there to help translate. Okaa san told me that if my roommates (she knows who they are) get too loud, I should go get her. She also had me practice bowing and said that I did it perfectly.

This interaction was exactly what I was looking to find. Before this, I was afraid that she might group me with the rest of my roommates and hence think that I was some savage and barbaric fool who didn't belong here. Our interaction tonight, however, verified that the exact opposite was the case. Satisfied with my success, I went back upstairs and typed you all a novel.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Just Another Day

February 7

As usual, I woke up and prepared for my impending journey to school. Having made my way there, I attended Japanese class before going to lunch. After eating, I went back to the dorms so that I could do my laundry while waiting for my next class at 4:00. While doing my laundry, I worked on my Japanese homework to completion. Eventually, it was time for class and so I went. In my negotiations class, we started to go more in depth about how to negotiate and what to watch out for. The teacher informed us that we would be doing an actual negotiation on Friday so we could practice what we learned.

After class, I met up with Albert and we went back to the ramen shop for dinner. After eating, we went to the ¥99 store where I picked up various goodies that I had not tried before. Albert bought some candy flavored after the sweet sake that we had at the matsuri. I bought something similar to marshmallows, but they were tastier and textured differently. I also bought something that was like candy jello, also very delicious.

Back at the dorms, I studied for my Japanese test for tomorrow before going to bed.

Aquiring My Legal Status

February 6

Apart from my normal routine, today I went to apply for my alien registration card. This process included me having to walk to Hirakata-shi, the route that I had previously gotten lost on and had to turn back with nothing but sore feet. This time, however, I was able to find the tricky turn amoung turns by following a bus as it sped off. From my failed attempt to walk back to school from Hirakata-shi previously, I began to recognize several landmarks, such as the open sitting area that at the time had an interesting view. After finally reaching the station, I followed the semi-helpful directions that I received until I decided to ask a nearby policeman where to go. After being pointed to the building straight down the path, I made my way to it.


The building itself was split off into two parts: one for - thing I can't read - and the other for - another thing I can't read -. Using my directional intuition, I chose a side and entered. After asking one of the workers where to bring my application form, I learned that my prowess for choosing the wrong direction had again taken effect. The worker was kind enough to lead me to the other side, the office I needed to go to, and explain what I needed to do to the workers there. From there, I was immediately helped.

The school said that the photos I provided (to their exact measurement requests) may be too small for the registration and could possibly be rejected. I was glad to find that such was not the case. After turning in my application and waiting for the employee to file it, I was given a temporary certificate of alien registration and asked to come back the next month to pick up the card.

I journeyed back to the school so that I could provide them with my registration number and then returned to the dorms. For dinner, I, Mitch, and Aaron went back to the ¥500 restaurant. I took a picture on the way there because it looked nice. We were again faced with an insane amount of food at a low price. Only Mitch was able to finish all of the food. After dinner, we returned home where I was quite happy to stay since I did so much walking toady.

Monday, February 5, 2007

So How Is Your Japanese?

Today was the inauguration of my alarm. Just in case it didn't work, I had my cell phone alarm ready a few minutes after the clock was set. Fortune would have it that I happened to wake up before either alarm went off. Being that I wanted to see how the alarm worked, I waited for the designated time to come, but nothing happened. I determined that the alarm had to be set so that the needle was pointing a little before the desired time in order for the alarm to work. Petty electronics aside, I had bigger things to do.

Today was the day of tests, where most everyone had to take a Japanese test to confirm that they were in the correct level. On the way to school, I met up with Jimmy, one of the people I met my first day here. We were in the same class at different times, so we discussed our thoughts about the impending examination. Once I reached the classroom, it was only a few minutes before the test began.

The test itself was much more relaxed than the placement test was. Instead of a book of test questions, there was a single page, front and back. Compared to what I studied for the test, there was maybe 1/3 of the material that I expected there to be. After finishing, I was able to leave.

The next event was meeting my speaking partner, Saki, for lunch. She brought her friend Chiaki along. Chiaki was a little better at English than Saki, but not by much. After we ate and had some sporadic conversations, we played some Japanese card games until I had to go to class.

I figured out why I hate my culture class lectures. Within a five minute time frame, my teacher said "uh" well over 200 times. If I were to put a mark on a piece of paper each time he said "uh," I would probably fill up three pages each day! On top of that, he was playing with the chair, the chalk he was holding, and his personal affects in the surrounding area the whole time! It seems apparent that this man has never taken a communications class before. Once the lecture was over and he started an interactive discussion, I was better able to pay attention. I really hope that we start talking about Japanese culture soon instead of the history of anthropology...

After class, I ran into Saki and Chiaki again, this time without a meeting planned. We talked in the McDonalds for awhile. When the topic of my hometown came up, I offered to show them the pictures I took the next time we meet. Eventually, the McDonalds closed and Saki and Chiaki went home. As I bid farewell to them, I met up with Albert, who also fell victim to the closing McDonalds. We went to the CIE lounge so that he could finish his homework. I checked my mailbox for any messages and found that my test from earlier had been graded and delivered. I had made a 46/50, which wasn't that bad for someone who had to catch up with the plain form verbs. After Albert finished his homework, we went to a ramen shop for dinner.

The shop continued the tradition of serving lots of food for an amazingly low price. For ¥598, I got a huge bowl of ramen (not like the kind you get in America), a bowl of rice, and a plate of chicken and thinly shredded lettuce (what they call salad). I was once again able to eat everything and, unlike American food, it did not make me sick to eat so much. I also forced myself to eat the seaweed, which, either from itself or the broth it was in, did not taste that bad.

After returning home, I got to watch Mitch freak out over his impending test tomorrow while I relaxed having finished my duties.

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Wake Up!

--I'd like to remind the readers that you have the ability to leave comments on my entries. This ability will remain open to all people unless I begin receiving comments that will make me decide otherwise.--

Today's main event was studying for the Japanese test that would be held on the next day. After waking up, I spent the next hour doing just that. Having absorbed all that I could, I decided to make lunch. After eating, I reviewed my study material. After again absorbing what I could, I entertained myself through various means until Albert called me about going to a department store.

After a semi-lengthy walk, we arrived at KS Electronics where the first task was to find that alarm clock I have been wanting. My ideal alarm clock would be an affordable and noisy clock. I found one such clock, but as we discovered, they were out of stock. Not wanting to wait a week for more to come in, I settled for an even less expensive medium-loud clock. Next, Albert went to look for a new camera. After inspecting the cameras on display, he finally selected a camera that was about ¥74,600. The next trick was figuring out if the battery charger had the correct voltage compatibility for Holland. The employee we asked sought out another employee who could speak some English. From there, we had to explain that we wanted to check the compatibility by looking at the charger. After switching between English and Japanese in order to explain our request, the employee brought us the camera in its box and proceded to open it so that we could look at the charger. After confirming that it would work, Albert took a few minutes to make a final decision on whether to buy the camera. Having decided in the affirmative, he began looking for a case and a memory card for the camera. Next, we had to ask if the case was compatible with the camera. The employee brought out an accessory kit for the camera that included a case which he suggested he get instead. To my amazement, he said that they would give him the kit if he bought the camera. Talk about employee empowerment!

The final challenge was getting Albert's credit card to work. By this time, we had three employees facilitating the purchase along with the cashier. Two of the employees took the card to the other side of the counter to begin working on getting it to work. The third employee stayed and talked with us. During a discussion about sports, Albert explained how he did not participate in sports because he wasn't in shape. By that time, the other employees returned having successfully completed the transaction.

We went back downstairs to look for a plug adapter for the camera. Before we got too far, two of the employees helping us came down and called Albert over. Instead of the expected news that something was wrong, they led us over to some machines and asked Albert to get on one. They explained in a joking manner that it would help him exercise. Strange as it was, their personability was intriguing to a person, such as myself, who came from a country where employees silently celebrate the disembarkation of a customer. After the short and entertaining time with the employees, we bought the plug and left the store.

Next, we went to eat. The restaurant that we chose had a semi-foreign feel to it. A major difference from America still stuck out. The way their waiting system works allows customers to take their time without having someone rush them with drink questions. Instead, once you are ready to order, you simply press a button to ring in a waiter.

The menu had a mix between America-like dishes and Japanese dishes. I opted to order a small pizza to see how it tasted in Japan. I also ordered a melon drink. As it turns out, the melon drink happened to be an alcoholic cocktail. Being 'of age' in this country, I decided to try it out. As I discovered, the smooth melon taste was overthrown three-fold by the alcoholic taste. Despite the taste, I was determined to finish the whole thing with the meal. As expected, the one beverage did not affect me much - other than the taste.

Drinks were not the only new thing I tried at the restaurant. The pizza itself was of acceptable quality. It also came with a bottle of tabasco sauce. Since I was trying alcohol for the first time, I thought I might as well try the tabasco sauce too. As usual, I did not like the spiciness from the sauce, but it did add something to the pizza that made me use it on each slice. After having all of that, the price still came out less than an American dinner at ¥798. (Remember, move the decimal over two places and take off a few cents/dollars.)

The rest of the night consisted of studying and various methods of entertainment in the dorm. I will get to see my speaking partner again tomorrow =D

Images Are Up

I wanted to inform everyone that I have uploaded my images to:

http://profile.imageshack.us/user/exite13/

Please use the tag links on the right to view images in a more sensible order. When I have more time, I will put links in my old blogs that show what I am referencing. I hope you enjoy them.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Good Fortunes With No Charms

As expected, I awoke with no roommate sleeping next to me. In fact, it wasn't until an hour later (10:00 to be exact) that he came home. As I expected, he had not slept since the party last night, thus confirming that my choice to not go was a wise one. Having not done anything particularly useful the previous night, I was worried about not having anything to do today either. I decided that it might be best to get my alien registration out of the way - I have 90 days to do this - so I started preparing to make my way to the city. Before I got anywhere, something that never happened before happened: My phone rang. The phone displayed a number with no name, so I was expecting to have an interesting time explaining that they dialed the wrong number since it was not someone that I knew. It turned out that I did know the person, but I did not get their number when he got mine. It was my classmate and also group member, Albert, and he wanted to know if I wanted to join him and Yusuke on a trip to Kyoto. Weighing the inevitable cost of transportation against not having anything to do today plus not having done anything the night before, I accepted the invitation. Joining them would require me to drop the idea of registration since I had about 40 minutes to reach the meeting point after the call. I gathered my traveling gear and made my way to the bus stop. Once reaching the station, I found my group and we went on our way.

Thankfully, Yusuke, being Japanese, could read Japanese, and therefore we were able to find the correct train to ride. After riding to Kyoto, we stopped for lunch at a 'famous' soba (buckwheat noodles) restaurant. From there, we went to a shrine to watch a matsuri (festival) celebration. Again, pictures would make the description of the events easier, so please stand by for pictures. At the conclusion of the show, the performers threw packs of beans to the crowd. Those who caught the beans are said to find happiness. Albert was one of those who caught the beans. After the matsuri show, we tried some special sweet sake at the shrine. This sake, as I understand, is basically non-alcoholic since it was cooked. The sake was good except from the ginger which was a bit too spicy for my tastes.

Next, we took a long bus ride to the Golden Temple. The area was very peaceful and serene. A large golden temple sat across the pond surrounded by foliage. There wasn't much to do at the temple other than what was explained, so we headed back to the bus stop to return home. At the bus stop, we met a girl who knew Albert from working a local coffee shop that he frequented. They offered to let us go with them to another shrine. Yusuke had to return home for an activity with his classmates, so we went on without him. When we finally reached the shrine, we learned that it had closed three hours ago. Since most everything else was also closing, we decided to go home.

Once we reached the trainstation, the girl and her friend bid us farewell since they were bound for elsewhere. Albert and I rode the train back home. Since we weren't sure where to get off, I asked a girl sitting next to me if a certain stop was Hirakata-shi. She explained that it was the next stop and so we waited until then. Once we arrived at the station, we made our way, by Albert's suggestion, to McDonalds to eat. After eating there for about $4.64, we walked back to the school and continued on to the grocery store so we could do some shopping before going home. Finally, we got back to the dorms making our trip last from 12:00PM-9:00PM. Albert offered to call me the next day when he would go to a department store to shop for various items before leaving for his dorm.

The important thing that happened here was that I finally found someone to travel around Japan with, which was something that I had despirately been wanting since I got here. Not only does he want to hang out, but he has interests that are far more similar to mine than my roommates can ever get.

At the dorm, I checked my email to find that my speaking partner emailed me about possibly doing something on Monday. This email confirmed that she did not dislike me since we could not communicate well together. I happily responded with my schedule and added the occasion to my list of good things that happened today.

All of these great things happened today and I didn't catch any beans or buy any charms. The only thing that could have superstitiously blessed me was the coin that threw into a bowl at the Golden Temple. If all of that was worth one yen, I should have thrown 100!

The Day of Enlightenment

February 2

Today had the beginning of my typical day: waking up before my alarm while the clock still read 8:xx. This was a delightful repetition of habit especially considering what happened the last time that I had a 10:00 Japanese class. Quite the contrary to that last time, I had practically nothing to do while waiting for the class.

This day in particular was a very good day to go to class. Our review topic today was the plain/short/dictionary form of Japanese verbs. Back at home, the importance of this form was never really emphasized enough as to the extent that it is used in everyday conversation in Japan. Because of that, I was kind of at a loss for not being accustomed to using the plain form of verbs. After the lecture, however, I began to understand the usage of the form and hence gained a higher understanding of how people talk here.

Aside from learning how to use casual verbs, we also discussed casual conversation more in depth. I learned that casual conversation will many times exclude some of the verbs and particles that I was accustomed to hearing. A fine example of this came from the previous day at the all-you-can-eat restaurant we went to. One of the Japanese people said "Taberu" to me while holding a piece of meat, which, at the time, meant 'eat' to me. After pondering the concept for awhile, I assumed that was meant as a question. Usually, question sentences are ended by saying 'ka,' which is similar to a question mark. As I learned today in class, causal Japanese allows the plain form to be used as a question if there is a rising inflection in tone at the end of the word. After this class, I felt like I learned a new language and understood an old one much better.

Again, I had a lovely five hour wait until my next class. Being that lunch was the only planable activity ahead of me, I decided not to initiate the process immediately since it was only 11:00. Sitting in the student lounge, I was joined by a Japanese student who I met the day prior, Keisuke. At first, he thought he was asking a stranger if he could sit at the same table, but then he recognized me and we talked for awhile. After waiting for some other people, we went to lunch at 1:00. During lunch, it snowed a little, but by the time I left, it had stopped and no snow was in sight. After finishing lunch, we went our separate ways, which led me back to the lounge. On the way there, I met my classmate/group member, Yusuke. I spent the rest of my time talking with him and practicing Japanese. Finally, it was time for class.

This was the second day of my Negotiation class. As could be expected, the teacher started us off with another scenario. In a Japanese mining company, the workers cannot work without a hat and boots. After working in the mine all day, the workers go to a bathhouse owned by the mine to wash up. They place their clothes in a wicker basket, change into their causal clothes, and go home. One day, a miner comes to work and notices that someone had stolen his clothes. At this point, the teacher asked us what we would do. After the class decided to talk to the supervisor, we had to determine what the supervisor would do. The majority of the class voted to make the miner buy his own clothes, which would make him miss a day of work as well. The teacher proceeded to explain how the miner then caused a strike which eventually led to the supervisor buying new clothes for the miner anyway. Next, the superintendent yelled at the supervisor for causing so much trouble when he ended up buying the clothes anyway. The whole scenario was to explain the concept of perspective. By giving the miner new clothes, it made everyone happy. Every other suggested method led to someone not being happy. In other words, in negotiation, there is a difference between 'right and wrong' and the best choice in a deal. As expected, the class continued to be intriguing.

The big news for the night was a party at the club Pure. This party would start around 7 PM and last into what I projected as later than I would want to be out. Not only was the party going to be an all nighter, but its focus was primarily alcohol. I also heard that many people smoked inside. Naturally, my inclination was to not go. By doing so, I was left all alone in the dorm. To reconcile this, I made dinner and watched a movie before going to sleep at my regular time.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Niku no Hi

I awoke today to the sounds of hustle and bustle that I am accustomed to hearing. Sure enough, I had regained consciousness before the clock struck 9:00 as I have been doing since I got here with the exception of yesterday. I wanted to test my newly configured alarm before getting up, so I stayed in bed until it went off. I don't know if it will work if I am actually sleeping, but there is a much better chance than before.

Japanese class was much the same as we quickly reviewed the material that we were expected to already know. For the most part, I am in tune with the older material. At lunch, I ate with some of Mitch's friends before shipping off to my next class. As could be expected, my culture class maintained it's boringness via the teacher's dull intonation.

In my Human Resources class, we were given yet another group activity. This time, we were to describe what culture means to the class, but we could do so only with a drawing. After the class shifted into its default groups, I was left with two Japanese students, which I did not mind. None of us really had any good ideas of what to draw, nor did we have any idea of how to draw. I decided to volunteer to present the elementary school level drawing to the class to save my Japanese collegues from having to piece together their sentences in English. After the somewhat painful explanation of the drawing, we waited until class concluded. During the next class on Monday, we are to choose a group and a topic to present to the class. Knowing that I would be best to secure a group immediately, I asked one of my Japanese partners, Yusuke, if he would like to join me in a group. He seemed to be very thankful for the invitation and accepted happily. We also recruited a classmate from Holland, Albert, to join the group. The other Japanese student, Nozomi, left the classroom before we could invite her to join.

After class, I hung out with Yusuke for awhile. We talked a little about the class and what kind of project we would have to do. I accompanied him while he went through the necessary steps to purchase his textbook packet. After that, he had to return home. Before he left, we exchanged phone numbers in case we needed to get in contact.

Back at the dorms, it was laundry day again. I need to do the laundry every three days in order to prevent dirty clothing build-ups, but sometimes I have to postpone laundry day which makes me have to do it more frequently. Today's laundry was on schedule, so I would not have to do it for another three days.

For dinner, I joined my roommates Will and Daan to go to an all-you-can-eat restaurant. At the restaurant, we got to cook our own food. The way it worked is that we could order anything we want, but we have to eat everything. I started getting worried as they kept ordering more, but we were able to finish everything. I had been wanting to eat meat for a few days now and this outing definitely served me more than enough.

After I returned to the dorm, the caretaker informed me that there might be snow tomorrow. Being a southern-grown kid, snow is always big news to me. It remains to be seen whether there will actually be snow.

As Was Foretold

January 31

Today, I awoke peacefully after a sound sleep. It didn't feel particularly early and it was very quiet outside of the room. I couldn't help but feel that something was amiss, particularly since my phone was not making noise via its alarm. Looking at my watch, I began to wonder if I had accidentally turned on a stopwatch, as the time did not make sense to me. After determining that the numbers on the watch were those of the actual time, I bolted out of bed to begin getting ready to rush to campus so I would not be more late to class than I already was going to be.

My phone very clearly stated that the alarm had gone off as it was supposed to, but despite its functionality, it did not do the job - just as I knew would happen. I also knew that waking up at 9:45 with a 20 minute walk to campus would not facilitate my being on time to my 10:00 Japanese class. Within five minutes of waking, I was walking out the door while preparing myself mentally to burn my legs out in order to rush there. After the tiresome hike to campus, I woefully entered the classroom for my second day of Japanese class.

The teacher, Tokashiki san, seemed to pretend that I wasn't late and carried on as if nothing happened after I sat down. After the class was over, I went to explain myself and apologise for my tardiness. She seemed more than eager to forgive me and completely understood the situation. At lunch, I looked at my phone to figure out a way that I could better the chances of waking up until I found a real alarm clock. Previously, I had set the alarm to get progressively louder for ten seconds so that there would be less of a chance that it would wake up my roommate. After having gone through this morning's events, I decided to start the alarm at its maximum volume and keep it on for 50 seconds.

After lunch, I decided to venture off to the bookstore so that I could find my Japanese textbook. After finding the store without much trouble, I located the book and the accompanying workbook and purchased it for ¥4,050, which is equivalent to about $35.64. Not only was the cost about $100 less than it would have been in America, but it was also discounted since I was a student. Just another reason to dislike the CSU bookstore...

After awhile, it became time to go to my last new class, International Negotiation. Once the class started, the teacher simply told us to ask questions about him and the class. Until people started asking questions, he just sat and waited. After we finshed our Q&A session, he began the class by presenting us with a scenario of catching a friend's fiancee kissing someone else and he wanted to know who would tell the friend about it. As people started to answer, the teacher discontinued his silence and challenged everything they said with more questions. He had already told us his thick background with negotiations, and now he was using it. After a fairly long discussion about the scenario, he pointed out several differences in the typical responses from different cultures. He then asked us to ask six people from different countries the same question for homework. Perhaps in this class, I will learn how to better ask questions about people and other various things.

For dinner, I got to do something different for a change. I got my roommate, Mitch, to accompany me to go someplace to eat. We walked down a road that I haven't been down before and eventually found a restaurant that looked good. The restaurant had teriyaki chicken on the menu - something that I didn't think actually existed in Japan. I was intrigued and I wanted to see if it tasted any different. Once the food came out, I observed a tray including three moderately sized pieces of chicken, a piece of chicken tempura (like fried chicken), miso soup, and a mountain of rice. Considering the quantity of food and the excellent taste, I would estimate the price to be about $20+ in America. Here, it was ¥500, which is equivalent to about $4.40. Let's just say that I shall be seeing that restaurant again many times before I leave.

After returning to the dorm, I began implementing the Michael method of doing my negotiation homework. I typed up the scenario and a few questions and printed six copies. That way, I could have a quick and easy way to get the answers without having to remember what to ask. From there, I finished three of my forms by using my dormmates as subjects. After that, the night came to a close.