My Trip to Japan

The Final Chapter

2007-05-25T22:44:00.000+09:00

In order to wrap up the blog post-return, let's talk about my last week.

Monday, May 14 - On the Market
Today, I had a mission. My mission was to complete my culture class and forget that it ever happened. In order to do this, I simply had to approach the teacher's office door and rid myself of the monsterous paper that I had written. Once at the door, I trew the paper in and ran like it was going to explode. From there, I simply had to kill time until my shopping extravaganza with Kazuki. While doing this, I sat with Haruki and Koichiro for our last encounter. Once it became time to begin heading to the station, I wanted to make a pit stop at the convenience store. On the way out of the lounge, I stopped by to take a picture with Mariko, my first Japanese friend, and Mie. After that, I ran into two other girls who I had recently met. Once out of the lounge, I ran into Suzuka before leaving the CIE. I continued running into various people all the way up to the gate where I could finally progress toward the station.

Upon meeting Kazuki, we began to puzzle over where was best for us to begin our shopping experience. We decided to begin at Tanmabashi where we could not decide where to go and ended up walking to Osaka Castle in search of souvenirs. By the time we reached the castle, we were quite thirsted and we stopped by an icecream shop where I ordered a lime-clear frozen drink that was one of the most awesome frozen drinks I have ever had. Next, we progressed to the two stores at the castle where I purchased a statue of a cat that would give good luck to my family. From there, we progressed toward the station, but obtained another lime-clear before we left. On the way to the station, I saw and band of girls playing outside. They were the first girl group I saw in Japan, so I took a picture. Noticing this, they decided to try to talk to me in English. I told them we were off shopping and they suggested that we go to Namba for that particular activity. And so, our next location was decided.

In Namba, we went to the central shopping center and wandered around. Most of the shops were for girls, so we did not have much success. However, we found a store featuring Okinawan wear and I found a neat looking statue that I wanted. There were two of them facing different directions, so I chose the one that I liked best since I did not want to pay $30 for both of them. When I went to buy the statue, the clerk told me to wait and ran off to the stand where the statue was. She came back with the other statue and boxed both of them up. Apparently, they were a set sold at the displayed price. I was pleased to pay the original price for both when I thought that it would have been more.

After dinner, we returned to Hirakata where we went to have seafood pizza at my suggestion. At the restaurant, we seemed to have difficulty in tagging a waitress. After one finally came we made our order, waited, and ate. After dinner, Kazuki had to go do homework, but before he departed, he bought me a guidebook to Hirakata so I would have something to remember it by when I returned home.

Tuesday, May 15 - Don't Test Me!
Today was probably my last scholastic Japanese test ever. It was a long one too. I have no idea how I did since they didn't give it back, but I have high hopes. After the test, Nao wanted to meet for lunch, but that wasn't until 2:30. I decided to defeat my paper for Human Resources during my free time. I was able to do so and happily removed it from my person at my teacher's office. After that, I found Suzuka and her friends outside. She was with an extremely shy girl who I kept playing around with in hopes to make her less shy. We all stood around and had fun until Nao finally arrived. Nao came with her friend Aiko and we all went off to lunch. Aiko had to do some research about the American social class system, but I was not able to be of much help since I have a social studies deficiency. After we finished lunch, I returned to the lounge in order to await my appointment. While waiting, I ran into many, many people who kept me entertained until my company arrived. My appointment was to meet with Ayumi and Miyuki. Ayumi carried with her a gift that she presented to me since this was our last meeting. It was a small Japanese wind chime. From there, we puzzled over what to do next. We eventually decided to go to karaoke since that was the only suggestion we could think of without sitting there for an eternity. We went, we sang, and we left.

Wednesday, May 16 - Say What?
Today began with meeting Masami and Nana for the last time. When I went fishing for lunch, I noticed that I had become completely bored with the menu. Fortunately, today would be my last time dining in the cafeteria. Also fortunate, they were serving a special meal today. I ordered the dish known as sukiyaki, which was pork over rice with fried tofu and a raw egg. I wasn't sure how I would like the egg, but I gave it a shot. The egg had a slightly unfavorable taste to it, which I believe was just that particular egg or how it was prepared. My meeting with Masami and Nana consisted of our usual talking during lunch and departure.

After the meeting, I went back to the CIE where I ran into Yusuke, who wanted grammatical help with his Human Resources paper. Being that it was a six page paper, he felt like he owed me something, so we went to the convenience store so he could buy me a drink. I also discovered some packing tape that I needed for my package that I wanted to send for over a month. Yusuke also got that for me. From there, I returned to the lounge where I found Suzuka and her friends Yumiko and Hikaru. Yumiko was another really shy girl. In fact, since our first meeting, I had been trying to help her get over her shyness. I noticed that she would always rub her hands while sitting around me, so I would always pull them apart and place them on the table. By this point, she was able to not rub her hands, so I had apparently made an impact. I initiated a game at our table with the empty bottle from Yusuke. I would place it in front of someone and say, "ippon!," which meant one |long object|. From there, the other person had to do the same thing to another person. At first, when the bottle reached Yumiko, it would sit there until we could get her to participate. After we played for awhile, we were able to get her to participate by herself. At that point, introduced two origami figures that Suzuka had made into the mix of our game. This seemed to bring Yumiko's shyness back, but she would attempt to participate every now and then. Eventually, it came time for class, so I had to take my leave.

In Negotiation, we had our final, which consisted of a questionnaire about our negotiation checklist. It was a strange final to say the least. I hadn't really used my checklist since I didn't know what to put on it other than what I already did to prepare for a negotiation. At least I had some answers I could put down.

After the test, I waited for another friend named Nao who apparently doesn't take very good pictures since I think she looks better normally. We had met a week ago and she wanted to go to dinner. On the way there, she told me that her friends were joking that we were a couple since we were going to dinner. At dinner, I noticed that she had some traditional Japanese habits because she insisted on doing everything for me including ordering, getting the drinks, and even paying since this would be our last meeting. After dinner, we walked home since her appartment was on the way to my dorm.

Thursday, May 17 - Let's Try Again
Since my first shopping experience didn't bear so many purchases (which I don't place blame on anyone), I wanted to try again in Kyoto. To accompany me was Nao - the original. On the way to the station, I both took pictures of the town for my memory and ran into my friend Nick who suggested that I go to Shijo in Kyoto for shopping. It was good to have the suggestion, because Nao had no idea where to go. When we arrived at Shijo, I had no idea where to go, but I had been there once before with Kenji. I started noticing things that looked kind of familiar in my chosen direction. Eventually, we ended up where I was hoping to end up. I didn't end up buying too many things, but I did get a few things. Next we had lunch and then went for icecream at a Baskin Robins. From there, we went to a shrine since Nao wanted to see one. It happened to be the shrine that I went to for a festival with Albert and Yusuke. After that, we were perplexed as to what to do for our last meeting. We eventually decided upon the seeming default of karaoke.

After karaoke, we returned to Hirakata where Nao wanted to get a purikura with me. Purikura is a popular activity among Japanese girls which is known in English as 'print club.' In purikura, the people enter a booth fit for about five people and select a variety of backgrounds for a picture. Next, the camera shoots pictures at timed intervals for each background. After that, the people move to another section of the booth and decorate the pictures with touch pens and preformatted designs. Finally, the pictures are printed. We got 24 pictures for about $4 with six different shots. I can unfortunately share only one online. After that, Nao had to attend her friend's birthday party. I went to the vending machine restaurant for the last time and then went home.

Friday, May 18 - Clear Across Town
Today, I was to go to USJ (Universal Studios Japan) with Einar, Nabil, and Todd. When I woke up, Todd appeared highly uninterested in joining us. As it turned out, he never actually wanted to join us and said that he would simply to avoid us trying to convince him. Nabil had said that he might come at 3:00 since he was on a date prior to that. He also did not end up coming. Back at 9:30, I was making my way to USJ to join Einar and his friend Simmie who was visiting from Iceland. When I got there, I had to pay my $55 to get in and wait for Einar to come find me. USJ seemed smaller than the real US, but we still had our fun. We began with a 4D movie of Shrek. It was an interesting experience. The seats bounced us with the movie and we occasionally had water spew on us when the donkey sneezed... From there, we encountered a parade with the peanuts. Next, went to see the Terminator show that was pretty much the same thing that we had in America with a guy who didn't look like the Terminator. Next, we went to ride Spiderman, which was suggested by my friends. The line was 70 minutes long and ended up being the longest line in the park. The ride was worth it, however. After that, we went to the Hollywood Dream, another suggestion by my friends. Simmie seemed apprehensive about the idea of a rollercoaster, but we made him ride anyway. It was fun. Short, but fun. Next, we went to Jurasic Park. They had a video of some fat American guy wolfing down a hamburger and smoking as an example of how not to behave on the ride. It was kind of funny. After getting spat on by a dinorsaur, we fell down a waterfall which seemed scarier than the actual rollercoaster, ironically. Next, we went to the Waterworld show. They had some really dangerous stunts in it. When the bad guy came out, he shot water with his boat at the booing crowd. We were on top, so we were spared the hydration. Lastly, we went to a Sesamie Street movie since that was all I had time for before I had to go. It wasn't that great, especially since I couldn't understand what they were saying.

I had to leave at 5:30 in order to honor my original plan for Friday. I was to go to Demachiyanagi in Kyoto to meet my friend Aya for dinner. Aya had helped me obtain a CD for my sister earlier and I didn't want to leave her with that being our only meeting. Demachiyanagi was on the opposite side of the Kansai area from USJ, so I wanted to try taking the SUPER GOD TRAIN that doesn't stop at Hirakata. Despite it's super goddom, it still took about an hour and a half to get over to Demachiyanagi. It just so happened that I would be right on time. After arriving and having some difficulty finding each other with the stations many exits, we made our way to the restaurant where we dined and chatted. I was given praise for my ability to teach English in an easily understandable way.

After our meal, we parted ways and I went back to Makino. It was raining by the time I got there. In Japan, when it rains, you get wet; unlike in Georgia where you just wait five minutes and walk home in the sun. After I waited for probably 15 minutes, the rain stopped for awhile and I made my way toward the dorm. It eventually started raining again, so I hid under a building for awhile. Soon, Nabil rode by on his bike and spotted me. He gave me his umbrella saying that his rain coat would be enough for him before speeding off. Indeed, he is a friend who will be missed.

Saturday, May 19 - A Farewell
Today was graduation. We had everyone's names read and everyone got up to pick up a certificate jacket. The actual certificates were delivered to our mailboxes in order to make life easier for everyone. Next, we had speeches from the school president, the consulate of Australia, a teacher from our program, and a Japanese teacher. Next, we had a reception with many people. I hung around with my friends and got many pictures of them all. Next, I went to the lounge to meet with Rieko and Yuka who really wanted to see me one last time. Rieko presented me with some postcards of Osaka and a set of chopsticks. She then proceded to cry over my leaving. The meeting was not too prolonged, so I soon met up with Nabil so we could gather the men one last time for a night out.

We met with Nabil, Todd, Einar, and added Simmie to the mix. We all went to Round One for one last gaming session. After Round One, I started getting messages from Miruku who wanted to see me one more time. Since I was with the guys already, I offered her to come join us. After some convincing, we waited up for her to get there and everyone went off to dinner. Next, we all went to karaoke. It became too late for Miruku to take the train home, so she got her mom to come pick her up. The boys all departed home while I waited with Miruku for her mom to get there. We chatted some and I gave some more English tips. She expressed her interest to visit me when she studies abroad. When her mom arrived, we said our farewells and I headed home.

Sunday, May 20 - The End
Today, I was to pack and prepare the appartment for inspection. I had to do some tricks in order to get everything in the suitcase and I was just barely able to zip it up. I guess it was good that I didn't find a horde of souvenirs. After packing, I went to meet with Nao who wanted another last meeting. We went to some arcades to play a game or two before going to dinner. I got something that was served in the cafeteria, but I amazingly didn't like it as much. Nao sampled the meal and seemed to agree. After that, we went to karaoke for one last time before heading home.

Monday, May 21 - Home
My journey started with the inspection. There seemed to be some wear and tear on the tatami mats under our beds which was strange since no one touched that area. Everything seemed to check out. Soon after the inspection, our cabs arrived and Todd and I made our way to the bus stop with our luggage. Next, we boarded the bus after waiting for it to arrive and went to the airport. We waited for our tickets and then sought out food. Next, we went to the boarding area where I had to go through an extra bag inspection via random selection. There were no problems, especially since I told them what to expect. Next, we sat at the gate where some old white guy seemed to stare at us periodically. It was real creepy and I hoping he would give me a reason to hurt him. Fortunately, there were no incidents and he was out of sight/out of mind after boarding the plane. Todd was sitting behind me due to an odd twist of fate and I was sitting beside another Kansai Gaidai student who I had never really talked to until the plane ride. I talked with Liz for most of the flight. The flight itself seemed much smoother (not referring to the constant turbulance) than the flight to Japan. Before I knew it, we were back in America.

I started becoming nervous about customs since I had heard so many horror stories about it. I handed the guy my slip that I filled out on the plane which I had checked the food box since I had food. He asked what kind of food I had and I told him that it was just candy and cookies. He said, "Is that all?" and he let me pass. From there, it was apparent that customs was over. I brought my bags to the reload point and went through another security checkpoint before going to my gate.

The flight across America was a nightmare. First, the plane was delayed at takeoff because the pilots had apparently had a night out and required rest before being allowed to fly. Next, during the flight, one of the flight attendants spilled orange juice all over me and just gave me a 'sorry' and threw napkins at me. Then one of the passengers started getting sick and we had to make an emergency landing at Colorado Springs. The Paramedics took him off the planes within ten minutes, but we had to sit there for at least two hours and wait for the breaks to cool off. When we finally got back in the air, I was ready to blow up the plane, but had to suffer through it for another two and a half hours. The flight across America ended up being as long as the flight from Japan, which was just unacceptable Once on the ground, I had to wait 30 more minutes to get my bags and then take the hour and a half drive home.

All in all, it was nice to see my family again. I feel that I have brought my trip to Japan to a nice close by seeing all my friends one last time and doing all my favorite things one last time as well. I will hopefully keep in touch with many of my friends with email and maybe even see some of them again during their travels. I trust that this blog will serve as a great memory for the experiences that I have had as well as a great advertisement for anyone thinking about visiting Japan as well. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and can perhaps write one yourself about such experiences (save the last bit about the plane).

New Experiences

2007-05-15T23:15:00.000+09:00

I feel a lecture coming from Mom after I write this one...

Friday, May 11 - Swaying in the Breeze
To start the day off, I got to have an oral test for Japanese. With all that I had going on (10 page culture paper, 6 page human resource paper, oral exam, culture test, etc.), I had studied the test material beginning after my night out with Miruku. Despite this, I was able to fully memorize the entire speech so that I would be ready to answer the questions that were to come. Naturally, I was nervous, which caused me to trip up a whole bunch, but I was able to say what I wanted to eventually. I took the liberty of finishing my culture paper so to not die the following few days. I also had to do another negotiation, which the teacher specifically selected because it was unlikely that we could come to an agreement. After two hours, the class gave up and we all went our merry ways.

My merry way consisted of going to dinner with Junko, one of my classmates who is going to America on the 16th, along with Niels (also in the picture) Wei, and Dan, three other classmates. We gathered in the lounge, where we got Kie (another classmate) and her friend Eriko to join us. And so, we traversed over to the station to begin seeking a place of dining. Being it dinner time, the restaurants at the station were fairly occupied so that a six-person party was difficult to fit. When we finally found one, we were glad to settle down.

For some time now, I had been thinking, "I've been in Japan for four months and I haven't tried sake yet!" Being that 1. I was now 21 and legally able to drink in my country of origin and 2. everyone else ordered a drink, I took the liberty of joining the fun and getting some sake. Since I didn't know how I would like it, I got a small one. When I took a sip of it, I knew that it was strong. From my previous two experiences with alcohol, I was able to clearly distinguish the taste and it was plentisome in the sake. I was a little disappointed that the alcoholic affect had already began to set in before I finished the sake. However, Niels reassured me that he could drink beer all night long and never get drunk, but with sake, it's all over. Despite my new achievement, I also consumed a beer and two cocktails.

From there, I closely observed everything I could about what was happening. I was drunk, and I wanted to know why it was such a popular activity. Moving was odd. It was like I contined moving even after I stopped for awhile. If I held still, I felt mostly normal. My speech was normal and I could control everything that I did. Most of all, I remember everything. Either I was only partially drunk, or I don't have the same effects as the common drunk. That night, my trips to the bathroom consisted of ridding myself of the excess liquid that I consumed. After the dinner was over, I took a bus with Wei that went halfway to the dorms. From there, we walked home. I was easily able to navigate the streets with only slightly wavering every now and then. When I got home, I performed my nightly duties and went to bed, curious as to what might become of me the following morning.

Saturday & Sunday, May 12-13 - surprise, Surprise, SURPRISE
When I awoke, I felt the effects of the previous night as follows: I woke up an hour too early, and I felt slightly groggy. I had no headache, I had no sickness, I had no hangover. Therefore, I deem my first real experience with alcohol as a responsible and successful endeavor. This was fortunate, as I had things to do today.

I was to meet Nao at Osaka Station. I used my excessive planning skills to end up arriving there about 15 minutes early. Because of this I predicted (correctly at that), that she would be late. After waiting around for about 25 minutes (15 early and 10 late), we met up and made our way to Kobe. Our first planned activity was to visit the Kobe Zoo, which to my surprise had a $6 ticket. The zoo had some fairly interesting animals to see. After the zoo, we walked around Kobe for awhile before retiring to her house, where we would be dining with her family due to my saying that I enjoyed my time with Kenji's family. When we arrived, there was no one there, so we had to find stuff to do. First, she wanted me to fix her computer, which was difficult because A. it was a Mac that I have no idea how to use and B. It was all in Japanese which I cannot read. Despite this, I tinkered around with it and eventually found something that fixed her dilemma of the icons being too big. After that, she had me play the piano for her until her parents arrived.

The family consisted of the dad, the mom, the sister, and the sister's husband. After a brief introduction and conversation, Nao left to pick up her friend, Hiroko, who would also be joining us for the festivities. At that point, the sister's husband and the father attempted to talk with me. In the beginning, I was able to understand what they were saying. They were talking about how they began drinking and smoking early and therefore were bad boys in response to my explanation about having gotten drunk for the first time the day before. After that, the father began philosophizing about how beautiful the Japanese language is. At this point, I could no longer follow what he meant because such deep discussions are beyond the scope of my language knowledge. Fortunately, Nao soon returned with Hiroko and was able to attempt to explain.

For dinner, we had takoyaki, which, if you remember, is octopus encased in a batter. It was a little strange, however, in that there was no tako (octopus) to include in the takoyaki. Therefore, we were essentially eating batter balls with various other ingredients. After dinner, we all had some cake that the family bought for the evening. Once that was done, we cleaned up and Nao, Hiroko, and I headed into Nao's room to socialize and do various things. After awhile, it became apparent that I would be unable to go home since it was getting too late for the trains. Thus, I became an unexpected guest, but no one seemed to mind.

To break away from the timeline for a while, Over the past few entries pertaining to Nao, she had been progressively (at a very fast pace) been becoming more and more interested in me. First there was the strange way we met, then the giving of a birthday present, then the holding of the arm on the way home. I could tell from her stories that she seemed to have trouble expressing her emotions in that she was a little too friendly with guys. A great example was the story about her and the ex-boyfriend who lied about their relationship status. This lie was probably a product of her continuing to see him like nothing changed except for the physical aspect. Another situation was that she has an interest in a foreign person who wanted her to get a web camera to chat with him over the internet. I pointed out to her that she was about to spend a hefty amount of money just for one person, so he was basically controlling her. It seemed that, despite my shooting her attempts down, every time I altered her way of thinking, she came to adore me more. Hence, I felt that she would become lost in her emotions again.

The next day, Nao and Hiroko (also known as Toshi chan) had to get ready for their part-time jobs. Nao would be working from 10:00-2:00 and she wanted me to wait for her at her house. During my wait, I played the piano (keyboard with volume control) in order to recall all the songs that I had forgotten since my leave to Japan. After working hard for an hour and a half, I was actually able to revamp myself to about where I was before I stopped playing. At that point, Nao's mother came in and asked if I wanted some food. Nao's mom was having some trouble making me toast. With the assistance of the father, they discovered that the toaster had been unplugged. After remedying the problem, the toast was made and eaten. Nao's mom left with Nao's sister to go somewhere while I was eating. After I finished consuming my breakfast, I returned to my study at the piano.

I returned to the piano, but only for about thirty minutes. At that point, my two hours of sleep proved to be insufficient, so I slept for an hour, waking up upon Nao's return. After she came back, we returned to the place where she had been for the past four hours in order to eat lunch. Once finishing lunch, we returned to her house where we hung out and chatted for awhile. When it became time for me to go, she took me to the station and I headed home.

I later asked Nao if she got in trouble for my stay, but she said that her parents didn't really say anything. I got the impression that her mom liked me and her father seemed rather indifferent.

Now Where Did I Leave Off....

2007-05-14T22:10:00.000+09:00

Before you read this blog, please revisit the entry entitled "New Music and New People." I have added two new paragraphs concerning an event that I was confused about for awhile that now holds pertinence to the following stories.

Saturday, May 5 - To Namba We Go
Today I was to go meet Keisuke on a trip to Namba. We had been looking for some friends to go with us, but we were largely unsuccessful in doing so. I was able to get Nao to agree to come, but she couldn't join us until later that night and she would have to bring her friend.

My arrival at Namba Station sent Keisuke on a hunting trip since I ended up on the wrong side of the rather large station. After he came and rescued me, we began our journey of trying to find stuff to do. Our original plan involved Saki and Chiaki, but they apparently could not join us, so we had to find stuff to do with just two people. First, we looked around in a popular department store, but everything in there was rather dull and boring. After we walked around for a bit more, we stopped by some arcades in order to have some fun. Next, we went to a cafe where we enjoyed a triple chocolate drink while waiting for Nao to arrive.

I had earlier spoken to Nao online about our venture and did some information fishing. As I discovered, her friend was a guy, but she was not dating him. When they arrived in Namba, I discovered that this friend was one of the exchange students at the school. From there, we all went to eat okonomiyaki for dinner. After dinner, Keisuke had to leave since he had another appointment to attend to. Nao, Matt, and I went to karaoke. It seemed that Nao did not want to sing in front of us except for the few songs that she sang with one of us. Matt and I had several songs that we both knew, so we got to sing together a few times.

After karaoke, we went to the station in order to head home. Nao had to go a separate way. Matt began asking how I knew her, so I described the rather odd circumstance of meeting to him. From there, he casually stated that she was his girlfriend. Unfortunately, this information was inconsistent with the information that I had previously received. However, I thought that it might be best to approach the incompatibility from the other side since it could cause trouble if I brought it up to him. Therefore, I pleaded the fifth and we returned home peacefully.

Later, I asked Nao about the mismatched information and she verified that they were not together. She explained that they used to date, but she broke up with him because of the future distance problems. She expressed her concern about his statement in that she thought he might still believe they are together. After later asking him about it, she found that he did indeed lie about it. Through my psychological analysis, he wanted to get back together with her and perceived me as a threat to that goal. Unfortunately for him, his untruth pushed that idea over the edge by making her mad at him for lying about such a thing and therefore making her not want to talk with him anymore. (These events all happened over a series of days over the span of a week).

Sunday, May 6 - To Dinner
Today was the three weeks in the making plan to go to dinner with Miruku and friends. She brought Yuki and two other friends. She tried to invite Albert along, but he was sick. We met halfway at Kyobashi Station and made our way to the restaurant. Miruku said that the restaurant that she reserved was a little expensive, but looking at the menu, the prices were still less expensive than in America. We all enjoyed our meals while talking. After eating, we stayed and chatted for about two hours. Yuki's father had previously gotten upset with her for going to dinner with some guy (me) because he is very strict. Therefore, he mandated that she be back home by 9:30. However, 9:3o came and went. Apparently, Yuki has a bit of an attitude when it comes to being told what to do. This amused me, as it is against my image of a Japanese person to do such things. After we left, we all went to the station and parted ways.

Monday, May 7 - Otanjoubi, Omedetou!
Today was my birthday. As a present, my Japanese teacher gave me.... a test! A test that I later found out on which I got the highest grade out of all my other tests. As another present, I got to go to my favorite culture class and stare off into space and then do a similar act in my human resources class, but with a little more attention every now and then. After class, I was to meet with Nao, who insisted on getting me a present. She was officially the only person who gave me a present and also officially the person I knew for the shortest time (5 days). She got me a kimono for males since I asked her to get something Japanese. After that, Nabil appeared and insisted that we celebrate my birthday, so Nabil, Nao, and I went to karaoke. This time, I was able to get Nao to sing songs on a consistent basis and by herself - an interesting development considering that she used to date Matt and would not sing with him and now Nabil, who she did not know at all was there and yet she still opted to sing.

After karaoke, Nao realized that she would not be able to get home since the trains would stop before she could reach home. Fortunately, she was able to find a friend to stay with who even lived near the dorms. So we all walked home together. Using the excuse that it was cold, Nao took my arm in order to keep warm. This was a fairly consistent act all the way home. Hence was my birthday.

Tuesday, May 8 - Alright, That Does It...
All I can recall from this day was that I gave up on getting my sister's birthday present from a site that hadn't shipped it for three weeks, so I had one of my Japanese friends help me choose from another site that was in Japanese.

Wednesday, May 9 - Nada
I don't recall anything particularly special happening this day other than meeting with Masami and Nana again for lunch.

Thursday, May 10 - A Glass of Milk
Today I got to go to karaoke with Miruku; this time unaccompanied by friends. Miruku is part of a gospel choir, so I was expecting a treat. Sure enough, she had a voice. Throughout our singing, I assisted her in pronouncing English at her request. After karaoke, we went for dinner where I continued to assist her with pronunciation. She also perused her dictionary for English cliches and I attempted to explain the meanings to her. After we stayed in the restaurant for awhile, we finally left to head home.

Man, You Trippin'!

2007-05-06T10:31:00.000+09:00

Thursday, May 3
Today, I got to get lost; as I expected. I was to go to Shiga, an area near Kyoto, home of the largest lake in Japan, Lake Biwa. I was to meet my friend Kenji, who I had previously went to Kyoto and Round One with for the first time. I knew that I would get lost on the way there because he had to type an essay in his cellphone message about how to get there. So at 8:30am, I began my jouney.

The first leg of the journey was simple. I took a bus to the station and got on the ever-so-familiar Keihan train to go to Tambabashi. From there, Kenji had given me multiple warnings of which trains not to get on at the station. The train he told me to get on had signs pointing to it everywhere, hence giving me no trouble to find it. From there, I went to Kyoto station. At this point, Kenji's instructions told me to ride the JR line to my goal. Unfortunately, this station was at least the size of an airport, making his one sentence explanation very unhelpful. In fact, he was even lost when I called and asked him where the hell I was. After a good while, I finally discovered my destination with the help of various staff. Strangely enough, I had to go downstairs to reach the gate despite the fact that both Kenji and one of the staff said I would have to go upstairs... The last part of my journey took me to Oumihachiman in Shiga. The train conductor was almost impossible to hear since his voice was so quiet, so I had to watch what station was coming next. When I finally arrived, I happily got off of the train to find Kenji waiting for me outside of the ticket gate.

Our first stop was Lake Biwa. As we drove to the lake, I surveyed my surroundings. Shiga was much more rural than the other places I had been. Much of the land was devoted to growing rice. When we reached the lake, we were both famished. We drove around for awhile until we found a restaurant near the lake. It had a rather neat menu. It was here that I finally had my first helping of curry rice. We also had a nice view of the lake.

I had been thinking about the factors about my overnight stay with Kenji. Previously, he had been living in an appartment near the school, but now he lived so far away. It seemed odd that he would make this move by himself, so I asked him if my theory was true. As it turned out, I would in fact be staying with his family, not just him. This of course made me a little nervous since I would be indebted to people I haven't even met yet.

After lunch, we dropped by Kenji's house to deposit my bag before going off to karaoke. His Grandmother was there since she was 86 years old and couldn't really go anywhere. Their dog, Rin, was also there. At first, Rin didn't seem to like a stranger coming to the house. The Grandmother acted about how I expected; greeting me and then taking on a motherly role with Kenji asking if such and such was done and what we are going to do. The house itself was much bigger than I had anticipated. I had always heard how small Japanese houses were, but with the exception of the narrow hallways, the house was actually quite big! Just beside the house was a small temple that was managed by the family. The temple lacked a bell because they had to give it to the government during war time in order to make guns. Buying a new one would be very expensive.

Next, we went to karaoke. After that, we went back to his house where we played some games with my Nintendo DS until the family came home and it was time for dinner. And so I proceded down the stairs to meet the father and mother of my friend. Kenji's dad was a high school English teacher before he retired, so he would occasionally talk with me in English. These speakings were preceded by him saying 'ah!', tilting his head to the side, and staring into his mind while he put the sentence together. Despite his slow compiling speed, his sentences were very clear and easy to understand. Kenji's mother, like his Grandmother, spoke only Japanese, but with two English speakers around, I was able to keep up with what she was saying and respond back.

For dinner, the family planned the interactive experience of rolling sushi. As commonly thought of by foreigners, there was raw fish provided, but only as one ingredient. Since I was not keen on trying such things, I just stuck with the other ingredients, which were plentiful. After dinner, Kenji and I took the dog for a walk. This was my third encounter with Rin and by this time, she had gone from barking at me to jumping with excitement when I came near. This surprised everyone because Rin had taken a liking to me so quickly. After our walk, Kenji's sister finally came home. By that time as well, the family had prepared a bath for me in order for me to experience a Japanese-style bath.

First, I had to take a shower to clean myself. The shower was absolutely wonderful since there was actually water pressure as opposed to the gravity-based shower at the dorms. After that, I was to enter the bath in order to warm myself. It felt nice to be in the hot water, but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do in there, so after awhile, I exited and got dressed again.

Next, the family wanted to hear me play piano. At this point, I hadn't played piano at all for three months with the exception of the short time I played for Kenji prior to his family's return. I did what I could to remember songs. For the most part, I was successful in playing.

It was becoming time for bed. I was to share Kenji's room. I noted that our countryside location created a lovely cacophony of frog noises outside the window. They were very Japanese frogs because they would all start and stop together. When they stopped making noise, it was like a window of sleep time. By the second time they stopped, I fell asleep.

Friday, May 4
Today started out with another walk with Rin. After this, we waited for the grocery store to deliver food as is custom to that particular town. While we waited, the Grandmother showed me some of the calligraphy that she used to write and asked me to take one. I chose the one that read, " White Clouds Flow Freely Without Roots," which is a Zen concept that the clouds can flow without anything holding them back. From there, we made our farewell from the household, but not before taking a group picture.

I went with Kenji, his father, and his mother. We had to drop his mom off at school where she taught as a contract worker since she had already retired from her real job. From there, we went to see tanuki statues, which are statues of raccoons. There were many stores to look at in the area. After window shopping some, we went to a museum of tanuki figures and from there, we went to lunch. I was very hungy. After lunch, they took me to the station where it was time to go.

The trip back was much easier than the trip there. Kenji pointed me to the correct train to go back to Kyoto Station. From there, there were a plethora of signs that pointed to my destination. In fact, the actual journey there was much shorter than the journey I had originally took. At this point, I had some trouble getting a ticket since the machines I went to would not take my 10,000 yen bill. After asking about it, I was pointed to the green machines that would take my money. From there, everything went smoothly all the way home.

Nabil wanted to hoist me away again that evening, but I elected to stay and do nothing since I was tired from my travels. I stayed at home and chatted with some Japanese friends online.

New Music and New People

2007-05-06T10:08:00.000+09:00

Tuesday, May 1
Today's main event was going to karaoke with my friends Masami and Nana. I had met them previously on my 'nine people in one day' meeting experience. We went to the place that I called 'the expensive one' because depending on the time and people configuration, the price can get way out of hand. Apparently, our configuration was well made and the price was actually lower than the other place's when split up between us.

This place had a few different songs than the other, so I took advantage of the variety and tried singing some more Kana songs. I wasn't very good at them since I had never tried to sing them before. Masami tried singing English songs. For the most part, I could not understand what she was saying since she was still deep in the process of learning English. Nana exercised her shyness by singing so that I could barely hear her.

After karaoke, Masami and Nana wanted to go home since it was dangerous for girls at night due to drunk Japanese men wandering around. Before they left, Masami made me borrow a CD of My Chemical Romance. This was ironic since a Japanese person was trying to get me into an American band. I took them to the station and headed home.

Wenesday, May 2
Today in Japanese class, they had a group of student teachers come in and present a lesson on Kansai dialect. My perceived title of this course was, "We're Finally Going to Teach You What the People Around You Have Been Saying Now That You're Leaving." On top of that, it was made like a super cram session so that it was quite difficult to actually grasp most of the concepts. Although the student teachers tried to make it fun, having the fun was actually more work than I wanted to do, so I was eagerly awaiting the end of the class.

After class, I went for another sid-down in the lounge where I was again constantly met by various people one after the other. I probably met another 7-9 people in one day again. Always busy I am... Even as I was trying to go home, I was followed by a new person who wanted to meet me. I wonder if I can pack my popularity with me when I go home.

While I was leaving the CIE, I noticed that two girls were looking at me. They didn't say anything as I was passing, so I continued walking. After I walked past the neighboring building, I heard someone running behind me. It turned out to be one of the girls who was looking at me. When she reached me, the first thing that came out of her mouth was "can we be friends?". This, on top of the whole running after me thing was very shocking to me, as Japanese girls do not typically act in such a way - in fact, I don't think any cultural group of girls do. After I recovered from the surprise, we introduced ourselves; I as Michael, she as Nao. Since I was hungry, I described my exiting campus as going to a restaurant. Since Nao had gone through such trouble to meet me, she decided to tag along.

As we were leaving campus, her friend Hiroko (the other girl who was looking at me) passed us on her bike. She expressed her opinion of our going to dinner as being 'fast' and my rebuttal was that I was hungry. Nao and I talked on our way to the restaurant as well as while we were in the restaurant. While we talked, I disclosed that my birthday was soon when the topic of age came up. I also expressed an interest to see Kobe again after she made known that she lived there. From our conversation, we made plans for her to show me around Kobe two weekends later. After dinner, she boarded the bus and headed home.

At the dorm, Nabil gathered the troops and we marched off to karaoke again. Such occurences seem to be the only times that Todd ever leaves the dorm other than school or buying food. I wonder why he came to Japan since he just sits in front of his computer all day. I'm over here making myself go places and he just rots at home. In fact, after we were at karaoke for awhile, he apparently got bored of singing and just sat there until we left. I don't get it, and I probably won't.

More Randomnity

2007-05-02T21:55:00.000+09:00

I absolutely love Japanese advertisements! I can't read a word on them, but I can blow my nose with them!

Also, here's another lesson about Japan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2jCU8mNfT4

And here is how Japanese people learn English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEDoL_PFg6U

Lessons of Life

2007-04-30T23:36:00.000+09:00

Now let us learn the Japanese way.

Moving On

2007-04-29T14:14:00.000+09:00

LET'S SKIP THE LACKLUSTER DISCOURSE OF HOW I MET 40,000,000,000 PEOPLE AND GET TO THE MORE ERRATIC EVENTS OF LIFE :D :D :D

Monday - Met People
Tuesday - Met People
Wednesday - Met People

Thrusday
Today was the day of our Japanese mini drama, aka, skit. I had been working on the script's development with my French partner Judi for the past two weeks and now the time had come to present it. As most of the events as of late have shown, the skit could not go through without complication. As if by necessity, I had become sick. My throat was scratchy and I felt sick all over. Knowing that I could not miss the presentation, I made my way to school in order to fullfil my duty.

The skit itself was simple. My fears of having a coughing attack were never realized and I remembered all of my lines except one, which I simply had to glance at the English version of the script for a moment to remember what came next. From what I could hear, it sounded like Judi had several mispronunciations of her part and had much more trouble with the lines in general. In case of such an event, I had prepared a powerpoint to go along with the presentation in order to semi-distract the audience. Unfortunately, when it comes to grading, Judi will have to face judgment since the skits were videotaped.

I went through the rest of the day suffering through my other two classes. In Human Resources, one of the Japanese students was being followed around by a camera crew for some job hunting interview since she could speak remarkably good English. I tried by best to not look like I was dying while the camera crew was there. After they left, we had a group present their project to us. When class was finally over, I inched my way home, having developed a slight fever by then.

It was not my intention to be afflicted by this illness for long. After I got home at 4:00, I went straight to bed. As could be expected, my sleep was under constant interruption from waking up since I was sick. After sleeping until 10:00, I got up to take a shower. From there, I went back to sleep. I continued fighting my way through sleep until 5:30, when I figured that I had slept all I could. I still felt sick and a little nauseous. I wasn't sure if I was sick to my stomach or if I was just feeling strange for not having ate for 16 hours, but I figured I needed to try eating something, so I had some bread. After eating and not getting sick, I sat at my desk wondering what to do with all the time I had. I looked over at my bed and suddenly wanted to go back to sleep; so I did. I woke up a little before 9:00, making it so that I slept about 16 hours total. I noticed that the sick feeling had disappeared and my fever had gone with it. My throat was still messy though.

Today, being Friday, I had my long break between classes. I discovered as the day progressed that my voice was beginning to fade. It was ironic that I had to talk to people all day. All I did was sit in the lounge and mind my own business and everytime one person left, another person came - including people I didn't even know yet! By the time the day was over, I had almost no voice left! My fever had also started creeping back, so I went to bed at 9:00.

Saturday
I was still sick, but my fever had died completely. Unfortunately, my voice problem was at full quantity. On top of that, I was very susceptible to coughing. Despite that, I was to go on a trip to Kobe with my fellow sick friend, Shiori. We went together as the coughing crew - both of us with colds. On the way to Kobe via train, Shiori would constantly nod-off due to being tired. Due to the ebb and flow of the train, she would eventually fall on me, which I thought was funny. After we reached Kobe, we visited the area called Sannomiya, where there was a festival being held for the people who died in an earthquake 12 years ago and to celebrate their foreign community. After we watched some of the festival, we wandered around for awhile until we came across some European-style tour houses. Shiori has a particular interest in such places because she went to England to study abroad; therefore, we went on a tour. We got a discount to see three houses for $10 as opposed to $15 since we were students. It looked like Shiori was in a dream world as she wandered through the houses. There were some rather interesting things to see as well. After we finished the tour, she found another area with more houses. I requested that we go elsewhere since I wanted to see some Japanese things too. That saved another $12 dollars and me from getting bored. Next, we headed off to the famous China Town. Our visit primarily consisted of us doing a walkthrough. It was pretty nice. As an ending to our journey, we went to Kobe tower. It was very pretty at twilight. From there, we trekked back to the station where we started our journey back home. She again dozed off and fell on me, but this time, she realized that she fell on me and apologized. I told her that it was better me than a stranger, at which point, she elected to rest her head on my shoulder to prevent such from happening. At Hirakata, she stayed on the train to go to Kyoto where she lived, and I went to Makino to save myself some walking time.

Sunday - It's a do nothing, catch up with my blog/do homework day! My voice is a little better and I have a cold X_x

Catching Up Again

2007-04-25T22:38:00.000+09:00

Friday, April 20 - The Milky Way

I had previously received an email from Miruku inquiring where I was at the moment. At that particular time, I had already returned to my dorm, where I would continue work on that horrific project of mine. I described to Miruku in my response that I would be tremendously busy until Friday. Since she had obviously tried to set up a meeting with me, I decided not to leave her hanging by inviting her to lunch with me on Friday. When said day arrived, we met as planned.

She came with some friends who, after meeting me, all went off to do something else. Miruku and I surveyed the area for potential foodage, and we decided to go to the upstairs cafeteria in order to perform the eating ritual. I had never been to the upstairs cafeteria before. They had some different selections, but nothing substantial. I opted to get the omuraisu, which is the Japanese way to say omelette with rice in it. After we got our food, Miruku and I talked about various things. After eating, we continued to talk about various things in the CIE. Eventually, class interfered with our conversation.

Today, we had another negotiation. We were acting as representatives of a college including the trustees, headmaster, and faculty. I was part of the faculty with three others. The negotiation went about as we expected. The headmaster fought hard for his sports improvements, the faculty fought hard for the scholastic improvements, and the trustees fought hard for the profit margins. As we were winding the negotiation up, the teacher walked in and distributed a paper that said a student was attacked on a dark path and we were advised to invest in lighting. This was a rather sneaky move to make the negotiation more interesting. We had only half the necessary money to complete the lights as our deal stood. We decided to do half the lights and add a lighting project to the engineering curriculum as well as a self-defense class.

After the negotiation, I returned to the lounge to meet Miruku and Yuki. We stayed and talked until the lounge closed at 8:15. From there, Miruku and Yuki decided to join me for dinner to prevent me from having to eat alone. We went to Roro where we continued our random chatting. After dinner, we each went our own ways since it was late.

Saturday, April 21 - The Funkytown Osaka Tour: fieldtrip tag

As aptly named by our teacher, we went on a fieldtrip for my Culture class. On the way to the station, I saw many of my classmates riding the bus too. We arrived a little early, so I talked with my classmate Sayuri for awhile until it was time to meet with the class.

Our first stop led us to the Liberty Osaka Museum, where we got to view various articles on human rights in Japan. Most unfortunely, coupled with my already uninterest in museums, all of the displays were in Japanese, hence making the experience quite boring. I had to backtrack several times in order to prevent finishing the tour an hour before those who could read Japanese. After I finished the tour, I went to eat lunch at the museum's cafeteria with Eilene and Sayuri. We had to rush since we were worried about being late for our departure time, but we ended having to wait for the teacher to finish the tour anyway.

Next, we ventured to the homeless area of Osaka. There were many people with many reactions to our 25 person group. Some people ignored us, some people greeted us, some people greeted us per person, some people commented on us, and some people tried to talk with us. After walking around for awhile, we went to an even more obscure area: the red light district. There were many open buildings, each featuring a young girl being guarded by a not so young girl. Many of the young girls laughed as we passed, perhaps out of embarrassment, or pehaps because there were 20-some foreigners walking through the red light district of Osaka.

After leaving the slums of Osaka, we began making our way to Korea Town. On the way there, we passed through several shopping areas that were very narrow, but full of people. We later passed through a fish market. Next, we stopped by a shrine, where most people sat down and rested since we had been walking for several hours straight. We then went into Korea Town, where, other than a few different names on products, everything pretty much looked like Japan.

We ended our tour at a Korean restaurant, where I discovered that all of our food had been pre-ordered by the teacher. This of course meant that I would not like much of what came my way since a lot of it was either spicy or seafood. The last dish looked like someone went to the beach and threw in everything they found without even removing the shells! All I can say is that it was a $20 meal that I walked away from still feeling hungry. So at last I found food that I don't like in Japan; except the food wasn't Japanese...

Sunday, April 22 - You Are Candy!

Today was the welcome 'party' for the freshmen. It seemed to be more of a recruiting effort from the school clubs than a welcoming ceremony. The main attraction was in front of the cafeteria, where many musical clubs came to perform. I watched a few performances until I got hungry and went for lunch. While at lunch, I was joined by Hisaka and her friend Yumi. By this time, the reality that my project was actually over had finally caught up with me, so I was in a rather hyper-active mood. Because of this, Hisaka, at one point, said that I was okashii (strange), but in a good way. Okashi also means candy in Japanese, so I proclaimed, "I'm not candy!" This seemed to be popular with my company, as from then on, Hisaka would proclaim, "You are candy!"

After lunch, we exited the cafeteria to find a heavy metal band performing. There was a big Japanese guy screaming and the guitarists were going wild. I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. Hisaka and Yumi seemed to get a kick out of me thinking it was funny. After we got tired of watching the band, we wandered off toward the CIE where we were drafted by the dance team to join them in a mini lesson. I attempted to follow the instructions and eventually was able to do the moves acceptably by the end of the lesson. From there, we went to the gymnasium to watch various clubs introduce themselves. That did not prove to be very entertaining, so we went back to watching the bands perform. Some of them were actually pretty good. After we finished watching the bands, we all went home.

I met Nabil, Todd, and Einar and we all went to dinner. After dinner, Todd and Einar went home and I went to karaoke with Nabil. We tried singing some different songs since our party was small this time. After that, we headed home to prepare for the oncoming school day.

My Thesis to You

2007-04-18T21:20:00.000+09:00

I have a game on my computer called Stepmania. It is a computer simulation of the popular Japanese dance game, Dance Dance Revolution. Every now and then, I will run across a difficult song that will prove very challenging to pass. Despite the song's difficulty, I am able to survive, however, toward the end of this song, there is a part that is almost impossible to pass that makes me fail the song. I have named such an instance as a f--- you move.

Perhaps it has crossed your interest as to why I am describing such things to you in my rather late blog about my recent experiences in Japan. To clear things up, the past several days have been a splitting example of the f--- you move in that I have been so unbelievably swamped with school work that I had absolutely no interest to sit down and catch up with several days worth of blogging. Because I now have almost two weeks worth of story to tell, I have named this particular blog a thesis.

Sunday, April 8 - Flowers Galore
For centuries, it has been a Japanese tradition to view the majestic sakura/cherry blossom tree blooming. This practice, named Hanami (flower seeing), had been the hot topic around campus for a few weeks. The sakura had an apparent short lifespan, and I had yet to see them. I started to worry that I might not get to see these flowers since I have difficulties traveling to new places by myself and could not find anyone to go with me. Then suddenly, it was Kazuki to the rescue! My dear friend and I traveled to Zoheikyouku in Osaka; the Japanese version of the US Mint. Our journey led us to a jam-packed park in the area where many others had come to view the flowers. As we walked, I was able to witness both the majestic flowers, that were quite plentiful, and the masses of Japanese folk who were partaking in their time-old tradition of flower viewing. As we left the park, we progressed into the heart of Zoheikyouku where we joined the multi-lane line of people wandering through the aisle of sakura trees. As if in Atlanta traffic on foot, we progressed through the area, snapping pictures as we crept. At one point, Kazuki asked if I knew how to change pictures on the computer, so I later took one of the pictures from our trip and made it look like he burned down a house. I quite honestly have no idea what we did after seeing the flowers, as that was literally two weeks ago. But feel free to view the pictures under the hanami tag.

Wednesday, April 11 - Hito ga ooi
Today was the first day of school. Of course, I refer to the Japanese students, as I have been in school for a long time already. 12:00 lunch time went from very busy to unbearable. During my waiting period between classes, I noticed a group of three Japanese girls peering into the lounge. It was obvious that they thought they were not allowed to enter, so I beckoned them inside to permit them entrance. The girls asked if it was okay for them to enter and then began the typical process of practicing English with a foreigner. These girls, Yuka, Miki, and Kayoko, made similar comments to what Ai and Hiromi said about me in terms of being handsome. I think this perception is mainly due to me not being Japanese, as some Japanese girls prefer foreign looks. We talked for a short while before they all scampered out, having to go somewhere.

I also saw my friends from before the semester ended, Koichiro and Mariko. I had met Mariko only once, and when I remembered her name, she was taken aback. After we talked for awhile, their friend, Kanae, came to join the party. However, Koichiro and Mariko had to take their leave for class and so I just talked with Kanae as did Albert, who eventually joined in as well.

Outside, there were many clubs advertising themselves for the new students. Some clubs were performing their various arts, while others just sat at tables patiently. The campus had certainly come to life. I also noticed that the school facilities remained open much later than before, which I was somewhat upset about since it was unfair to the foriegn students before.

Thursday, April 12 - The End of Freedom
The main reason my blog is two weeks behind is because of the giant presentation we had in Human Resource Management that I volunteered to do the powerpoint for while the other members simply had to make their speaking parts. As a great summation of the next week's worth of work on the presentation, I had to continuously make ammendments to the project up until the day of the presentation which was a week from this entry.

In addition to the project, I had also volunteered to speak at an intercultural exchange event on Saturday, which I had a feeling would make life difficult for me. I decided that it was best to fully concentrate on completing the presentation for that so I won't have to worry about it later. I decided to do my topic on International Food in America.

Friday, April 13 - Lunch Meet
Lunch time had become atrocious. There were never any seats for to sit at since there were so many students. Of course, being an exotic foreigner, I was able to easily find an open seat and gain permission to use it. As if by divine will, the people at the table would eventually start a conversation with me. That is how I met Shiori, Ayako, Mariko, Nanako, and Saki. Shiori was apparently preparing for a job interview as most third year students go for in preparation for graduation. She had to leave before everyone else, but we all did the 'great exchange' of phone information before she left. Ayako was the flamenco club with one of my friends, Yuko. I showed everyone the picture of Kazuki burning down a house and was able to convince them that he acutally did it before telling them that I made the picture myself. I also showed Saki Saki's picture, and she said that she might have seen her before. We all continued to chat until they had to go.

After lunch, I went to work on my project in the lounge. While working, Yuka, Miki, and Kayoko came for a visit. I decided that Kayoko was the single most cutest girl in Japan, as I have to work to not daze off while looking at her. I spent their visit showing them my project thus far and then several pictures from home. Soon after, they again had to go.

Saturday, April 14 - International Exchange
I made my way to school early so I could eat lunch before presenting. From there, I went to the event's room where I discovered myself to be first: first in arriving, and first in presenting. My presentation worked as it should and all was set and ready. The room seemed to be rather scarce as it neared starting time, but at the last minute, there became standing room only, which soon after also dissipated.

I didn't expect my speech to be anything special, but it really didn't matter since I was first and there was nothing to compare it to. Everyone else primarily presented about their cultures which was both interesting and boring at times. The main event, as I had anticipated, was Nabil doing a traditional dance from Dubai. For pictures, please refer to the nabildance tag. I also have a video with no place to put it. After the presentations, we had chat time where I met two more girls who I have pretty much forgotten since I saw them only once. Later, I went with Kazuki for karaoke.

Sunday, April 15 - All Work and Some Play
I worked on my project all Sunday until Nabil came by that evening and we all went to Round One. I needed the break, but I felt that it would not be enough.

Monday, April 16 - Death
As I expected, I was completely burned out on Monday from having so much work to do. Apart from the project, most of my classes kept throwing homework at me and I wasn't too interested to hear it. After dragging through my classes with an alcohol-less hangover, I went to the computer lab with Yu (group member) to discuss what he wanted added to the powerpoint. I ran into Shiori in the lab and after I finished talking with Yu, I went to dinner with Shiori who was looking for something to do that evening. We talked about how she wanted to become a flight attendant and how her interviews were going. After talking in the restaurant for about two hours, we walked to the station in search for something to do. We went into a store where she looked at some magazines for awhile. Soon after, she discovered that she had to go since the buses in Kyoto stop early. My evening adventure helped me feel a little better, but I was still mostly dead and I still had all the work I had to do.

Tuesday, April 17 - And Her Name Was Milk
Lunch presented the same problem as usual with no seats readily available, and so I scouted out a cute girl with an open seat and asked if I could sit. I allowed the automated process of being talked to to take place. Sure enough, one of the girls at the table began a conversation. This girl's name was Miruku, which is the Japanese pronunciation of milk. She was with her friend, Yuki, and they were sitting at the table with another girl, Miho, who they did not know. I could tell that Miho was in a higher grade than Miruku and Yuki since her English homework was much more advanced than the English that Miruku and Yuki were using. In fact, as Miruku struggled to communicate with me, Miho would occasionally chuckle since I would look at her, knowing she knew what they wanted to say.

Most of the conversation came from Miruku, who seemed to have a much more assertive personality than any other Japanese girl I had came across. Yuki and Miho seemed to remain as simple spectators for the entire time. I eventually told Miruku that she was very animated (with the help of my dictionary) because she would constantly move while talking. She was very entertaining. All of us also participated in the 'great exchange' of phone information before parting ways.

Later that evening, I saw Miruku in the CIE as I was thinking about heading home. We went into the lounge where we joined some of her friends, a different Yuki, Masato, and one who's name I did not catch. We continued to talk for awhile until Yusuke pulled me away to ask me about the project. After I helped him figure out what to do, I returned to the girls to talk with them until they had to go.

Wednesday, April 18 - More Names
In the lounge, I found Mariko and her friend Yoshie, who I had met briefly before. Mariko soon had to go to class, and she was replaced by Yuko, my classmate. I worked on my project while occasionally talking to Yoshie and Yuko. Both of them had an impending class and so they had to go eventually. Soon after their exit, however, I was joined by a new group of girls. I can remember only two of their names, which were Hisaka and Risa. Albert had also joined the party soon after their arrival. I spent my time showing them various pictures on my laptop since my ability to work on my project was once again interrupted. We all talked until I had to go to class. After I went back to the dorm, Miruku sent me a message asking where I was. I told her I was very busy up until Friday, so we set up an appointment to meet for lunch on Friday.

Thursday, April 19 - The SuperNova
At long last, the day had finally arrived. All I could think about all day was getting rid of my presentation. The day inched by like a legless dead mule on a conveyer belt going the opposite direction. Finally, the time came for us to give our presentation. As opposed to my usual speeches, I was extremely unprepaired for this one since all of my time was spent on making the powerpoint. I was fortunate to have typed out a speech for me to read to the class, although I had no time to practice it. My part was substantially shorter than everyone else's though, so it wasn't so bad for the presentation. I was surprised that we actually spent the entire class presenting, as I thought we would come up 30 minutes short.

After the presentation, I went to meet Einar so he could take my laptop home for me. I was on my way to Kyoto. I was going to meet my friend Aya, who I met from the website I became a member of a while ago. Aya has a dream to become a singer, so we were planning to go to karaoke so I could see what she was all about. Once we met, I could tell that she had a voice just by how she talked. She had been studying English for only a year via private lessons. It seemed that they had spent a large amount of time perfecting her pronunciation, as she had very clear speech. What they hadn't spent a lot of time on was vocabulary, so we had some difficulties communicating at times.

For some odd reason, we ended up driving aroud Kyoto for two hours looking for a place to eat. Once we finally found a place and ate, we went to karaoke for an hour. She had me start out before taking her turn. As I later had to get a friend to help me translate for her, listening to her sing was like listening to a CD. With the exception of a few 'l' sounds and 'th' sounds, I could swear that I was listening to an American pop star singing on a professionally made CD. She said that she would sound bad since she had a bit of a cold, but I couldn't hear it.

After karaoke, we both had to go back home since it was getting late. When I finally got home, it had been 13 hours since I left that morning.

I'll type the rest later! I have to go to class now!

Random Acts of Practice

2007-04-07T11:17:00.000+09:00

Friday started off like any other Friday; go to Japanese class and do my language lab assignment. After lunch, I decided to put a theory I had to the test. The last few days, I just sat in the lounge doing nothing in particular when all of the sudden, something cool happened. And so, after working on my Japanese review sheet, I began listening to music and playing my DS while greeting people as they passed. At one point, I looked up and there were two Japanese girls standing there hoping to get my attention.

After noticing them, they asked if I could help them practice English if I wasn't busy. Of course, I was glad to talk with them instead of play games, and I cooly shut my DS to show that I would talk with them. They were freshmen who would be starting school next week. They asked me various questions in English and had to return to Japanese from time to time, but I was easily able to understand what they said. At one point, they asked if I had a girlfriend. They were surprised that I did not since they both thought I was handsome! - If the beginning of the Japanese school year will bring random girls who think I am handsome to me, let's get it started already! - Their English was actually quite good with the exception of their heavy Japanese accentation of syllables that don't need the extra sound. (You can see my house-u from-u the gate-o) After we talked for awhile, they had to go and I returned to my game in waiting for class.

After class, as soon as I got home, Nabil and Einar hoisted me away to Hirakata station. We were looking for someplace to eat when Nabil suggested that we go to an Indian restaurant that he had eaten at before. Neither I nor Einar knew what we wanted to get, so Nabil decided we should go with the meal set. The set cost about $30 per person, which I expressed that I was not thrilled to pay, so Nabil said he would pay $60 worth (because he likes spending money or something).

We started with some salad which was very good. Next came some potato-like things wrapped in a triangle (yes, I forgot the name). I wasn't too into the potato things because they were spicy and whatever gave them the spice had an odd taste. I eventually finished the whole thing though. Next came some chicken. I assumed that the red color they had indicated that they too were spicy, and indeed they were (note that Michael spicy is much more mild than most would call spicy). After that, the spice went away with the bread called nan (I remember that one!) and curry. I enjoyed the bread and curry greatly. Lastly, we were given some mango icecream to finish off the meal. I had some sort of yogurt drink with the meal that proved quite effective against the spice. It was a nice experience, but I would go there only so often since the price is so high.

After dinner, we all went to Ring to do more karaoke. I did several songs that Nabil felt obligated to clap after I finished. I also did some Japanese songs from Kana and Ayumi that I was able to keep up with fairly well. After we sang for three hours, we did some table tennis before walking back home.

At home, I had to enlist the help of my sister, Julianne/Julie/Jukums, to see if I could register for my classes back at CSU. As I feared, neither my advisor, nor the administrative staff in the business department removed my advising hold despite my having asked them to several days/weeks ago. I am now left worrying about how on earth I will register for my classes since no one from CSU seems to care about me now that I am abroad. Hopefully, it will all work out.

As a last note, I need to think of a topic to speak about concerning American culture. I am really clueless about what would be interesting for Japanese students to hear about, but I really would like to present something. Please please please send me ideas!

Random Trips and Lessons Learned

2007-04-05T21:34:00.000+09:00

I spent the majority of Tuesday afternoon looking through my Human Resources book/packet in prepartation for both the upcoming test and the upcoming study session I had with my Japanese classmates Yusuke, Yuko, and Nozomi. Being that English is their second language, I would naturally become a sort of 'teacher' for them instead of us just studying.

In addition to studying, I also had a meeting with my assigned group from International Negotiation about our upcoming negotiation for the next day. Our Dutch counterpart, Neils, had reportedly fallen ill with some sort of stomach problem and was unable to attend, so I proceded with the preparations with my Chinese counterpart, Wei. As we looked at the information we were given, it became apparent that this would not be an easy negotiation, as much of the information was unknown from the other side, while also being necessary for planning. Our meeting was short-lived, and I couldn't help but notice that our opposing team was in the lounge planning for nearly the whole afternoon.

In the evening, Nabil showed up and randomly suggested that we go to karaoke. We all figured that we might as well and we made way as our gaijin crew consisting of myself, Nabil, Einar, and this time Todd. To reminisce on some missed pictures from last time, there was Einar and I and Nabil and I. Aside from the tone-deaf Arab (who actually sounded better this time) and the Arnold Schwarzenegger impressionist (who sounded the same), Todd took on a fake heavy metal tone of voice, though he didn't seem to be trying very hard. The experience turned out to cost what I thought was an exorbitant amount. Fortunately/unfortunately, Nabil had promised us that he would treat us to karaoke. I said that next time we should go to the other karaoke place since we could wind up with half the price for the same thing.

Wednesday brought new activities to deal with as the day progressed. First, we were to have another negotiation meeting in attempt to talk with everyone in the group. After neither of them showed up on time, I went to have lunch, during which, Wei called me to say he would be late. When I returned to the lounge, I found Neils working on an essay. He had described his experience the previous day as needing to be within ten seconds from a toilet all day and getting a shot from the hospital in order to quell his stomach. After awhile, Wei showed up and we talked about the negotiation a little bit until they both had to go to class. I didn't feel like we had a solid plan, which was unfortunate since that was the last chance we had to meet before class.

Almost immediately after our negotiation meeting ended, my study session for Human Resources began. During the session, I pointed out several points that I thought were important for the test, as well as explained several of the concepts to my Japanese friends. Before long, it was time for me to go to class and attempt the negotiation. I was able to finish going over the material for our test just in time before leaving.

The negotiation was interesting. My team was to role-play an American company that had been bought out by a Japanese company. Our goal was to keep our freestyle work environment in tact which was an interesting feat considering that most American companies are not even that free. Our opposing team consisted of three Japanese girls who were to represent the Japanese company. To make matters more interesting, the teacher had rented some video cameras for us to record our negotiation.

The negotiation itself was so long that we ran out of tape. It seemed that our team, despite not having discussed the negotiation that much, was able to work together towards common goals. I would many times want to add something, but another member would start talking about it before I got the chance. Despite our easy flow of words, the Japanese side had to break away from us several times to discuss certain aspects together before telling us what they thought. In the end, we came to an agreement that we were both able to be happy with - two hours after we began.

After discovering that we were probably the last group to finish, I decided that we might as well make something of our meeting and I declaired 'Nijikai!,' which means second meeting - typically for eating out together. And so we all headed to a Japanese-style restaurant where we shared a variety of different dishes. In total, our meal cost about $30... for six people, coming out to about $5 per person.

After returning home, it was time for my words from Monday to come back at me. I bet my roommates the rough equivalent of $100 that they couldn't drink a 1.5 liter bottle of soda within a certain time limit without burping until the end, at which point they had to exhale a single burp and no more. I was joking about the bet, but they were adamant about doing it.

Todd was up first with a twenty minute limit, which I thought was unreasonable. His strategy seemed strange, as he was making odd noises as he progressed. As it turned out, he was cheating by burping through his nose while swallowing. His mischief did not help him though, as he reached the point where he could no longer hide his gastric sounds.

Einar took his shot next with a much more admirable time limit of five minutes. Since his time limit was so low, Todd also threw in his $100 bet. Einar seemed intent on following the rules as he gulped down the soda like a machine. For some odd reason, he felt it necessary to have a conversation with Todd while he was on the spot. After he got about halfway through, he had to hunch over to take a break and walk around for a little while. As he moved back toward the bottle, he began shaking his head to indicate that it was over and he exploded. He was upset that he had just eaten prior to the contest, and he demanded a retry on Friday. Since I didn't want to bet $100 in the first place, I took the opportunity for readjustment and downed my offer to $20. I think I will enjoy the experience more now that I don't have to pay an unfair amount of money when I have only something to lose.

Sore Throats

2007-04-02T22:49:00.000+09:00

On Saturday, I was set to meet Kazuki, who had purchased some Japanese sweets for me while he was in Tokyo (since we had been discussing how we both like sweets earlier). I decided to bring him some American candy in return for the gift. I figured that a simple exchange of candies would not make a useful meeting, so I pressed for another activity. Agreeing to the notion, Kazuki and I went to a local department store to look around. I picked out some items that I thought were interesting before we headed out to look for something to eat. After dinner, we opted to go to Ring, where we did some more karaoke.

This karaoke experience was different from the last in two ways: first, Kazuki is able to sing on key, and second, my voice had a much more raspy quality to it that made singing a little more challenging. Needless to say, by the end of our activity, my voice was set to call it quits. After we left Ring, we parted ways as we each went home.

I spent Sunday talking to various people though email. I was able to set up a transaction for a fairly rare set of Japanese items that shall remain unsaid for gift-giving purposes with someone I met through a Japanese website. It was surprising to me that she offered to pay for the items in advance for me, especially since we had never actually met in person. I will have to advise her to be wary of doing such a thing in the future, as some people may not actually pay her back.

Monday
Today's most interesting event was that my friend Eri came to ask me for help in pronouncing English words. She explained that she had to give a speech to the new Japanese students at Kansai Gaidai in English and she wanted to say everything correctly. After going through the speech I was pleased to tell her that all she had to work on was the 'th' sound and when to use 'r' and 'l'. I think she will just have to wing the word 'program' since she can only say 'proglam' or 'plogram'. After our session, she said now all she had to worry about was her sore throat from the cold she caught.

For dinner, Nabil and I rode down to Makino. By 'rode', I mean that I got on the back part of his bike and held on for dear life as he rode from the school to Makino (about a 30 minute walk). Fortunately, he did not pull any stunts like the last time I rode on the bike and did not speed down any hills while I tried to wish myself to another planet. That did not keep my hindquarters from becoming quite sore from the metal protrusion that I was situated upon. It was a flat surface, but it was a series of metal stripes instead of a plate. I was glad to arrive and depart without a scratch.

The Night of the Gaijin

2007-04-02T21:44:00.000+09:00

Friday

Up to this point, there has never been a night that I went out with a group of people that did not include a Japanese person. Tonight, all of that changed. It was me, Nabil, and Einar who went as a unisoned trio out to town. By Nabil's suggestion, we embarked on a course to Round One; his apparently favorite place in all of Japan.

As if compelled by divine will, Nabil instantly made his first stop the golf area as is customary of all of his visits to the entertainment center. Since the activity is not multiplayer friendly, we split our unison as I guided Einar to the arcade section of the facility. We began our adventure by playing a guitar-based game that was very similar to guitar hero, but much simpler. After wallowing through our three songs, we moved on to participate in a drum game that I had also seen in America. Next, we participated in a short DDR session. By the time, Nabil had rejoined us, but by the time our game was over, he had disappeared to play tennis against a machine. Einar and I played a few more games before Nabil joined us again and we all went to play table-tennis/ping-pong.

Our experience was hightened by setting up a game that could include all three of us - circle tennis. This game consisted of each person running around the table in a circle in attempt to hit the ball before it falls to the floor. After doing this for a good while, we decided to take turns having matches. Once we concluded our matches, we made our way to the outdoor sports area. We spent the rest of our time there before it was time to go. From there, we returned to Hirakata station to eat.

After dinner, we sat in the station wondering if our night out was over. It was about 10:00pm. There were two people who set up some instruments and started singing. Let's call it a jury-rigged rig. What these two people accomplished was giving Nabil the idea to have us continue our venture and go to karaoke.

We made our way to the karaoke studio that I went to with Saki and friends, hoping that it would still be open. We discovered that not only was it open, but it was also bustling. We became worried that we might not be able to get a room. Einar, being our senior expert of Japanese, went forth to attempt to set up our event. We opted for a two hour stay and were led to our room.

The actual singing experience was an unforgettable event that I will perhaps be scarred by for a long time to come. Picture a tone-deaf Arab and Arnold Schwarzenegger attempting to sing classic songs through the ages. It was actually quite amusing to watch while hoping that one does not develop a headache from listening to it. Early on, Nabil had expressed his expectation that I would have miraculous skill in singing. When I started my song, I was greeted by sounds of delight as I attempted to mimic the orginal singer of the songs.

After we sang a few numbers, we changed tracks and began attempting some Japanese songs. For the most part, we found it very difficult to keep up with the Japanese words as the songs progressed. I had picked a particularly difficult song to attempt since the words were very fast. After muttering through most of the words, we went back to singing English songs until our time expired. From there, we walked back home and brought our night to a close.

Once Again, A Week for Which to Speak

2007-03-28T19:00:00.000+09:00

I would like to say that I will start keeping up with my blog like I am supposed to, but I do not have faith that I will actually do it, so let us go off of what happens.

On the last episode of my blog, Michael was relaxing on his spring break. Let's see what he did...

Wednesday
Today, I got to meet a new friend who I met through the website I registered with awhile ago. Yusuke, in addition to the other Yusuke that I knew, was also a student at Kansai Gaidai, but was a traditional Japanese student instead of being a study abroad candidate.

We planned to go to the Ring, the entertainment center from last Friday, in order to kick off our friendship. I took my usual means of reaching the station via 40-minute walk. Once arriving at the station, I took a short rest while waiting for our meeting time to arrive. Like clockwork, Yusuke appeared and we headed to the Ring. This was apparently his first visit since he was not sure where it was. Fortunately, I was able to recall where the building was. After our ascention to the sixth floor, Yusuke went through the registration process in order to receive his card while I simply gave my card to the people.

We began with playing pool. Yusuke had expressed that he had not played pool before and he was interested to learn. It became immediately apparent that whatever skill I posessed last Friday had disappated since then and I was left with a skill level in between my first and most recent time playing. The lowered skill was just as well since Yusuke seemed to be having trouble even hitting the ball. We played two times, both of which I came out victorious. I allowed him to sink all of his remaining balls for practice after each game. By the end of our second game, he had become able to claim he could play. After our second game, we returned the materials to the staff and went for karaoke (also in the Ring).

This was officially my second experience with Japanese karaoke. Since it was a different establishment, there were different songs to choose from apart from the most popular songs. As I perused the song book, it became apparent that the Ring had a more suitable song selection than the other place I went last time. Yusuke kept alternating between a Japanese band and the Backstreet Boys. It was clear that the Backstreet Boys still held their popularity in Japan, even with the guys. I went forth singing songs from many different bands that were not available in my last singing extravaganza. I even got to sing some DragonForce, which was totally unexpected for me to find. Once karaoke was over, Yusuke and I headed back to the dorms where we played some Nintendo DS until he had to go home.

Thursday
Thursday was one of my days with no plans, so I decided to dedicate it to something that I had been putting off for way too long: a haircut. Nabil had told me about a place that he went that he was pleased with, so I made my way in that direction.

I was very nervous about going in, but I made my entrance anyway. I was immediately greeted and asked to take a seat as the barber took my coat for me. He began asking about 'class.' I wasn't sure how to answer since there could have been different classes of service that was offered. After he decided that I didn't understand, he used the Japanese word for school lesson and asked if it was over. It became apparent at that point that he wanted to know if my classes were over for today. From there, I explained that it was spring break. I found it amusing that I could understand him better in Japanese than in English.

From that point, he spun my chair around and leaned it back and began wetting my hair. He shampooed my hair about three times, just as Nabil said he would. After the washing was complete, the part I had been fearing came when he asked what I wanted done. I never have an answer for that question even in English. Fortunately, he whipped out a book and turned to a page. From there, I picked the best looking hair-do I saw and he went to work. The entire time he worked, he used only the scissors and comb. He never touch any electric appliances, but did the same job that an electric razor does. After cutting my hair, he passed me a mirror so I could see the back of my hair. Next, he asked me if I wanted a shave. I had shaved a little over a day ago, so I didn't think that it would be very successful, but I opted for the shave just to see if he could do it better than me. I enjoyed the warm rag he put on my face, but I wasn't quite so pleased with the razor he ran across my face. Once he was done, he rinsed my hair out again to get rid of the excess hair and put some kind of stuff in it so it would be styled.

Once I got home, I inspected the job thoroughly. The haircut was nice, but the shave was very unprofessional. It may be due to the hairs not having grown out enough. Either way, he cut me a lot more than I have ever cut myself. Overall, the haircut cost about $23. In America, this may be perceived as a ripoff, but in passing other salons and barber shops, I found that the average haircut price in Japan was closer to $40, thus making my experience a very good deal.

I was graced with an offer from Nabil to revisit Round One, the amusement center that we went to with Kenji. We were misfortuned with not knowing how to get there, however. After asking the information desk, we determined that we had to take bus #1. Once we found the bus, we boared and rode for awhile. After it became aparent that the bus was not going to Round One, we got off in hopes to find a way back to Hirakata. We were lucky to run across a train station after only a few minutes of wandering. Once arriving back at Hirakata station, we called Kenji to find out where to go. Apparently, there was more than one #1 bus. Having found the correct bus, we made our way to our destination.

Upon arrival, we went though the process of buying our tickets to enter. Then we went forth to have fun. The experience was not as exciting as the first time since we already knew what to expect. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our time in the game center. After about an hour, we went to the sports area where I got to try more archery. This time, they had these silly little short arrows that were much harder to use than the long ones. After archery, Nabil and I played some basketball, but we just shot goals instead of actually playing. Then we played soccer where each of us kicked the ball at each other trying to get a goal. Lastly, Nabil showed me how to hit a golfball and then we played mini golf until our time was over.

At Round One, after your play time expires, you get a ticket for one free try at the crane game. I took my try by peeking around the machine in order to see how far the crane went back. By doing this, I was able to lift one of the prizes. At that point, there might as well have been an earthquake since the crane shook violently once it reached the top, hence dropping the prize. Still, I was able to pick something up, which is more than most people who play the game can say.

Friday
Friday I got to meet my decided favorite Japanese person, Kazuki. Kazuki is the perfect portrait of the stereotypical 'apologetic' Japanese person. He has a certain clumsiness about him that is tempered just right to be amusing. Call it bad luck if you will. His history of such luck has forged his personality to be very kind and considerate as well as teaching him to expect things to go wrong. Mixed with his Japanese upbringing, it becomes very amusing to be around him while also generating a feeling of peace. Despite these characteristics, today he was going to show me where he does his part-time job: a boxing club.

We met halfway between our two houses at the KS Electronics store. I grossly overshot the time it would take for me to walk there, so I wandered around the store for awhile while waiting for our meeting time. Once we met, we began walking to the boxing club. Kazuki had made me, as promised, some warabi mocchi, a Japanese confection. Along with the treat, he included directions of how to make it. Since we had a while to go before I returned home, I had him hold onto it for me. We talked as we walked. As expected, we eventually arrived.

When we entered, I was introduced to the manager as his friend and was hence granted free admittance for that particular visit. The main attraction of the gym was the boxing ring where two people were practicing with styrofoam gear. There was a timer that went off every three minutes and then in thirty seconds before starting over. After Kazuki greeted his collegues, we went to the locker area where we began our adventure to find me some shoes. Kazuki offered me some of his old shoes. I could barely fit into them, but I was able to squeeze in, though uncomfortably so. From there, he took me through the first through steps of the gym's daily routine. He showed me some boxing moves and had me practice in front of a mirror. At that point, some of the children in the gym asked Kazuki to let them practice with him. Since he worked there, he was somewhat obligated to oblige them, so he left me to practicing while he taught some. It turned out that more people than he expected asked for help and he began his apologies for having us stay there for so long.

Once we finished with the club and I was reunited with my properly sized shoes, we dropped by a supermarket where he bought drinks for both of us. Then we went to a Japanese confection shop where he likes to go. Finally, we made way to a restaurant. We chose to go to Gusto's since it was about halfway between our houses (though I think it benefited me more).

In Gusto's, I found Taka eating with some other Kansai Gaidai students. After sending him a wave, I sent him a text message that said 'hi' just for fun. Kazuki, Taka, and I got a laugh out of it. We ordered and talked while waiting. At one point, Kazuki received a phone call which I had to grant him permission to take. Once he was done, I asked him if it was an authoritative person due to the way he was talking. He seemed impressed that I was able to recognize the difference in speech and he was indeed talking to an authoritative figure.

Once dinner concluded, we went in search for a bus stop so Kazuki could go home without having to walk so far. On the way, we set up another meeting for karaoke on Sunday. We reached the bus stop and found that the upcoming bus was the last one before a long wait. Once the bus came, we said our farewells and I went on my way back home.

Before I got home, I received a message from Kazuki that he had forgotten that he had to apologise for his car accident to the family of the person he hit (apparently a practice in Japan). The message took a turn away from the usual in stating that he would have to make our meeting later than expected instead of just plain cancelling it. I had no problem with the idea since we would still go for singing.

Saturday
I was again faced with a day that had no plan. I again decided to dedicate it for a necessity I had. My haircut didn't look very good without having some sort of styling product added to it. Unfortunately, getting a hair styling product was nowhere near as interesting as getting the actual haircut, so there really isn't much to report for today. Kazuki had suggested that I look in a drug store since it would be cheaper than a convenience store. After obtaining my product, I went home to apply it.

I bought some sort of wax for my hair. It wasn't quite what I expected it to be. It had two sections, a cream and something that looked like wax. The picture showed that I had to rub the cream through my hair and then shape my hair with the wax. Although it was different than I expected, it did what I thought it would. My hair dilemma solved, I spent the day relaxing.

Sunday
Nothing of particular interest happened before meeting Kazuki, so I will skip to that! I reached the station as Kazuki was sending me a message that he reached the station. As soon as he sent it, he saw me and came over. We went to the Ring, where Kazuki also had to go though the registration process. For this outing, we started and ended with karaoke. Three hours of singing split between two people. Kazuki had a much better singing voice than Yusuke did as well as much better pronounciation for English songs. He decided to sing all English songs for practice. I decided that it was time to grant my Mom's wish and record myself singing some songs that she knew. After three takes on singing a Brian Wilson song, I finally had something that I could claim as my attempt to sing something she knew. After awhile, I decided that the song didn't portray how I sang properly, so I sang a Beatles song as well. Since today's theme was singing songs people knew, I decided to try a Japanese song by Kana for my sister. I did not opt to record this song since I knew that I couldn't keep up with the words. It is very difficult to read hiragana (Japanese writing with no Chinese characters) at singing speed, just as my friend Jeff from the US had told me a long time ago. I sang what I could and muttered the rest. I think I will practice the lyrics at home so I can record it for my sister next time.

After karaoke and both of our voices dying, we went to eat. We talked about various things while we ate. When it was time to go home, Kazuki walked with me about halfway before taking the bus back home.

Monday
Today school resumed. Class started out looking like most people were rebelling against having to go to school, but eventually most people showed up. At lunch, there were many Japanese students, reportedly new students for orientation. By the time I was finished with lunch, line for food was looping around the cafeteria and was out the door for McDonalds. I guess I had better prepare well for when all of the Japanese students come back.

After class, my Human Resources group met to plan the next phase of our project. I was asissigned (or more assigned by myself) to work with Yuu on the youth issues of employment since Yuu had already started reading a book on the topic, and Yusuke was assigned with Albert to do the aged issues of employment since Albert had already started on the topic and Yusuke could read Japanese information on the topic. After our meeting concluded, I went to meet Keisuke for our planned bowling trip.

Keisuke and I waited for Chiaki and Saki until eventually finding out via text message that they were waiting outside of us! And so we began our journey over to Makino, which was accentuated by our female company's slow walking. Eventually, we reached our destination and began our adventure. As usual, I was made to kick off the game. I was doing a little bit better than I was last time, which doesn't say much. It became apparent that I was not too mismatched with the others though. Poor Saki had a lot of trouble reaching the end of the lane. The end of the game ended with Keisuke being first, Chiaki being second, and me being third, each with one point difference from the other. The second game became more interesting when Saki realized her potential and started off with a strike. It was as if she and Chiaki traded skills since Chiaki suddenly found it very difficult to stay out of the gutter. Keisuke became a super-bowler all of the sudden and got strikes and spares all over. I maintained my thrid place bowling, while Saki advanced to second and Keisuke came up on the distant top.

They had a special contest at the bowling lane where each lane had a yellow pin. The contest was to leave only the yellow pin after the first shot and then knock the pin over with the second shot. As I expected, I just so happened to end up with just the yellow pin. Also as I expected, I missed the yellow pin. I find it interesting how I can predict such things from time to time.

After the game, Saki and Chiaki went to the arcade section to look for something to play. I was surprised that they chose Time Crisis 4, a shooting game. I was amused to watch the two girls shoot at people when there were much less violent games to choose from in the area. After we played two games, we all set off to go home.

For dinner, Nabil gave me a call as I was walking home from bowling. He said that he would treat me since his scholarship money had come in today. We met at the dorm since he would take longer than me to get back. Once he arrived, he invited Todd and Einar to come as well. We went to the restaurant we call "his place" since Nabil found it; also my favorite restaurant in the area. Nabil kept insisting that we buy whatever we want. I decided to go easy on him since he was paying anyway. After dinner, we all returned home and went on our merry ways.

Tuesday
After class and lunch, I was greeted by Yusuke who wanted me to join him for lunch so he could show me pictures from his trip to Thailand that he went on for spring break. He started off by giving me a souvenier that he picked up while he was there. He bought a bunch of doll-like charms to give his friends. He forgot what they were called though. Then I looked at the pictures he took. He got to do some sky surfing over the ocean and ride an elephant. After he and a friend thought about what the dolls were called, they came up with voodoo. I am skeptical that that is what they are called, but they seemed to agree. From there, Yusuke, his friend Mitsuya, and I went to the library for studying. After they had to go, I went back home to catch up on my laundry and homework.

As a bit of extra news, I made an 87 of my culture test. A fine achievement for someone who neglected to read or pay attention in class if I might say so. No wonder I never took anthropology.

Wednesday
Much like any Wednesday, I went to class, ate lunch, and then hung out in the lounge for five hours. I was trying to catch up with my reading for negotiation from the past week. I decided that studying for midterms was more important than reading back then, so now I had to make up for it. After reading all I could, I retired to my Nintendo DS. I was joined by one of my classmates, Giovanna, who eventually asked me for help with Japanese. She was in Japanese 1 and did not understand how to change verbs into different forms. After Giving her the Schmitz sensei (teacher in America) version, she seemed much more able to understand. She was glad to find someone who could explain the material to her after finding many who could only tell her the answers. From there, I made a new potential travel buddy and friend. We talked until it was time to go to negotiation, one of the classes that we shared.

In negotiation, we received our test back from weeks past. I expected the teacher to be about that slow in grading based on his personality. He said that most people got a 20 point question wrong and accepted the blame on himself for that and therefore gave everyone a curve of 13 points, which he claimedly does not usually do. With the curve, I managed a 97 as a final grade on my test. Now all that is left is to do the same on my Human Resources test that is coming up soon...

Almost a Week's Worth

2007-03-20T11:01:00.000+09:00

Wednesday

There were no Japanese classes held today because some people still had to the their oral assessment test that I completed the day prior. Because of my freedom, there was no need to worry about going to school early. Despite this, I found it easier to make way to the school in order to eat lunch and study.

For the last few days, there had been a guard at the school who seemed to take a special interest in talking to me as I passed by each day. Today, we had a longer discussion and exchanged names. Mr. Mori (which means forest in English) then produced some chocolate from his pocket and dubbed it a present. As I walked onward away from him, I began wondering what his intent was. It could simply be that he wanted an international friend, but there could also be negative reasons. I figured that I would just keep my eye on what he does and let it continue. Afterall, our meeting point is surveyed by a camera in case anything goes awry.

Lunch was particularly busy today as it seemed that the halls were again filled with Japanese students. After finishing my meal, I went to the lounge to begin studying for my two tests tomorrow. I began by attempting to find the last few answers for my culture study guide in the book. After awhile, I saw Koichiro, a Japanese friend that I met toward the beginning of my stay here who asked me for help in English. He explained that today was class registration day and that is why so many people are there right now.

After working on my study guide for about two hours, I began working on my three page Japanese study guide which I finished in one sitting and checked for correctness. By that time, I was completely burned out and could no longer stand to study. From that point on, I played games on my Nintendo DS until it was time to go to class, afterwhich, I studies some more.

Thrusday

Today was the day of the tests. I began by waking up a little early so I could have a last minute review before the tests. At the school, I again had a conversation with Mr. Mori and he passed on another set of chocolates before I went on my way.

We had the test in a different room than usual. I arrived to find other classmates standing around. There were people already in the room who appeared to be taking the test. After awhile, it became apparent that the test would be administered to all of the Japanese 2 classes together. I took the rest of the waiting time looking over vocabulary words as a final preparation.

When the test began, I started my way down the page. Once I finished about 1½ pages, the teachers began the listening section. The first example was very difficult to hear. I was certain that I missed two parts of it. The other two examples were easy to hear and gave me no trouble. After that, I continued to work on my test. Nabil had told me earlier that he would finish first (because he likes to compete), but I finished well before it looked like he would, so I checked over my test because I felt bad that he would be so behind. After stalling all that I could, I handed in my test and left Nabil in the dust.

After the test, I ran off to lunch to suck up my food and study for my culture test. When time came to take the test, I was more than ready to get it over with at long last. Taking the test could be described as a person learning to drive for the first time. Go-stop-go-stop-go-stop; which translates as I know this-I don't know this-I know this-I don't know this. Fortunately, I went more than I stopped, so I would hope for a reasonable grade. I was able to answer the bonus questions too.

After my next class, I discovered that I had lost the ability to send email with my phone. This was a particular negation to my existance in Japan since most people here thrive on using email and rarely ever dial a number. I did not feel up to dealing with the situation at the time though. I went home and did nothing for the rest of the night to recuperate from my long study time.

Friday

Without Japanese class, I again went to school for lunch. This time, I came prepared to accept Mr. Mori's gift with a gift of my own. I exchanged some rice crackers for his chocolate, which he expressed jokingly was lunch.

Today's goal was to regain my cellphone email. In order to do so, I would have to find a Japanese student to help me translate. A translator was especially important since my cellphone is a rental from a thrid-party company and it was especially important that I confirm that email is possible under the circumstances.

The first person I came across was Kimie. She was misfortuned with having to write a paper today, so she could not go. The next person I came across was Keisuke. He had class and had to meet a friend, so he could not go. The next person was Taka, a friend I met through Will and Daan. He was able to assist me, and so we went to the SoftBank store to explain the situation.

The process was fairly simple. After Taka explained the situation, the saleswoman said that she would have to tack on only a small extra charge to the bill in order to make the email work. Since my account had been deactivated, I lost my previous email address, which, despite being long and ridiculous, was replaced by an even more ridiculous email address. The fun part was figuring out how to change my email address. After the SoftBank employee could not figure it out herself, she took the phone over to the computer and changed my address manually to one that I chose. Having resolved my troubles, we returned to school where Taka and I parted ways since he had to meet friends for studying. Now I just have to see if I can still email a week later...

In my negotiation class, we talked about various things including why it is better to have a translator when doing international negotiation. I was proud that I did that exact thing just a few hours ago, which verified what he was saying. I was also glad that I had no more tests to care about and I sat peacefully while waiting for the last class of the week to end.

After class, I went with Albert, Yusuke, and Yu to Hirakata City to do a 'teambuilding' exercise since we were all in the same group in Human Resources. Our outing began by eating dinner and having a meeting on what to do about the project. Our topic is Special Employment Issues Regarding Age in Japan. We decided to have everyone find all the material they could on the topic and report their findings the Monday we go back to school. From there, we will divy up the work among the four of us and go from there.

After lunch, we went to an entertainment center called Ring where we played pool. Despite my previous atrocity last time I played pool, I had somehow magically improved substantially. I was suddenly able to make shots that I couldn't even come close to the last time I played. At one point, we played 9-ball and everyone but me bet 100 yen for the winner. I did not want to bet since I was the least skilled and would probably lose. Ironically, I was the victor of the first game by sinking the 9 ball with another ball (which I did intentionally)! They had to start another game in order to get a winner.

Once our gaming came to a close, Yu headed home while Yusuke, Albert, and I went to MOS Burger, the Japanese version of McDonalds (even though they have McDonalds in Japan). I wasn't particularly hungry, so I just ordered some chicken nuggets. They seemed to be healthier than McDonalds', but nothing special. Once we finished, Yusuke went home and Albert and I walked back to the dorms.

Saturday

Today was graduation day for the Japanese students at Kansai Gaidai. It was supposed to be a very traditional setting, so I journeyed over there to see what was happening. Please visit http://profile.imageshack.us/user/exite13/ and view the images under the 'graduation' tag for many kimonos! I also watched part of the ceremony via TV at the school to see what it looked like. Each class was represented by one person who came up to receive a certificate for the class. As I was told, the students would later go to an assigned room to pick up their diplomas. This practice makes the Japanese graduation ceremonies typically last about 30 minutes and no more.

After I had my fill of pictures (and my camera started complaining about low batteries), I started on my way back home. I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some items. My goal today was to buy some actual food and try cooking something. I bought some gyoza (I really don't know how to describe it), udon (real big noodles), and shrimp. I had to ask an employee how to use the flavoring for the udon. After we struggled to communicate, she recommended using powder flavoring that you can mix with water. Happy with my forshadowed meal, I made my purchase along with some other items for less than $10.

Cooking the food was a bit of a trick. I was eventually able to figure out the steps in making the flavoring, but I was not sure what exactly to do. I decided to ask Okaa san since I heard that she was good at cooking. After only a minute or two of trying to explain what to do, she decided to come up and show me. From there, the woman who most people in the dorm curse everyday practically cooked the meal for me. I will forever be baffled as to how so many people can look down upon her as they do. I enjoyed the finished product greatly.

Sunday

For lunch, I decided to take my own crack at making udon since I was show how to do it. Before cooking, I mandated that I had to get a bigger bowl since the miniscule bowl provided by the dorm was barely suited for the meal. At the advice of my roommate Todd, I made my way to Sanko, the supermarket that tends to close whenever they feel like it. On this particular occasion, they happened to be open. I found the bowl I was looking for in a side store, but I had only a 10,000 yen (~$100) bill with me and I did not want to buy a measly bowl with such large currency. I visited the food section of the store and picked up a few items first. I was able to buy a large bottle of Coke on sale for $2 which was about a thrid of what it would cost from a vending machine and some very peculiar pumpkin flavored KitKat Bars as well as some other items. After then obtaining my bowl for a simple dollar, I returned home to cook. On the way up, I showed Okaa san my bowl since she would understand its significance.

It was simple to cook the meal now having been taught how. It was pretty much exactly like it was yesterday.

Monday

Today, Todd and I went to Osaka just to go somewhere. We began our journey by going to Yodobashi Camera (where I bought my electronic dictionary). Todd decided to purchase a large box for an anime that he liked so he could get all of the episodes. After the purchase, we went to the game section so I could think about buying something. Not wanting a game enough to get a Japanese version, I decided to wait until I got back to America. From there, we began walking around the city looking for something to do. After awhile, it became apparent that we were not very successful in finding anything to do. This was exactly the reason that I do not like going places without a plan. I always thought that I would wind up just walking around not knowing what to do and today proved that I was right.

We came to a grassy hill and took a rest. Todd decided to open his anime box because he had started to wonder if it really was what he thought. As he discovered, it was actually an action figure with one special feature DVD - a set quite contrary to the box set he had hoped for when he bought it. He firgured that since he opened it, he could not bring it back and so he decided to leave it by a trashcan and go on without it. I couldn't help but think that it was such a waste of money to do that, but he insisted. From there, we returned to the station to go home. It was quite fortunate that I was there because Todd started goinging the opposite direction to the station at first and I had to correct him. I may not be able to find my way anywhere, but I can almost always find my way back. This theory was verified after we got off at Makino station and I was able to remember how to get back home from there.

While we were walking, we passed the yet again open Sanko and we stopped for some shopping. I decided to get some sushi since I had yet to eat any in the land of sushi. I made sure the there were no raw materials in the sushi since some sushi has such things. After returning home, I prepared the gyoza and ate it with the sushi.

Tuesday

For lunch, I finished off the rest of the sushi that I could not eat the night before. I then spent the day doing various things around the dorm including laundry. For dinner, I could not decide whether to go out to eat or make something at home. I decided that I would go to the grocery store or eat somewhere along the way. Before I set off too far, Nabil called me and wanted to go eat. My question seemed to have been answered. We went to 'big food place'/'that place' which I believe is actually called Michiko's. After eating we returned home where I finished writing my catch-up blog.

I Made Pot

2007-03-14T20:23:00.000+09:00

For this post, I will try my alternate way of storytelling, which will consequently make this post very long...

Awakening: I came to premature to the sounding of my alarm. This early rising is common among my days since there is typically a fair amount of activity each morning. As I went about my morning routine, the cleaning lady made her scheduled visit to clean the bathroom and livingroom floor. Having completed my hygenic practices, I receded back into my room in order to complete my metamorphosis into my daily guise. Being that I had a speaking test fast approaching, I made my way to the school in order to study without the distractions produced by having a computer readily available to me.

My trek to the school was facilitated by the use of my MP3 player. I had started to use the headphones that came packaged with my electronic dictionary because they were smaller than the set that I had brought with me from America. While walking with my larger pair, I spotted a noticable number of people staring at me. It was apparent that large headphones were not common to walk with in Japan. My theory seemed correct since I receieved far less stares with my smaller headphones. Although the sound quality is triumphed by my other pair, they seemed to be more socially accepted as walking gear.

Upon arrival at the school, I seated myself in the CIE lounge in order to take a final review of my speaking material. The review guide consisted of thirty questions, each with an answer. We were to have a seven minute interview with the teaching assistant in the presence of the teacher. Since we would have to both ask and answer the questions at random, there were essentially sixty sentences that we had to be familiar with for the test. Up to date, I had practiced several times and was comfortable with my ability to perform the questions and answers. All that was left was to climb the stairs to the teacher's office and await my examination time.

I was to go first out of my class. Because of my pioneer position, I discovered that I was able to begin early once the teacher became prepared. After I took my seat, I surveyed the area. Next to me was Mizoguchi sensei who was making the final preparations to begin the exam. In front of me was an audio recorder and a laptop with a powerpoint show set up on it. When we began, she had me read instructions in English out loud. The instructions asked that I attempt to expand the conversation beyond the instructed phrases as much as possible. The next slide produced two cartoon heads that Mizoguchi sensei defined as herself and me. The slide then displayed a speech bubble for each character. I was to ask or answer the question in accordance to the speech bubble's instructions. Being that it was a test, naturally, I was nervous. Except for the occassional tripping over of words, I did just fine. Before I realized it, Tokashiki sensei called out that the time had expired. We said our farewells and I exited the room. The next student was waiting outside by that time and was also surprised to be told that he could begin early.

Having completed the exam, I made a trip to the computer lab to spend some time working on my forboding culture study guide. I elected to use technology to catch up with my lack of reading as an alternative to reading hundreds of pages in two days. I was able to fill out most of the sheet by using sites like wikipedia. After working for an hour, I retired from my work to seek some food out. By this time it was already 12:00, so the cafeteria had become quite lively. On my way to the building, I ran into my friend Sarah who I hadn't seen in quite some time. After battling my way through the lines of people to get my food, I took my seat and waited for Sarah to escape the crowd as well. We talked about our upcoming tests as we ate. Once we finished, we parted ways and I headed to the CIE office to ask for directions to the Osaka International House.

Today, I was going to a class in ceramics that was offered to students who did not have any Tuesday classes. The event was completely free for Kansai Gaidai students except for transportation costs to the Osaka International House. I did not know how to get to the destination, so I went to ask for directions. One of the student assistants printed out a map and detailed which stations I had to take in order to get there. We determined that it would take about an hour to reach the House, so it became apparent that I had to set out immediately. After a short bathroom break, I was on my way.

I maintained my stubborness to walk to Hirakata station since I abhor having to scrounge up 220 yen in order to take the bus. Once arriving at the station, I located my first waypoint and purchased the ticket. The train that was already waiting at the station was a local train, which meant that it would stop at every station on the way there. Since time was of the essence, I decided that it was better to wait for the next train. Once the express train arrived, I asked someone if it would indeed stop at my desired location. Having received an affirmative answer, I boarded the train and waited for my arrival. At this point, my journey became more complex. There were no signs that specifically pointed me to the subway system, so I had to ask where to go. After gaining my bearings, I found the subway and purchased my ticket. Unfortunately, I was again faced with no signs that specifically said where I was going. As I was trying to find someone to ask, I ran into a fellow Kansai Gaidai student, Louise, who was apparently also going to the ceramics class.

She was able to locate a sign that verified the subway's route and we boarded the train. Once we reached the designated stop, we relied on the instructions that I was given in order to find the House. As we were walking, it began to rain, which was unfortunate since neither of us had an umbrella. We finally arrived at the House pretty much at the last minute in order to not be late. Fortunately, the bus didn't leave for a few more minutes, so we would have been fine if we had been a little late.

The bus ride lasted about thirty minutes to get to the Maishima Pottery Village. When we started traveling, two Japanese people got on the intercom and made a speech. I wasn't able to understand anything they said, so I just kept to myself. Once we arrived, we were rushed through the entrance area into a workshop area. It became apparent that everyone was asked to store their bags and coats in the cubby holes and coat racks since that was what everyone was doing. I grabbed my camera in case I had any pertinent pictures to take.

I took my seat at the table that Louise sat at that was comprised of her, my classmate Jarlene, and another girl who were Kansai Gaidai students. Next, a Japanese person from the Pottery Village began talking. At our table, the only word that we were able to recognize was the word "explosion," which seemed to worry the girls. I figured that the word was used as imagery and there was no threat of anything really exploding. After the speaker finished, everyone circled around one of three tables in order to observe the pottery process as done by an instructor.

The instructor started by cutting off about 1/5 of the clay that he had and pounding it into a flat circle on the turnstile. He described something about a pencil for the circle's size, but I wasn't able to understand the specifics. He then spun the turnstile and took a needle-like device to engrave a circle into his clay circle. From there, he used a knife-like tool to cut the exterior area of the engraving off. Next, he began making a clay line about the circumference of a finger. He placed the line all around the top of the remaining clay circle and connected the line to the circle by rubbing his thumb in the inside and outside of the clay. Once the spaces were not visible anymore, he added another line by using the same method. He did this a total of five times. To complete the process, he used the needle tool to engrave a circle around the top of the clay and continued to spin around the clay until the tool cut off the top part. Next, he took a wet piece of cloth and ran it across the shaven top in order to smooth is out. He then took the knife and cut some of the base in a circle before using a wire to detach the pot from the turnstile. He then instructed us to stamp our ID number into the bottom of the pot with a number stamp and sign a custom character of our choosing as well. He then allowed us to return to our tables and begin the same process ourselves.

We all began making our pots as best as we could remember. As I was making my circle on the turnstile, the instructor came by to tell me to make it a little bigger. Once I finished with the circle, I cut the extra area off. I then began making my clay lines and placing them on the circle. It became apparent that my creation was going to be a bit larger than I expected. When I put my last line on, the instructor came by to help me not make it look lopsided. I then finished the process. The finished product was not that bad. I was then told to make a second one with my remaining clay. I didn't know if I could since my first pot (better to say bowl) was a bit large and there wasn't that much clay left. I set off for my second venture keeping in mind to keep it small. This time, I did much better, but toward the end, I noticed that it wasn't quite even. I decided to make it into an abstract since there wasn't much else to do with it. After finishing my two ceramic works, the instructor helped me through the paperwork process to define what color I wanted my works to be painted. Then he told me to place my art upon the shelf. I apparently finished very quickly since everyone else at my table was still struggling with their first construction. I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the class and Louise and the other girl being hard at work. I was happy to be able to wash my hands, but the water was extremely cold.

Once the alloted time had expired, we all were hearded back onto the bus in order to return to the House. When we arrived, we were invited to stay for the next event at the House if we wanted and were given a flyer for the event. From what we could read, it was apparently a basketball event, which none of my table group seemed interested to attend, so we headed back to Hirakata.

On the train back, Louise began asking about Seminar House III since she had heard so many bad things about the caretaker there. Okaa san (more formally called Yamamoto San), is a strong-willed stickler for the rules, which causes many college students a lot of grief while they try to do whatever they please. I am among the minority that finds Okaa san to be a nice and wonderful person, so I was able to give Louise the story from another perspective.

When we arrived back at the station, we took the bus back home and went to our separate dorms. I soon wanted to go for dinner, so I made my way to my favorite restaurant that Nabil introduced me to a few weeks ago. I like this restaurant because the food is reasonably priced and always good. I selected a new meal for my experience today. I ordered the Japanese style beef 'mini' steak set that came with rice, miso soup, and salad. Being that the steak cost only ~$7.00 along with everything else, it wasn't expected to be as good as what one would call 'real steak,' but it was still quite good.

While I was eating, a little girl entered the restaurant and hid in a corner. I wondered if she lived there or knew the people who worked there since she seemed to be alone. Soon, an older man entered the restaurant and the little girl jumped out of her hiding place. The two of them then sat down at the table and the older man began to order a lot of food. It was apparent that they would soon have more company and they eventually did. It seemed like they were celebrating what seemed to be something for the older man. I finished my meal before too much longer and so I went on my way back home.

Clouds on the Horizon

2007-03-14T20:15:00.000+09:00

Monday brought on the atmosphere of the week. Before me lay midterm week and I did not quite know what to expect until today. The heaviest burden was that of my culture class. We received a study guide that I stared at hopelessly without knowing barely a thing on it. Such things happen when you don't do any of the reading and cannot bear to listen to the teacher talk. I know that I am not the only person who was in this position too, so I would expect the test to be very interesting. At any rate, I knew that I had my work cut out for me.

After class was over, I went to meet Kazuki, who wanted to see the school today. I wasn't quite sure what I could show him other than the CIE and a few other buildings, so after the tour, we sat down so I could show him some pictures of home and family. After that, we went to eat dinner. Lastly, he wanted to see where I went for shopping, so we stopped by the supermarket before we parted ways. From there, I went back home to study for my speaking test the next day.

Working Back Up

2007-03-10T21:01:00.000+09:00

As I am sure that you religious readers can tell, I have been falling behind in my blogging. This is mainly because it is a little annoying to have to take a break everyday to type my life story. Nonetheless, I shall continue to write as I get to it. Today, I shall get to it.

Tuesday

Today was a day of reminiscence as I was to meet with my visiting CIE director, Dr. McCrillis. After Japanese class, I was to report to the CIE office to have a lunch meeting set up with him. After explaining what I was there for, I was led into a waiting room while he finished up with a meeting he was in at the moment. It wasn't very long before I was greeted by him and his collegue from Valdosta State along with one of the CIE employees. We made our way to the cafeteria in order to have lunch and talk.

In the lunch room, the concensus seemed to be for curry rice, but I opted to go for the club lunch. After a quick explanation of what it was, Dr. McCrillis changed his order to the club lunch as well since it came with rice and miso soup as well. We talked about my time in Japan and how I was adjusting to it. He wanted to make sure that I was doing alright and there were no underlying problems with the culture and being away from home. As the CIE person said, there were typically one or two people who decided to go home early because they couldn't deal with the culture differences. After a short tour of the CIE, we stopped to take a picture before saying our farewells since he had to go to other meetings.

Once departing, I made my way to the city hall to pick up my alien registration card that had finally been prepared. Happy that I was legal, I went back home to attend a meeting for the dorm. The meeting was primarily geared toward the girls, who had apparently not been keeping their bathrooms as clean as the boys. Ironically, there was only one girl among the ten or so boys who attended the meeting.

Wednesday's main event was my first non-Japanese test that was to be held in my International Negotiation class. The test was a very lovely set of essay questions that left my hand in pain. I should have done fine except on one question that I knew I got wrong after discovering the real answer after the test.

Thursday brought about a movie in my culture class, Family Game. The movie was about a lazy Japanese student being tutored and how his family dealt with what was happening. I wasn't able to watch the whole thing in one sitting since it was longer than my class time, so I had to come back after school to finish. We had another presentation in Human Resources and it seemed to go on forever. Once classes were over, I went with Yusuke to study for awhile before going to finish the movie. The end of the movie absolutely confused me since it had no notable reason as to what happened. I almost feel like it would have been easier to not watch the end and speculate on what happened. I received an email from my phone company saying that my account was now registered and I now have an email address. I confirmed this by sending a test email that was successful. My address was some rediculous slew of numbers and letters, so I wanted to change it. As I discovered with the help of the dorm caretakers, I lacked a password for my phone, so they set up a meeting with my RA to go to the phone store the next day.

On Friday, I had a Japanese test. As I later found out, I missed some of the listening portion, as most of the class did, but I got all of the writing portion correct. After class, I went with my RA, Masato, to the phone store in order to find out about my password. They had us call the support center, so we did so on the way back to school. After getting the center, they told us that the store could reset the password or I could contact the rental company in order to get the code. I figured that the store could not reset the password since they had us call, so I emailed the company instead.

After my phone fun, I went to the computer lab to translate my study guide into Japanese so I could study for my midterm oral exam. I had my Japanese friend, Yuka, check my work. I hung out with various Japanese friends until it was class time. After class, I went with Nabil and Todd to dinner.

Saturday was Karaoke Day. We had four people attend. On their side was Saki and Chiaki, and on my side was Keisuke and myself. I was pleased to find that there were songs that I actually knew and liked, especially since they made me start. I sought out a slow song to begin with and chose Time by Alan Parsons. From there, the others rotated songs. I continued with Spiders by System of a Down. After the next rotation, I did Our Time Is Running Out by Muse, which I thought was my best performance. Next I did Emerald Sword by Rhapsody, Pushing Me Away by Linkin Park, Needled by System of a Down, It's Been Awhile by Staind, Sea of Lies by Symphony X, Papercut by Linkin Park, and finally Knights of Cydonia by Muse. By the time everyone sang about that many songs, our three hours were up. I have some videos of everyone singing, but I don't know where I can upload them in order to share.

From there, we went to dinner at an Italian style restaurant. I decided upon getting a pizza, but it isn't what you'd expect. This was a Japanese-style pizza with shrimp, clam, squid, and tuna. I was able to happily eat the whole thing. Once dinner was concluded, we went to the bus stop where we went our separate ways. While on the bus, I saw a very scary looking Japanese girl with horrible piercings all over her face and hair that she purposely made look awful. Not only that, but she also began to talk on her cellphone during the bus ride, which is a cultural taboo. It was disturbing enough to point out. I also helped an old lady who dropped her bag and could not find it. Finally, I began construction of my catch-up blog while chatting with friends online.

Back to Back

2007-03-06T16:13:00.000+09:00

Sunday

Today's itinerary began with going back to Kyoto. I went to Hirakata station to meet Kenji, who arranged our trip. Once we arrived at our destination, we walked around for awhile to see the sites. Among the stores were some shrines that we stopped by to see. As Kenji pointed out, there was a much different feel in the shrines than there was on the street just outside. It was like a shell of silence brought peace to the area while the noisy street passed unimpeded. After walking for a while, we took a bus to our main event: plumb blossom viewing.

The entrance to the shrine was guarded by a bull statue. There were many people taking pictures of the flowers just as we were. There was also a long line of people waiting to pray for knowledge at the shrine. After thoroughly enjoying the flowers, we headed back to Hirakata.

Upon our arrival, we went to a restaurant for dinner. This restaurant was different than any other one that I have went to because you had to buy a meal ticket of your order instead of asking a waiter for something. After we ate, we met up with Nabil and thought about what to do next. We decided to go to Round One, a gaming center.

At Round One, Kenji set it up so that we could get members cards for a discounted price for future visits. With the card included, it cost about $15 for three hours of free-play activities. After ascending to the game floor, we began to play the various games including sports-related games and video games. After playing for two hours, we went up one more floor to the recreation area where you could play actual sports games. I found enjoyment in trying the archery practice range. Having only done archery once several years ago, I had to learn how to do it again. I quickly learned that holding my arm out straight was not a good idea since the string liked to attack anything near it when let go. I also discovered that it was easier to hold the bow right under the arrow since everything else was bumpy and rough. Lastly, I recalled how to hold the arrow before firing so that it was less painful to shoot. Despite my learning curve, I ended up making a premier shot in my first set of shots. In my best set, I managed to get four arrows out of six (one being broken and unable to stick in the target). After that, I rejoined Nabil and Kenji who were playing Tennis. I also played my first Tennis game today. I wasn't too bad considering my inexperience. I just need to not hit the ball so hard sometimes. After the game, we went back downstairs just in time to leave at our designated time.

As we waited for the bus, I decided that it would be a good idea to study for the quiz that I had the next day. Once arriving back at the station, we walked back home since it seemed that the buses had stopped running. Once getting back home, it became apparent that I had been gone from 12:00 to 12:00, making it a 12 hour day. Sleep was greatly anticipated.

Monday

I started by taking the quiz that I barely studied for over the weekend. It became apparent that my hurried cram session was just as successful as my more laxed sessions. I met up with Yusuke at lunch and we decided to go study for a test that we would be having in our class today. As we were looking up the questions, we ran into two other classmates who joined us in studying. I was the only non-Japanese student in the group, so I pretty much became the teacher. After we got through the questions, it was time for class.

I was particularly dreading my first class today since I had not gotten enough sleep from my late-night venture the night prior. As I expected, I spent the whole class battling against falling asleep. In my next class, we had some lecture and then took the quiz. After that class, I went to the lounge to read for my test on Wednesday while waiting for Albert to get out of his class. Once it became 5:00, we went to Gasto's to eat.

I thought that it might be a good idea to get something Japanese at Gasto's instead of the American food that they also served. My meal had some very interesting side dishes that I wasn't particularly fond of, but I was able to eat it all. After dinner, I went back home since I was still exhausted from yesterday. From there, I did my laundry and relaxed.

Do It Yourself

2007-03-03T22:02:00.000+09:00

First, let's do a little catching up. On Thursday, I entered into my long day with three classes almost back-to-back. It wasn't as bad as it usually is, although each segment of time seemed to go by slowly. At dinner, I went with Albert, Yusuke, and their friend David to Roro. I ordered Ebi Doria, which was shrimp and rice covered with cheese and oven-baked. It was very good, but surely unhealthy. At night, I found a person that I met on the Japan website on gmail, so we chatted until it was time for bed.

On Friday, I met up with Keisuke and Kim for lunch. From there, I went back to the lounge with Keisuke and was eventually joined by Kimie and her friend/my classmate, Maya, and then her friend Megumi. From there, I worked on my homework and conversed until it was time for class. In Negotiation class, a question about uncertainty avoidance (risk) came up. The teacher wanted to prove his point, so he gave the opportunity for people to make a bet. The bet was to guess two out of three coin flips correctly in order to get 100% on the next test and not have to take it. If the person lost, they would get 0% with no questions asked. The first person to try was a Japanese person who guessed correctly the first two times. From there, two others volunteered and also got it. After that, two people in a row failed and no one else volunteered. The teacher actually recorded the names of the people who won and lost and gave them their respective grades. I figured that I had a better chance to take the test than to gamble my grade.

For dinner, I ordered a hamburger at a restaurant called Gasto. The hamburger tasted like a real hamburger as did the fries. Ironically, the meal cost only $5, which is much less than I can get a real hamburger in America. After dinner, Albert had me join him for a short exercise session. He started teaching me how to box at the end. It was an interesting experience since I have no experience fighting. Sadly, my session with Albert was ultimately more helpful than my year in Tae Kwon Do. It's a wonder what you can get for free. I talked with my friend online again until it was time for bed.

On Saturday, the real fun began. I was going to meet my first friend from the Japanese site today. I had to wake up at 8:30am in order to get to Hirakata station at 10:00 since I did not want to take the bus. Once at the station, I waited for a while to meet my new friend Kazuki. He was about ten minutes late, which isn't that bad to an American, but he thought it was a horrible thing. After we were able to get past the time issue, we made our way over to Kyoto to go to Arashiyama where we would try making Ocha (green tea) ourselves. There were a few nice sites to see on the way to the tea shop that I am sure you would like. Once at the shop, we were given instructions on the step-by-step process that is required to make Ocha. The tea came with some Japanese sweets. Mine was made out of red beans. The tea was very bitter and the sweets were sweet. Overall, it was a very bitter-sweet experience. Ironically, it appeared that I was better at making the tea than Kazuki was. He kept forgetting steps and where to put things after using them.

After finishing the tea, we sought out lunch. Kazuki realized that he had not brought enough money with him, so he had to borrow from me in order to eat. After lunch, we had to go to Umeda, Osaka for Kazuki's job interview. I started asking him interview questions to help him prepare. He obviously was not ready for what awaited him. He had not even researched about the company. When we got to Umeda, it became apparent that he would not make it on time. After finally reaching the building about 20 minutes late, Kazuki went inside, but I had to wait outside since I did not have an appointment. I spent my time buying and eating onigiri (rice wrapped with seaweed with a filling). By the time I was finished eating, Kazuki came back outside. Not having been long enough to have had an interview, I asked what happened. He said that he had to reschedule since he was late. I thought that it was a very fortunate occurance since it would allow him time to properly prepare.

After the interview, we went back to his appartment so he could get money to repay me. It was fairly small, but bigger than he described it. Once we got the money, we went to a game store that he had told me about. This time, we used his car. This was the first time that I had ridden in a Japanese car. It was fairly nice with a built-in GPS/TV. The TV would switch back to the GPS whenever the car was moving as to not distract the driver while in motion. After looking at the game store, we went next door to a Chinese restaurant to eat dinner. Chinese restaurants in Japan are like Chinese restaurants in America, except they serve more Japanese-style food instead of American-style food. After dinner, Kazuki took me back to the dorm, which wasn't that far at all. From there, we said our farewells and I went on to do my laundry and type this blog.

Pay Back

2007-02-28T20:43:00.000+09:00

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

2007-02-28T20:14:00.000+09:00

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.

Delivery Day

2007-02-24T11:09:00.000+09:00

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.

Lost in Translation

2007-02-23T13:30:00.000+09:00

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.

Access Denied

2007-02-21T13:54:00.000+09:00

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.

From Dusk Till Dawn

2007-02-20T00:13:00.000+09:00

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...

Saved by Chance

2007-02-19T23:33:00.000+09:00

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.

It's All Purple 'n Stuff!

2007-02-18T10:26:00.000+09:00

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.

A Week's Worth

2007-02-17T10:07:00.000+09:00

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...

A of Nothing and a Day of Activity Again

2007-02-12T11:08:00.000+09:00

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.

A Day of Nothing and a Day of Activity

2007-02-09T23:02:00.000+09:00

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.

Just Another Day

2007-02-08T19:53:00.000+09:00

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

2007-02-08T09:32:00.000+09:00

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.

So How Is Your Japanese?

2007-02-05T22:13:00.000+09:00

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.

Wake Up!

2007-02-04T23:04:00.000+09:00

--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

2007-02-04T01:07:00.000+09:00

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.

Good Fortunes With No Charms

2007-02-03T22:28:00.000+09:00

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

2007-02-03T21:51:00.000+09:00

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.

Niku no Hi

2007-02-01T23:09:00.000+09:00

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

2007-02-01T17:28:00.000+09:00

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.

Nihongo wo Hanashimashou

2007-01-30T21:30:00.000+09:00

I awoke to the sound of a woman speaking. Usually when there is a female voice in the apartment, it is from a staff member. Considering the time of day it was, there was little chance that the owner of the voice would be any other. After going to check, I discovered that the cleaning lady had at long last came. We were especially looking forward to her arrival due to the fact that we had amassed a large quantity of trash over the weekend that needed to be removed from the area. As the cleaning lady performed her duties, I prepared for my journey to the school. Today was the first day of Japanese class.

Once I arrived at the campus, I made my way to the classroom. Upon entering the room, I noted the approximately fifteen seats arranged in a semi-circle formation. At the desk stood the teacher who was rapidly sorting through various papers. I chose to sit in the center seat as to gain a better perspective of the teacher and the board. Without saying a word, the teacher continued to sort through her papers until the class began.

As could be expected, the teacher began speaking purely in Japanese. It came as somewhat of a shock to me that I could actually understand what she was saying, especially since such had not been the case most of the time for the week I have been in Japan. We were given a class schedule and a review sheet. After we finished filling out an information sheet, the teacher allowed us to leave. I noticed that I felt a lot more in control of Japanese while in a classroom setting. This is probably because everything is tweaked to fit the particular level that the class is in, while actual Japanese conversation uses terms and phrases that one can learn only by actually conversing in Japanese. Despite my comfort, I went back into the real world.

Today was a special day. It was the day that I would finally get to meet my speaking partner Saki. Unfortunately, our meeting was scheduled to be at 1:00 - it was 11:30 when I got out of class. As I passed by the student lounge, I noticed my friend Kouichirou (the proper spelling) sitting there. With nothing else to do, I decided to intrude upon him for company. After sitting for awhile, he got up to go somewhere after asking me to watch his belongings. After a few minutes passed, he returned with his friend Mariko (the second Mariko I've met so far) with some food. Eventually, another friend, Yoshie, joined us. From there, we discussed things about cell phones and cultures. As I discovered, Japanese cell phones have the capability to transfer contact information via infrared light. I also had the chance to explain the difference between the term 'despite' and 'in spite' which was a fairly interesting puzzle to piece together. Soon enough, the time of my meeting came.

My first task was to make my first call to a person in Japan. Fortunately, the process was not to different than in America. The dial tone, however, was much softer and more playful than the harsh and cutting sound of the American tone. After confirming a meeting place and meeting there, I, Saki, and her friend Suzuka made our way to the cafeteria. Thus far, the only thing that I have eaten in the cafeteria has been udon noodles. This was because I did not know what to call anything else nor where to get each particular item. This time, I actually had a guide who could help me. I'm not really sure what I ended up getting, but it was good enough to get again if I ever figure out what it was.

We elected to eat outside where there was far less people and noise. Since my conversational Japanese and Saki's conversational English was not that good, we had to piece together broken concepts in order to communicate. We were soon joined by Suzuka's speaking partner, a Chinese girl from Canada who spoke Chinese, Japanese, and English, who went by the name Eilene. After some time passed, Saki produced a book from her bag that provided translations for common phrases. From there, I proceded to point out many of the oddities that the book had and explain why saying things in the presented way would be strange. After about two hours, Saki had to retire to the library to study for her political science test.

I returned to the dorm to begin some laundry. After awhile, I joined one of my roommates on a trip to the grocery store. This store was different than the one that I went to before, but still much smaller than the ones in America. The roommate sponsoring the trip was my least favorite of my roommates. After talking with him throughout the trip, I was able to confirm that my dislike toward him came only while he is drunk. While he is sober, all of his distasteful childish qualities tend to regress and I can hold a normal conversation with him.

One of my roommates, Daan (Holland name), got in trouble for hooking up his Playstation to the TV. The reasoning behind not doing so was because previous residents have damaged the TV connections from pulling out the cords wrong as well as the fact that games can deprive others of watching TV. No one in the apartment particularly minds others playing games, so that just leaves the liability issue. If we are to play any more games, Daan will have to take the case to the CIE dorm supervisor and get permission. His argument is that if he were to damage any of the other equipment that he would have to pay for it and the TV should be no different.

After completing my laundry, I worked on my Japanese review sheet so that I would not have to worry about so much work later. With a lot of free time left and most of my roommates going to get wasted, I decided to watch a movie that I brought with me. After that, I typed this blog.

The Tone of the Bell

2007-01-29T21:32:00.000+09:00

I was excited to be able to get real food again after a weekend of ramen. Once 11:00 came, I started my walk to the school cafeteria. This time I timed my journey so that I would know when to leave for any events at the school. Clocking in at about 20 minutes, I reached the campus. After I ate, I began preparing for my first day of class. We didn't have our Japanese class today since some people didn't go through the language lab training yet, so my first class was at 1:00.

All of the classes are on the fourth floor of the CIE building. After the tiresome climb or the long wait at the elevators, it is a simple matter of finding the correct door to enter. The classrooms themselves are small and fit about 30 people each. There are two entrances to the rooms, one door, and one sliding door that closes by itself. The desks are of adequate size and the room temperature can be altered by turning the heater on and off.

My first class, Culture and Everyday Life in Japan, began with the teacher handing out infomation sheets. As the professor talked, it sounded more and more like a typical college class. His lecture skills were somewhat lacking in terms of being interested. He used too many "um's" and spoke too slowly for my tastes. Nevertheless, I believe that it will be a good class after we get into the material. He went over the syllabus and schedule and then has each student introduce him/herself. Once all that was done, the class time was over.

After my first class, I immediately have my next class, Human Resource Management in Japan. The immediacy of the class is not too burdensome considering that it is located across the hall. It was in this class that I realized how my Monday and Thursday afternoons would go: I would reach the point of sleep in my first class and be woken up in my next class. This rollercoaster of awareness came about from the HR teacher being much more in tune with how to give a lecture. In fact, not only could he speak with a much more interesting tone, but he also expressed his desire to keep lectures at 20 minutes or less. After that point, he wants the class to enter discussion in order to progress through the class material.

To accentuate the idea of class participation, he gave us an assignment to interview someone in the class and present them to the class. My partner ended up being from France, hence making my ability to pronounce some of her details rather difficult. From what I can recall, her name was Aurore, which is pronounced no where near what an American would expect. Let's just say that even the teacher had a hard time pronouncing it and had to ask her assistance. After a slow paced interexchange of information, we waited to present and then did so.

Once classes were over, my next adventure was to figure out how to get the books for each class. The simple idea of a bookstore seems to elude the people at the CIE. In each class, the teacher distribues a slip of paper designating a book and its price. The students then have to make their way to the student affairs office and find a ticket vending machine. After inserting the proper amount of money, the student selects the ticket's amount and then takes the ticket back to the CIE. With the book slip and the ticket, the student hands the items to the worker in the book section of the office at which point the ticket is exchanged for the required book. I suppose that I should not complain about the complicated process, as the books were custom made for each particular class. Because of these customizations, the books are cheaply made and cheaply sold. For my two classes today, I spent ¥1,500 which is equivalent to about $12.50. I supsect that the actual textbook for Japanese class shall cost a bit more.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful...

It's Official

2007-01-29T21:01:00.000+09:00

January 28

Today's major event was the dorm check-in. Up until this point, everyone living in the dorms was there based off of the school's goodwill towards those students who did not have their accommodations prepared. Having had ample time to pay fees, move into host family houses, and decide whether to stay in the dorms or get an apartment, the dormitory students now had to report to their caretaker that they wish to remain in their housing unit. Of course, this process produced more than just a simple check mark on a sheet of paper. Those who were successful in completing the registraion also received a key for thier room, their kitchen box, and the side gate to the dorm. The next step was to return to your room with a paper that would allow you to check your personal items and room for damages so they would not count against you if they were already damaged. After a very thorough inspection, I found a few marks and scuffs around the room, as well as a few objects missing from the picture of the room (that were obviously not supposed to be there considering that they were power outlets and such) that I reported accordingly. Naturally, my roommate was no where near as thorough and simply passed everything off. After returning the form, I was given new sheets for my bed.

Later today, the caretaker came up bearing gifts. It was at this time that our kitchen became more populated by an influx of pots, pans, and other cooking devices that most schools wouldn't care to purchase for the students. From there, I and my roommate Einar, one of the not crazy ones, proceeded to sort and put away all of the items for later use.

After a fair amount of time passed by, I decided that I needed to venture outside at least once today. I decided to locate the grocery store since I had not been there before. Fortunately, the simplistic directions to get to the store turned out to be as simple as they were spoken. It was at the grocery store that I discovered that Japanese food stores sell food - and nothing else. In America, it is common to find several hygenic items in a grocery store as well as some other various items, but in Japan, if you can't eat it, you can't buy it there. Despite still not being able to locate things like hand soap and laundry detergent, I looked at my possibilites available at the store. Usually, I am able to cook anything that has instructions. Being in Japan, the necessary parameter of being able to actually read the instructions proved unattainable. I didn't want to leave with just my normal slew of ramen and goodies, so I got a pack of frozen rice with shrimp.

Fortunately, I did not have to be able to read the instructions in order to pan heat the frozen rice. I did find that the quantity of food within the pack was somewhat disappointing though. After dinner, the evening consisted of two of my roommates getting drunk and putting on a somewhat disturbing show for the rest of us. I was able to retire to my room to sleep before anything wild happened.

Saturday - A Day of Rest

2007-01-27T17:34:00.000+09:00

----As a second reminder, the older posts are on the bottom----

As most people find on Saturdays, school did not have much call for me. I stayed at the dorm until after lunch, at which point, I went to the CIE to get my class schedule. Since the schedule was hard to read, I used the computer lab to reformat the list for easier reading. After I made my schedule, I found that my speaking partner had finally emailed me. Apparently, she had emailed me sometime last week, but I apparently did not receive it. I figured that email was a shaky way to communicate, so I wanted to give her my phone number. The problem with that was that the number on my phone was slightly different from the number in my phone details! I did not want to give her a wrong number, so I started to look for someone who could test the number for me. As if by an amazing stretch of luck, I found none other than the Japanese student who I helped with English a few days before! I explained my problem to him and we used his phone to discover my real number. Apparently, the number provided by the phone rental company was wrong. After we got the phone problem settled, I talked with the Japanese student for awhile. After adding him to my phone, I was finally able to retain his name - Koichiro (co-itchy-row). We talked until he had to go home, after which I sent my number to my speaking partner.

Before I left, I asked the student at the computer helpdesk why I did not have internet yet. As it turns out, someone did not take my information form to the media center in order to complete the registration yesterday. He assured me that it would be taken today and that I should have internet by this evening. Happy that I had an explanation, I went back to the dorms.

The next portion of my day was dedicated to doing my laundry. The machines cost ¥200 to wash and ¥100 to dry. As expected, the dryers take more than one go in order to work. After I placed my clothes in the washing machine, I came back to my room to find more change, when I discovered that I had internet at last! From there, I continued my laundry as I caught up with my blog. I discovered that the best way to do the laundry is to do three days worth of clothing per wash. I would separate the load into two groups: One with all the shirts, a pair of pants, and any undergarments, and one with two pairs of pants and all the socks. From there, two drying cycles would finish the laundry process. The net cost of the work is ¥600, which is roughly $5.

By the time the laundry was done, it was getting dark. At this point in my trip, I do not like venturing out in the dark unless I know where I want to go, so I stayed inside. After making dinner and hanging out with some of my roommates, the night came to a close.

The Journey

2007-01-27T16:53:00.000+09:00

January 26 - Part 2

Hello again! This being the first blog that I am typing with a working internet connection, I would like to remind all of the readers that the older posts are located toward the bottom of the page. If you start reading the blog from the top, it probably will not make sense since you won't have the background from the first posts.

Today I had very little that I had to do. After waking up, I prepared to walk to the school so I could pick up my laptop. I had to leave it at the school so that they could register it for internet use and update the security features on it. After retrieving the laptop, I took it back to the dorm so I would not have to carry it around all day again. For lunch, I went back to campus and ordered more udon noodles with an addition of tempura (fried food) and rice. Having eaten, I went to the CIE office to turn in some information that they requested.

Some of the students had signed up to take a tour to Kyoto today. I was not among that group since I did not know if today would be as busy as the previous days. Since I was not busy, I asked if I could still sign up. I was informed that signing up would not be necessary and that I can just wait outside the CIE with the rest of the students who were going. Outside, we were asked to form groups of six. I joined a group with one of my friends. We were then met by a Japanese tour guide named Takaki who took our group to Kyoto.

The beginning of the journey required us to walk to the train station. Once we got there, I got to see how strange, yet efficient the Japanese train system was. Instead of a person in a ticket booth, there were little machines that we selected the amount for the fare and inserted required money in order to get a ticket. From there, the ticket was inserted into another machine at the entrance of the station and picked up on the other side of the machine. Once we reached the trains, we boarded one and didn't have to show anyone the ticket. Once the train reached a certain station, we got off and boarded another train. It was at this point that I knew that I would be eternally lost without Takaki guiding us. On this train, I sat with Takaki and discussed various cultural issues with him during the ride. After we reached a certain station, we again switched trains. Onced this last train stopped, we got off at our destination.

In Kyushu, we headed to a temple in order to sight-see. The experience is easier to explain with the pictures that are soon to be made available to you as a reader. Once we climbed up several hills and steps, it was getting very dark out. We had to go back to the station since it would be difficult to keep climbing in the dark. We took one train over to a station and then looked for someplace to eat.

We decided to eat at a small Japanese restaurant that specialized in pork dishes. The restaurant had traditional Japanese tables and sitting cushions as well as counter-space to eat your food. The menu was completely handwritten in Japanese with only the names of the dishes and no descriptions. Obviously, without Takaki there, I would not have been able to order without pointing at something and hoping it was something I would like. Once the food arrived, I was faced with a somewhat strange looking dish. I was never able to remember the name of it though. Despite its odd appearance, I enjoyed eating it. After we finished and paid, we finished the train rides back home. Takaki left us at the bus stop to the school with an apology for the trip being so short. Of course, it was not his fault that the CIE chose to make the trip at 2PM, but the Japanese way is to apologise for things when they don't go according to hopes.

After the bus ride, I went to the store with some friends. I ran across an intriguing cake-like thing at the store that was very good. Back at the dorms, several of my roommates were planning to go out at 10:30PM for a night at the town. Turning down their offer to join them, I ended my night at a reasonable time. They ended theirs at 8AM the next morning.

A Note on My Roommates

2007-01-27T16:47:00.000+09:00

January 26 - Part 1

I have been placed with a very interesting crew at the dorms. It seems that just about all of them enjoy smoking, drinking, and being promiscuous as often as possible. These interests are in direct contrast with mine, which makes for an interesting experience. In fact, yesterday, one of them listed the above interests along with my unwillingness to participate in them and proclaimed that he didn’t know how to hang out with me. Apart from him, however, the others do not seem to have difficulty getting along with me as long as they continue to respect my lifestyle. Overall, I am entertained by them behaviors as it seems to incase much of the things that I have been taught to look down upon.

Even more interesting, I discovered yesterday that my roommate did not like me because of our clash of interests. It seems that he is the type of person who believes that friendship can be reached only by having common interests. This information was surprising to me, as he gave no indication that he disliked me. Such news was disclosed only after he changed his mind. He discovered that both of us have played a game that he used to love, and hence, the necessary common ground was found and he decided to like me. Such a turn of events simply continued to amuse me.

Making My Way

2007-01-27T16:46:00.000+09:00

January 25

Today, my plan was to get to the bank when it opened at 9AM to get my money, pay my fees, and register for my classes by 11AM, my designated time to register. I asked one of my roommates how to get to the bus stop. It was at this point that I learned the error of my ways. I had learned the “shortcut” way to get to the school, but the bus stop was located on the normal way to the school. I was fortunate to find others on their way to the school via the normal way, as I would have again been lost had they not been around. Having found the bus stop, I waited for the bus and boarded it upon arrival. As the bus drove, a Japanese voice announced the stops. Of course, I couldn’t understand any of what she said. When the bus passed by the school, there was a portion of the announcement that was in English, which I was glad to hear considering my return trip. Once the bus reached what looked like my destination, I asked one of the passengers (with confidence in my Japanese regained) if it was the stop. Gaining an affirmative answer, I headed to the exit of the bus, deposited the bus fee, and exited the bus. The next step consisted of finding the correct direction to travel in order to find the bank. I was glad to find that my first guess was correct.

In the bank, I was greeted by one of the staff. With no idea how to say traveler’s checks in Japanese, I showed him what I needed and he directed me to the second floor. On the second floor, I waited for another American student to finish doing the same thing I was about to do. The woman at the counter did not speak English, so we played around with individual words in order to communicate. After a fairly simple transaction of words, I then had to begin signing my thirty-some checks. After I signed everything, I was asked to wait and then I was given my money.

Next, I had to get back to the school. Not having any more change for the bus, I thought I might try walking back. After deciding that absolutely nothing looked familiar, I went back to the bus station. I began looking around for a store where I could purchase a drink fairly easily since I was thirsty and I needed change. After finally finding one, I was able to go to the bus station to find the right bus. I again brought out my Japanese to ask someone if the bus went to the school. After learning that it did, I boarded and got off at my stop with no trouble.

Arriving at the school, my next feat was to find the Shomu office in order to pay. I was pretty much at the last minute in terms of the time schedule by the time I got there, but I was able to pay with no trouble. Next, I made my way to the registration room. There was a fairly long line. Registration was done by lottery and although my number was quite high, everyone else in the line had a higher number since I was a little late. Because of this, I was able to skip the line and register. As I later found out, since they didn’t say that I couldn’t sign up for anything, that means that I should get all of my classes. That means that I will be taking Human Resource Management in Japan, International Negotiation, Everyday Culture in Japan, and a Japanese language course.

Finally arriving at my first span of free time during the day, I decided to figure out how to order at the cafeteria. I ran into someone I met on the bus to the school the first day who offered to let me sit with her group. Before doing that, I went to the cafeteria where I ordered some udon noodles and a drink. I had to pay ¥240, which was much better than the ¥580 that I paid at the McDonalds. Not only that, but the meal was quite good. I believe that I shall be eating there from here on out.

I spent some time in the student lounge in the CIE building to continue typing my blog so I could post it. While I was working, a Japanese student behind me asked for some help with his English homework because he could not understand why he got the answers wrong. His question pertained to why saying ‘attending to’ class was wrong and just ‘attending’ class was correct. I described how attend essentially means to ‘go to’ something, which means that ‘to’ is kind of built into the word. I elaborated by explaining in which situations ‘attending to’ would be used. He then asked why saying the store remained ‘close’ was wrong since the word was preceded by an ‘ed’ word. I explained that ‘closed’ was more of a status than a tensed word. I had fun explaining the oddities of English to the Japanese student and I look forward to any more questions that may come up.

The rest of the day consisted of a series of meetings/orientations. After the last meeting, I went to check my mailbox for my class schedule form that was supposed to be delivered by then. I found that I did not have one, but it seemed that everyone else did. When I inquired about why the schedule was missing, they found out that when I went to register, I seemed to have skipped the actual registration step because I thought that the lady told me to skip one of the tables when she pointed out where to go next. Miraculously, none of my classes were full and so I got into all of them anyway.

After securing my schedule, I made my next venture to find a store in Japan. With simple directions from a friend, I made my way to the ¥99 store where I purchased some food items and treats. After getting back to the dorms, I got to hear about the drama that people go through when they get in trouble. Apparently, one of my temporary dormmates had come home late and been very rowdy for the past three nights in a row. Since he was a homestay student, the school became worried that he would cause trouble for the family. In order to give him another chance, he had to meet with the family and several administrative figures to have the basics of homestay broken down for him. Knowing that homestay rules would be tighter than staying in the dorms, he had to choose by the next day whether he would still go. Sounding like he did want to try, he elected to stay at the dorm that night so he wouldn’t get in trouble again.

Round and Round I Go

2007-01-27T16:45:00.000+09:00

January 24

In the morning, I became better aware of how the rooming situation was set up. There are six rooms with two people each. These twelve people share a centrally located bathroom, living room, and kitchen. The bathroom has two toilets, two showers, and three sinks. The kitchen is not equipped with all of its instruments yet because the school does not want the temporary homestay students at the dorms to cause any problems for the actual residents. The living room is the main area that the residents like to meet. It has a fair-sized TV and a large couch.

Once people started to wake up, the main topic was about attending the general meeting that was scheduled soon. I had no idea how to reach the school yet, so I made sure to tag along with some of the people who were going. I was able to learn how to reach the school by paying attention to where we turned. Once the meeting was over, I had to stay for the Japanese placement test. It became apparent that the test would not be as easy as I thought since I never used any textbooks for my Japanese classes and the test was based on the textbooks. After the test, it became evident just how much Japanese I didn’t know. Feeling separated in full by the language barrier, I was unable to get myself to speak any Japanese for the rest of the day. Despite this inhibition, I still needed to find out how to pay my fees. After going to the Center for International Education (CIE), I asked one of the English speaking people if I could pay with traveler’s checks. I was told that I could pay only in yen and I would have to go to the bank in order to cash the checks. I tried to get directions of how to walk to the bank. After walking for a good, long while, I decided that I was lost at that point and I walked back to campus.

Knowing that I had to pay my fees before I could register the next day, I needed to find a way to the bank. Before I could do that, however, I had to fix another problem: I was hungry and I didn’t know where to go. I was about to venture out in the town to try to find something that looked like food, but as I was heading back the way I came, I noticed people eating. I went to explore the area and I found a cafeteria and a McDonalds. Being that my Japanese was in a temporary stasis, I decided to explore the McDonalds to see what they had. I noticed only a few differences in the menu. As I was attempting to get my food, an English speaking worker came to help me order. Having made my first successful transaction in Japan, I went to eat.

After I finished eating, I went back to the dorms to get my passport, which I figured out that I needed to cash my checks. Next, I asked the dorm supervisor how to get to the bank. The supervisor did not speak English, so I used a few Japanese terms. She told me to go to the bus stop and take bus #12 at ¥220 a trip. All I had left to do was find the bus stop. I was unsuccessful in doing so, but while I was searching, I found my airplane buddy who told me that the bank was closed now (3PM) anyway. Tired and out of ideas, I went back to the dorm where I stayed the rest of the day since my legs were shot from all the walking.

Departure and Arrival for Two Nights in a Row

2007-01-27T16:43:00.000+09:00

January 22 – 23

Greetings one and all from Japan! I would like to start by apologizing for the lag in posting. The computers in the lab all display Japanese text on all websites and I was afraid that posting anything would leave a long strew of gibberish for the readers back home. In order to use my laptop, I had to get it registered for internet usage, which took some time. But now I am up and running, so I will try to keep you posted daily.

The trip to Japan began at approximately 2AM Eastern time. In order to make this work, I stayed up extra late on Saturday and woke up extra early on Sunday so that I could go to sleep extra, extra early at 6 PM. By doing so, I could wake up at 2AM and be relatively awake.

After waking up, I began making my final preparations to make sure that I was ready to leave. Once 3AM came around, Dad drove me to the GROOME service that would take me to Atlanta. As the time of departure approached, the van became progressively more populated until it was absolutely full. Our posse of approximately 13 people made our way to the Atlanta Airport in the rainy and drab-awful weather. After a fairly uneventful drive, we reached our destination where I was left with my bags. Carrying the four bags (two check-in, two carry-on), I made my way to the United Airline check-in counter. Contrary to the much repeated horror stories, I stood second in line upon arrival and had absolutely no trouble getting my boarding passes for both planes as well as my passport checked and verified for my whole flight. The next step was making it through security. With no one there to instruct me, I watched what everyone else was doing and followed their example. As with most infrequent flyers, I set the alarm off. I was told to make sure that all metal objects were off of me at which point I removed my belt and cell phone clip and passed through with no problem. After reassembling my gear, I headed down to the very end of the terminal to sit in front of my gate for about two full hours. If ever there was an example of so many things that didn’t go wrong, that would be it.

The flight was on what, to me, was a big plane. The plane sat five people in a row in groups of three and two. I was on the aisle seat of the three grouped seats. From what I gathered, the first-class passengers were separated from the economy-class passengers (such as myself) by a thin, blue curtain. After the plane took off, the flight attendants came by to offer free pretzels and a drink. More than happy to partake, I quenched my thirst with a can of apple juice. After that point, I stared at a movie for two hours. I say ‘stared’ because I was still somewhat drugged from the Nyquil that I took the night before to assist me in going to sleep so early, and I found it difficult to pay attention to the movie. Once the movie was over, there wasn’t much to do for the next several hours except listen to the radio provided by the airline. After what seemed like an eternity, the plane finally reached San Francisco. As we were taxing to the gate, I turned to my neighbor and said, “I have no idea how I’m going to do this for eleven hours.”

In San Francisco, I had an hour and a half to find my next flight. Looking at the departure sign near my gate of entry, I learned that I had to find gate 95. Having no idea where that was, I found a travel services desk and asked. The man told me to get on a nearby line that would get me on a bus to the international terminal. After a short bus ride, I entered the international terminal and again walked to the end before reaching my gate. At that point, I waited near an hour for the flight to begin boarding.

The flight was on what, to me, redefined what I thought a big plane was. Seating nine people in a row with a very distinguishable class separation, I found my to the designated area that was about three fourths of the plane back. The seats were grouped as two, five, and two with aisles in between each group. My seat happened to be in the middle of the group of five. That meant that I would have to crawl over two people to go to the restroom no matter which way I went. Surprisingly, the person to the right of me seemingly asked for a seat change, leaving only one person on that side of me. On my other side, I discovered that the girl next to me was going to the same school that I was. This did not surprise me, as expected to find someone who was. Her plan for the flight was to be knocked out by taking some Tylenol PM. Still somewhat woozy from my Nyquil, I did not wish to partake in such a plan.

Before the plane took off, it sat at the runway for a long time. The pilot finally informed us that there were mechanical problems that had to be fixed before takeoff. Finally, we were in the air. My school buddy warned me to avoid the airline food, but having eaten nothing but pretzels and a small box of cereal over the last twelve hours, I decided to take my chances. The food could have been considered quite repugnant had I not been starved. It was as if it had been dried, frozen, and then reheated in a microwave five times. It was nice to actually eat something though.

The plane gave each person their own personal TV on the back of the seat in front of them. The TVs came with several channels that you could switch to as desired. Each person also had a radio that could be accessed from the same console. My favorite feature, however, was the GPS map of where the plane was flying over. It showed us on the map and gave accurate times and mileage to the destination. After reality showed me that we wouldn’t be moving very fast on the map, I decided to try to sleep on the plane. Never actually reaching the point of sleep, I returned to being fully aware of my surroundings and sought some entertainment. I found entertainment in my MP3 player, which I listened to for awhile before trying to sleep again. I was almost successful in falling asleep that time, but I reached a point in the music where one song ended and the next song started with a sharp jolt that brought me back to the plane. At that point, I decided that it was time to ask the one person on my left to let me out so I could go to the restroom that had a steady flow of visitors ever since dinner. After I returned to my seat, the person who had to move for me decided to go off with one of his friends in another section of the plane for a long time. I tried using the empty seat next to me to increase my comfort for sleeping, but I was vastly unsuccessful in doing so. Not knowing when the other person might come back, I could not use his seat to completely lie down.

The rest of the flight pretty much consisted of me attempting to go to sleep and eventually watching a movie. At long last, we neared our destination. With about an hour to spare, the flight attendants began to bus out dinner. I wasn’t particularly hungry since I had been snacking on some boxes of cereal that I brought with me, but I decided to partake of the meal so it would take up some time. The meal was of no better quality, but the fruit was good since they didn’t have to make it.

We finally landed in Japan and made it a point to follow my school buddy who had been to Japan before. The first step to enter the country consisted of standing on a fairly lengthy line in order to get your passport checked and be given permission to enter the country. Next, you had to claim your baggage and pass through customs. This consisted of showing your passport to the officer and moving onward. Finally, I entered the airport, which looked like a normal airport with a bunch of Japanese writing. Not but a few feet away, I found the Kansai Gaidai greeter. Only a few minutes later, a bus driver instructed us to follow. He asked for a fee of 2,000 yen (<$20) and then brought us to the bus where some airport personnel put our bags into the bus. After another two hours of sitting, we arrived at the school dormitories where I finally got to leave my bags.

After getting settled, I went on a tour around the area. Unfortunately, I was too tired to recall anywhere we went. During the tour, I got to talk with some of the Japanese people on the tour. I asked a few cultural questions and pointed out a few differences between cultures. One of the main differences that any American would instantly see is the fact that cars drive on the left side of the road instead of the right. Seeing such things simply pointed out that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

By the time the tour was over, I was ready to actually sleep. After two bus rides, a five hour flight, and an eleven hour flight, all with practically no sleep; I was ready to fall over for the night. When I got back to the dorm, I noticed that there was no one there. Such being the case, I took the time to explore my new home. The first trick was getting the lights to turn on in my room. As I later found out, the green light on the switch is for finding the switch in the dark, and the green light turns off after the lights are activated. The trick is that the lights take a second to power up. Because of the power up time, I was lost as to how to activate the lights because of the other switch above the light switch which I now know activates the heating unit. The showers are different as well. The temperature is controlled by a degree-labeled knob and the water is turned on by its own knob. The shower itself is a detachable wand with two holders for a tall person and a short person. Right outside the shower, there is a changing area that is designed to drain any residual water. The toilet has an interest device as well. At first, the operation of the toilet is no different than in America, but when you want to flush, you have to choose between ‘big’ and ‘small.’ I’m not sure what the difference is, but it can be left to the imagination. Even more interesting is the sink on top of the toilet that turns on when you flush so you can wash your hands as it fills the toilet again to save water.

I was finally ready to sleep. The bed consisted of two two-inch mattresses with sheets, a fuzzy blanket, and a comforter. The pillow was very firm, but still comfortable. After I slept for awhile, the other roommates returned. After a few minutes, they retired to bed as well. From there, I slept until morning.

Why Japan?

2007-01-20T12:10:00.000+09:00

This post comes from an edited section of an email that I sent someone. Enjoy!

First of all, lets look at my application essay.
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It is often quite difficult to understand why some people act differently than others. Having grown up in America and never leaving its shores, I have not had the opportunity to discover first hand why other cultures perform their daily tasks differently than Americans. I personally strive to see all people as equal and in order to do that, I must gain a perspective on how a different culture acts and why they do what they do. Japan, a country that I have been interested in for some time now, would serve as an excellent setting for me to learn about a different culture, which would also allow me to better understand diversity so that I may teach others that ‘different does not mean unequal.’

I am interested to learn and observe three main things about Japan itself including the language, society, and marketplace. I have taken six courses in the Japanese language over my high school and college career as well as an additional course that I will be taking this fall so I may practice the language before I visit Japan. Classes in a language can do only so much, though, as it is far more educational to witness a language being used in its home country. I seek to learn to speak, interpret and perhaps even read Japanese during my visit. Through these language skills, I can gain international acquaintances as well as opportunities in the business world.

I have heard that the Japanese society has a high sense of community, which brings them to look out for each other and be friendlier in general. This form of atmosphere intrigues me, as it displays the sense of equality that I seek. A few summers ago, I attended the Governor’s Honors Program, which gathered the brightest high school minds together for a six week period in order to have a college-like learning experience. During GHP, I noticed that virtually everyone greeted each other as they passed by whether they knew the person or not. After returning home from GHP, I found that hardly anyone would even acknowledge another person’s presence unless they knew him/her. I am interested to see how much the Japanese society differs from the American society by observing how they interact with each other. Though I do not expect to see everyone greeting each other, I hope to find the kinder atmosphere that I have heard about from my teachers.

Having seen various advertisements from Japan, I can tell that the marketplace in Japan is vastly different than the marketplace in America. Being in the school of business, I believe that understanding how a foreign market works will help me gain a better understanding of how businesses work worldwide. I am interested to observe how our cultural differences change the products on their market such as toys, foods, and technological devices. Gaining an understanding of the differences between Japanese and American products will help me learn more about the Japanese culture and understand how different countries have different needs.

My ultimate objective of visiting Japan is to learn to understand the differences between other cultures and learn to accept those differences as an equivalent way of life. I foresee my stay in Japan to be extremely educational (as well as fun) in not only what I have written about, but much more. I expect my journey to be a memorable experience that I will keep with me for the rest of my life. After my return, I trust that I will strive to get others to venture outside of their country’s boundaries to experience the same things for themselves.
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Though many view essays as an opportunity to test their BSing skills, I am proud to say that every word of my essay reflects my interest in Japan. I like knowing that I was accepted to the program through my genuine interests without having to embellish the truth in order to sound more applicable to them.

Apart from the items in my essay, I would like to speak about my history in terms of Japan. In my freshmen year of high school, I was faced with the decision of which language I would choose to take the following year. I knew that Spanish would not be a good choice considering that most people would take that language under the assumption that it was ‘easy to learn.’ I knew that the large Spanish class roster would cause the teachers to ensure that their class would not be as easy as the students hoped. With Spanish out of the picture, I had to choose between German, Latin, and Japanese. Latin had no practical use in my eyes since it was not spoken by any culture anymore and German did not seem as intriguing as Japanese did, so I chose to take Japanese. As my lessons in Japanese began, I found that I was in a bit of a learning curve. After I got over hurdle of proper pronunciation and the very basics of grammar, I quickly soared to the top of my class. It was at that point that my aspirations to visit Japan began.

I was also getting into some Japanese music at the time. I enjoyed hearing music that was slightly different than the music common to the United States. Even now, I have a vast collection of foreign music ranging from many different countries. As with most Japanese language students, I also had my interests in anime, however, I have always prided myself on not taking Japanese for the sake of anime. In fact, I only find interest in a handful of anime today.

My main interest in Japan right now is their culture. From what I understand, Japan has a more ‘ceremonial’ view on how they conduct themselves even in their more casual moments. I am interested to observe these differences and figure out why they were implemented by their culture. I am of course delighted that I will get the chance to do so.

Next, I would like to move on to the specifics about my stay at Kansai Gaidai. To start, I will be staying in the dorms at the school. There were two main factors that led me to decide to stay in the dorms. I currently live at home with my family and commute to school each day. Whenever I go somewhere, they want to know what, when, and where each of my activities are. I did not want to feel like I was still at home while I am in Japan , and I felt that living with a Japanese family would simulate my experience at home. I am also not able to eat breakfast because I become ill if I eat too soon after waking up. Since I would have to pay for breakfast by staying with a family, I would be wasting money. These two things made me choose to stay in the dorms.

Being in the dorms, however, has opened the option of still having a Japanese family to visit periodically. I have already applied for the program as well as a program to match me with a Japanese student to ‘buddy up’ with during my stay. In terms of the dorms, I have indicated my preference to stay in the ‘apartment-style’ dorms in Seminar House III. I liked the idea of sharing the bathroom with one person instead of fifteen.

My stay in Japan is being paid for pretty much in full by various scholarships that I have allotted. Let’s just say that the essay I attached had more than one use. Because I have an excess of savings for the trip, I purchased a digital camera and a laptop so I could easily record my experiences in Japan both in literature and photographically.

That should start you off in knowing the purpose of the trip. Cheers!

Two Days To Go With a Lot of Catching Up To Do

2007-01-20T10:18:00.000+09:00

Hello and welcome to my live action blog/web journal for my travels in Japan. The goal of this journal is to record my experiences for each day that I am away which will total roughly 116 posts. I give no promises that I will be able to make a post each and every day as that can become quite cumbersome as events stack - much less that I might have something interesting to say each day. I shall do my best though.

I would like to start by catching the readers of this digest up to how I reached this day of two days before departure. As with any large undertaking, there was a previous large undertaking required to gain access to the current large undertaking. What do I mean? Applications. I will be attending the Asian Studies Program at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan. Like any institution hosting a large, competitive program, there was a rather in-depth application that had to be completed. Let us explore the joys of the application by breaking down its components and explaining what I had to do for each one:

Application for Admission - This consisted of an editable PDF file that you could enter your information via keyboard. Despite the ease and clarity of typing the information, the file could not be saved and thus you had to fill out the entire form and print it in one sitting; otherwise, you would have to start over. Once you finish filling out the tiresome application, you come upon a request for an essay - an essay that a person who just filled out an application would not want to write at that time. More importantly, the essay would be the determinant of whether you will be accepted to the program, so it could not simply be thrown together. Once these items are completed, you can print the application out and guard it with your life as to not need to fill it out again.
Housing Questionnaire - As if one application was not enough, you also have to complete the housing questionnaire so the school will know whether they will have a suitable place to keep you during your stay. The questionnaire essentially asks whether you want to stay in the school dormitories or participate in the homestay program with a Japanese family. From there, it asks compatibility questions to best match you with the most compatible person/people. For homestay participants, there is yet another essay.
Transcripts of Records - This is very simply a transcript of your grades. It's just another thing to take care of for the application.
Three Letters of Recommendation - The letters of recommendation are to come from three of your teachers. College professors, with their busy schedules, would obviously cause an applicant worry about how soon the letters will be done. Teacher selection must be done through careful consideration, not only by who will give good remarks, but by who will be timely about completing the letters. It was recommended by the school to include teachers from Japan-related classes.
Japanese Instructor's Reference Form - This form is not required, but if you have taken classes in Japanese, this form is requested. This is essentially another letter of recommendation.
Medical Information Form - This form is to notify the school of any medical issues that you may have. What one would think an easy task was no stroll in the park for me. As I discovered, I had not seen my doctor in so long that I was no longer listed as a patient. That meant that I had to act as a new patient and fill out all of the necessary forms. After that, a simple "sign this paper" turned into "you have to get blood tests to prove you don't have HIV." This being a first-time blood drawing, I was in for a treat. The real trick, however, was getting the signed paper back since I was at school and work until their office closed. Now that it's all over, I'm pretty sure that I will lose my patient status again before I go back.
Confidential Financial Questionnaire - This form is to ensure that the school will not accept people who cannot pay for the program. Since I had a whole line of scholarships lined up for me, I had no worry about passing this test.
Ten Identification Photographs - Such a simple request can turn sour real quick when they ask for specially sized photos. In preparation for the program in case I was accepted, I went to CVS Pharmacy to get 16 passport sized photos. From there, I had to hand cut each of the 10 photos to the measurement specifications.

Having done all of that work for half a semester, I was quite pleased to learn that I was accepted to the program. Of course, long undertakings are never as short as they seem and there was still much more work to be done. Since I would be attending the program, I had to get permission to go to the country in which it is being held. In order to do that, first you have to have a passport. With the photos from the application still handy, the passport was a simple application and $97 fee away. Strangely enough, half of the fee had to be paid with check or money order, so I got to learn how to get a money order. After finally receiving the passport, I had to make my way to the Japanese consulate in Atlanta (about a two hour drive). Being that I'm not an expert navigator, I had to find a day that both I and my dad could take off from school/work to go to Atlanta. With the end of the year approaching, Dad began to take several days off to kill off his vacation time that would disappear otherwise. With that convenience, we made our way to Atlanta where I filled out yet another application for a visa and went back home. The consulate surprised me when I received my visa'ed passport the very next day in the mail when it took the American government several weeks to send my passport.

The ball of work was still rolling when issues of money conversion, power outlet compatibility, insurance, and what on earth to pack came up. In order to get usable money for the trip, I had to bid farewell to half of my money in order to transform it into traveler's checks and yen. There are two issues about foreign electricity: they use different voltages and they use different plugs. From what I can tell, the equipment that I am bringing can operate in the 110 Japanese voltage (ours is 120) as stated on their power adapters. The plugs are supposedly the same as our even two-pronged plugs. I got a plug adapter for any grounded plugs. In terms of insurance, I simply needed to write a check to my school to be enrolled in their international insurance. I packed clothing, school supplies, and initial living items. Unfortunately, not all of these issues were done as simply as they were listed, as many of them required much research, planning, and time.

And so here I am, two days before I fly off to another country - a feat that I have never before undergone. Since I have probably filled up an entire novel with this one post, I shall end it here and make another for the next topic. Let's see how this journal project turns out!

Post time is 9:18PM. The blog is programmed to list the Japanese time.