Sayonara

Whew, we have lots of ground to cover today. :)Sunday was my last day of sightseeing in Singapore. Katie and I had pretty much worn ourselves out on the first 2 days so we decided to take it easy. Our first stop was the botanical gardens! They're huge, and mostly free. There were tons of families having picnics, and it's definitely a cool place to hang out. I love that Singapore has so many lush green areas to counteract the big city feel.
My favorite part of the garden was definitely the orchid garden. They were gorgeous! It was a little too hot for me to spend too much time enjoying them, but they were really pretty. I took tons of pictures!After the garden, we walked around in Orchard Road, a huge area known for its shopping (especially the ritzy variety). We saw a ton of designer shops along with a really cool art museum. Here's one of the sculptures inside...cute puppy!Our next stop was the Charlie Brown cafe! Apparently they're all over Asia...Peanuts characters are really popular there. The food was nothing to write home about, except for the crepes.They have little characters on them! I had the Charlie Brown one and Katie had the Lucy, but they also had Snoopy and Woodstock crepes. Adorable!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful! We had a mac and cheese party with some of Katie's friends (which was excellent), and went swimming at the campus pool and went to bed early. XD

Monday I went to classes with Katie! She had 3, all of which I don't remember the names for. I first attended the class on physics applications to medical equipment - for example, the lecture when I was there was on radiation and the various machines used to dispense the treatment. We had a lovely talk during the break about the nuclear plants at Fukushima - it was nice to talk to someone who knew what was going on. XD Afterwards, we went to the opposite side of campus for lunch. Before that, though, we stopped by the school market. All of the buildings on campus are clustered into groups (science, arts, engineering, etc.) and are their own islands, kind of. You take the bus to get from cluster to cluster. And each cluster has a huge market! A bunch of people set up tables and sell things, usually clothes and jewelry. I found fork and spoon earrings. XDLunch was in the huge cafeteria in the arts building, more like a hawker center than anything else. I had Chinese food, which was okay. After that I went to Katie's Malay tutorial session. She had a Malay dialogue book which I borrowed from her to try and learn a bit, because the lesson didn't make any sense to me. I managed to learn "Apa khabar? Khabar baik" (How are you? I am well.), "Nama saya Kelsey" (My name is Kelsey), and the various greetings (Selamat siang, for example, is good afternoon). It was fun. :) Her last class of the day was about natural conservation of Singapore, and I must admit I wasn't a huge fan of the class - it was the same conservation stuff we always learn!
We had dinner in the canteen (ie cafeteria) in Katie's dorm, and I got to have pad thai! It was tasty. And afterwards we headed out to Clarke Quay, the area of Singapore known for its nightlife! The cab driver we had was a really odd guy...he talked to us about all sorts of things (but especially safety when crossing streets/exiting cabs and our boyfriends). XD Clarke Quay is gorgeous at night!We also went to a bar called The Clinic. All of the bars and clubs in Clarke Quay are themed. A lot of them are themed around foods - Indochinese, Mexican, Brazilian, Japanese, and more. But some are really quirky, like the Clinic. It has a medical theme! You sit in wheelchairs or on couches that look like medical beds and you can get drinks that come in "IV drips" and big syringes. We decided not to get any of those because they were super-expensive (there's a really high alcohol tax in Singapore, probably to discourage drinking), but I did get to try a Singapore Sling. We then just wandered around Clarke Quay some more before heading back home. It was a great last night!And Tuesday was probably the longest day of my life (no, really). I woke up at 3:30 to catch a cab at 4 am to get to the airport for my 6 am flight. I had my last fresh-squeezed juice and a quick breakfast before heading through security. Note the "Texas Chicken" sign. :) This state follows me everywhere! My flight from Singapore to Nagoya was fine - I watched a really silly Japanese comedy and chilled out on the plane. I had an hour and a half layover in Nagoya, where I picked up a few last-minute gifts as well as my last shaka-shaka chicken (T.T I'm going to miss that) for lunch. While waiting for my flight, I sat next to a really cute American family who had just adopted a little boy from Vietnam. They had a son about the same age, and they were getting along really well. :)

The flight from Nagoya to Minneapolis was not a very pleasant experience. I sat on the aisle (big mistake), with a woman and her young daughter sitting next to me. The daughter wanted to get up every hour or so. X.X Add that to an inability to sleep on planes and an hour and a half of solid turbulence and I was SO ready to get off that plane.

I was so excited when we landed in Minneapolis because I could text people again! I spent my 5-hour layover going through security (no big deal), eating at Chili's(my second lunch of the day!) and catching up with friends. When the plane took off out of Minneapolis, I was dead asleep. And then I arrived in Dallas at 8:30! (yes, still Tuesday).

I must admit, it was a little emotionally exhausting to arrive back in the states. When I got to baggage claim in Dallas and saw my parents, I almost burst into tears. Sort of silly, isn't it? During all of this mess of dealing with leaving early, I've teared up all of twice. And then, the waterworks turn on as soon as I get home. But, life is starting to get back to normal. My first day home I slept in until 2 and schlepped around the house, but I've done quite a bit since then! 2 weekends in College Station and quite a bit of time spent at home trying to get my summer plans squared away. So much to do now that I'm back!

So, with this last post I'm afraid the chronicle of my semester abroad has come to an end. I wish it could have lasted longer, but I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! I like that I will have something to look back on to remember the trip by.

Your last language lesson of the blog is the word "sayonara". Everyone knows that word, right? If you ask anyone on the street what Japanese words they know, the first that come to mind will be "konnichiwa" and "sayonara". But "sayonara" has a more specialized meaning than goodbye. "Ja ne!" or "Ja ato de!" or "Ja, ashita ne!" (bye, see you later, and see you tomorrow respectively) are used on a day-to-day basis. Sayonara is a word used for more special occasions, in which you're saying goodbye to someone you may never see again (or will not see for a while, at least). So it's a much more formal saying. I'd say it's proper for this post, since it is my last!For those of you considering study abroad or even traveling in Japan (or elsewhere!), I highly recommend you go! Japan is an amazing place, full of really cool things and incredibly nice people. And my study abroad experience couldn't have been better, even with all of the "fun" we've dealt with lately. I've made so many good friends and had an awesome semester where I wasn't overloaded with work and had time to just relax. I feel like I've come back with a totally different perspective on life. So, JCMU, thank you! And to the rest of you, thanks for listening. :) I hope to see you soon!

3.14159...

Happy Pi Day, everyone! I hope you're all celebrating properly...I would but I don't really have the means to make pie. That's okay, though, as the Japanese have their own holiday to celebrate! It's called White Day. White Day is like the Japanese version of Valentine's Day. Guys who received chocolate on Valentine's day from girls for whatever reason (as friends, love interests, etc.) have to reciprocate, usually with white objects. As you can see, I'm pretty much set. :) It's a Sentimental Circus lion and everything! I'm overwhelmed by the cuteness - definitely the perfect gift for me. :3 His name is Rio(and no, that is not a pun on Japanese pronounciation...that's actually his name!). Besides Rio, I also got white chocolate from 2 guys who decided that every girl needed chocolate for white day. :) How sweet!

Quick update on quake aftermath...probably you can get all of this from the news back home, but I figured I'd sum up what I know here. The main problem now is the nuclear plants in Fukushima. Before you get too concerned, Fukushima is pretty far from us - over 6 hours by train unless you take a shinkansen, and even then it will take a few hours. There were 3 plants that were having trouble as a result of the earthquake. One of them got cooled down in time, but another had a hydrogen explosion over the weekend. The third just had an explosion, but I'm pretty sure it's just a hydrogen explosion as well (ie, not a meltdown). The area has been evacuated just to be safe, though!

Tokyo is picking itself up and dusting itself off now. Starting today, the Tokyo Metro has started running again completely, albeit at 20% capacity. Baby steps! Several inter-city lines are up and running again, too. The Tokaido shinkansen line (ie the way I would be getting to Tokyo) is not functional today, but I'm hoping that will change soon - they're performing blackouts in the area so trains up there are stalled for the day.

A lot of us here at JCMU want to help with something...we feel so far removed, though, that we don't know what quite to do. Thankfully, our director Mr. Morris is trying to find ways we could possibly help, so hopefully we will have something we can do soon.

Back to happier topics, shall we? Yesterday was pretty chill! I just finished up homework and then we watched a movie called Nana. The main characters are so cute - they're both named Nana (thus the title) and total opposites, but they become best friends. I liked the movie! :)

In class, we've started learning the portion of Japanese that very few students like. It's polite form! There are 3 types. The first is keigo, in which you elevate the person you're talking about. For example, if you wanted to say "My teacher's child went to the store.", normally you would say "Sensei no kodomo ha mise ni ikimashita." When using keigo, it becomes "Sensei no okosan ha mise ni irasshaimashita." Basically, you add "o" or "go" to a lot of nouns and change a few common verbs around. Simple, right? The next form we learned is "extra-modest", in which you talk about your own actions modestly. Again, you change simple verbs around. So, now for words like "are", "eat", "come", and "do", we have 3 ways to say each one! Confusing, right? And there's another form, called "humble form", in which you talk about doing things for other people and "lower" yourself in the process to elevate the other person. It's getting a little tricky to keep straight!
After class, we decided to go enjoy the beautiful weather. It's actually in the mid-50s for once, so Brad and I headed up to the shrine on the other side of the road. We also took a random mountain path that went the other way and followed it to its conclusion. There was nothing too exciting there, but it was a nice walk! And we have such a light homework load tonight we will have plenty of time for 42. Excellent day!
One more quick note before I go...happy Daylight Savings Time, all. :) Japan doesn't have Daylight Savings Time, so now I'm just 14 hours ahead of you (assuming you're in Central Time). Good to know, right?

Have a good day!

Fun and Games

Well, hello! Hisashiburi desu ne! Otherwise known as, "It's been a while." To justify my delay in posting, not much new has been going on here! Saturday and Sunday I didn't leave the dorm much...mainly watched some shows and movies and played lots of 42. So there's nothing exciting to report.
Here's my random Japanese photo of the day...I was at Viva City with a friend and there was a girls' dance group performing. The girls were all really sparkly and happy and doing dance moves like you'd see in a J-Pop music video. And we wonder why Japan has such an idol-centric culture...

Yesterday was the last day of my elementary school internship! It really felt like less of an internship and more of an observational period because I felt like I didn't do a whole lot. We spent an hour playing games in an English class and then an hour participating in club activities. I made candles in science club this week. :)
The games were really fun! In this first one, we were all a number (ie one, two, three, four). And you would say your number and then someone else's ("One two"). Then that person has to do the same thing. It was silly, but fun!We also played a rock-paper-scissors animal name relay. XD All the pictures on the table have animals on them - you have to touch each one and name the animal in English and work your way around the table. We started in 2 lines at the opposite ends of the table. When you encounter another person, you play Rock Paper Scissors (known as Jan-ken-po here). Everyone in Japan takes their Jan-ken very seriously. If you win, you get to keep going. If you lose, you go to the back of your line and the next person gets to try. If you get to the other side undefeated, you win! Our team was superior at Janken, so we won twice. :)

It's a bit strange, not having my internship now. I liked getting to know the teachers, because a lot of them were really nice. And playing with kids is fun. :) Having the afternoons to myself again is nice, though! Class prep is starting to take more time than it used to, so having the internship was starting to cut into my spare time.
And last night, we watched a cool movie called Summer Wars. A lot of people equate the movie to Studio Ghibli, and I can see why...it's not necessarily in the animation style because there's a whole different feel, but the movie itself has that sort of storyline. It's a feel-good movie in which everything rights itself in the end. I don't want to give away much of the plot, but it centers around this online world called OZ. You create a character for yourself and can roam the world as you please. In the movie OZ is popular on a Facebook scale (perhaps more so), to the point where people even manage things like taxes and water systems on OZ. It's a bit of a cautionary tale about putting too much faith in computers. But so good! Go find it and watch it.Tonight we had an epic American Chinese food dinner. It was a ton of cooking...about 2 and a half hours of work. But it was so tasty! We made honey walnut shrimp, sesame chicken, pork fried rice, ginger stir-fry vegetables, and eggrolls with sweet and sour sauce. Definitely a success, though I have a feeling I won't want to make any more big meals like that for a while!

Classes are going well! Midterm grades came out today for Japanese and I'm doing just fine. :) It's sort of irrelevant because the grades won't transfer back to A&M (only the credits), but it's still nice to know! Japanese has fallen into a rhythm for me, though I don't know if that's good or not. We cover a chapter a week, so that means 3 dialogues to memorize, about 60 vocabulary words to learn, 16 new kanji, a reading passage to translate, and 5 new grammar patterns each week. It's a pretty fast pace! A break would be nice, but it's not hard for me to keep up and I know this semester is a vacation compared to what I would be having back home. I'm so grateful!

History and Culture is pretty good as well. We have our midterm on Thursday, which is a little worrisome just because of the sheer volume of information we've covered over the past few weeks...Japan's history from BC to about 1925. But I still love the class! Professor Morris talked about our field trip today - we're going to Osaka at some point. He's hoping to make it an overnight trip so we get to see a lot of stuff. Should be fun! Of course, I'm going to Osaka this weekend as well. But that's more of a shopping/aquarium trip, whereas the field trip will be to historic sites. Sounds like a good balance to me. :)

That's all I know for now...I hope your week is going well!

Spring Break!

I am officially on break! Hooray! We had our last class today, and we have a 4-day weekend. I'm choosing to go to Sapporo to visit some old friends. My flight is tomorrow afternoon and I get back on Sunday around noon. I'm staying with an old homestay family part of the time and spending the rest of it with a Japanese friend and his family. I know we're going to see the Snow Festival as well as Otaru (a small town not far from Sapporo), but other than that I'm leaving it up to my hosts! Should be fun.

Speaking of fun, getting to an airport in Japan is a bit of a production if you don't have a car. For example, here's my route tomorrow. I first take a shuttle bus from the hotel near JCMU to Maibara Station(it has a much larger train hub than Hikone). From Maibara, I take a train heading to Ogaki (a largish town between here and Nagoya), change trains, get off at Kanayama (another town close to Nagoya), then switch to another train to get to the airport. Total travel time from Hikone to Chubu Centrair Airport: 2 and a half hours. My flight time is only 1 and a half. XD Thankfully, there is enough time between trains that I should be able to catch them with no worries. It will be weird traveling with a suitcase, as well as by myself - it's my first trip through the subway stations on my own. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Monday was the first day of my internship at Johoku Elementary. Normally, I'm supposed to help teach English for an hour and then join in with club activities for an hour (I'm in the science club, of course). However, the English teacher was absent on Monday so I ended up just attending a science class instead. They were using little scales to find the mass of various objects. After that I went to a sort of club meeting - the older students in the school join an organization that does school service, and volunteer for that. I didn't do much besides sit and listen, though I did talk some with the teachers in the teacher's lounge. Hopefully next week it will be more exciting. :) I also got to see the after-school dismissal speech. All the students get together and get a short speech from their principal at the end of every day. It's cute. :)

I also have a conversation partner! I met her briefly on Monday - her name is Naomi Tanaka. She's from Otsu (a large town about 2 stops outside of Kyoto) and works in a department store. She also loves cooking, apparently! We'll have to cook together sometime. She's very nice, and we've agreed to have our conversations half in English and half in Japanese so we can both practice. And, thanks to her I now have a nickname! "Kelsey" is very difficult to pronounce in a language where all consonants are separated by vowels, so she just calls me "Keru-chan". I call her "Nao-chan" in return. :) I look forward to getting to know her! We have our first full meeting next week. I also met her friend Azusa, who has conversation partners as well. We'll probably end up getting together in the larger group because it's more fun that way!

And I found out about my homestay family (all in one day!). Next weekend we get to go and stay with a random family for the weekend. Mine is in a town called Kusatsu, which is a stop on the way to Kyoto. They're an old couple, the Ishisakas. I don't really know much else about them but I'll be staying with them for 2 nights. I will definitely be putting my Japanese to the test!

Yesterday was far less full of running around. I got my caramel apple bread fix from Vidal (best bread I have ever eaten, by far) and also visited the recycle shop in Maibara. It's basically a pawn shop the size of a Walmart. It's FULL of stuff! They have models, manga, music, menswear, and more (I couldn't resist the alliteration, sorry! :P). My favorite, though, was the stuffed animals section. I need to bring my camera next time to show you how full it is. But I found Chiffon!This is a picture of Chiffon. She's a friend of Cinnamoroll, a character created by Sanrio (the Hello Kitty people). And she's a cocker spaniel. So, when I found this plushie, I couldn't resist.
She's SO CUTE! And has an innertube! :3 I am a sucker for such things. My stuffed animal collection is growing more and more the longer I am here.

Anyway, the trek to Maibara was fun! Really long, though - 4 km each way. But there are a lot of things I saw along the way I'd like to go back to - a really pretty set of wedding chapels I'd like pictures of as well as a little shrine that would be fun to visit.Last night we made chicken pot pies as well! Mmmm, so delicious. Japanese food is good but sometimes American food just sounds best.

Today was pretty much an ordinary day of class, except for last period. Our normal teacher is in America for the week, so the level 1 Japanese teacher subbed in for him. She's hilarious! She came in and first asked us (in Japanese) if we preferred strict or easy-going teachers. The first student said "strict" and she said, "Oh! You are my student!" Then, the second said "easy-going", to which she responded "Wait for your normal teacher, then." XD She was hilarious, and made class a lot of fun.

Tonight we're celebrating my friend Jade's birthday! It will be a nice way to kick off the holiday and relax. So, enjoy the rest of your week, stay warm and I'll see you in Sapporo. :D

A Tale of Eggplants, Kimonos, and Crepe Uncles

Kyoto story time! :D But first, our cultural activity from Friday. We played the koto! It's a traditional Japanese instrument. The instructor played a complex piece for us, then let us play a little song. :)

It's actually easier than it looks! You play with something like a guitar pick, and you can modify the notes by holding down different strings. The "bridges" on the instrument set the pitch for each string, and if you hold down the string on the other side of the bridge you can modulate the pitch. Pretty cool, huh?

Now, to Kyoto. I went with my friends Addie and Jess - we left JCMU at around 9:15(AM) and got home around 9:30(PM). The train ride took about 45 minutes, and once we got there it was a little overwhelming. Kyoto Station is huge! It has a long-distance subway hub, a shinkansen hub, AND a local hub, not to mention the shopping mall inside. XD However, we managed to get a bus pass for the day (by far the best deal for Kyoto transportation...pay 500 yen to ride all over the city, and within 2 rides it pays for itself!) and find out how to get to Inari station (home of Fushimi Inari).

Fushimi Inari was our first stop, because it was where we all REALLY wanted to go. And it was awesome! It's like most Shinto shrines, except that it is dedicated to kitsune, the fox gods. Normal Shinto shrines have lions flanking the entrance, but this shrine has foxes everywhere. There are about a million paths you can take once you're inside. There are the main paths flanked with the giant red gates (or torii), and there are also a lot of side paths that lead to little shrines. You could probably spend all day there if you wanted. We didn't get very far up the main path because we took all the side-routes, too. I'm definitely going back to do more exploring. :)

One path in particular was really really long - we walked it for a good 10 minutes. It was a beautiful little mountain path! There was an old woman walking along it who passed us when we stopped to look at a small shrine. Oddly enough, we never saw her again though she was definitely a slow walker and there were no other paths to take. It was like she had disappeared! She was a really friendly old lady...we've decided she's a spirit. :)

After leaving Fushimi Inari, we did some shopping at the next street over (which is conveniently FULL of goodies), and I got suckered into buying a kimono!
Isn't it pretty? It was really inexpensive, too. I was sort of eying it and the shop owner waved me over to a mirror to see how it looked. I was expecting her to just slip it on so I could see it briefly. Instead, she whipped out an obi (the traditional sash), and cinched me into the kimono within an inch of my life, obi and all. And it was so pretty I caved. XD I don't have any pictures of how she tied it because my camera was kind of trapped in my jacket (which I was still wearing), but this will have to do for now. :)
We also had lunch nearby - I wanted to try some of the cuisine the area is famous for. Apparently people in the Inari area eat sparrow, and this restaurant served it. I wasn't quite brave enough to go that route, so instead I had kitsune udon, a noodle soup with strips of fried sweet tofu. It was delicious!
After lunch we went back to Kyoto Station (and saw some crazy characters), then got on a bus to go to Ginkakuji, the silver pavilion that is not actually covered in silver. I really liked walking around the garden - the golden pavilion (Kinkakuji) has a garden as well, just not as pretty. I didn't realize how high we were until we got to the top of a hill and got to see the entire city of Kyoto! What a beautiful view.

On the way to Ginkakuji is a little strip of shops that have lots of souvenirs and things. My personal favorite shop? The bunny store. :3 I'm not sure if this is always here or if it's just because it's the Year of the Rabbit, zodiac-wise. But they're all adorable so it's sort of irrelevant.

After Ginkakuji, we headed to Gion, a famous shopping district in Kyoto. Geishas also work here, and you can sometimes see maiko (geishas in training) walking the streets. We saw no maiko, but quite a few people in kimonos! More than normal, actually...I don't really know why.

And I found this! There is a story about this eggplant coin purse. When I first visited Japan 4 years ago, we went to Gion and saw a little shop with a lot of cute little stuffed animals and things. And they had this coin purse. I really liked it at the time (especially the little eggplant charm!), but decided not to get it. I later wanted to go back and get it, but we never did. My dad came to Kyoto on a business trip and I sent him on a quest to find it, but he was unsuccessful. And then, walking through Gion, we happened to stumble across the shop. And, lo and behold, right where it was 4 years ago, I found the coin purse. :D It's sort of a silly story, but I was so excited to find it.

We headed back to Kyoto station after that, in search of dinner. We were all craving American-ish food, so we found a little pasta place.

This was so delicious. I can't decide whether I really liked it or if I just missed pasta so it tasted amazing.

We spent our last few hours in Kyoto at a big mall across the street from the station. I didn't do any shopping there, but I was introduced to the wonders of Japanese crepes.

It's Crepe Ojisan! Which literally translates to "Crepe Uncle". As you can see, they have about every type of crepe imaginable. Most of them are sweet (chocolate, fruit, gelato, etc.) but they have a few savory ones as well. Their current special was Chicken Pot Pie. o.0 I ended up getting a hot apple pie crepe. Best crepe I've ever tasted.

After munching on crepes for a while, we finally boarded the train. It was a very successful day! I look forward to traveling again. We're planning trips for Osaka and Nara next month (and of course I have Nagoya this weekend and Sapporo next weekend).

As far as life here goes, we're back to normal. :) We had lots of snow last night so the roads are treacherous once more. Classes are going well - finally got an A on a Japanese exam here. Hooray for study parties. :) Japanese is getting less intimidating now, thankfully! Class is done for the day, but there's a lot still going on. I had an internship orientation, and now I think we're baking. :D Hooray for ovens, even small ones.

Sorry, I know this is a super-long post. But I hope you enjoy it. :)

Lazy Weekend

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Taking Classes and Making Plans

Monday was wonderful! I didn't leave the building (and I still haven't left campus yet today), which worked out because it was freezing cold anyway. I chilled out, watched some movies, and made dinner with some friends. And got my homework done in there somewhere. I feel like I didn't do much at all, but that's okay because I'm sure this week will be busy.

Today was my first day of having both my classes. None of my days here are particularly long (especially compared to last semester...8 AM-7 PM twice a week? Yuck), but Tuesdays and Thursdays are my longest. Here's my schedule, in a nutshell.
Monday
8:50-11:40: Japanese
Tuesday
8:50-11:40: Japanese
1:00-3:00: Japanese Culture and Society
Wednesday
8:50-11:40: Japanese
Thursday
8:50-11:40: Japanese
1:00-3:00: Japanese Culture and Society
Friday
8:50-9:40: Japanese exam (every week!)
10:15-11:15: Optional Cultural Activity

I will be so excited if I get that kind of schedule again next semester. I love having free afternoons!

Japanese class is still a little intimidating - really long, for one thing! I don't yet have the ability to focus for 3 hours on one subject. The breaks aren't enough, either. I was screwing up a lot in class today because I would tune out for a second and then the professors would ask me a question that I wouldn't know how to answer. I need to work on paying better attention. :)

I really love my elective class this semester - I got into the one I wanted, Japanese Culture and Society. The teacher is Professor Morris, the director of the program. And he's awesome! A really nice guy with an awesomely dry sense of humor. The subject matter is fantastic, too. We're covering the history of Japan first, which I like because I was hoping to learn some Japanese history while I'm here. We're also going to take a couple of field trips to places like Kyoto and Osaka(all elective classes are required to go on at least one field trip), which is, again, awesome. Today, we had a short lecture on the mythology of Japan - LOVE! I learned about Amaterasu (the sun-goddess, who is also the grandmother of the first emperor of Japan. She's born from the tears of the father god who was mourning the loss of his wife who died in childbirth after producing the fire goddess. The father god even went to the underworld to get her, sort of like Orpheus, except he failed) and all sorts of genetic anthropological theories as to where the Japanese actually came from (the ones who misplaced the native tribes) - it was very basic genetic anthropology, but still. I got really excited. :D This is going to be a really interesting class.

Now that I've been here for a full week (which is crazy! I can't decide if I feel like I just got here or I've been here forever), I've started making plans for traveling in Japan. I definitely want to go to Kyoto (to see Fushimi Inari, Ginkakuji, and Nijo Castle) for at least a day, because I love it so much. Osaka and Nara are on my list as well, because they're relatively close (less than an hour and a half away by train) and I've never been. Plus, they're huge cultural centers. Nara was the capital(before Kyoto was, then Tokyo was), so it has lots of interesting things. And Osaka has a Japanese version of Wicked right now. I'm trying to plan that one soon if we're going because tickets are selling fast! Tokyo will be a little harder to manage (3 hours away!) but I really want to go back because I feel like I missed a lot of it when I was there the first time.

I am, however, definitely going to Nagoya. It's the closest large town, and that's where we flew in from Detroit. My friend Jade is going to see one of her favorite bands in concert there the first weekend in February, and I decided to tag along for the experience. We're also going to do some sight-seeing there! The band is part of an interesting Japanese music genre called visual kei, so it will definitely be an experience. I'll refrain from describing it too much now...that's a whole other post! Here's a teaser, though, with a band photo. Their name is Matenrou Opera (means "Skyscraper Opera"). And, for the record, all of them are guys.


Also, I got my tickets to Sapporo today! We have a 4-day weekend in February, which is conveniently when the big ice festival (Yuki Matsuri) is in Sapporo! I have several friends up there who have offered to take me around town for a few days, so I decided to get plane tickets and fly up to visit them (because it's a 14-hour train ride otherwise). I'll be arriving around 5 pm on Thursday and heading back to Hikone at noonish on Sunday. I'm looking forward to seeing all of my old friends, as well as seeing Sapporo again!

I'm sorry if you were expecting lots of pictures today...nothing that's that sort of noteworthy has happened since Sunday. :) For those of you already taking classes, I hope your first week is going well. And for those of you who have a few days left, enjoy your vacation! :)

EDIT: Almost forgot! I have a mailing address. :)
JCMU
1435-86 Ajiroguchi
Matsubara-cho
Hikone, Shiga
522-0002
Japan
Just make sure to put my name at the beginning so it ends up in my box! I'll make you a deal...send me a letter/postcard (and yes, I'd love a postcard of a place like Dallas or College Station, XD)/present and I'll send you a postcard back! We can be pen-pals. :D

Made it to Friday!

Hi! This post will not have too many pictures...I've been busy with stuff around campus (read: in this building) so I haven't had much time to explore Hikone yet. However, that should change soon! We have a 3-day weekend ahead (Monday is a holiday, Coming Of Age Day, to celebrate the 20-year-olds in Japan because they've reached adulthood and can now vote, drink, get arrested, etc.), which will give me plenty of time to wander. I do have a few pictures, though.

Here's some actual snow falling...we had snow alternating with rain yesterday, and more snow today. It's not cold enough for snow to stick to the roads, so it's just pretty (if a little inconvenient to ride bikes in).

And another view of my room - sorry about the poor lighting, but it was early in the morning. It's my desk, which is opposite my sliding doors. I have a pretty good view from my window of the lake. Also, note how narrow the room is. The shelf on the left is up against the wall and the armoire on the right is actually nestled into a cubbyhole in the wall so the front of it is where the rest of the wall is.

And lunch today - this is from an udon shop just down the road from JCMU. Gyoza (Chinese dumplings) and chahan (fried rice) - probably 2 of my favorite foods, Japanese or not.
Yesterday was part 2 of our orientation. We briefly went over what the four levels of Japanese here covered and what was expected of us. JCMU essentially crams a year's worth of information into a single semester, so we're expected to study a lot every day and come to class well-prepared. Class is essentially for reviewing whatever is in the syllabus, so the learning part is pretty much done on our own. After the brief explanation we had our placement test. We were given over 2 hours to complete it, but I was done in about an hour or so. It had 4 parts - listening, grammar, reading/writing, and an oral exam. I thought it went fairly well - my kanji knowledge was pretty rusty and the listening exam wasn't great but the speaking part went well, so I figured I was doing pretty well. I ended up placing into level 2, which was not at all what I wanted. I was a little frustrated with myself because I feel like I'm not going to learn very much - technically, I've covered the textbooks used in levels 2 and 3 already. But I guess I should just leave it up to the professors.

After the placement test, we had a brief cooking lesson. Our instructor was a Japanese woman living in Hikone who worked with us to show us how to make chirashizushi. Chirashizushi is an older and more traditional variety of sushi than the type we usually see (the rolls are common here also, but they were invented as a fast food item in the early 1800s). It consists of vinegared rice with vegetables mixed in - the veggies are often pickled. I don't really know what all was in ours because we had a package of instant-ish mix that included mixed veggies and the vinegar "sauce" to mix in with the rice. It's usually served with egg and nori (the dark green seaweed sushi is usually wrapped in), and it's pretty good! Cooking Japanese food was fun - I just need to learn how to make more of it.

Today, we had our first day of classes. Our electives don't start until next week, so it was just 3 hours of Japanese. We have 3 50-minute classes a day, with 10 minutes between each. There are 2 teachers in level 2 that alternate depending on what hour of the day and day of the week it is. The schedule seems sort of random. We started with Kitasaka Sensei, who is a part-time teacher. She's fairly nice, and pretty funny. The class stayed pretty engaging. I prefer the second professor, though - Aizawa Sensei. Everyone who has had him before says that he starts to seem like your dad after a while...he's always wanting you to do well and you don't want to disappoint him. (For the record, our "mom" is Iga-san, a very shrill young Japanese woman who organizes most of the dorm stuff for us and alternates between being really friendly and yelling...kind of like Sensei) He's also really funny. I like him a lot.

Class today was a little daunting, despite the nice professors. I've forgotten how scary it is to be sitting in a rapid-fire Japanese class. The class is basically a dialogue between the professor and all the students, and the prof calls you out by name so you have to know the answers at any given moment. It's a little intimidating, and something I'm not used to, though that's how Japanese 301 and 302 were for me at home. Also, both teachers speak entirely Japanese during class. If you don't understand they either explain it to you in Japanese or move onto the next students. We have homework assignments every night as well as a test every week. This course definitely moves quickly. I think I will find a balance soon enough, though.

As always, there's plenty more to say about what I've been up to, but I'm trying not to write a novel. I'm looking forward to relaxing this weekend - we're going to Viva City (the closest mall) tomorrow, and I'd also like to go to Hikone Castle and explore the grocery store before class starts up again. Who knows what adventures I'll have to talk about next time?