Leaving Japan

At last, we have reached the day I leave Japan. I'm currently in the Centrair International Airport in Nagoya. Brad's flight left at 8:00 so I got up early to see him off(thus, the sunrise pic. I've been up since 4:30 and at the airport since 6:15). My flight's not until 11:30 so I'm just hanging out here until boarding time. This past week and a half has been a few bad days sandwiching some really really good ones. Today is one of the former…I'm trying to think of the silver linings to this (meeting Amanda in Narita, spending 4 days with Katie), but it's not easy. I'm not ready to leave, because I have so much more I want to do here: so much to see and experience, a semester to finish, and all of that. And it's getting cut short.

Let’s go back to happier things, shall we? I’ll start where I left off, on Monday. Monday was our recharge day from 2 days of traveling, and it was very relaxing. It was Vernal Equinox Day, which apparently qualifies as a national holiday. XD I went to breakfast with Jade before she left, and hit Sapna for lunch and Cainz for a bit more shopping. Other than that, though, I stayed in my room and cleaned. It was really odd going into Beisia...some of the shelves are completely empty because all of the instant food is being shipped north for the earthquake victims.

On Tuesday, Brad and Addie and I went back to Osaka. The first half of the day was pretty much a repeat of my last trip – we had kebab sandwiches from the same restaurant and then went to the aquarium. It was still awesome, even after having been just a few weeks ago. Have some more pictures and a video! :)

After that, we went to a shopping mall area close to the aquarium, where I had gelato! It was yummy. We also found a traditional shop that had fans and really pretty wall-hangings. I got one with goldfish on it! There was also a Hello Kitty store. :3

We wanted to go see the Osaka Science Museum, but we were unable to. All Japanese museums are closed on Mondays, or Tuesdays if the Monday of that week was a national holiday. Therefore, all museums in Osaka were closed. So, instead, we went to Shinsaibashi for some browsing. Shinsaibashi is one of the more famous shopping districts in Osaka – it has lots of stuff! What I found interesting is that in addition to modern clothing stores and flower shops, they had kimono shops! You could see fabrics in the back and all sorts of designs and people working on yukatas and kimonos.

For dinner, we went to Shakey’s Pizza, a pizza buffet. It was a really nice place! If IKEA decided to make a pizza buffet, it would look like Shakey’s. They even had Swedish meatballs! It was definitely not American pizza, but beggars can’t be choosers. :)

Our last stop in Osaka was Book Off in Shinsaibashi. Book Off is a huge book and music and videogame resale shop. This one was 4 stories tall! One floor was entirely devoted to manga, another to music and video games. On the top floor, I found the cooking section. Guess who now has a dessert cookbook in Japanese? :D

Yesterday I checked out of my room and went to Nagoya. Checkout was a piece of cake! I just had to finish cleaning the kitchen, check in my bike, take out the trash and have Iga-san come by (our student services coordinator) to do an inspection. Then, I turned in my key and we took a quick trip to Vidal before hopping on the bus to Hikone Station.

Our trip to Nagoya was not nearly as smooth as we had planned. We decided to take a train to Maibara, ride the shinkansen to Nagoya and arrive around 12:30. We’d then rent a locker to put our suitcases in, head out to The Little World Museum of Man (more about that in a minute), then on the way back pick our bags up and check into the hotel to go to bed early. The Little Museum of Man is about 50 minutes outside of Nagoya, and requires a train ride followed by a bus ride to get there. It’s an open-air anthropological museum that is basically like the Epcot World Showcase on steroids. There are 22 countries represented, and they all have cool displays. I really wanted to go.

Of course, on the one day it mattered life did not go our way. Due to some weird circumstances I don’t really understand, the train out of Hikone was 20 minutes late and the one we wanted was canceled. So, we waited at the station for half an hour. Luckily we got there early enough that we got to Maibara in enough time to catch our shinkansen. That was a little frustrating as well, because we apparently only bought one of the 2 tickets we needed and the ticket guy knew no English and just repeated himself in Japanese we couldn’t understand. Finally a woman in the shinkansen area intervened for us and helped us out.

We got to Nagoya only to find that all of the lockers were full, so we decided to go to our hotel first and drop off our bags. The staff there were gracious enough to take our bags up to our room for us and everything. However, it took an extra 45 minutes to take care of that, so suddenly we were short on time. We decided to try and make it out to the Little World anyway, so we hopped on the train. We actually got fairly lucky – the station right by our hotel ran straight to Inuyama, the city where the bus stop was. It was a ways out there, though, and we didn’t arrive until almost 3. When we stopped at the tourist desk, the man informed us that we really wouldn’t have enough time to enjoy the museum so we should go another day. How disappointing! So, we headed back the way we came.

I thought the afternoon was going to be a complete loss, but there was hope. There was also a science museum at the SAME STOP as our hotel. So, we decided to go see if we still had time (it was 4 by this time) to enjoy it. We got there just in time! And it was awesome. :)

The museum had 6 floors, a life science building attachment and a planetarium. Besides the interactive portion on the first floor and the planetarium, we got to see all of it. There was a lot of cool stuff!

My favorite part was probably the section where they showed how everyday objects work. I learned about vending machines, sewing machines, and rice cookers. The life sciences area was a little lacking but the physics area was really cool.

When we got back to the hotel, we learned that the museum had only just opened on the 19th! So we had been walking around in a 4 day-old museum.

After we got back from the museum, we decided to go find dinner. I was craving katsu-curry, a fried cutlet (usually pork or chicken) with rice that’s covered in curry. Just 2 blocks down was a Coco’s Ichiban, a chain known for its delicious curry. Win! And it was indeed delicious.

Which brings us to today. Today will be a long day of flights! I have a 1.5-hour flight to Tokyo, followed by a 5-hour layover. I intend to enjoy my last Japanese lunch in that time (hopefully chahan and gyoza!) and do some exploring of the airport. My flight to Singapore leaves at 6 and I arrive there at 1 AM. I’ll let you all know when I arrive safely. Have a great week and I’ll see you in Singapore. :)

A Tale of Yoshikitties, Neverending Stations, and Sharks

Howdy! I miss Texas A&M, partly because I can't say that all the time. XD

So, Osaka was an adventure, as expected! Wouldn't have it any other way. It was a blast! The question is: where do I begin?

We left right after a meeting on Friday and headed to the station. Our plan was to go straight to Takarazuka, so Jess could go to the Grand Theater and buy stuff, then head back to Osaka and run around town. Takarazuka was actually not too far out of our way - just a 20-minute train ride from Osaka station. It couldn't have gone more smoothly. We get off the train from Hikone (a straight shot, thankfully!), and the platform for the JR Takarazuka line is RIGHT THERE. Wonderful! So, we headed over to Takarazuka. It's a gorgeous city. The road that connects the Grand Theater and the station is Hana no Michi - road of flowers. And it's done up like an old European town, complete with little boutiques, cobblestones, and a pretty gazebo! Lovely place.
The theater is pretty impressive, too! We were there during a performance so we just wandered around on our own. We hit the official gift shop so Jess could get the coveted performance DVD she wanted, then we just headed back to Osaka. That was a little tricky...we happened to get on a train that randomly turns into a subway line that does NOT actually hit Osaka. Luckily I figured it out, and we only had to backtrack 2 stops to change trains for Osaka. Not bad, right?

Our next task was finding our hotel. I was a little concerned, but I did have a map. So, we go out the exit we're supposed to, go through this covered mall walkway area, and cross the street to find our hotel. Easy as pie! Also, if you're ever staying in Osaka, I highly recommend the Hearton Hotel Nishi Umeda (west Umeda - it's the area around the station). It's convenient to the station (like a 2-minute walk), and really nice. We had a 3-person room, and we each got our own beds and everything!So, mission accomplished there. We stop in the covered mall area for katsu curry (mmmmmm), then head off in search of Yoshikitties. Jess is also a fan of the band X-Japan - they're the grandfathers of visual kei, basically. And Hello Kitty makes a line of X-Japan goods. These items are only carried at certain stores, and there happened to be one right by Umeda Station. So, we went to go look for it. Our first task: finding Umeda Station. That was easy enough: we were walking through Osaka Station, and suddenly a sign informed us that we were now in Umeda Station. o.0 ...okay then. Look at a map of the Osaka subway system sometime! You'll see that there are a bunch of stations all around Osaka Station: Nishi Umeda, Umeda, Umeda (yes, there are 2), and Higashi Umeda. But all of these stations are in the same building. So Osaka just likes to be confusing.

So, we're wandering through this sprawling metropolis that is Osaka Station (and the other members of its conglomerate), trying to find this store called Kiddy Land. We don't even know what building it's in, and the Umeda area is FULL of highrises. It's one of the shopping districts, making it hard to find exactly where some random shop is. So, we just try some buildings. The first one we try is the Yodobashi Camera store - 7 stores of technogadgets. No toy store, though there was a Uniqlo (my favorite Japanese clothing store). We walk all around Umeda Station (to the best of our abilities), and find nothing. So, we just pick another department store. We chose the HEP 5, one of the big 3 around the station. Kiddy Land isn't there, but we decide to wander there anyway. We're going in and out of random shops, and then we reach the top and realize that there's a ferris wheel. On top of a highrise. So we ride it!
Minus minor concern from being on a ferris wheel ON TOP OF A BUILDING, it was a lot of fun! Everywhere in Umeda was lit up so we had a gorgeous view. After the ride, we did our typical travel activity of puri kura, followed by Crepe Ojisan. And there were claw machines with Sentimental Circus things inside, just to taunt me. :( After that, we crashed back at our hotel.Day 2 of Osaka we started with the aquarium! This was the one place I really wanted to go to, so I was a happy camper. It's probably the best aquarium I've been to. All of the animals look really healthy and well-cared-for, and there's so much to see! The feature is, of course, the whale shark, housed in a huge tank in the center of the aquarium, but they also have otters and seals and all sorts of cool stuff. Commence photo barrage!We stopped at a Turkish place for lunch. And by lunch I mean donor kebab sandwiches. Tasted just like the ones I had in Germany, so they must be authentic. XD SO tasty.And then we went to Osaka Castle! I must say, these castles are starting to blend together. This one seemed exactly like Nagoya Castle! It's entirely modernized on the inside, with a lookout on the top and a history museum on the lower floors. In this case, a lot of the museum was dedicated to the life of the famous warlord, Tokugawa Ieyasu, builder of the castle. It was a pretty short visit, but I still enjoyed it. What I liked about Osaka-jo is that it's surrounded by a big park! People take their dogs there and there are all sorts of food stands and street performers. Seems like a cool hangout!As a fitting end to our trip, we headed back to Umeda in search of Kiddyland. We were armed with better information this time! We knew the building it was in. Of course, the building was INSIDE the station. You'd think this would make things less confusing, but no such luck. We probably walked past the same part of the station 3 different times (and on multiple floors) trying to find the silly store. Here's an example! We were on the first floor, and saw signs pointing down for the building we wanted. So we went downstairs. Saw a sign for Kiddy Land pointing straight down, went downstairs again. Finally found a directory that said that the store was on basement 1, so we went back up. Then, we find out that the store is in a different wing and that we have to go back to basement 2 to get there. But we FOUND IT! Finally. And Jess got her Yoshikitty and I got Sentimental Circus trinkets and all was right with the world again. So we headed back to Hikone. :)
Hope you enjoyed the story of our Osaka adventure! Have a wonderful week. :)

Om Nom Nom

Hi! One test down, one to go. Our History exam was pretty straight-forward! Here's hoping Japanese goes as well...my last exam didn't go as well as I was hoping, so I'll be studying lots tonight. But first, an update for you. Because I love you. :)Tomorrow will be fun! We're going on an adventure to Takarazuka! First, some background. The Takarazuka Revue is a theater troupe that is sort of a reverse of Shakespearean theater groups. All the members are female - they play both females and males. They adapt all sorts of musicals and then perform them - for example, they just finished a run of Romeo and Juliet. One of my friends here is a diehard Takarazuka fan, and is going to see a show of theirs in a few weeks. She wanted some company as she figures out the route there, so we decided to come along. Osaka happens to be on the way, so we're going to do some sightseeing in Osaka after, spend the night there, and do some more exploring of Osaka before we head back to Hikone. Should be an adventure! This will be my first overnight trip where I don't have hosts waiting for me.

And, because I haven't been doing much lately and need to get to studying, it's time for a Top 5! My Top 5 today, a personal favorite of mine, is Wonderful Foods in Japan. Here are probably my 5 favorite meals to eat here!

1. Gyoza and ChahanOkay, so this one might be "cheating", as this is not actually Japanese food. It's Chinese! But I could probably have these every day without tiring of them. Gyoza are dumplings, usually containing veggies and pork. Chinese dumplings are more widely-varied, but the Japanese version is delicious. And chahan is, of course, fried rice. The most common types of fried rice are seafood: ebi (shrimp), kani (crab), and gomoku (which has several types of fish/seafood). Love it!
2. NabeAs I've said before, nabe can refer to a lot of things, because the pot itself is a nabe pot. You basically heat a broth of some sort and cook veggies, meats, and whatever else you want in it. It's a really common meal when you have parties because it's easy to feed everyone - just add more stuff to the pot until everyone has had enough to eat. My favorite type of nabe is sukiyaki, in which the sauce is a combination of soy sauce, sake, sugar, and water. However, there are lots of variants and they're all good! Shabu-shabu is popular in Japan, because everything is just boiled in water and you just eat it with a little soy sauce. It's very healthy, apparently. Another common trend with nabe is to put noodles in at the end of your meal - the broth has a ton of flavor from all the veggies and meat you've tossed in, so you can have really tasty noodles at the end. It makes me wish we had a nabe in the dorm!
3. DoriaAh, Japanese "American" food. It always amuses me what qualifies as American food in American restaurants in Japan. A big staple is the hamburger steak...there are several restaurant chains that mainly serve that, usually with fries. Doria, however, also takes a bit from the Italian tradition. It's about as close as you can get to baked ziti here. :) Basically, you take white rice and mix a bit of butter and salt in, and put a layer in a baking dish. You add whatever toppings you want - shrimp, chicken, or my personal favorite, bacon and spinach. Then you cover it with a thick, rich cream sauce, cover the top with mozzarella and parmesan cheese, and bake it. Ahhhhh...so tasty. I will go to Viva City just for the doria, because that's where the best ones are.
As a sidenote, 2 more cool things about Japan are in this picture. This is at Coco's, the restaurant connected to campus. A big thing in Japan is corn soup...mmm. I will miss having it everywhere when I go home. :/
Another common theme in Japanese American restaurants is the "drink bar". It's so much cooler than any drink fountain you've seen in the US. They have soft-drink dispensers, but that's the tip of the iceberg. They also have a hot drink dispenser for hot cocoa and things, as well as a wide selection of loose teas so you can steep your own tea. Thus, my 3 different drinks. XD
4. Katsu Curry2 of my favorites, on the same plate! First, the katsu. Katsu refers to a breaded and fried filet of meat...usually it's a chicken breast or a pork cutlet. And Japanese curry! Japan is not a spicy food-country, for the most part. So Japanese curry is incredibly flavorful without being spicy. Perfect for me! When you make curry at home, you usually put pieces of onion, carrot, potato, and meat so it's really thick. But the katsu curry version is just really creamy. And you get it all with rice! I imagine it would be hard to make at home, so I need to go have some more while I can! XD
5. Japanese BreadIf you've been reading my blog for any period of time, you know how I love Japanese bread. I wasn't expecting this when I came here, though. My first time in Japan, the only place I had bread was in Hiroshima. And it was delicious, but I figured it was some random fluke of a place. After all, when you think of pastries and artisan bread, where do you think of? Europe, and rightly so. They have awesome stuff in places like Switzerland, Germany, and France. But Japan? Nah. And then my roommate took me to Vidal. And that's not even an anomaly - there are pastry places everywhere! I'm really considering taking a bread cookbook home with me...I don't even care if it's in Japanese. I will translate it so I can have the delicious bread when I get home. My favorites are probably caramel apple bread, chocolate orange bread (pictured here), and cheesecake bread. Mmmmmm....

Goodness, this is making me hungry. Good thing it's almost dinner time. ;) Have a great day! When we meet again, I'll have Osaka pics for you.

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!