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. :)

Kyoto and Nara

Hi! It has been a very busy/tiring 2 days. Remember that whole "enjoying Japan to the fullest" thing? So, I've been traveling up and down the JR Biwako line (and by that I mean from here to Kyoto and back/beyond). Yesterday Brad and I went to Kyoto for part of the day, came back and checked in our luggage to be shipped, and then went with some friends to Omi-hachiman to hang out with our history professor at his house (and yes, he is that cool). And today we went to Nara! It was the biggest trip I've taken during this study abroad program - 6 of us went! I had a lot of fun. :)

The night before our huge traveling adventure began, we went out for yakiniku. It was still delicious! :) Some of the beef they serve there is melt-in-your-mouth.Onto the pictures, because I know that's what you're interested in. In Kyoto, we first went back to Fushimi Inari so I could get to the lookout at the top. It was an arduous climb, but totally worth it!After that, we went to a restaurant we learned about through a friend's recommendation: Falafel Garden! It's an Israeli restaurant. It was amazing how easy it was to find - we just went to the station we were told it was closest to, then asked the station attendants. One of the women knew where it was, and rattled off directions in really rapid Japanese. We just caught the main points like "exit 6" and "go right", and walked right to it. XD Kyoto was really a win day, as far as finding things and catching trains was concerned. And we got yummy kebab sandwiches out of the deal.
Our last stop in Kyoto was Nijo Castle, palace of the Tokugawa Shogunate, a family who ran Japan for 250 years. The outside is impressive enough - it's a huge compound with a garden and the castle is sprawling. But the inside was my favorite - I wish I could post pictures but we couldn't take pics of the inside. Each room is full of decorative carvings and gorgeous screens, but the best part was the floors. They're called "Nightingale Floors" because they are designed to creak with every step, to prevent burglars. The cool thing, though, is that their creaking sounds like birdsong! Beautiful. :)

Our Omihachiman trip was fun, too! We got McDonalds (which is way better in Japan than the US, by the way), then ate at our professor's house and watched a movie with him, Taken. It was fun! I just wish we would be able to do it again. :/ There were so many things he wanted to plan for us...we were going to go on a field trip to Osaka and have a huge barbecue at his house and all go out to karaoke as a school after our graduation ceremony (which we were also supposed to have...), but no such luck. :( I'm not really upset about everything that's happened any more, but I do keep getting reminded of things that I was going to do, and then I think "...Oh. Yeah, I don't have time for that now." Just means I have to do it when I come back, right?
Next stop was Nara, yesterday! We had a full group: Me, Brad, my roommate Amanda, Jade, her roommate Rebecca, and Addie. :) It was a pretty long train ride - over an hour and a half - and we had to change trains in Kyoto anyway so we decided to stop by Crepe Ojisan one last time! It was yummy.Once we got to Nara, we walked to Todaiji Temple (which literally translates to "East Big Temple") because it is the most famous in Nara. Nara is the old capital of Japan so it has tons of places to visit. But there are 2 things Nara is really known for:Daibutsu, the biggest Buddha in the country! It's 14 meters tall (46 feet!) and really quite awe-inspiring. You can't imagine the size of it until you're there, and it's astounding. Really really cool!Todaiji also has some other statues inside. They're all pretty neat!And the other thing Nara is known for? The deer.Have some cute deer pics! These deer are awesome! They cross streets en masse at crosswalks (but only when the walk sign is on), and they will bow to you! If you bow to them, some will bow back. It's like the hippogriffs in Harry Potter, and it's awesome. XDAfter oohing and ahhing over the big Buddha and all the deer, we headed back near the station for some okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki literally translates to "As you like it cooked", which is not descriptive at all. Basically, it's like a savory pancake, but the batter contains stuff like cabbage and green onions (and spices, of course). Beyond that, the possibilities are endless! Here are some of our orders: shrimp, pork, and pumpkin.I ordered "Modern Yaki"(Modanyaki), which is from Hiroshima. It has noodles and usually bacon cooked into one side. You can also get stuff cooked into the batter, like ground pork or beef. It was so good! Watching them cook it in front of us was the best part. I'm definitely making some when I go home!And, after a long train ride home, we made it back here. :) It was our last hoorah for some, as Jade is leaving tomorrow. :( Ah, well. It was fun! And I know I'll be up to Michigan to visit everyone.

Have a great day! Next time I'll be posting Osaka, part II.

Heading Home

So, as you all have probably heard at this point, our classes here at JCMU have been suspended and they're forcing us to leave. Yesterday people started opting to leave, including a few of my friends. But today, we all have to go. In case you're wondering, the situation has not suddenly worsened or anything...in fact, since the nuclear plants up north have restored power, life is now a lot better than it was. WE ARE FINE. But, because parents are freaking out and other universities are pulling their students out, JCMU had no choice to follow suit. I don't blame the staff here; it's not their doing and they didn't want us to leave. I am furious, though. Furious at the American media for making it sound like we're being irradiated and suffering terribly, regardless of where we are. Furious at the MSU office for informing our parents of everything before telling us a thing, and for also not providing any monetary assistance to change flights. And furious that my semester in Japan must be cut short. There were lots of things I still wanted to do before leaving this country, and now I won't get to do them. Among others, I won't make it to Tokyo or get to see the cherry blossoms in bloom or see my homestay family (or, more than likely, my conversation partner) again. It's very sad.

My flight is scheduled for the 24th. I will be flying to Singapore and spending 4 days with my friend Katie, and I will arrive home in Dallas on the 29th around 8. Thankfully, my flight was not hard to change - I basically shifted up my flights a few weeks. So, here's my connection scheme:
Nagoya->Narita (Tokyo) -> Singapore
Singapore -> Narita -> Minneapolis -> Dallas
My trip to the airport won't be too lonely...Brad and I are going to Nagoya for flights on the same day and the 2 of us and my roommate Amanda will all be laying over in Narita at the same time, so we can hang out while waiting for our flights. And then, I get to see Katie for a while. So there are a few bright spots to this frustrating, frustrating week.

What am I doing until Thursday? Well, since we have no classes, we're going traveling. It's basically a whirlwind tour of the area - we're hitting Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara, as well as Nagoya on our way out of the country. Because why the heck not? I might as well enjoy my last week here.

I hope your weekend goes well. Most likely, it's much better than mine.

Update

The 4th nuclear reactor in Fukushima is not in the best shape. There's another fire there, which is never a good thing. Also, there was another quake, a little further south than the last. It was a 6 in Shizuoka prefecture, where it hit, but it was only a 3 when it reached us. That's only the second quake we've felt here in Hikone. Besides that, we've just had a bit of weird weather today! During our second hour of class today, it went from clear skies to clouds to rain to blizzard to clear again. o.0

I hope I'm not scaring anyone too much. We're still really far from Fukushima, and I have faith that the program directors would not allow us to be here if we weren't safe. For one thing, the wind direction is such that any radioactive material from Fukushima is being blown into the ocean, not south towards us. We're all still fine here - even those who were in Tokyo last weekend made it back safely. Some of the students here are starting to worry, but I'm honestly not very concerned. Hikone is pretty far inland, as well as south of all the stuff that's going on. Plus, we're surrounded by mountains. I'm fairly certain we're safe from any sort of flooding and all the quakes thusfar here are really minor. So, try not to worry too much! :)

We finally have a 3-day weekend this weekend! I was going to go up to Tokyo but that plan had to change because it's really not a safe place to be right now...at least, it's not very tourist-amenable. So, instead I'm spending the majority of my weekend here. On Friday, we're going to Nara, Japan's first capital! :) They have deer and a giant buddha there, so we're probably just going to see that and then head back. Saturday we're going to tour around somewhere in Shiga Prefecture, just to find someplace new. And the rest of the weekend I intend to relax and recharge for the last few weeks of classes. We just have 3 weeks left! Crazy.

In happier news, the swing lesson last night went really well! We had about 10-12 people show up, and I think everyone enjoyed it. I enjoyed teaching and swing dancing again...I've forgotten a lot but it's so much fun.

Today, we didn't have a lot of homework so we braved the cold weather to go to Viva City! We did the usual of hitting up the cute things store - a little more Sentimental Circus for me - and then going to the arcade and getting cream puffs. Mmm, Japanese cream puffs.

Sorry for the lack of pictures! I'll definitely have some on Friday, because we'll be in Nara. :D

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!

Quake-tastic.

Hi! I hope you all are well. :)

I'm sure a lot of you have heard of the lovely natural disaster that happened yesterday and has been all over the news. Let me start off by saying that the earthquake in Japan may have been huge, but here at Lake Biwa we're pretty well-protected. We're pretty far inland, way south of the epicenter, and surrounded by mountains. We've barely gotten any rain, let alone flooding, and we had a magnitude 4 aftershock in the middle of the afternoon yesterday with no harm done. So, I hope that puts you all at ease. :) My friends here are all safe, in Sapporo and otherwise, so I'm glad it was so far north of us. The greatest inconvenience the quake poses is traveling to Tokyo next weekend, which may not be a good idea considering the damage done. Other parts of Japan are not in the best shape, though. I haven't looked at too many pictures but the ones I have seen are really worrisome. Keep the people of northern Honshu in your thoughts!I do have a funny story about the quake we did feel, though. I was actually at karaoke with a bunch of friends, and at the time of the quake we were rocking out to a K-Pop song (Korean pop). We were all dancing around to the song as we sang, and I started feeling a little dizzy, feeling like the bench underneath me was moving. And then we all stop singing and look up at each other, realizing that the building around us was moving. It's a really weird feeling, having the BUILDING you're in moving. It's like you're on a ride, but a really big one you can't get off of. I thought it was sorta fun, to be honest. :) We didn't really have anywhere to go, so we just rode it out in our room. It was a fairly long quake, though - lasted for about 3 minutes, maybe? But then things got back to normal, just in time for the next song. XD
What else happened on Friday, you ask? Well, after our exam, our "cultural activity" for the week was Naginata. :)Naginata is the name of this weapon. Real Naginatas are long spears with metal tips, but we practiced with these wood-and-bamboo ones instead. There were 2 parts to the lesson - we learned a series of moves to practice, and then we also practiced really simple sparring. Fun, right?There's something very empowering about wielding a spear. Here, my friends Meg and Brad are re-enacting a scene from Summer Wars. In the movie, the grandmother goes after one of her grandsons with one of these. Scary!We also hit Sapna and rocked out at karaoke for 5 hours. I've learned something about karaoke! Picking songs you can sing with multiple people is way more fun than just finding one you personally know. So I fit in my Nightwish and Sonata Arctica fix but also do a lot of songs we all know. This time, we did Bohemian Rhapsody, Potential Breakup Song and Don't Stop Believin', among other things. And, because we were feeling silly, we finished with the Star-Spangled Banner (and yes, they did have that as a karaoke choice). I looked for the Aggie War Hymn, but no such luck. XD It was a fun afternoon, even with the crazy weather. We rode to Bell Road in the rain, experienced an earthquake while there, and rode back in the snow. The night was ended with 42, which is always a pleasure. :)

Today, I went to help another girl here with her internship - she teaches English at the children's English school JCMU hosts on Saturdays. It was the kids' last day for the semester - school ends around this time for all Japanese students and starts up again in April. So, we were giving them an English assessment! We were testing 3-7 year-olds, some of whom have never taken a test before. It was pretty simple - in most cases we would say a phrase in English and they would have to pick the picture corresponding to what they said. Most of the kids knew at least some of the answers, but some struggled a lot. It was good practice for me, though, as I gave instructions for each section in Japanese! It was simple stuff like "I'm going to read 4 sentences. Write down the number of the correct picture for each sentence." but it was still empowering. XD

This afternoon, I got to do some swing-dancing! 2 other students and I are hosting a swing dance lesson on Tuesday night, so we met up to work out details and figure out the steps we're teaching. It was fun! I'm a little rusty and not nearly as good as the other two are, but that's okay because I'm just glad to be dancing again. :) Hopefully the lesson will go well!

Have a great weekend. :D

Bread and Shinies

Hi! This will be another assortment of random topics...I just have some interesting pictures to put up, so I have to include the stories. :)

First, kanji lesson of the week! Aizawa Sensei likes showing us random kanji, so I'll post some of the fun stuff here. First, in Japan clubs are a huge deal in high school - everyone is in one, pretty much. The term for students not in a club is pretty amusing (I think, anyway): 帰宅部. '帰' comes from 帰る, return, ’宅’ derives from お宅, the polite term for house, and 部 means 'club'. So, it's the "Return Home Club". XD Another one is more abstract. This character, 門, is the "gate" radical - it's in a lot of things. And the kanji for sound is '音'. Put them together and you get 闇, darkness. Why, you ask? It's because the only sense that is any use is your hearing...sound is your "gateway" to understanding what's going on in the dark. :D
Moving on to shiny things! I have to show off my Japanese cell phone a bit. Thanks to the 100-yen shop down the road and a bit of ingenuity, I now have a garish-fantastic phone that actually looks like a Japanese phone. My phone charms are a bit lacking (ie I only have 2), but this is a pretty good representation of peoples' phones here. Absolutely everything on one's phone is customizable, and people go to town on theirs. And most phones come in at least 6 different colors - it's easy to have an individualized phone. Makes me wish you could do this with things other than iPhones in America!I will miss all the various smilies you can text. This is one of 8 pages of icons! Some are animated, while others aren't. My personal favorites are the ferris wheel, the ghost, and the rocket ship (none pictured here). As far as other cell phone tricks go, the Japanese predictive text option is great! It's a really clever system. English texting is sort of really fail, but livable. Having a cell phone here makes life really convenient. I can't access the internet or text internationally, but it's so much easier to stay in touch with people here! Plus, I feel much safer when traveling by myself.Besides the normal class stuff, we haven't done much this week but bake! We made apple bread and strawberry bread yesterday, and it was delicious! I really wish I had the implements to make something like cupcakes, but that will have to wait until I get home.

As far as travel plans are concerned, we're running out of weekends to go places so I'm starting to make final plans. The TM Revolution concert was sold out (sad day!), so instead I'm going to Nagoya with some friends before they go to a concert themselves. Jury's still out on if I'll join them. :) Other big plans are Tokyo in 1 week, Osaka (again) in 3, and Nara in 4. Might as well make the most of my time left, right?

Have a great end to your week!