09.16.2006 - After a long hard day

Hello, internet. I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while, it's just been very difficult to bring myself around to telling stories in the dead of night when I'm too tired from studying to string together sentences in English or Japanese.

But honestly, it isn't that bad. So what have I been doing since last I posted?

Well, a lot of stuff happened. We went to Osaka, but didn't get any good pictures. I think Osaka can be summed up as a mashup between vegas, new york, and toronto, but cleaner that any one of those. The subway stations are just amazingly nice, and the neon lighting is everywhere in many parts of the city. It does take a while to walk around, though. It's almost worth taking the subway one or two stops just to save your feet.

Next time I go I will take many pictures and talk all about everything there is to see.

After that I've been studying, a lot. But I still try to have some time to unwind between study sessions. Writing this blog is one of those times to unwind. There is a lot less pressure to study as well. And even better, this coming monday is a national holiday; which one? Beats me.

Not long ago we went to Besie and I spotted this cute tiny can of coca cola...

(please excuse the imageshack hosting... blogger's image hosting isn't working right now)

And in the middle of the week, in the rain, I rode out to 'Bell Road' which is like the Downtown of Hikone.

And on the way I saw this really cool car.


I should take a moment to comment that most cars in japan are similar to this one. Daihatsu, Honda, Subaru, Toyota and others all make these boxy, thin, tall, short cars with what looks like 12" or smaller wheels. EVERY car in japan has the window shade/rainguard things over their windows. There are SUVs of course, driven by tiny japanese women most of the time. You also see American cars, like the PT Cruiser. Sometimes on big cars, they have additional side view mirrors mounted on the front of the hood. I should get a picture of one of these just so you understand what I'm talking about.

At any rate, bell road is named for the following... bells. Though they're actually lamp-posts.


There is one that is bronzed. I wonder if it is lucky.

While on Bell Road I saw this hobby shop...


Since it said 'Tamiya' on the sign, I though I had better go in and look. It seems like Tamiya is one of the dominant model car makers in Japan, since they had it everywhere.






















Ok, that was a lot of pictures of cars in boxes.

But there were also some oddities, like this, UDON MAN!


Udon is a type of noodle made from buckwheat. It's a japanese noodle, anyways.

I also saw a Jack Skellington model from that movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas.


And this giant Keroro, Life Sized!


Finally after I left there I headed further down the street, past a KFC with a genuine 3/4 scale plastic Colonel Sanders grinning madly in the window... but I didn't take a picture of him.

What I did take pictures of, though, was the Pariya market's Joshin electronics store.



They had this whole wall of TVs showing different channels in the food court, so that everybody could watch what they wanted, I suppose.






It's a much nicer electronics store than the one at Beisie, I think. I got some help from one of the attendants looking at cameras. The one that I'm taking pictures with might seem alright, but it can only hold 38 of its so-so quality pictures and really doesn't like difficult lighting conditions, not to mention that it takes almost 8 seconds to warm up and 4 seconds between pictures.

While I was there I saw this curiousity...



It is a 'riding saddle' that moves in a 'realistic' way just like riding a horse. It is an exercise machine essentially, designed to tone your abs. Japan has many wierd things like this that come into popularity and then fade away, much like we have in America with the thighmaster, nordic track, Ab rocker, and so on. The videos for these things are hilarious in the way that the people enjoy doing these exercises so much, and go from flabby to fit like magic.

After hanging around there for a while and trying to understand the camera salesperson (who eventually told me that they had the Powershot S3 IS in stock and that I could come back to buy it anytime I liked) I headed home.

Another day Don went to the beach with his friend and when he came back he had an assortment of clamshells, including one closed one. "Open it." He tells me, so I look at the shell a bit and then say, "No, it's probably alive, opening it would probably kill it, so let's see if it is still alive." I put the clam into a glass of water on the desk and went back to work, but after a while it started opening up, sticking its foot out and prodding the inside of the glass with it. After this I filled a glass with sand and water, and now we have a pet clam. He's since been upgraded into more spacious accomodations, a round plastic jar.



Don named the clam 'Aizawa,' which also happens to be the name of one of our teachers. I wonder what the teacher would think of a clam being named in his honor...

Well, that's all the news for now. I will try to post on a more daily basis so you get a feel for what my life is like here. Plus I will forget less stuff that way.

Ganbatte!

9.5.2006 - It started...

Well, I would like this to be a long post, but unfortunately class has started.

I made it into the 3rd year program, which is quite a strenuous program for me. I spend at least 4 hours each day studying to go along with 3 hours in class and 2 hours in review class.

The first 2 days of class have been difficult, but I do my homework and manage. Hopefully I'll find my stride soon and start cruising and getting things done early instead of staying up late.

But that doesn't mean I don't have pictures.

Here I am yesterday at lunch...

And this is what I ate.

And curiously enough, the only other two pictures I was able to take are exactly the same.

I think my smile is a little more smirkish, maybe more sarcastic today in light of the load of work I received.

But the ramen is not sarcastic, it's curry! Kinda good, and not containing peanuts. I'm getting very good at reading 'Peanut' on labels.

We're probably going to go to Osaka on saturday. The round-trip price is $23 so I think that's worthwhile for the opportunity to see some bigger electronics stores, landmarks, and more interesting Osaka-stuff.

Until next time,
Ganbarimasu!

09.03.2006 - A day of exploring

I started the day off with a home-cooked meal of eggs and rice, with a banana on the side. Quite good with a little roast garlic added to the egg.


We decided to go out exploring on our bicycles. It was a pretty hot day, so one of the first places I stopped was a drugstore to get sunscreen lotion. Thanks to my quick thinking earlier that day, I had loaded the palmpilot with a japanese dictionary program, the trustworthy and free 'Dokusha.' I was able to look up the word for sunscreen and request it. It came in a tiny bottle that cost nearly 4 dollars, but that's not too unlike America, now is it. :P

We went around a couple parts of Hikone to which we have never been, looking for a way up into the mountains. We saw Hikone-jo (Hikone Castle) but did not ride up to it. Instead we went around to this big bridge and halfway up a mountain before giving up on the path leading up and turning back. It really stinks having bikes without gears.

The final image is a plaque found on the bridge. It says: The 62nd year of the Showa Era | ???
I can't read the second half, due to poorly-written kanji. I think it is referring to the year in which the bridge was built. The Showa Era is the period between 1926.12.25-1989.1.7, so it was built in 1988.
From there we decided to go back into town. To the bookstore.

This is a small ish bookstore not far from the school. It's pretty nice; we found a lot of manga and novels inside, school books, and even "Harry Potter" and "The Davinci Code." (I had to quote that or you'd think the japanese had invented a crossover merger between the worlds of witches and magic-using schoolchildren and the obfuscated puzzles of Leonardo DaVinci.)

Our next destination was the AL Plaza, a big Depato (Department Store) with a McDonalds; lunch.

It tasted just like they make it at home, but strangely I didn't feel like I missed eating it.

The store was pretty simply laid out. Each floor had a theme, mens wear, women's wear, housewares, and other stuff. Our store of interest was the 100 Yen store. Where everything is 100 yen. One can save a lot of money by shopping here. I bought a package of q-tips and a set of screwdrivers. We'll probably go back for tupperware and a few other goods.

On another floor were lots of CDs, DVDs, and a bookstore. I tested shooting a video with the camera, so you can watch that here. The video quality is extremely poor, and I don't know if there is a way to improve it. And there is no sound.

And a picture of the Men's Plaza floor.

Oh, we also discovered a curiosity. Self-explanatory, I think.

No, that is not a long-shot urinal. It's a toilet, and they had these in the women's bathrooms as well.

And no, I did not use it.

I took a few pictures on the way back home of some houses we saw, and one of the street. More tiny japanese cars...


We passed a graveyard and a monument of some kind...


And I took some pictures of the outside of JCMU...


And at the end of the day we went for a swim in lake Biwa. The water was surprisingly warm and comfortable. Closing off the end of the day we had a sunset.


For dinner I made everybody Curry and Rice. I had to run to the store in the evening to get onions, carrots, and potatoes for it. The curry powder I used, however, has peanut butter in it, so I wasn't able to enjoy it much. I didn't get sick, though, luckily.

Don went to sleep early tonight and I think I'll be going to bed in a few minutes. I'm low on energy tonight but tomorrow we have our placement tests that determine which level of Japanese we enter. I should do just fine.

09.02.2006 - Orientation

Today I'll be talking a little about what I found as far as the people in Japan, and keep you entertained with some pictures while I do it.

I started the day with Orientation, which you see in the bottom left. Other pictures here are from the train ride into Hikone a couple nights ago.

We were told all about the rules and regulations of the school, as well as some information about the area and a few interesting stories to boot. We also signed up for our elective class. I chose Japanese Religions because it's a new topic that I have not covered yet, and because it doesn't start until October 4th, which will give me extra time to settle into good studying habits.

After that we had a break, and went for lunch at Coco's, a restaurant attached to the school. There I had the most delicious Beef Curry Rice ever, and I would gladly eat it every day if it didn't cost nearly $10. Interestingly, the drinks bar is only 68Y (Yen) or $0.50 for all you can drink. Might be a good idea to check the place out for dessert after home-cooked meals.
Eating at a Japanese resturaunt where all the staff speaks only Japanese was my first challenge. I could not explain to the server that we would like our bills split, and it was a while before we discovered that we must page somebody by pressing a button on the table when we were ready to give our orders. Still, it went okay. Did you know that in Japan you don't tip the waitresses? I think it's true, or there's one angry waitress over at Coco's...

They all had cool tiny electronic wireless devices onto which they put our orders by poking them. Very neat. Our Resident Director says that Japan is at least 2 years ahead of America in technology, and when it comes to businesses and the tools they use, I agree.

So later that afternoon we picked up our bikes. My suitcases hadn't yet arrived, so it's a good thing that I took my bike lock and helmet out of them before shipping them.

To the left is the area near the bikes between the two buildings. I have free time tomorrow, so I'll make sure to get a bunch of pictures of JCMU itself.
The right shows lake Biwa. It's kinda big and weedy-looking, just like a michigan lake. It was funny looking along one of the inlet canals at all of the sunken and abandoned boats half-covered in algae. At least it didn't smell. Tomorrow Don wants to go swimming.

The town is nice. There are lots of small streets and lots of alleyways. Houses are squished into whatever space is avaliable, some are barely a couple of rooms perched atop a garage.
Speaking of garages, the cars in Japan are interesting too. Though somebody saw a hatchback cadillac, most cars are of the Subaru/Daihatsu/Honda compact breed. They're narrow, short, and boxy. Not as small as a Smart Car, but definitely little. However, despite their size they're no less timid than the big SUVs dominating american streets. These little cars zip down the alleys and small roads energetically, and traffic on the big streets is moderate.

I was almost overtaken by the realization that I can hardly expect to know what I'm looking at most of the time. Is it a bar? A small store? A restauraunt or a bait and tackle shop? Even with the infrequent english in signs it's nearly impossible to tell what exactly a store is unless I can puzzle out something like 'Rajio' (Radio) or something else in the name or surrounding words. I didn't have time to go up and inspect during the bicycle tour, which would have greatly simplified the analysis.

Finally, there was the Cainz mall. Cainz Home Center is like a Home Depot in every way, just Japanese. And the grocery store is just like a Meijer, but again, Japanese. Japanese realization number 2: I can't find ANYTHING in this store. I made my way through the aisles, looking at packages of mystery food (Really!) and with the help of my roommate we selected a couple baskets full of stuff we figured we would need. Towels, Soap, and food.

A couple observations: The japanese are not big on snack foods like americans are. Instead they have dozens and dozens of "Snack Foods." America has some big categories: Candy, Nuts, Chips, Crackers, Cookies and Pretzels. Everything else in america is some combination of the above. In Japan everything is different. Some kinds of wafers, some sort of dried mystery fruit (Muscat?) Another sort of box that's colorful, but doesn't show a picture of what's inside and that's a red flag for the inarticulate Gaijin (Foreigner).
That's the basis of shopping in a foreign language. Pictures. Sure, lots of packages have words on them, but they most often do not describe the contents. For example, "Pocari Sweat." It's a liquid, sure, but sweat? In actuality, it is a flavored water drink like Gatorade, fortified with some sodium and potassium and other nutrients.

As a matter of fact, it's a good place here to talk about beverages. In America, we have the Soda, Juice, Coffee, and Water families of drinks. Now in Europe, nearly everything is carbonated (based on my impression... they carbonate WATER for pete's sake!) And if you could carbonate a sausage or a crumpet, they'd do that too. In Japan, however, almost nothing is carbonated. In japan the dominant forms of drink are Coffee and Water-based drinks. But you can't get many kinds of just water. Instead, almost everything that looks like water (Even Super H20) is actually a flavored water. Next up are energy drinks and juices. Juices are straightforward, but always come in tiny quantities. Energy drinks are even tinier, and unlike american energy drinks, they most often do not taste good. In fact, they taste downright bad in many cases. The point isn't the taste, it's the kick of energy, which is like a quadruple espresso.
Last and least is the carbonated drinks, the soda. It's easy to get soda in a restauraunt. Getting it from a vending machine, however, is difficult or impossible. Most vending machines have only one soda in them among the coffees and juices and waters. Something like Pepsi Neo, or diet 7UP. There is no large soda section (that I have seen) in the market. You can find 2-litre bottles, though, and I was quick to buy a bottle of coca cola. It tastes much the same as at home, which is comforting.

The long day came to an end with the ride home. I bought too much and my bike has a basket that is too small. Don helped carry and I rode one-handed all the way (5-10 minute ride) from Cainz mall.

It was a pretty good day, and tomorrow I have the whole day to myself. I plan on taking pictures of a lot of the scenery and talking about it.