Sarah's Japan Enikki, Week 1, Jan. 5-15, 2006
Thursday/Friday, January 5/6, 2006 - Arrival
Today was the plane ride and our arrival in Japan. I have to say, the 15-hour flight was nothing compared to the bizarre cultural shock I suffered upon arriving. I guess it was a combination of things: my carry-on bag not only being heavier than I expected, but also unable to fit on top of my rolling suitcase like I'd planned - having to pay to have my suitcase delivered to my host family and subsequently losing 100y in change walking back - the chaos we seemed to be going through overall as a group. Augh! It freaked me out, and took a while for me to calm down. So overwhelming!
At least on the plane I was able to watch Nana, this movie I recognized because Bekah's been reading the manga series. It was a really, really good movie, and I was glad they played it. They also were playing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with Japanese dubbing, which you can bet I listened to and was hilariously amused at. The guy they got to do Johnny Depp's voice was just so amusing and great. Hee!
From Narita Airport we rode a bus to Makuhari City in Chiba and then walked to OVTA, this building that seems to be used mostly for business meetings and things but also has hotel-style rooms on the upper floors, where we got our room assignments and then went to the welcome dinner. At the welcome dinner I was able to talk to some IES people who'd known Hyung-hye from her days as an intern there, as well as meet my ePal, Saki. I ended up talking to her for awhile, at least half of it in Japanese. She complimented me on my Japanese, saying it was 'perapera' - I guess that's "smooth" or something. It was quite fun, although I was so distracted trying to hold up my end of the conversation that I didn't notice that even though I thought I had gotten chicken, it was actually fish, and I was eating it without even noticing. Eugh, I hate fiiiiish! I knew it tasted weird but I wasn't really paying attention so I just kept eating it. But oh well... I guess it is good for you, so... still...
After the welcome dinner I intended to go to sleep, but instead went for a walk around Makuhari City with Kathryn and Paul, which was a good idea and enabled us to see a lot, including like 10,000 bicycles! Oh my god @_@ The Japanese are all about bicycles, man. So we familiarized ourselves with the area and then went back to OVTA, where I finally went to sleep in my cold icebox of a room.
Monks on the plane!!! :D Not Japanese Buddhist monks, but monks nonetheless! Perhaps Tibetan?
Out walking around Makuhari City. Yes indeed, there was an Outback Steakhouse! We tried to eat at it, but they didn't serve lunch, which was the only time we were there. D:
Capsule machines
One of the buildings with malls inside, seen from the outside
交番 Kouban!!! :D A police box! We had to learn this vocabulary word not really knowing what it meant so it was cool to have an actual thing to put with the word. :D A police box is where policemen hang out and are available to give directions, make rounds, etc. Koubaaaannn~
My OVTA room. The only single rooms we stayed in the whole trip, and it caught me a bit off-guard!
Saturday, January 7, 2006 - Orientation / Host Family
Busy day! I got up and went downstairs for breakfast, then we checked out and had a short orientation by the IES staff before going to the IES center in the Sumitomo building five minutes away. What a nice building!! So we were introduced to the IES offices, and then we all had a walking tour of Makuhari City (mostly stuff I'd seen before from exploring last night, but also some things I hadn't, like this cool mall area). I was also able to talk to Saki some more. Then we broke for lunch, and I ate with Paul, Kathryn, and Saki. I got udon (thick noodle soup), my first time having it, and I would have really liked it if the broth wasn't flavored with something (probably fish flakes or nori or something) that I know I really don't like. But I made myself keep eating it, because I was determined not to spend the trip making my pickiness a burden to people. (In hindsight, a noble goal, but I'm picky and can't change it, so...)
Back at IES, I was able to send a quick email to my parents before we had another orientation, this time about our host families. It just made me even more nervous, but I shouldn't have worried at all, because my host family is so nice! Their name is Sato: a dad (Nobuyuki), mom (Kanako), and six-year-old daughter (Nanase). They hosted another student for a month in early 2003, a girl named Mika who was half-Japanese, so I wasn't their first host student. Also, because Kathryn, Erin, Linsey, and I all have the same train station closest to our houses, our host moms all got together and traded phone numbers so we could all arrange a meeting time the next morning. The sight of four Japanese housewives busily setting things up was incredibly amusing to me! And then our four families all rode the train home together. My first Japanese train ride~ yay! That's one of the things I've wanted to do for a long time.
After we got to our station (Shin Urayasu), we had to take a bus and then walk through a neighborhood for about two minutes, but then we got to the cutest house ever. Hardwood floors, except my room (the guest room) is tatami mats! With a futon on the floor! Yay!!! :D It was definitely one of my dreams in coming to Japan to sleep on a futon in a tatami room. So I was very happy with that!
Shortly after we arrived (and after I gave my host family the obligatory present--a small stuffed armadillo to represent Texas. Ah, it's so cute, but it went straight to Nanase, and I hope she takes proper care of it!), I went with my host mother and sister to go buy food for dinner, etc. My host mom drove us to this big four- or five-story mall complex place with a supermarket on one of the floors. So crazy!! (Of course, that's pretty much the norm, I later discovered. There's smaller grocery stores with their own buildings scattered around too, of course, but for the bigger places with huge selections, you have to go to one of the department stores). Unlike the sedated, calm American grocery stores, these places are bustling and insane, with people everywhere, and the carts are tiny little things that fit a basket on top. We got some pastries and bread things for breakfast (the Japanese are big on French-style patisserie-type places, where you grab a tray and place the pastries you want on it, then bring it to the front where it's wrapped up for you), then Nanase took me to the snack/candy aisle. So many things!! We spent awhile looking at everything and each picked out one thing before my host mom found us after she'd gotten most of the things she needed. (How convenient, that I looked after Nanase and kept her out of her hair so she could shop in peace...! hahah)
Unfortunately, I had had to confess to them my (sizable) list of things I don't like to eat, and though they seemed understanding, I wonder if that doesn't add a mark to my "burden" side (of my "Guest Evaluation" mental sheet they must have), ahhh. Before we left the shopping center I had to get a notebook to use for this journal so we went to another floor and got that. All the Sanrio stuff in the stationery section was crazy!! I really could have spent so much more time browsing that whole shopping center, but we had to get back and make dinner.
Before dinner, Nanase and I played in the loft (they have a small loft you climb up to from the living room) with marbles (biidama) and other things she had up there. It's a good thing I like kids and don't mind playing with the them, and I hope that fact makes up for my pickiness with food >.>
Dinner was something I've forgotten the Japanese name of but that means "one skillet dinner"--long strips of potato, fatty pork bits, chicken balls, celery, and lettuce all in one big pot in the center of the table. Then on the sides in separate dishes, these egg things that didn't taste like eggs and sweet beans--and some sort of pink-and-white "steamed fish paste" thing I didn't try because it was fishy (I later learned that it's a traditional New Year's food). But I tried everything else and it was really good! And I ate it all with chopsticks, too--they offered me a fork but I refused. I ate everything I took, not wanting to offend with waste (except the fatty pork thing, cause it was hard to pick up). Yay!
After dinner Nanase and I played in the loft with marbles again, and then we came down and I talked about plans with my host mom to go to Tokyo DisneySea tomorrow :D Yay!! Then she and Nanase took their baths and I took mine afterwards. Ah~ soaking in a hot tub, how wonderful! The bathroom has a heating system too, how amazing. The toilet of course is not connected and there's one next door to the bathroom and one upstairs next to the kitchen. After my bath I went to bed in my soft heavenly futon bed. :D I am so incredibly happy with my host family!! I really hope they like me too. They seem to, but you can never tell. I do think I got one of the less-English-capable families, as we mostly communicate in Japanese, but that's really all right. That's what I'm here for, right?
Oh, and they have the cutest dog, a Pomeranian named Koron (Collon?). It's adorable, but so spoiled!
At the party held at the IES offices where everyone met their host families for the first time. I'm amused by Paul (the guy in the middle) in this picture, he's all "Hmmm..." XD
Everyone in the Urayasu area trading phone numbers and such so us host students could meet at the station for classes the following Monday, hee. My host mom is in the pink shirt.
Na-chaaan! My host sister :3
My room at the Satos' <3
Ofuton :3
I liked how the futons piled up in the closet looked like a rainbow. "Niji-iro!" I said to my host mom ("Rainbow-colored!")
The front entryway. Can you tell whose shoes are whose? Hint, mine are the cool ballet flat ones with laces :3 You know, I really wish American homes were like this.
Stairs leading up to the main level (the front entryway opens onto the lower level, which has the bathroom, my room, the master bedroom and my host dad's study)
Koron!! Cute, but vicious. Watch out.
Living room. I don't know why that high chair is there... it's not like Nanase needs it. Oh well.
Dining room area. Not pictured: A cool thing that, when someone rings the doorbell to come into the house, shows their picture on a screen!! I thought things like that were just a myth :O
The loft (you saw the stairs leading up to it in the living room picture). I thought this was so cool when I first saw it, I love lofts, that I said "Kore netai!" and everyone laughed... although I messed up, I should have said "Koko netai" (I want to sleep here) aghafjdash oh well...
Toilet! Washlet, actually. After you flush, freezing-cold water comes out of the sink on top and you can wash your hands in it.
Here you can see the infamous toilet slippers and the panel on the wall where you can push the buttons for a bidet, etc (I was too scared to try it!)
The bathroom downstairs
Showering room--first you rinse off with the showerhead on the right half of the room, then you get into the bathtub filled with water on the left half and soak. ahhh~ :3
Sink
Washer and dryer. It's not just weird that they're in the bathroom, it's weird that there is a dryer at all. Most Japanese homes don't have one, and hang everything up to dry, which my family still did, except for socks and underwear. Those went in the dryer. Nothing else. (Later I put normal shirts in the dryer just to see and of course they were just fine!)
Sunday, January 8, 2006 - Tokyo DisneySea!!
Today my host mother, sister, and I went to Tokyo DisneySea, the park adjacent to Tokyo Disneyland with all new rides. It was so much fun! I rode all the big rides (some by myself since my host mother had to wait outside with Nanase, who was too short to ride them). They had an Indiana Jones rode!! The one in Disneyland California is my absolute most favorite ride! I was so happy :D It's almost the exact same ride, just with a slightly different theme (the Crystal Skull as opposed to ), but a lot of the details are still the same. As silly as it sounds, that ride is seriously my happy place. I am always filled with bliss when I am on it. Ahhh :D I rode it with my host mom, who seemed really scared of it. Pssch!! Oh well
For most of the morning we wandered around doing various rides, some kid oriented, some not, and some in the middle. One of my favorites for a very silly reason was Storm Rider (SUTOOMU RAIDAA! hahaha), which was basically one of those put-you-in-the-situation theatre things (like The Right Stuff at Six Flags, etc) and the premise is that you're battling this storm so you go in a plane to diffuse it somehow and real water drops fall on you, etc. But the hero of the story is this guy named Captain Davis, and you only hear his voice but I LOVED HIM. At the end of the ride, after he'd put us through hell and back but came out okay, his commander guy tried to berate him but he was just all "Yare, yare! Maa, minna tanoshinda na" (Oh well! Everyone had fun, right?) and aaaahahaha it was so great! I would really love to ride that ride again just to hear him. Captain Davis <3>everyone loves it. I saw groups of schoolgirls in matching mouse ears, couples on dates, and families with small children alike. In America, you really don't see that many teenagers--Disney isn't "cool." But in Japan it really is, and everyone gets so into it. Fascinating!
The other thing is how conscious of my gaijin status I was, adrift in a sea of Japanese. It's a very odd feeling, being completely aware that only you are different. Not counting the performers, I counted only 3-4 other gaijin there at the park that day!
Because my mom is the biggest Disney fan ever and is intensely jealous that I get to see Tokyo Disney, I spent the last bit of our time there scouring the shops for a gift for her. She collects magnets for our fridge of places we've visited so I looked for one of those, but unlike in the U.S., they had only one magnet and it was shaped like some weird Mickey cookie thing (I guess all the phone straps took up the usual magnet space--so many phone straps!!). So in the end I got a small porcelain Mickey-head-shaped plate thing filled with chocolates--it's vaguely Japanese (enough for it to be something you can't get back home) and she can display it with the rest of her paraphernalia. Actually, if someday I could take my mom to Tokyo Disney with me, I think she'd really enjoy it (as long as I acted as translator, of course). It's so interesting seeing everything translated to Japanese you're used to seeing in English. (For example, Captain Hook is Hooku-shachou! XD)
Me and Na-chan in front of the globe fountain thing you pass when you come in
The big mountain in the middle of the whole park
The place where the submarine ride is... California Disneyland used to have a submarine ride and I went on it when I was 6, but they've since closed it down because it was too much maintenance. So it's interesting that it's here in Japan! I didn't ride it, though.
The Little Mermaid play area thing (all of it is inside that building)
Entrance to the "Arabian Coast" area
Bleaugh, my hair looks awful! So windy...
Guy with a camel and the three of us. hahah
Front of this roller coaster thing
Nanaseeee~
"American Waterfront" area
Nanase being silly while we were playing in the kids' area
Indiana Jones!! <3
Thing inside the waiting area
Nanase being silly and posing like the statue of Prince Eric in the Little Mermaid play area
Yay, I really like this picture :3
Monday, January 9, 2006 - Seijin no Hi / Tokyo Tower
Today was 成人の日 Seijin no Hi, or Adult/Coming of Age Day, where everyone who's turning 20 this year dresses up in long-sleeved kimono (the girls, that is) and walks around. I saw a number of them and they were all so pretty! Since it was cold, they had fur linings around their necks, and ah, so beautiful. Since I'm turning 20 this month, I wanted to put on a kimono and join them, but my host family didn't have the right kind and my host mom says she's not good at tying obi--and most of all, I'm a foreigner. So oh well. She did let me put on some kimono she did have, though :) And of course, Na-chan had to dress up too, in her tiny little-girl kimono. So cute.
After that, we rode out on bikes (me on one, and my host mother on another with Nanase in a child's seat behind her and Koron sitting perfectly calmly in the front basket. Most every bike in Japan has at least a front basket and usually a child's seat in the back) to the park, where Koron ran around with some other dogs--some were wearing little doggy sweaters, how cute! Actually, the park is right by the ocean--you know, THE ocean, the one right by the eastern coast of Japan? So really... we were at the beach. Too bad it was much too cold for swimming.
After a little snack back at home, we went to the station and rode the train to Hamamatsuchou, where Tokyo Tower is. We had to transfer at Tokyo Station, and man, that place is huge! It's like a freakin' airport with all the moving sidewalks! But it's not that hard to navigate if you follow the signs (like all Japanese train stations, really) and I'm glad I've been familiarized with it before we have to meet there to go to Kyoto.
From the station we walked towards Tokyo Tower, we could see it as soon as we stepped outside. Ahhh! As a shoujo manga fan who first heard of Tokyo Tower back in middle school when I started reading Magic Knight Rayearth and never even DREAMED I'd go to it in person, I have been wanting to go here for so long. But first we stopped at the Buddhist temple nearby it, Zoujou-ji. My host mom gave me and Nanase 20 yen to put in the offering near the entrance, where we also added a pinch of incense to the pyre and folded our hands in prayer. It felt odd for me to do it, but it was nice. Nanase really wanted an omikuji (fortune) so we both got one. I can hardly read mine of course but apparently it's good--something about things I've been worried about disappearing. My host mom joked that those worries have to do with my host family! Aww... so true, though. I really hope her worries about me have likewise been alleviated--I just can't tell!
So from there we went to Tokyo Tower. So cool!! I don't care that it's a cheap Eiffel Tower ripoff that's degenerated into a tourist trap. It is cool! And my host mom even paid for my ticket, which was incredibly nice of her. We only went to the main observatory halfway up the tower--what a gyp that you have to pay like 600y more to go higher!! Oh well. We had fun looking out at the city, and I amused myself noticing all the other foreigners--only about 5, but more than I'd seen at any other place. We also put in money to the mini-shrine they have there, and at the gift shop I bought a mini figure of the tower to match my Eiffel Tower one. Then we went down one floor to the cafe (yes!! It exists!) and had ice cream. We got it in cones and my host mom and sister ate theirs with spoons. Spoons!? Please, people! I licked mine the proper way and didn't care if that seemed weird to them. >.> Honestly... spoons with an ice cream cone! So strange. Also on that level were the transparent windows set in the floor so you can look down to the ground. Scary!! They really freaked Na-chan out, and I could only stand on one for so long.
Then we met my host dad at our station (Shin Urayasu), and went to an okonomiyaki place (a cook-your-own one) where we had dinner. I really liked this corn and bacon appetizer thing we had but the okonomiyaki itself--ahh! I didn't like it! I wanted to... oh well... and my host family seemed amused, not annoyed... still, sigh. The restaurant was so cool too, with the tables sunk into the floor and you have to take off your shoes to enter. So fun! I also tasted some of Na-chan's melon soda and that was the beginning of the Love. Just wish I'd liked the food... sigh
Me wearing one of the kimono. I look pretty bad here!
Tokyo Tower!!! :D
Me outside of the Buddhist temple. Pretty much any time I got out my camera to take normal pictures of the surroundings, my host mom would offer to take a picture of me, and then get out her own camera for a group shot. >.>
Statue thing in the temple area
Wooooo Tokyo Tower :333
Skyline as seen from the Main Observatory
I think this is her standard pose anytime her picture is taken. hahah
流星群 :)
The cafe!!
At night, with its special "2006" lights.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - First Day of Class
Today was the first day of class, and the first day of my routine I would follow throughout the week: get up, eat breakfast with my family (no shower in the morning as I am accustomed to, because I showered at night to fit in, and it actually didn't turn out too bad. It was interesting seeing what shape my hair chose to take every day...), walk out to the bus stop and get on a bus to take me (alone! ahh!) to Shin Urayasu Station where Erin, Kathryn, and Linsey are waiting, and then take the train together to Kaihin Makuhari, where OVTA and IES are. All of our host families and our class buildings are out in the Chiba area, by the way (Tokyo's suburbs, pretty much). I was led to believe that we'd be taking our classes at Kanda University, but it turned out that was not the case. Instead, we had our own classes comprised only of other students on the Janterm and tailored specifically for us. A little disappointing... oh well.
Japanese class was... interesting. First we went over "pronunciation" which was us repeating easy phrases we already knew (and in my case, already knew how to pronounce correctly). It was like... this is the intermediate class? I was kind of bored out of my mind. The teacher seems nice enough, but she chewed us out for taking too long of a break when I for one didn't even know how long it was supposed to be. Oh well...
For lunch we walked to IES and ate at the Italian restaurant on the first floor (Saizeriya), which was very delicious (they also had melon soda, my love! <3).>obviously we also like anime/manga. And as I overheard a group of boys from our group saying the next day, the lecturer was a little too obvious about his desire to only make money. He ended his presentation with "And please buy my books!" for crying out loud. I realize he was half-joking, but that's rude even by brash American standards. But then again, I'm always disgusted by unabashed capitalism.
Then I stayed late to do research for my presentation topic, the Asakusa district, and then took the train back to Shin Urayasu with Kathryn.
Me and Na-chan before heading off to school in the morning!! Look at her adorable kindergarten uniform! I want to wear a unifooooorm!!
Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - Asakusa Tour
Today our group met at Nishi Funabashi Station around 10 a.m. and went to Asakusa from there. We walked around the area and explored Nakamise-dori (the street leading up to Asakusa's big temple, Sensoji, which is filled with shops selling all sorts of things), which was very colorful and interesting. Something weird happened though - in one store, I had picked up a lighter shaped like two Pepsi cans put end-to-end but couldn't figure out how to turn it on. Mary Anne took it and pushed a button, expecting the fire to come out one end, but instead it came out the other - the one next to her hair, which promptly caught on fire!! Within seconds she had put it out, but it shook all of us up for the rest of the day.
We rejoined our group and went together to the Japanese Drum Museum, or Taikokan, which was on the fourth floor of a building also housing a drum gift shop. The floor was filled with drums from all over the world, and was mildly interesting, especially since we got to play some of them, but not incredibly fascinating... (Sorry, I know I'm a harsh judge, but traditional Japanese culture is just not what I really care about...)
Then we walked up and down Kappa-bashi, a street lined with vendors selling wholesale restaurant supplies--including the fake food gracing the windows in front of nearly every Japanese restaurant--before going to Sensoji Temple. Since I'd already been to the temple outside Tokyo Tower, that also didn't really interest me. But I waved smoke from the huge incense burner towards my head (so I can grow smarter!) and donated some yen at the temple entrance all the same. After that we went to eat at Denny's, where we had some confusion involving vegetarian Erin and Mary Anne and waitresses not understanding the concept of "no meat/no fish"... and then punishing us by not bringing us the check or dessert for like 20 minutes. I know we weren't being the easiest customers to deal with, but that's still not cool.
Finally we met back up with everyone at Kaminari-mon (the Thunder Gate at the head of Nakamise-dori) and took the train to Ryougoku, where the sumo place is. We went inside and found our seats--a few rows shy of ultimate nosebleed! I am afraid I didn't pay much attention to the sumo, save to notice the eye-catching blinged-out silver-lights robe of one of the wrestlers. But it's nothing personal against sumo... all sports, much as I try to be interested, ultimately cause my eyes to glaze over.
We were also making plans to go to Akihabara--me, Erin, Melissa, Mary Anne, and Alex--before coming back to Ryougoku to meet everyone for dinner. We spent all of our scant time in Akihabara exploring the multi-story Gamers store, where my friends loaded up on anime and video game paraphernalia and nothing caught my eye beyond a few gashapon figures. We got back to Ryougoku to find our group dwindled down to us, Sensei, and... Tad (oh, yay) for dinner. The only redeeming factor was Chika-san, the Japanese language resident from last year, joining us--though I regret that she had such unseemly company to dine with, sigh. So I more or less struggled through that... but it was really great to see her again (though she can never beat Hyung-hye!). Apparently she is working as a ticket-taker in Disneyland, so if I ever get to go there, I hope to see her.
Erin and I got a little confused on the train ride back and had to switch trains at one point, but we figured it out and made it back to Shin Urayasu... where I promptly got on the wrong bus to go home. I realized it as we were pulling out of the station and tried to get the driver to let me off, but he wouldn't and said I could still get to my house from one of that bus's stops. When we got to the stop in question, nothing looked familiar and as I showed the driver my map of the area, two other men on the bus rushed up to help!! And a businessman who had gotten off at that stop offered to walk me over to my part of town, which he did. I was only a couple minutes' walk away from my proper bus stop, but I'm sure without those helpful people I would have gotten horribly lost. So even though I was quite embarrassed and mad at myself for making such a dumb mistake (especially since it's not like it was my first time riding the bus--more like my fourth), it did prove to me that not everyone in the Kanto area is as cold and unhelpful as they're reputed to be. The businessman who walked me back even spoke quite good English!
Kaminari-mon (the Thunder Gate) at the start of Nakamise-dori, the big street lined with vendors leading up to Sensoji. You can see the pink things lining it.
Fans in one of the shops. This was supposed to be a much cooler picture!
Taiko drum-playing at the drum museum. There's Fred in the middle and Tad on the right.
Mary Anne, Erin, Milin, Sarah K.
Kathryn
Hahah, the lady who runs the drum museum talking to Shin-san (one of the IES people), and then Milin
Ahah, look at Sensei and his baseball cap turned backwards. That is totally the only reason I took this picture! On the plane he also had these thick glasses that we were all highly amused by. Oh Sensei!!
Front of Sensoji
The area where you put coins in and then clap your hands together and bow
Pagoda of one of the other buildings at Sensoji
At Ryougoku, in the sumo stadium... it's so exciting!! Not...
Priest, walking around purifying the ring (well... I think)
AHAHAH! Check out the guy with the red man-skirt and the sparkly circle on top. That was lit up!! He was blinged out! haaahahaa
Doing their little procession-y thing
Not quite sure... right before a fight began, I think
Sup Akihabara! (the place to buy discount electronics and things, if you didn't know)
We took the "Electric Town Akihabara" exit. ELECTRIC TOWN!! hahaha
Thursday, January 12, 2006 - Second Day of Classes
A quite unremarkable day, for the most part--until I went home, because I had said I would make dinner (quesadillas!). My host mom, Na-chan, and I went to the huge department store/grocery store building to get the ingredients. First we went to the 100y store there (yay for hyaku-en stores!! The dollar-store equivalent), where I picked up a transparent umbrella (yess) and some purple chopsticks with butterflies on them--my own chopsticks, yaay. Then at the grocery store, besides quesadilla ingredients and some dessert type things, I got this hilarious sponge with a face on it I'd seen on our last visit and loved. :D
Once home, I cooked dinner!! I even had to cook the chicken, and it was my first time doing it, since usually my mom does it (or we buy frozen chicken breast strips and use those). But it turned out well, and none of us got food poisoning. Making the quesadillas themselves was a challenge but I did it too and my host mom and Nanase seemed to love them. I hope they weren't faking it, but they seemed too enthusiastic, so I really hope they actually did like them. My host dad was really late in coming home so he had to have his warmed-up. I don't know if he loved it as much as the others did... but oh well. I made them as best I could, and almost everyone liked it, soo.
Before my host dad got home, though, my host mom had asked me to take a bath with Nanase (she wanted us to use this special bath salts stuff). Usually she bathes with Nanase, but I think she wanted to wait up for my host dad or something--or maybe it was even a gesture to indicate my inclusion in the family, I don't know. But seriously! I am a very modest person! I shower alone!! So I did it... but in my swimsuit. Nanase sort of looked at me like "Why aren't you naked?" (as she was, of course), but whateva... You know, I'd really like to use an onsen, but I know people would be staring at my gaijin body and I just don't know if I could handle it... ahh..
Friday, January 13, 2006 - Last Day of Classes
Another mostly unremarkable day. Lecture and class were boring as always, lunch torturous because we couldn't shake off certain people (ugh). What was quite enjoyable, though, was taking the subway and bus home alone. Ahh, I just love doing that once I've gotten used to a transportation system. :D
Once home, I watched the Disney channel (in English! <3 style="font-style: italic;">Suite Life and Phil of the Future, how I love you) until my host mom went to pick up this little boy she was going to babysit until his parents got home around 10, Yuho. That boy!! He seemed astonished that I was a gaijin and underestimated my Japanese ability, so he'd be saying things like "Gaikokujin da..." (A foreigner...) to himself but of course I understood and replied with "Hai, gaijin desu" (Yes, I am a foreigner). Then when we were eating dinner he actually referred to me as "the gaijin." My host mom and Nanase just went silent and corrected him with "Her name is Sarah-chan." Oh snap!
Then he asked me "Sutaa-Waasu, shite-imasu ka?" (Do you know Star Wars?). While I appreciate the politeness (though it was odd, as he had been speaking in direct style to me the rest of the time), I just looked at him like "...Mochiron!!" (Of course!) and Nanase was all "Well, it's American." But he persisted with "...Eego de?" (in English?) completely incredulous and again, I just looked at him like he was crazy and said "Mochiron!!" I mean... Star Wars! In English! What will they think of next? Silly ethnocentric boy. Unfortunately, that's kind of a small example of all the Japanese who seem to regard Japan as the center of the world and Japanese as the ultimate language everything is issued in. I'm not saying Americans don't do it too, but at least seeing a foreigner isn't a huge shock for us. Honestly!
We had purin for dessert too--yay! (Purin is a custard pudding thing.) I'd wanted to try it for awhile, so I was happy. :3
Saturday, January 14, 2006 - Kamakura Trip
Aghh, had to get up at like 6 in order to catch the train to get us to the IES building by 8:20. But we did it! Host families were allowed to come on this trip (to Kamakura, one of the villages around the Tokyo area famous for various things), but mine couldn't come, for whatever reason. I think my host mom had to work or something... it turns out she has, like, three part-time jobs. I wonder if she just likes doing it or if they actually (it doesn't seem this way) need the money.
So we got on our special bus and rode to Kamakura, about 2 hours away. First we stopped at Engakuji Temple, this sprawling Buddhist temple complex set in the hills of Kamakura. It was especially beautiful because of the overcast day making everything look dewy. I walked around mostly with Mary Anne, her host grandma, and her granddaughter, Sakura (so adorable). Mary Anne's host grandma even bought me a fortune--so nice! I tied to it to the rack along with all the other ones.
Then we got on the bus to go to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, which was amazing and I wish we'd had more time there. I did have time to buy an awesome evil-protecting arrow with a new-year's-wish wooden plate thingy attached, though. On the front are painted dogs to represent the Year of the Dog, and the back is blank for you to write your wishes for 2006. Then you hang it on a board at the shrine with everyone else's. Mainly because it was raining by that point but also because I wanted to keep my plate, I didn't write my wishes and hang it.
I went to lunch with Mary Anne, her grandma, Sakura, and Erin. We found this tiny Italian cafe where I had incredibly spicy but delicious penne pasta. When we went back outside, it was pouring. My jeans below the knee, shoes, and socks all got horribly wet walking back to the bus. I was quite miserable.
Even though it was pouring rain, we still continued with the trip, just shortened it a bit. I had gotten so wet, though, that I just stayed in the bus for our last two stops, Hasedera and Daibutsu (the second-biggest Buddha statue in Japan). So I missed seeing those--oh well. Since I want to come back to Kamakura to explore the previous temples more, that's just another reason to do it someday. And most of all? It was too wet.
On the way back to the Tokyo area, we watched the original Japanese version of Shall We Dance? and it was awesome. My AC friends and I saw the American version at the dollar theatre last year, and it was really good, so it was fun to compare the differences. Also, the movie was just hilarious. We didn't get to finish it, though--maybe someday I can.
And at Shin Urayasu Station, my host mom was even waiting in the car to pick me up cause it was so rainy. Then we had the most delicious dinner ever--corn soup, rice, and hamburger patties. So good <3 src="http://www.nostalgic-lavender.net/pictures/japan-086.jpg" border="3">
After we arrived at Kamakura, we had to walk across these train tracks to get to the first temple, but a big old JR train interrupted our progress!!
Engakuji Temple
A triforce?
Dead fish in the pond!! oh no! (see that yellow thing? yeah)
Sound accompanying this: here (the lovely sound of water trickling in the drain :3)
Ducks!! :D
At the next temple... Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. I loved this place. And because it was raining by that point, everyone busted out with their awesome umbrellas. Look at the colors!! I love Japanese umbrellas :D
The hand-purification place. Before you enter a shrine/temple, you are supposed to pour the water here over your hands to purify them. Sometimes I did it, and sometimes it was just tooooo cold.
Pigeons!! Also, a place where you hang the wooden plates with your wishes for the new year written on them.
This is a famous stage where a woman named Lady Shizuka danced a dance of love for this guy's brother, the lord of the place or something... and the guy was mad at her cause he disapproved of the relationship and she was supposed to dance a dance praising him. etc... I think it's cool though :3
Steps leading up to the main shrine building
I was trying to get a picture of this priest with a bullhorn but I failed!
yay I love this picture and totally don't even remember taking it!
More wishes
M
Pigeons!!
Sunday, January 15, 2006 - Last Day in Urayasu City :(
Finally, a day when I was able to sleep in! I slept in until 11 and got up and made my own breakfast (according to the amusingly Engrishy note my host mom left me!! "It takes it out of the packet and puts it in the microwave," heee). She and Na-chan came home around noon with a friend of Nanase's, Konomi. We had lunch (yakisoba!!! <3 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikspiari">Ikspiari, this Disney-owned shopping complex near Disneyland & DisneySea. Konomi's mom met us there--she is so nice! Reminded me a lot of Aunt Sharon. They had a Rainforest Cafe, and we broswed the gift shop and I got a zodiac frog gashapon thing (leading to a discussion of everyone's Chinese zodiac sign. It turns out Na-chan is a rabbit, and as my host mom explained, that's why she's always hopping around, "pyon pyon" [the noise a rabbit makes when it hops, I think!!], ahaha). We walked around some more until we came across the show of "Zat Amazing Guy" (I only know his name because he passed out postcards with it written on it. Actually, you had to give him money to get one, and that was when he referred to the kids clamoring for one as "kodomos." KODOMOS AHAHAH), who fascinated me not for his unicycle tricks or block juggling prowess, but for the fact that he was gaijin--an American speaking Japanese. He had the most awful American accent (not as bad as some in my class, but still pretty bad) but I could still understand the majority of his show, which was genuinely amusing. At one point he asked (in Japanese, of course) "Those of you who can't understand my Japanese, raise your hands. ... If you raised your hand, why did you do it??" and it was pretty hilarious.
Then Konomi and her mom went home, and we broswed a few more shops and bought some bread pastries for breakfast tomorrow before going home. I didn't get to explore Ikspiari as thoroughly as I would have liked, but Nanase was getting restless, soo... that's the price of taking kids places. Oh well
For dinner we had "gratin," this baked pasta-and-cheese-sauce thing. It was quite tasty, but Nanase had inexplicably started crying about 10 minutes before dinner started and would not stop. I have absolutely no idea why she was doing it (I could flatter myself and say it was because I was leaving, but I honestly have no clue) and she kept on for like 20 minutes. It takes effort to cry that long! Why, Na-chan, why? Oh well...
Before I went to bed I showed my host mom some of the American money I still had--a dollar, a quarter, a dime, a nickel, and a penny. She seemed so fascinated by them that I let her keep the coins.
Also, my host family has hanging on cabinet doors a drawing that their last homestay student (a half-Japanese girl named Mika from the College of William and Mary who stayed for a month in early 2003) had done of Nanase, along with drawings by Nanase herself. So they wanted me to do my own portrait of her... oy! I did my best and drew Nanase as a mermaid (cause she likes The Little Mermaid) and Koron as a merdog, but I can't say how it compares to the seemingly-perfect picture Mika drew. I found myself oddly jealous of her, my predecessor, to be honest... oh well.
Koron's doggy cage. He doesn't stay in it a lot but you can see the bizarreness going on here... firstly, the water BOTTLE like a gerbil would have, as opposed to a bowl of water. Then, the pad spread out on the ground is to catch his pee. He doesn't go outside to pee, he does it here and then the pad is thrown away. Where does he poo? On the living room floor. He'll leave a poo on the ground, Nanase will holler, and my host mom will come along with a tissue and some disinfectant spray and clean it up. They always seem to scold him, so the first time it happened I thought he'd had an accident. But that's what always happens!! I guess because he spends all his time on the second floor, and has to be carried down the stairs to go outside, it isn't feasible to have to take him outside to do his business all the time. It's still insane, though...
Aww, hi Koron! After I took this, I tried to move him from that seat (as I'd been sitting there before I went to get my camera) but he didn't like that at all and bit me!
Meeee
Nanase and Konomi, with Koron and a stuffed bear thing
Awww :3
The Zat Amazing Guy dude at Ikspiari... I remain fascinated by his gaijin-ness!
They too, are fascinated by it.
End of Week 1!!
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