First days in Japan

The past week has been so ridiculously eventful that it's really not even funny. In the span of a week I've packed up and left Oakland, California, where I was doing the Middlebury Japanese School at Mills College, spent a few days in Southern California with my relatives (went to the beach and Disneyland/California Adventure), finally came home to Texas for the first time in 9+ weeks but could only be there for two days and a night before I had to leave again, this time for Japan. My time in Texas was absolutely jam-packed and I can already think of several things I forgot to bring that I really should have, but oh well.

I arrived in Japan around 4 p.m. Tokyo time Saturday August 18, passed through immigration (receiving my new alien registration card there as per the new system--you used to have to apply for it at your local city office) and customs successfully, got my baggage and loaded it onto a cart, and once I emerged into the airport promptly sent off the biggest bag to the hotel in Hiroshima where I'd be undergoing teacher training. Delivery services like that in Japan are fantastic and very commonly used. From there it was time to make my way to Tokyo via trains while hauling my other two bags stacked on top of each other, which made for a very heavy thing to pull along behind me as I maneuvered through numerous train stations! This was also the first time I'd done this, as the previous two times I'd been to Japan, I was with a group or meeting a group and we all took the bus in together, and I didn't have to mind any bags.

So this was a new adventure! Took the Keisei Skyliner from the airport to Nippori Station, bought my bullet train ticket for the next day at the JR office there, rode the Yamanote Line one stop down to Nishi-Nippori Station, got onto the Chiyoda Line, and rode that quite a ways until Yoyogi-kouen Station, where Will was waiting for me. Yay! All of those things involved communication with various Japanese workers, and fortunately it all went well. I don't know why I thought it might be like people in shops or on the street and stuff, who will sometimes (in total shock at the sight of a foreigner) respond to your Japanese with English, but the station and delivery people were all ultra-professional and as soon as they heard my Japanese, (were probably relieved and) ran with it and just treated me normally. Probably hauling my stuff around was harder than that, really. I'm not sure I'd recommend making two train transfers while pulling a heavy weight behind you, but I also didn't have any good alternatives! Once I met up with Will we divided the bags and had a nice walk through his quiet neighborhood to reach his apartment, which is pretty great. He's renting it from an owner, which means it's better than direct rent places, and even has a specially added FULL kitchen with real countertops, which is super rare in Japan and especially in Tokyo. I met his girlfriend Mio there and after I took a quick shower (had gotten all sweaty with that journey) we went out to dinner. We had burgers in a cute little place nearby and it was fun. Then we walked through the neighborhood; a drunk salaryman attempted English with us! I let Will handle that one. After that though my energy started to flag fast and I passed out pretty quickly after that.

Of course, I woke up around 3:30 am. Will had left his iPad out for me to use, so I played around on it for a while, updating people, and then it started to get light outside so I sat on the balcony and took pictures, and once it got light I started to feel excited about being in Tokyo, in Japan, and about the day ahead of me.

View from Will's balcony. The tall tower in the background is in Shinjuku.

Then I started watching TV and found an amazing program that was literally just footage of various birds and animals in nature, annotated only with their name at the beginning of each segment, set to classical music. It - was - fantastic. Then I repacked my suitcases. I did fall back asleep but not until 6 or so. Got up again around 7:30 and Will escorted me to the station. Will was really the best host and I am so happy he let me stay with him! YES to old Japanese 101 classmates who now live in Tokyo.

From Yoyogi-kouen Station it was Chiyoda Line to Kokkai-gijidou-mae Station, transferring there to the Marunouchi Line which took me to Tokyo Station. I walked just a short distance to the first bullet train entrance I found and located a coin locker that could fit my bags. I left them there and went to ride the Keiyou Line to Shin-Urayasu Station, where my host mom and sister would be waiting in their car to pick me up and take me back to their house for breakfast! Ahhh, it was so wonderful to see them again!!! And to see the house again! Ahhhhhh, memories!! My host mom is now 42 (instead of 36) and my host sister is now 13 (instead of 7) so things have changed! They also have a Chihuahua now (named Milk) in addition to the Pomeranian, Koron, I knew before. We had a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon (cut up into pieces, not strips), toast (also cut up into pieces), toasted (?) tortillas, and lettuce and tomatoes for salad. Definitely a western style breakfast, unfortunately my host mom knows all too well how picky I am...

My host mom thinks my Japanese has improved by leaps and bounds since the last time I saw them, and she's probably right. It's funny though that in that time period during which the Japanese improvement took place, I hadn't been to Japan once! But it was actually really nice because I feel like our communication has just opened up immensely. Before, I probably couldn't communicate a vast majority of the things I wanted to say. Now, I feel like I can say just about anything as long as the topic isn't too complicated (like economics, etc), even though I'm sure I'm making small mistakes. I like to think that if I could know how my Japanese sounds to native Japanese speakers, it probably sounds like how my friends' immigrant parents' English sounds to me. Which is to say, obviously not perfect but not bad or irritating by any means. I hope that's the case, anyway. So it's like the world has just opened up and I can be much more honest with them and have more real conversations about true feelings than I could in the past. I felt like I was finally letting a lot of my personality shine through, more than I ever had before with them, and it was wonderful. Of course, there were times when my host mom thought my Japanese was better than it was and she said some things I couldn't follow (which actually happens fairly often with me, with a lot of Japanese people...), and a few times when my pride wouldn't let me ask her to repeat them and instead I nodded along, but overall it went really well.

After breakfast my host mom drove me and my host sister around on a tour of Shin-Urayasu, mostly to all the places I used to go! It was so great, I feel so grateful that she indulged me in that wish. First we went to a park that was right on the ocean...

Host mom and sister on the Chiba coastline!

...then we went to Ito Yokado, a supermarket/department store with a food court on the ground floor. I had forgotten this completely, but since that place is right by Meikai University where my study abroad classes were held, I went to that food court with the other students several times. Before we got there I had told my host mom "Hmm, maybe I went here once..." and then once we got there and everything looked so familiar I had to revise that: "Wait, never mind, I've actually been here countless times!!" Then I noticed that there was shaved ice sold at a traditional Japanese food place, and my host mom decided to buy us all some. She got strawberry milk flavor, Na-chan (host sister) got grape, and I got melon. Yes! I love melon flavor in Japan! This was actually my first time eating Japanese shaved ice... well, unless you count the self-serve stuff at the Y's all-you-can-eat/drink place we used to go to. But I don't think that counts! Anyway, it was really good.

So we walked around the Meikai campus while eating shaved ice, which really helped with the heat and sun! We walked over to where the IES classes were held, and the building is still the same; we couldn't go in but we could see the signs. As always, it remains totally isolated from the rest of campus! Whyyyy? But, whatever!

The building where I had Japanese classes from Sept-Dec 2006.

At some point during the tour, we drove close to by the route I used to take to get from where I lived to the train station (which I'd ride one stop to Shin-Urayasu), and my host mom was like "Look! That's right near by where you fell off your bike!!" and I was just like "......I had hoped you'd forgotten about that..." haha. After that, my host mom dropped me and Na-chan off at the station, while she took the car back to the house since my host dad needed it, and rode the bus back to the station to meet us. In the meantime Na-chan and I visited the food court in the Daiei building by the station (which is where we all usually ate lunch after class--something that seems sooooo strange to me now, eating out for lunch EVERY DAY!! That was back when I cared a lot less about what I ate--so it was super nostalgic! Some places have changed, like the yakisoba place is replaced with something else, but a lot is still the same!). We also went to the 300 yen shop inside the station building, which I am so glad is still there! I loved that place, but it's a bit different now. The socks and accessories sections are smaller, while the home goods sections are much larger. There's also a big focus on "natural" type products (things that look simple, earthy, etc), which is a trend I'm noticing everywhere in Japan now as compared to six years ago. Then we went back to the Daiei building since Na-chan wanted to go to the pet store there. Kanako-san (host mom) found us there, and we got on the train and rode it one stop over to Maihama, which is the Tokyo Disney Resort station, since I wanted to go to Ikspiari, another place my host family took me to a lot. Ikspiari is like the equivalent of Downtown Disney, a shopping center right outside the parks. We went to the big Disney store there, and my host mom ended up buying us all these little wet towel things that absorb water but don't feel dripping wet, and you can use them to cool off in the heat. Mine is Minnie Mouse! Again, getting super spoiled by my host family...

From there it was time to head to Tokyo Station. I was fine going alone but my host mom said she and Na-chan would come along to see me off. In the end, I am glad they did. Because things got crazy from this point on. While we were on the platform waiting for the train, I pulled out my wallet thinking I'd show them my alien registration card. Only--it wasn't in my wallet. And it wasn't in my bag, anywhere. And I had no reason to think it would be anywhere else than where I'd put it, in a slot in my wallet. Then I realized what must have happened. When I got the card, I put it into the one empty card slot in my wallet, the one on the edge, which I had previously stuffed full of all kinds of reward cards, which I had emptied knowing I wouldn't need them in Japan. But because it had been stuffed with like 5-10 cards, it had gotten stretched out, so if you put just one card in it, that card would be likely to fall out. I had forgotten that, so I put the card in there anyway. (What's frustrating is that if I hadn't put a car insurance card into my wallet just in case I needed it while I was at home driving for those two days, and if I had remembered to take it out before I left, I would have put the alien registration card in that pocket instead, and it probably wouldn't have fallen out. Ugh! But I was so busy getting stuff ready and packing right up until the last minute, I forgot at least three things including to take out the car insurance card. Really, losing this card is a sign of how incredibly busy and stressed I've been and how forgetful that's made me.) Anyway, since that card pocket is right on the edge of the wallet--which can double as a clutch--a card in it could fall right out onto the ground. And that's exactly what happened the night before, walking around with Will and Mio, carrying only my wallet. Uuugghhhhh.

So, this is VERY BAD. As a foreigner in Japan you are supposed to have that card on you at all times and it's the one thing aside from my passport and money I should NOT have lost. But I did. So, on the train my host mom called the police for that neighborhood (probably--I'm not certain, but I think that she called the right one) and notified them; of course they didn't have it. And of course I didn't have time to go back and look for it, I had my bullet train to Hiroshima to catch. And THEN we got to Tokyo Station and it was crazy and nothing looked familiar, so it was impossible to find the locker where I'd stowed my luggage! Finally, I found it, but that meant I only barely made my train. We seriously had moments of running through the station, dodging people, first without the luggage and then with it, and after I said goodbye to them (in disbelief that my situation had gotten that bad and they'd had to help me out so much!) and passed through the gates alone I went up to the wrong platform and there was no down escalator to get back to where I could get up to the right one. By the time I FINALLY got to my train, it was minutes away from leaving, and I had emerged near car 7 and needed to be in car 15. I had to board it right there and begin walking through all the cars with all my stuff, sweaty and dehydrated, and before I got to my seat the train started moving. I was also quite possibly the only foreigner on the entire train; at least I didn't see anyone else, so standing out when I was already having a bad time was another unpleasant thing. Let's just say I was fairly miserable for the first half an hour of the journey... but I got water and a bit of food (I had planned to buy a lunch at the station but thanks to the locker search had no time), I rehydrated, I changed out of my sweat-soaked jeans, I calmed down... but I still just couldn't relax the entire time, which sucks because I had really been looking forward to taking the bullet train and having a long stretch of time to enjoy myself.

Then I got to Hiroshima Station and didn't see anyone from the company waiting outside the gates! I walked around for 10 minutes, again carrying the heavy luggage, and finally saw someone, and met up with a small group, and we got back on the trains to ride 45 minutes, and then a car ride, to this training facility out in Higashi-Hiroshima (east Hiroshima). It is like the middle of nowhere out here, but I guess it doesn't really matter.

Today was the first day of training, and it was all right. For some reason I was really panicky all morning, I think I've just been wearing myself too thin and the shocks of yesterday (losing an important thing, almost missing my train) really did a number on me. I had recovered by the afternoon, which is good because that's when we divided into groups and did a 5-minute lesson. I wasn't nervous, but I knew since it was only my second time teaching something it wasn't going to go very well, and I did get a lot of critiques. Basically, I need to smile more and appear more confident/comfortable up at the front, but I think that last bit can only come from experience and until then I have to fake it. In short I have to try and be a very good actor. Acting like an extrovert though I am not, acting comfortable with 30 pairs of eyes on me when I am not, etc. Before I tried the lesson I had been even a little excited to get up and give it a go, but now I'm just aware of all my shortcomings and how hard this is for me. I'm going to keep trying but it's just not something that comes naturally. I have no idea what the rest of the week holds (except that Friday is our "final exam" where we will each give a full 45/50-minute lesson in front of everyone else) but I'm sure it will only get worse from here, but I guess my teaching can only get better. Well, with any luck.

As for the alien registration card, I told the company about it immediately and it should be fine, but I'll have to go to city hall first thing upon arriving in my new home next week and hopefully be able to obtain a document saying my new card is being processed, and then use that document to do things like open a bank account and get a cell phone that I would have needed the actual card for. As you can see, the card is pretty important!! And I lost it! Ugghhh. This is the year of losing really important, really valuable things for me. It's like the third or fourth thing I've lost. I am sick of it!

Anyway, it's been a whirlwind. I'm doing fine jet lag wise, but I can't wait for things to calm down, and for teaching to be less stressful. Use simple English without rambling... control your gestures... smile... appear excited... get the kids engaged... so much to remember...

Last Days In Japan

All right, FINALLY, here it is, my last days in Japan.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Even though we'd taken the Japanese final the previous day, we still had to come to school for one last final thing. We all recited our Japanese compositions, and my class had to do ours completely memorized. Mine was fine, whatever, and then afterwards we had a little goodbye party (with food!) in the Meikai Club restaurant just like they'd had for us at the beginning of the year. It was fine, we said goodbye to our teachers and then I left with Deborah, Yuki, Trisha, Casey, Matt, Joe Kim/Riidaa and Adam (aka my Meikai Crew--I'll really miss eating with them after class, ahh!). We sort of puttered around the Daiei outside the station before separating. I went to the 300y store in Shin-Urayasu Station one last time to pick up some more presents (it's such a good place to find good, cute presents!) and then went home.

Aly was already there, and Brette got there later, and we mostly just spent the afternoon packing. Then around 4:30 we left for the Sayonara Party, which was of course in Kaihin Makuhari--in the Sumitomo building IES is in, no less, on the 14th floor or so where the cafeteria place (to which I still have a card with 640y on it that I never used up--arrgh) normally is. The Sayonara Party was pretty nice, I ran around getting just about everyone I'm friends with to sign my yearbook and take a picture with me. Matt Farrell was in charge of the slideshow that was supposed to be all nostalgic and awesome, but of course he forgot it, being Matt, and we were deprived of that. I'm sorry, I'm a huge sucker for watching a nostalgic slideshow at the end of something, and I don't like when it gets taken away from me because people, however much my friend they are, are irresponsible. grrrrr

December so far

Saturday, December 2, 2006

At 10 there was this IES thing where you could go see a kabuki performance at the kabuki theatre in Ginza. It was free, so I went, and so Lisa, Pat, Anna, Audrey, Matt, etc. It was, of course, at the Kabuki-za, the historical theatre, and there were all these people waiting in lines outside before it began. It turns out kabuki is just like sumo in that it begins in the morning and goes on all day. We, however, were only staying for one act, so we sat in the veeeeery top seats separate from all the rest for the people who are doing that.

I wasn't expecting much from the performance itself but I really liked it. It was so cool and pretty. Most of it, yes, not understood, but it was still cool, and only 1 hour long, which was just enough. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

(Nagano update coming very soon! really!)
mmmm, I love going to the grocery store. I just got my favorite vanilla yogurt, this really good instant pasta soup, CREAM CHEESE FOR THE BAGELS I NOW HAVE YAY BAGELS, and chocolate (yes). Oh and the bread with like a hot dog and some cheese or whatever in the middle, sounds disgusting but is GOOD.

Wednesday night after work I went over to my host family's house, mainly to give them the omiyage (souvenirs) I got in Nagano. They also had an omiyage for me, these blueberry things, but unfortunately (ahhh!) I left it at their house. wah!! They were individually wrapped so they might still be good when I see them again in a couple weeks. We're going to this... art museum thing an hour away by train, and also to the Chiba Zoo at some point in the future as well. Zoo!!! :D I also realized that I booked my ending flight date wrong, Dec. 19th when it should be the 17th, but fortunately they said I can stay with them during the extra days, which is a relief. I'm not sure how I'm going to get to the airport from their house (where I live now isn't exactly convenient for that either), but I'll figure that out later. I might have to take the limousine bus, even though it'll be expensive... the train requires like 4 transfers, and I'm gonna have all or half of my stuff with me. :/

Oh, but the thing that was noticeable about their house is that it was completely messy. Which is not an insult at all, I was really pleased. It means they left it how it normally is; they didn't try to clear away the mess for the benefit of a guest. I think that can be interpreted to mean that I'm not considered a guest; I visit often enough that they don't need to tidy up for me. This is their normal life. That makes me really happy, I'm always glad when that happens because I don't like to just visit a place, I like to live there so I can really get the feel of it, so being considered a normal part of something is just wonderful for me. :) I'm glad that I got to come back and see them again. It's really nice getting to meet up with them a couple times a month. I think I'm going to miss them a LOT when I have to go back and I won't know when I'll see them again! Because I don't know when I'll be back in Japan! I'll just have to make sure Bekah comes here to study abroad or whatever and then I have an excuse to visit. :)

The IES Halloween party was Thursday night and it was pretty fun for like the hour or so I actually attended of it. I brought along some random clothes, not really sure what I would be, but then I found someone to be: Priscilla! One of the other girls here. It really did look like something she would wear (her fashion style is a bit distinctive, short skirts and semi-gothic etc). So I just told everyone I was Priscilla, and everyone thought it was funny. It's always nice when random impromptu costumes turn out well.

Friday night I met Lisa, Allie, Matt K, Marius, Priscilla and Anna in Shibuya at Hachiko (along with half of Tokyo) for karaoke. We didn't have a specific place in mind so we let this guy on the street hustle us into one (haha!). 2000y per person for 2 hours of karaoke, that's not really too bad actually. It was, of course, lots of fun. Lots of singing of songs everyone knew so we all get into it.

This weekend has been our holiday (for Meikai people), there wasn't school on Thursday, Friday nor today. I've just spent most of that time chilling at home. I browsed through Aly and Brette's Tokyo travel guides and discovered all this cool stuff I want to do, like Ferris wheels and pretty gardens and stuff. I'm dying to see all the chrysanthemums in bloom. Aly also told me about this really fun roller coaster she went on near the Tokyo Dome in Korakuen. I want to ride it!! I dunno when I'll get to do that, corraling people is hard sometimes, but I'm gonna try!

Third Week In Japan

Okay, with this post, I'm done catching up, and now I'll just post normal updates here, instead of everything in one batch. There's also no pictures here either, unfortunately, still stuck on my phone. I even tried to take my camera to Asakusa on Saturday only to find that it wouldn't turn on!! Howww annoyinggg. Maybe it's finally bit the dust; it's been acting up for a while. Well, there's no place better to purchase new electronics than Japan. Whenever I finally get into Akihabara I'll look for a good deal.

Week Three: September 11-18, 2006

Second Week In Japan

All right, here's the next bit of my Japan blog, still trying to catch up on past entries, sorry! Eventually I'll be up to date. This one has a LOT less pictures (sorry!!) because I started using the camera on my phone to take pictures so I didn't have to lug my actual camera around. Unfortunately, I can only pull those pictures off the phone with Bluetooth, which my laptop doesn't have. I have to wait until someone with a Bluetooth-equipped laptop will let me use it to get the pictures off. That was supposed to happen this week, but DIDN'T. :(

Week Two: Sept. 2-10, 2006

First Week In Japan

Here is my first attempt to catch up on what's happened so far. For those in my family, here is some background information you might want to know. I am studying abroad through a program called IES; they organize our housing and classes. We could choose to take our Japanese classes either at the university IES has been using for a long time now, Kanda University, or at a new-for-this-year university, Meikai University. I chose Meikai since that program focused more on language, but I also have a few area studies classes at Kanda (taught in English). When I went to Japan in January, that program was also organized by IES, so I already knew some of the employees there from that time. A new employee there is actually my friend/former Japanese language resident who went to my college last year and worked as a Japanese assistant teacher (Hyung-Hye). From my school, there are three other people going that I know, all boys (Casey, Aubrey, and Alex).

If there's a Japanese phrase/pecularity I include here, I'm only going to explain it once, so you better remember it! Lots of things are pretty untranslateable so I usually keep the Japanese term in most times. Okay, I think that's it, read on!

Week One: Aug. 28-Sept. 2, 2006

Sarah's Japan Enikki, Week 2, Jan. 16-20, 2006

Sarah's Japan Enikki, Week 2, Jan. 16-20, 2006

Sarah's Japan Enikki, Week 1, Jan. 5-15, 2006

Woooo, here is the first installment of my Janterm trip journal + pictures!! I divided it up into three sections, one for each week. I am calling it my enikki (絵日記) because that word means picture diary which is exactly what this is.

Sarah's Japan Enikki, Week 1, Jan. 5-15, 2006

update #5

Wheeee, back in Tokyo (Asakusa, in our ryokan). The rest of the group has left and now it is just Kathryn, Sarah K, Milin, Fred and I. We are freee of IES's jurisdiction and the annoying people! yaay!! The ryokan is a very cute old building though very veeeeeeerryyy cold (I am currently freezing my hands off ahhh). brrrrr

The sayonara party Friday night was so sad, when I had to say goodbye to my host mom and Nanase I started crying. My host mom was crying too... ahhhh. They were so amazing. I almost want to change my plans to study abroad in Japan just to stay with them. And also to come back to this crazy crazy place of course.

The rest of the week, who knows. I think I'm about to go to Harajuku and check out the freaks (hahah) though. Kathryn and I also hit up Shinjuku last night but we only really saw Isetan.

That's really all, may post later, may not. Fly back 27th!

japan update #2

Just a short update, as there are children shrieking only feet away and I'm about to go shopping in Ikspiari and play putt-putt golf with my host mom, sister, and sister's friend. I don't know when I'll be able to update again because tomorrow we leave for Kyoto/Hiroshima/Nara and I don't know about internet access there. I'm not really looking forward to going... besides the fact that I really like the routine I've settled into here in the Tokyo area (not to mention my great host family), all the group things so far have been an irritating, exhausting game of 'how can we avoid people we don't like but who insist on following us around hanging out with us.' It has been most tiring, and has only left me completely frustrated and even less willing to let those people tag along. If you knew them, you would understand why. They are on my list of 'Things that have dampened this trip so far.' =_____= Luckily, that list is mostly overtaken by the list of things I -do- like, which almost makes up for it. Like some of the cool things I've bought, which include an arrow from Tsurugaoka Shrine, a hilarious dish sponge with a FACE ON IT, a Tokyo Tower model... etc.

What up, I'm here in Japan. On Sunday I went to Tokyo DisneySea (the adjacent park to Tokyo Disneyland, with a bunch of new rides, including INDIANA JONES THE BEST RIDE EVER OMG OMG) and yesterday to Tokyo Tower (duty as a CCS fan = fulfilled). Yesss!! :D Oh, and my host family is amazinggg, my room is tatami with a futon, it is like sleeping in a cloud! And the family is so nice, I really like them and I hope they don't find me completely irritating either. I'm keeping a journal which I'll type up when I get back, so you can hear more then. It still doesn't seem like I'm in Japan... despite the, you know, Japanese and Japanese people and whatnot. I don't know if I'll ever be convinced. Anyway, it is just about time for class, so I'll perhaps post later when I get a chance.