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...

Back to Japan...

I guess I've been waiting a long time to be able to write this entry (backdated to the day/time of my arrival in Japan this third time around). I always knew I'd resurrect this blog the next time I came back to Japan, but I didn't know it would take me six years to do so. A brief recap is probably in order. I started studying Japanese in college, after wanting to study it for a long time and picking up random words over the course of adolescence. That desire was thanks to a teenage obsession with anime and manga I'll blame on the bad influences friends who got our whole group into it. This coincided with the discovery that I might have a knack for foreign languages, and after I added French to Spanish in high school it only made sense to add Japanese too once I could since I'd been exposed to it for a while by that point. Thus, I chose a college that had a Japanese program over one that did not, and I forced my way into Japanese 101 after the course had already closed. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I loved learning Japanese almost immediately and had a great time with all my classmates, so much so that I ignored my declared French major to apply to live in the Japanese wing of my school's language house. I was accepted and spent a wonderful sophomore year in the Japanese house, punctuated by a January term to Japan that was my first trip abroad; I was fortunate enough to win a scholarship that paid for it. As part of the course/trip, I stayed with a host family in Chiba (near Tokyo) for one week and spent two more weeks traveling around Japan. Some of my fellow travelers/classmates were not my ideal people to spend 2-3 weeks with, and some parts of the itinerary were not quite aligned with my interests, so it was an uneven trip overall but the impressions of Japan stayed with me. It had been such a different experience from anything I'd ever known, and it was such a trip to be in the place with the language and cultural exports I'd been familiar with for about six years by that point, since a formative time in my youth. I thought it might be a fun one-off adventure, but upon my return I started to almost miss it more and more. Then more and more people I knew from the language house decided to study abroad in Japan the next fall, and our native-Japanese-speaker TA who lived in the house with us announced she was taking a job with the study abroad program everyone was doing, and would be working in their office. Hearing all that, I couldn't resist deciding to join them, which meant disrupting plans of a full year in Paris. It was a fantastic decision; I had the time of my life, made amazing friends, and got to live where I could see my old host family once a month and go into Tokyo anytime I wanted. After that experience, doing exactly what I loved, Paris was truly a disappointment (as nauseatingly entitled as that sounds--obviously, the city itself wasn't, because it's freaking Paris, but the program and people were). But that's another story...

My senior year of college, naturally, I started to think more and more about careers. I wanted to pursue a path that would allow me to use Japanese professionally (becoming a translator), but couldn't see how to make it happen. I'd apply for local Japanese-using jobs, but would always get rejected because I wasn't a native speaker or close enough. Same for the wonderful grad school with a translation program I found--my Japanese wasn't good enough to be accepted to it. So, since my Japanese needed to be better: move to Japan. But--I had just gotten into my first real relationship, and I wasn't willing to cut it short by departing for Japan as soon as I could upon graduation. We agreed that when he graduated, we'd move to Japan and teach English together, and in the meantime I would wait for him and look for jobs in a field that utilized my English degree and publishing internship experience. Four years later... haha. Four years later, I was working as an editor (/writer/proofreader) at a small coffee table book publisher, he had graduated and gone into digital forensics almost immediately, and it looked like I was on my own for this whole Japan thing. So, there were some twists and turns along the way, but finally I was able to do what I knew I'd needed to for years, and make moving to Japan a reality. And now here I am!

Before arriving in Japan, I quit my job at the beginning of the summer and spent the summer doing an intensive Japanese language program: Middlebury. We all had to sign a pledge swearing not to use English all summer, for two months/eight weeks, and we attended four hours of classes every weekday morning. We lived on a college campus in Northern California. I was sorted into the second-highest level there, a class of 10 people with four teachers, and ate meals in the cafeteria every day with other Japanese school students. It was fantastic. It was seriously one of the best experiences of my life. It's that feeling when you're doing EXACTLY what you want and need to be doing, and it feels so right. There were (many) stressful times too, and I had to do things I don't like (and would never have to do as a pro translator) such as writing Japanese and kanji by hand, but overall, it was a fantastic fabulous experience, I was lucky enough to make great friends and have largely amazing classmates, across-the-board awesome teachers, and it was just one of the best times of my life that prepared and primed me perfectly for coming to Japan. I'm convinced that it's one of the best ways to progress your Japanese--even more so that simply living in Japan. I recommend it to anyone, for any language. I miss it so much!

I'm going to live in Japan, teach English, and try to parlay my Japanese abilities (which right now are right on the cusp between intermediate and advanced) into a non-teaching job, and/or try to get a bunch of freelance translating assignments and start to build a portfolio. Eventually I want to go to that grad school with a translation program, but we'll see how everything plays out. I definitely don't plan to live in Japan forever, or indefinitely. It's hard being separated from my boyfriend, friends, family, and pet cat, and teaching isn't a natural fit for me (I'm an introvert), but I get to live in the place where they speak the language I love, and hear it and speak it myself just about every day. I'm going to make the most out of my time here and hope it all works out for the best in the end! I hope you enjoy following along on my adventures.

P.S. I'd also like to note that Audrey, one of my closest friend during my time studying abroad with IES Tokyo who was mentioned often in my fall 2006 posts, was killed on April 21, 2011. She was struck by a turning truck as she rode her bike around downtown Minneapolis. The news came as a complete shock to me and it's absolutely one of the worst tragedies I know. Audrey loved Japanese like I did, had so much promise ahead of her, and we had so much fun together during study abroad. We hadn't been in regular contact when she died, which I'll always regret, but she had been in my thoughts often, and now even more so. Audrey was a wonderful, fun person, and I'm so sad her life was cut short and she's gone.

New blog

Even though I studied abroad in Japan, I'm actually a French major, so I'm going to spend the following spring semester (2007) studying abroad in Paris, France, and I'll also keep a blog of that. In case you want to visit it, here's the link.

>> http://sarah-france.blogspot.com

Useful Links & How To Go To The Butler Cafe

So my time in Japan studying abroad is now over, which means I will also no longer post in this blog anymore. I hope it can still remain a good educational tool for anyone considering studying abroad in Tokyo/Japan, however, and that anyone reading these entries gains insight into the experience. Here I'll provide a list of helpful links and advice for anyone needing help and information about studying abroad in Japan.

Programs
- IES Tokyo (this is the one I did. There's also IES Nagoya)
- List of other study abroad programs in Japan (the first thing to do, however, is to check with your school and see what programs they offer for studying abroad in Japan. Often those will limit which program you can do)

Financial Aid/Scholarships
- Freeman Asia (I wound up getting $5,000 from them, which helped me out immensely, so it's definitely worth a shot)
- Bridging Scholarship
- IES scholarships (if your program is IES, of course. I got $500 from the Foreign Language scholarship, and $250 from the Need-Based scholarship)
- List of other study abroad in Japan scholarships
- your school's own scholarships; mine has study abroad-based scholarships

As for studying abroad, I can say wholeheartedly that it is a worthwhile experience and if you want to do it, you definitely should. Don't let financial problems get in the way, there are always scholarships you can apply for and if you're passionate about going you're likely to get them.

If you have any more questions, you can feel free to email me or leave a comment on this entry (link at the bottom). I'd be more than happy to answer whatever you want to know. :)

One more thing...

How To Go To Swallowtail Butler Cafe In Tokyo

I'm sure there are people that want to know how to do this, so I wrote this how-to to help you all out. I hope you have a more successful experience than mine (where, in the end, I didn't make the reservation right and didn't get to go, even though I found it!). :)

Making The Reservation

Basic Japanese knowledge is pretty much necessary for this step, so if you don't know any, try to ask a Japanese friend or a friend who knows Japanese to help you here. (If you don't know much, you can use Rikaichan on the pages to help you figure out what's going on.) Because Swallowtail is so popular, reservations fill up fast. You make your reservation online (HERE), and new reservations for a date exactly a month from a given day are made available at midnight, Japan time. (So if you want to reserve for December 17, be online at midnight November 16 [as it becomes the 17th].)

1. Have the window with the list of reservations open about 5 minutes before midnight, and keep refreshing (there will be several pages, with the oldest times on the first page. The newest times will show up on the last page, so be sure to click through to the end). Pretty soon a new list of times will appear. You will need to know beforehand how many people are coming (if you don't know exactly, make a larger reservation than necessary. They can't add seats) and it's best to be flexible about the time.
2. Act quick. When you find a time and a number of people that suits you, click on the link immediately (they really do go fast). Put in your email address and your number of people, and hit the button.
3. You will get sent an email asking you to confirm your reservation. Follow the instructions in the email and finalize your reservation (this is the step I missed, so it's very important. If you don't finalize it, your reservation becomes invalid).
4. Wait for a month until you can go.

It's also not necessary to reserve a month in advance if you see a date and time on the website's list of open reservations that suits you, but those are usually for weekdays and/or for small numbers of people--which is why no one wants them--and probably won't work with your schedule if you're not a tourist, which is why reserving for a month in advance is good for trying to get weekend times with larger amounts of people.

If you don't live in Tokyo and you're planning to visit either from somewhere else in Japan or from another country, you can also plan out a day to go to the butler cafe and make the reservation in advance accordingly. Be sure to look up what time Japan time midnight is where you are (Time Zone Converter). For example, midnight in Tokyo on a certain day is 9:00 a.m. U.S. central time the PRECEDING day.

Getting There

Swallowtail Butler Cafe is located in Ikebukuro, which is a major station that both Tokyo Metro and JR Yamanote stop at. You can use the website Hyperdia to help you find the fastest and cheapest route there from wherever you are. Arrange to have your party meet at the East Entrance about 30 minutes before your reservation.

(These directions are translated and adapted from the Japanese directions provided on the Butler Cafe website)
1. From the East Entrance, cross the street directly. Once you are across, begin walking right.
2. Continue walking for a couple of minutes. You will come to a fairly busy-looking street (one landmark is the Sanrio Hello Kitty store on the right side). This is Sunshine 60. Turn left onto it and begin walking down it. You should pass by a couple of movie theatres, as well as a Saizeriya and some other things (a Tokyu Hands too).
3. You will come to an overhead pass. Go straight underneath it. There should be a Libro bookstore, a Family Mart, and an am-pm on the left side of the street. You should also begin to see some billboards that will let you know you have arrived at "Otome Doori."
4. Keep walking. When you see a second Family Mart, you are there and you should be able to find it easily. The Butler Cafe is on the basement level, so there will be steps leading down to it. There will probably be a line of women going up the steps. Join the line, and wait for the butler with a clipboard to get to you. He will ask your name, and if you did everything right your reservation will be there and you can soon go in. Have fun!!

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.

The last of November

Big entry catching up on the rest of November! Nikko trip, Thanksgiving, and other things!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Same as Nagano trip, meet in Kaihin at 8:30 to get on the bus. This time we only had one bus since a lot less people went on this trip, which by the time I got on it was mostly full. I semi-unknowingly made Joe give me the seat next to him he had been saving for Chris... oh no! But he'd brought his laptop and we watched Enemy of the State for most of the way down. So intense!! I got really into it and it distracted me completely.

DisneySea + the rest of the week

Wednesday, November 15
DisneySea report!! wooohooo. :) At 10 am I met Deborah, Matt, Casey, Joe and Adam outside Maihama Station. From there we got on the Disney Resort Line monorail train (which costs money!!! It so should not. 200 yen, what a ripoff!) and rode it to the DisneySea stop, where we got off, bought tickets, and went in!! yaaayyy :D

So my iPod broke and I had to order a new one from the Japan site, which got here on Thursday. I really prefer my old one.... but oh well, there's no way I can use it again, so I'm just going to have to get used to this new one. At least it has a cool engraving on the back that I got for free!

princess fire-dog

That's the literal meaning-translation of my first and last name, hahaha.

Saturday this past weekend was our Ladies Night Out for the women of IES. Organized mainly by Allie and Harsha, they invited all the girls in IES, and about 18 of us showed up. We dressed up nice (everyone wore the cocktail dresses they had brought with them... why didn't I bring mine? I have one that would have been perfect... AT HOME, agh) and hung out in Shibuya. It was really fun and cool.

Nagano: A tale of public baths, apples, and MONKEYS

Naganooooo! At last.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Everyone met up at Kaihin Makuhari outside of the building IES is in at 8:30 (ahhhh early), where we had two buses ready to go. We loaded up our stuff and got on the buses. The bus I was on was totally the cool bus (hahaha), we just tended to have more fun amusing people than it seemed the other bus had (and some unsavory characters like Jakub, but you know). On the way there Lisa and I listened to the Avenue Q soundtrack (the good songs, anyway) most of which she hadn't heard, which was good times. :D We stopped twice along the way at service areas (the second time for lunch, yumm katsu curry), where we quickly discovered the awesomeness of fruit-flavored ice cream. Oh myyy, blueberry & vanilla was the first one I got, and then apple! Sooo goooooddd.

(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!

Hmm, I just go up and down about how I feel about my Japanese skills. I'll do just fine at work having things explained to me completely in Japanese, and then I'll go humilate myself at Subway by somehow not expressing that I wanted my food to go (the question I dread the most at restaurants because I still don't know the phrase or the proper replies) and so had to carry my sandwich & cookie back without a bag. Something that struck me as truly terrible and proof of an embarrassing lack of proper Japanese knowledge!!

And then I will randomly discover that I can read manga a lot better than I thought I could. In fact, I might be able to graduate to actually reading it raw, something I had previously thought was impossible for me. It's easy enough online when I can turn on Rikaichan and have kanji & unknown words automatically looked up for me, but it's different with paper of course. And as much as I procrastinate about studying the kanji we learn in class they are probably the #1 most important thing for me to be actually paying attention to. And this just opens up worlds of possibilities, I could actually buy a Japanese manga/novel and read it without needing scanlations. Just now I read the newest chapter of xxxHOLiC, and while I consulted a translation when things got a little complicated/kanji-overloaded, I could read the majority of it on my own. Amazing. Plus you pick up all these nuances and speech patterns that get lost in translation (no matter how good a translation), which is so cool. :D

"Isn't it funny how people can change the way they 'look'?"
"I'm all minstrel" (referring to her music preferences)
- Aly (both)

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And here's some other cell phone pictures that I never posted.


Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan in a random Japanese knickknack shop. crazy~


THE CHIBA MONORAIL OMG OMG OMG


It glides off into the night ABOVE THE CITY!!!


Crows for Bekah. This was as I was walking to Gyotoku Station one morning. THEY ARE HUGE AND EVIL.


Ahahahahaha, classic.


Also classic.

Some general ruminations...

I think I'm kind of going crazy here re: trying to live in two languages, one of them foreign to me. I guess I realized what a lofty goal it was to be fluent by the time I'm out of here, and the fact that I'm pretty sure I won't reach it depresses me a lot, because I feel like I need to be a LOT more ahead on my Japanese than I am, and I don't know how to accelerate that. I no longer feel like the smartest person in my Japanese class, in fact I feel like one of the worst students in it, the kind of person one step behind everyone else in an embarrassing way, which is a very jarring sensation to me (the kick in the pants I needed, no doubt, but still very uncomfortable). Mostly in terms of kanji, but you know.

I find myself grateful that there still exists a language I can read smoothly and understand immediately whatever is written in it. In a time when it feels like all language is unraveling at the seams for me, that is a wonderful feeling. I am happy every time I read something in English and know that a dictionary will not be necessary. Especially something written by someone who plays around with language a lot, and you still get all of it. I don't think I ever realized just how fortunate I am in those cases.

I just hate having a conversation in Japanese and the other person asks something involving a word I don't know. It's so awkward to bust out the electronic dictionary and look it up. I just want to have a fluid conversation. I know how easy it is to get annoyed, despite yourself, with people who aren't native speakers of your language, who have accents and speak awkwardly. I don't want to put that burden on anyone I'm talking with. I just want to push past this and be able to speak and understand smoothly. I feel like after a certain point it all has to just CLICK and you've reached it. I'm intensely jealous of foreigners in Japan who have already reached that goal. It probably takes at least a year to reach, and that's with more immersion than I certainly have with my IES bubble of mainly English speaking friends (as cool as they are, of course!).

This experience, instead of confirming to myself that I am indeed a person who is talented with languages and capable of doing great things with that gift, has just made me realize how far behind I am and has made me question my ability every day. Who's to blame for that? Me, for not doing more independent intensive studying? AC, for having ridiculously easy Japanese classes that did not prepare me for this at all (ironic that I came there hoping to find a good foreign language department!)? I won't go so far as to question the ability itself, I have seen enough over years of language classes to know that it is very true that languages come easier to me than to many people. But it's still not an always-naturally-easy thing like I guess I was under the delusion that it was, or should be. Were my classes really just too easy...?

So many people have done so much more than me. How, how, how can I get to that point?

On Saturday I didn't go anywhere, just stayed in and relaxed, etc. I dunno. I hardly ever have plans for Saturday & Sunday unless I actively ask people what they're doing. I don't really know what's up with that, because on Friday when almost everyone is there we all have a lot of fun, and people will say "let's hang out more!" and then over the weekend, if people do something, I am not told. I know it's nothing personal, but it still bothers me a little. I guess I'm just not on many people's lists to call to hang out, even though they have my number and all. I don't really know how to change that, there are many people I would like to hang out with more on the weekends, but I feel weird calling/texting them...

Sunday I met Lisa in Harajuku and Betsy and Matt joined us later. I bought $35 worth of socks at my favorite sock store there, Tutuanna... WHATEVER THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL SOCKS. But I still haven't found the other things I'm looking for... vertical stripey ish semi transparent black knee-highs (like I saw this girl wearing!), black/neutral color short pleated skirt, warm-looking cold weather type skirts, tops that are not ugly. Possible cute sneakers, don't know what color yet. Maybe black boots. ohhh well. Maybe at the Shin Urayasu mall area where I got my other actually non-ugly clothes.

Quotes from within Endo-Ryo:

"Eeee! It's Hayley Mills! She was in the Parent Trap! She's my spiritual homegirl! You know... twins!"
- Brette (amidst a squee-fit)

Me: (listening to earphones) ("Life is a Highway" comes on)
Aly: (can hear the distinctive opening sounds, laughs) Life is a highwaaayy!
Me: SHUT UP!

Secret Tokyopop fact you probably didn't know: When the company was just starting, they bought copies of their licensed books at Book-Off (aka: cheap bookstore) to save money. Hee! It just really amuses me to think of Stu and Kiyomi-san buying, like, Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth at the lowest price possible. I do hope those weren't the copies they scanned, but I also wouldn't be surprised!

On the fifth floor of the building (the floor I am never on, cause the main office is on the eighth floor) there are those original copies on a bookshelf somewhere still! At least the Sailor Moon ones... they pointed them out to me on my first day. I kind of want to go take a closer look someday, too bad I never go down there!

And yeah, it does amaze me just a tiny bit to think that I am working [if for free] for the company that published the first manga I ever bought (Sailor Moon 1, baby!). Way back in seventh grade... I lent it out to like 6 people so it's kinda beat up now, but since it's out of print I ain't never letting go of that baby. But the thing is, I have become so pessimistic about actually getting a real job there someday. Like, I was reading all the editor spotlights on the website, and everyone's backstories (which, in many cases, I had no idea about!!) are so cool, and I just felt really inadequate. Plus I've convinced myself that when I graduate there won't be an opening for me (a very real possibility), and then what will I do? Sit around until one opens? ch...

Disneyland! (among other things)

Catch-up time!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Japanese test (which I got a 74 on... ugh, whatever), and then the performance of our skits. Which, by the way, let me tell you that NONE of us signed up for this or even really knew what it was going to be. At the end of every class we do skits with a partner, usually memorized since they're short, and for this it was just performing some of those skits for a larger audience. We did it before after our last test, but then it was just for the other classes and our teachers. THIS time... we walked over to the Meikai main campus and into a larger room, where we had an audience of Japanese students and had to use microphones! whaaaat!

I'm just a little annoyed because it was pretty much like we were a bunch of elementary school kids, forced to perform for others so our teachers can show us off and feel proud of themselves. Except for the part where we're all, like, adults. yeaaah. Not cool.

But I will also tell you that my skit ROCKED. Seriously. It was one of the best, if not THE best, which has been confirmed by many sources (which is good, cause I went into it not expecting much). I was a wife fighting with her husband who had come home late (played by Matt). Both of us just decided, whatever, we'll get totally into it, why not, so we did, and it paid off! :D

Then we had a little party afterwards.

ah, le sigh. Feelin' kinda down and such lately. Probably from not seeing my friends for so long. We didn't hang out Friday night like we normally do, people were split up, and I went home to sleep during the afternoon and didn't feel like joining the people that were still there at Kaihin Makuhari, even though I could have... and tomorrow there's no Kanda class, so I won't be going over there again, and it's nothing but Japanese class (which drives me crazy because of our teacher, who we STILL have even though we should have switched after the test, wtf!!) and home, where I am constantly hoping Endo-san doesn't come in, and I never feel like I can relax there, which is awful because I should, by all rights.

We figured it out, though. She went into this thinking it was like a homestay only with three people, we went into it thinking it was a dorm, and we could do what we want, less responsibility. To her the responsibility is still all there, and this apartment is still an extension of her home. Which it's not--this is dormitory housing, and we are right. So frustrating. I hate this a lot. Especially since there's no viable solution really. We're drawing up a list of complaints to show to IES staff, but I dunno if it will help.. plus she always makes sure to tell us about whatever we complain about anyway... aghhh...

Akihabara, etc

Saturday, October 7, 2006

Oooooh, I'm so happyyyy. I finally got to go to Akihabara and do everything I've been wanting to :D I got a new camera, an electronic dictionary, AND I went to a maid cafe. yay! Maid cafes are something very particular to Japan, found in the incredibly nerdy area of Akihabara, where all the dorks hang out and buy video game and anime stuff. They have waitresses dressed as maids, who are supposed to treat all the male visitors with the utmost respect and speak formally yet cutely to them, etc etc. I've been curious ever since I found out about them so it was really cool to finally get to go to one.

My camera is reallllly cool too. I'm incredibly satisfied. Canon IXY Digital 70, another Canon like my old one so I already know my way around it, it's all sleek and slim with a big screen, and just all around cool. My dictionary is really good too because it has a stylus so you can write in the kanji, which is VERY helpful when you don't know what the heck that kanji is and you don't feel like tediously looking it up by radical.

The maid cafe we went to is this one, Cos-Cha. All around Akihabara there were maids passing out flyers and we collected them and then this one looked cute so we went there. Fortunately as we approached the maid passing out that flyer, she was on her way back to the restaurant, so we just followed her there, which probably saved about 15 minutes of wandering around lost. It was pretty normal inside, except for the waitresses dressed as maids (and a few in vests/black pants, were they supposed to be guys? hahah) and all. I mean, there were normal groups of people just hanging out, nothing scary or anything. Everything was incredibly cute. We saw this guy get a coffee and the cream on top was SHAPED INTO A CAT'S HEAD, SO CUTE. I tried to get the same thing but mine just had a bunny face drawn into the surface of the liquid. Still adorable. woohoo, maid cafe!!

Rant

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I AM SO MAD RIGHT NOW.

This is the direct result of Endo-san. AAAAAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH.

She came over about 15-30 minutes ago and seemed actually angry for the first time. Before it's just been "Oh, you should do this, okay?" trying to act all cutesy even though she's 60 years old so it doesn't work at all, but now it was just... argh. First, she's mad because of the futon thing. Here's what happened. Kudo-san (our housing director) came over this morning, apparently. We have deduced that Endo-san went immediately to the futon closet in Aly's room to show her the missing futon, which I replaced two nights ago. It was there in its place (what now, Endo-san?). Earlier this morning when I saw Kudo-san at Meikai I said to her "We didn't have any breakfast this morning" because there was nothing set out for us. There was rice, of course, and some miso soup on the stove, which apparently couldn't feed all three of us (even though Brette and I don't like it anyway, which we've told Endo-san), but not a real breakfast like any bread set out or whatever, which is what we've been having lately.

So Kudo-san tells her this, and Endo-san is very shocked and offended, because there WAS food. So of course, when she comes over we get to hear about it. After she tells me about the futon thing, and I explain and say I'm sorry (which is not good enough, apparently I should have come over to her house and apologized in person. I know you wanted me to do that, Mom, but I'm sorry, I'm not signing myself up for a long lecture if I don't have to), she starts in on the breakfast thing. She tells us like a million times how shocked she was when we said there's no food, because there WAS food, rice and miso soup, and how dare we say that. I pointed out "Brette and I don't like miso soup, and there's not enough time to eat rice always" and she says "It doesn't matter whether you like it or whether there's time, there was food there, and you said there wasn't." Whoa, WHAT? This is where WE LIVE. We PAY YOU to feed us. This has been a problem that we brought up specifically before: we can't just have rice and something else (one time we had rice and cabbage) for breakfast, there has to be more. She has been told this before.

I didn't back down. I looked right at her and I said clearly, "Awhile back, we said bread was best for breakfast because we're busy. Didn't we?" Ohhh, I was so ready for a fight. If she spoke English it would have been ON. But since I can't express all of what I'd like to say, I had to settle for that.

Then, other things. We had dishes still out from dinner, and she told us we should wash them right away. I said I was going to wash them after I finished this movie, and she said no, wash them before. Aly had left a pan out that she hadn't washed because she'd needed to catch her train (even though she'd washed all her other dishes) and Endo-san said that didn't matter, she needed to wash it right away. This has come up NUMEROUS times before. What is the big deal!? The dishes WILL get washed eventually, why do they need to be washed IMMEDIATELY?? I am SO SICK AND TIRED of her ordering us around and telling us what we need to do when WE LIVE HERE, WE ARE PAYING TO LIVE HERE, YOU ARE NOT OUR MOTHER OR GRANDMOTHER OR ANYONE WITH SUCH AUTHORITY OVER US.

Then she said that all of our rooms were dirty (how does she know? Our doors are closed, and she's not supposed to come in. We figured out that this morning with Kudo-san, they looked in all our rooms. I'm so glad they felt free to go and do that. Thanks. I don't mind Kudo-san looking in my room, but I mind Endo-san going ahead and going in when she's not supposed to, and when we're not home) and that we needed to keep them clean. You know why? Because (this is the kicker) when we leave, if she had to pay someone to clean the apartment, it'll be expensive.

OH, WHAT!??! ARE YOU EVEN KIDDING ME HERE?? YOU DIDN'T CLEAN BEFORE WE GOT HERE!!!!! And how does having a bunch of stuff on the floor equal PERMANENT DAMAGE THAT YOU'LL HAVE TO PAY TO REPAIR?? It does not!!!!!! And also, this is MY ROOM. I can do whatever I want with it as long as I don't leave permanent damage. WHICH I'M NOT GOING TO.

Like, I just don't know how to get across that we ARE NOT OBLIGATED to do the things she wants us to. We don't have to wash our dishes immediately after eating, as long as they do get washed. We don't have to clean our rooms every day, they are our rooms. YOU CANNOT ORDER US AROUND. I want to say this to her, but I fear the repercussions, and I know that would just mean another long conversation, and usually I just want her to leave as soon as possible so we can RELAX.

She also said (oh, this is rich) that "This is my house. This isn't a school dorm." UM, THEN WHY DID WE ALL CHOOSE THE DORM OPTION AND WIND UP WITH THIS?!?!? THIS IS A SCHOOL DORM. IT IS NO LONGER YOUR HOUSE FOR THE TIME BEING. QUIT TRYING TO BEHAVE AS IF IT STILL IS AND WE ALL HAVE TO MIND EVERY SINGLE THING YOU WANT US TO DO.

I really seriously think we're getting gypped here. I can't believe all this freaking money that I'm paying for housing and food is GOING to her. I just can't see how she's actually using all of it, even though she apparently is. We can tell she buys the food that's on sale. But there's nothing I can do! We'll talk to Kudo-san, again, and Kudo-san will call her, again, and then--of course--WE get to hear all about it, and hear her excuses for why we're mistaken, and all of the million defenses she has for why there's no possible way what we're saying could be true. I hate overly defensive people. I hate old people who are too set in their ways. I HATE THIS!!!

(Once again... I love my roommates. I love it here... when Endo-san is not around. But it's getting to be too much. She wants to be in every aspect of our lives when we're here. Everything is her business. We're used to being independent. We're basically adults. I do not like being treated like a child and told what to do! This isn't a matter of fitting in to Japanese society, this is really getting to be things that, no matter what culture, we are not obligated to do. Plus I've ceased to think of her as the epitome of Japanese culture she seems to think she is, anyway. I feel no obligation to abide by whatever she thinks is right just because I'm in Japan.)

I'm so glad I'm going to my old host family's this weekend. SO GLAD.

Oh, god, what a freaking roller coaster of a day. I'm not one to be shaken up by drama that often so this is pretty unsettling. The futon mess with Endo-san continues, as even though she has told us she'll lend us out her futons now, I still had a different one left under my bed and she FLIPPED OUT that it was missing and lectured Aly and Brette for like hours tonight. I missed all of this because I went with Lisa to a piano concert by her piano teacher back at college, but I'm just really dreading whatever will happen next when I have to face her again. I put the futon I took back in the closet but of course it's not going to be the end of things. I know I'll get lectured again, or whatever. ugghhhh.

I just really, really don't want to have to DEAL with Endo-san, and god, I just hate that this isn't our space. She invades it at all opportunities and doesn't just let us DO THINGS our own way, on our own, she has to constantly instruct us on how to do it and it SUCKS to be living in an apartment still full of someone else's JUNK because they CANNOT STOP caring about what may happen to it while we're here. THEN YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE RENTED IT OUT IN THE FIRST PLACE!! I am never, ever, ever subletting or renting a house if I can HELP it. god!!! Landlords SUCK.

And there's a Japanese test on Thursday that I'm probably going to FAIL again, which will be lovely, and I STILL HATE OUR NEW TEACHER IN THAT CLASS WHY IS SHE SO INSANE. Why is my life filled with insane Japanese women that I HATE having to deal with?!
(Don't worry. This is just a rant. No, seriously, I'm really just fine overall. But this is all so aggravating!!)