Max All Up In Japan

Last Night

2009-07-22T04:50:00.001-07:00

Jumping ahead a bit here.

I apologize for not updating the past...couple of weeks? I got pretty busy, especially during this past week. I'll be sure to finish up once I'm back in the States.

I've had so many incredible experiences and met so many great people. I can't believe it's actually coming to an end.

I'm getting up at 6 AM tomorrow to walk to Rinnouji one last time.

Wish me luck with my 37 hour day tomorrow~~

6 Japanese students, 6 exchange students

karaoke, purikura, walking around downtown Sendai

one of the best days in Japan

The Week of June 28-July3

2009-07-11T17:42:00.001-07:00

A few highlights of the school week:

On Monday, the koten (old Japanese literature) teacher took the class to the "Japanese room" of the school, basically a large tatami room. She wanted to introduce me to the game 百人一首 (hyakunin isshu). A description and rules from Wikipedia:

The game of hyakunin isshu involves two types of cards.
100 "reading" cards with drawings: yomifuda
100 "grabbing" cards with words: torifuda
There are whole phrases of waka (a style of Japanese poem) from the collection called Hykunin Isshu written on the yomifuda. Only the lower phrase of the waka is written on the torifuda. When the reader reads out the waka on the yomifuda, the player quickly searches for the card among the torifuda to look for the phrase that matches the one that the reader is reading. These are the basic rules:

1. Mix up the deck of torifuda, and lay them out on the floor. Players sit around the cards.
2. The reader reads out the waka.
3. When you know the lower phrase by only hearing the upper phrase, you can take the card with the lower phrase.
4. If you haven’t memorized the whole waka, then you have to wait until the reader reads out the lower phrase.
5. When someone takes the yomifuda, the reader moves on to the next waka.
6. When all the cards are read, the person who has taken the most cards wins the game.

None of the people in my group had any of the waka memorized (yay, low-level school), so we were just waiting until the teacher read the lower phrase. Well, I say read, but it was actually more like singing. Check it out:

In the end, I managed to get 8 cards! I was very proud of myself.

Had pottery that afternoon and made some plates. After that assignment, though, I really got down to business.

Tuesday: The girl in the far left of this picture was all like, "Chin peace!", so that's what happened.Went to English club for a bit before soccer on Wednesday with Kenneth, Rebecca, and Eva. We drew a rough map of the US on the board to show where we lived, but it ended up degenerating into Rebecca and I drawing our respective states (North and South Carolina) big enough that it would cover the other. It was a good time, though. The girl I'm with in the picture below is going to England next week for an exchange!

Had soccer every day, followed by delicious meals at home. In the soccer picture, you can see the first years trying rake some sand over the puddles while Kei-san looks on. The food pictured is shabu shabu! A description from, well, you can probably guess where: "Shabu Shabu is a Japanese variant of hot pot. The dish is related to sukiyaki in style, where both use thinly sliced meat and vegetables, and usually served with dipping sauces. However, it is starkly different in taste; shabu-shabu is more savory and less sweet than sukiyaki."

On Thursday, there was no soccer, so I went for a pretty long walk after school. One thing I enjoy doing on my walks is going to the top of mid-rise residentials and taking in the free view. It's not necessarily spectacular, but it's a nice way to see the area I live in from another angle.

Next, I walked to Rinnouji, the temple that I visited with my host dad on my first day in Sendai. I walked around the graveyard that surrounds the temple a good bit, which was very peaceful. It was raining just slightly, and except for a few monks, I was the only one there.

Of course, there's the ever-present contrast between old and new. Face one way:

Face the other:

I love it.

At school the next day we had another assembly. This time, a few police officers came to talk to us about protecting our bicylces against theft, because there were rumors that thefts may have occured 4 years ago at a high school in Okinawa. Ok, not really. But what I'm trying to say is that I think they have bigger problems to worry about, like getting the students to study (see below for my class's average grades on the tests from the first week).

Watched a movie about four Japanese high school guys in the 60's who loved rock and roll. It ended with them singing "I Feel Fine" by the Beatles at their school festival. The kids in my class were glued to the screen.

Finally, though I by no stretch of the imagination enjoy the rainy season, there is one nice thing about it. The vice principal told me that there are flowers that only bloom during this season, and there are actually some right in front of the school.

This was the week I felt like I had really gotten into the swing of everyday life. Wake up, go to school, go to soccer, come home, eat, sleep. Throw in some great experiences. It's a nice feeling.

A nautical weekend...yeah, I got my flippy-floppies

2009-07-10T04:45:00.000-07:00

What went down on the days June 27-28 made for a great weekend.

On Saturday, I set out on a trip with three other exchange students living in Sendai: Rebecca, Kenneth, and Sora. Oh, there were also about 100 fifth graders from Meisen (the school my host mom used to work at that has the staff comprised of gaijin, or foreigners). All I knew is that we were going along with these kids on a field trip to a museum about a boat that sailed to Europe and oh yeah Spanish people may have also been involved WOOO a boat!

So, we boarded the Meisen buses and spent the 1 hour ride talking about various things. My favorite topic was regional differences in American English. Rebecca and I represented the South while Sora and Kenneth represented...Michigan. We also talked about words we had heard they say in other states. "What? They call water fountains 'bubblers' in Wisconsin?" "Do they seriously say 'hecka' in California?" I really enjoy that kind of thing.

Anyway, we got to the San Juan Batista (the name of the ship) museum around 1. The first thing we did (after being like "aww yeah ocean) was go to an a mini movie theater to watch a 20 minute video about the noble vessel. There were a lot of samurais and spanish monks. Here's what basically went down: it was a Japanese ship built in Western style that took a Japanese embassy to see the Pope. There were storms that made the trip difficult and long, blah blah blah...I was just as fascinated by it as you probably are by me telling you about it. However, what made it a truly memorable experience was the theater itself. I thought it was kind of strange when we had to put on seat belts before the movie started. It turns out the seats are on a large machine that makes them move up and down to simulate the feeling of being on a boat. It was almost like an amusement park ride during the storms. Very crazy stuff.

Of course, the only reason I came was to stand on the deck of the boat, take a picture, and put it in a facebook album with the caption "I'm on a boat, and...".

HOWEVER, the boat was being renovated and we couldn't go on it. This saddened me greatly.

All the same, we had a nice time just walking around the museum, talking by the ocean, eating the many snacks that our respective host families had given us, etc. Fun!

Sunday was the day my host parents had picked out to take me to Matsushima. Wiki: Matsushima (松島) is a group of islands in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. There are some 260 tiny islands (shima, 島) covered in pines (matsu, 松) – hence the name – and is ranked as one of the Three Views of Japan. A well-known apocryphal haiku often attributed to Matsuo Bahou indicates that the poet is at a loss for words: Matsushima ah! A-ah, Matsushima, ah! Matsushima, ah! I can't write about out everything I did at Matsushima. There was simply too much. I'll try to give the basic run-down, and elaborate when I feel it's appropriate. I went to this very cool shrine set out on an island that you see above. Oh, check out my shirt. I also got my fortune, and I found I was to be very lucky! The pieces of paper you see twisted around the rods above are those of the poor souls whose fortunes indicated that things wouldn't be so great. After that, we stopped by this little shop to eat some senbei.

Then came the main event! Actually being on a boat!

Well, more accurately, a ferry that would be taking us through the islands. This was such an amazing experience. It was incredible seeing the islands, naturally, but what really made it unforgettable were....the seagulls. They sold seagull food on the boat for 100 yen, and people stood on the deck and throw it to seagulls that follow the boat the whole way. I'll let the pictures/videos do the talking:

What really killed me:

If you held out the food, the seagulls would swoop down and take it straight from your hand. If you threw the food out, they would race to catch it no matter where you threw it. It was amazing. Truly a memorable experience.

After the boat ride, we went some very old caves that had graves in them. I think some of them dated back to the 1300s.

Next, we visited a temple that made Rinnouji look small. No pictures were allowed inside, but I wish I could show you some of the rooms in it. The walls were covered with gold and paintings of dragons, temples, mountains shrouded in fog, etc. One of the rooms was where the kept the bodies of the samurais who committed seppuku when their lord, Date Masamune, died. Imagine standing in a room with a history like that.

Next, we went to a dango shop and got a couple of plates of them. They were, of course, delectable. The green stuff (actually crushed edamame beans that have been sweetended) you see on one of the plates is the Sendai specialty, Dzunda. I do love Japanese sweets.

Next, we went to a store that sold sasakamaboko, or...bamboo leaf fish cakes. I guess that's how you would translate it. Anyway, those are fun, because you get to roast them yourself.

Finally, we ended the food sampling tour at a great seafood place. Just look at those plates.

Oh, then we came home and had dinner: curry ramen!

After dinner, went for a walk.

LIFE IS GOOD.

Koibana, Soccer Practice, Cleaning up Sendai

2009-07-09T02:11:00.000-07:00

Wow. Just had the obligatory had-a-pretty-long-post-written-up-and-then-it-got-deleted blogging experience. Kind of hating life right now. I'll try to get the basic gist of what it was.

Thursday, June 25, was nice because we had 午前授業 (only morning classes). My boy Onomasa listening attentively in math class:

The reason for the lack of classes in the afternoon was made clear after lunch. They were bringing in an author to speak to the whole school. He was supposed to tell us how he became an author, and his talk was entitled, "Until I Can Reach the Sky". I could barely contain my excitement.

There's no auditorium at my school (or any Japanese high school?), so we all carried our chairs from the classroom to the gym and set them up in rows according to class (2-9 represent). It was, as they say in Japanese, hot as a demon, and I know that at least 2 people collapsed due to the heat. I settled in for what promised to be a rousing two hours. The principal introduced him, and the author stepped up the mic and prised us by saying:

"Guys, honestly, I broke up with my girlfriend of 3 years yesterday."

Surprise and sympathy from everyone.

"I think I would feel better if I just talked about it. Hey, maybe I'll be able to look back at it and laugh! Anyway, we were sitting in the parking lot of a 7-11 at 4 AM yesterday..."

Stunned silence followed by the exchange of looks of disbelief as he went on to tell 1000-plus high schoolers a story that culminated in his girlfriend exclaiming, "I thought you promised you would grow up!" and storming out of the car. I couldn't fathom what convinced him that what he as doing was a good idea. Eventually, he went on to talk about how he became an author, at which time I began playing shiritori with Moe and Rinako. Here's the big man himself:

I did manage to learn a new word from it all, however: koibana, which is a shortened form of the word koibanashi, or talking about one's love life.

After school, I went to my first actual soccer practice. I was pretty dismayed to see that the dirt/sand playing surface, already tough enough to adjust to, was covered in puddles. This led to a lot of the ball suddenly stopping and very muddy group of guys. All the same, it was a great time. I'm by no means one of the best. In fact, I'd put myself in the around the 20th percentile. But, playing with guys who are mostly better than me can't hurt, right? We ran a bit, stretched, did a couple of drills, practiced set plays, and then broke up into three teams and scrimmaged for a good bit. Not too different from America...except that it lasts about 3.5 hours! I exchanged phone email addresses with a couple of the guys and headed home around 7:40. I'll go more into detail about soccer when I do a post on my daily routine.

The next day, we again had classes only in the morning. But first, here's the view from the room where we have history class:

As I've mentioned, Japanese schools don't have janitors. The students clean up the school. However, my school decided that wasn't enough! That afternoon, the whole school headed out to clean up the entire neighborhood around the school.

I was given weed-pulling duty, and it wasn't bad at all because I got to work with the English teacher from Montreal the whole time. He told me all about how he got to Japan (JET Program) and some of the troubles with Japanese bureaucracy he's had in is 13 years in the country. It was a nice conversation. All the students looked on in awe because we were speaking in English.

Went to soccer again. Had to do some killer muscle training that made Coach Bob's boot camps seem like elementary school gym.

Came home to a delicious meal!

Fridays are also nice because my host dad comes back home. He works in another prefecture during the week, so it's nice to have him around. He often brings goodies from the city he works in, as pictured below.

School stuff, some soccer, sushi conveyor belt

2009-07-04T04:18:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty far behind. I'll get right into it~

Monday, June 22, turned out to be a pretty important day at school. Unbeknownst to me and the other exchange students, it was the day we would be introducing ourselves in front of the whole school. It was a bit anxiety-inducing looking out on about 1000 students and all the faculty from the stage. It worked out really well, though. I said my piece, and it was met with a resounding "EEEEEHHHHHH!?" from the crowd. As a result of this, people realized they didn't have to stand there and look at me nervously and try to think of something to say in English when we met. Now students are always greeting me in the hall, from the balconies, and even a bit around town. AJATT is the only way, ladies and gentleman.

I had a pretty regular day of school. Incomprehensible English lessons, simple math, pottery, etc. Oh, I haven't mentioned that I'm attending a pretty low level school. It's quite apparent that there isn't a whole lot of studying going on outside the classroom here. They've been getting their tests from the first week back, and I've gotten used to the not-so-dismayed cries of へええ、また赤点？(eeeeehhhh, a failing grade again?) The class average on the math test was a 40. Not that I'm complaining! I think that a lower level school is ideal for a short term exchange. The students certainly aren't busy studying, leaving them time to do other things. Everyone is also really nice.

During cleaning time after school, however, the soccer coach came to my classroom. He had heard that I was interested in playing with the school team, and told me to go ahead and come to practice that day. I didn't have my cleats, but I agreed to come and check it out. So, I headed down to the gurando, the same sand/dirt surface where we have gym, where soccer practice is held. As is so often the case in Sendai during this season, it was raining. All of the guys were really excited to see me there, showering me with "harro"s as soon as I appeared on the, um, field (playing surface?). At any rate, I sat down and watched practice while talking with the coach and these two girls who act as managers of the team, Yuki and Shouko. It was great fun, and we ended up talking for about two hours. I headed home around 6:15, when I figured they would be wrapping up. However, upon asking, I found that practice went until 7:30. Practice every day from 4-7:30? I thought I might have misheard.

That night, my host mom ordered pizza. In Japan, pizza is a pretty rare treat, because they cost $15-$20 a pop. It was well worth it, however (not that I was paying...). It's not everyday you get a pizza with Camembert cheese.

The next day, the weather was very nice.

School was pretty good, seeing as we only had classes for the first half of the day. During the computer class, my classmates had me take online tests to find out useful information like the personality traits of my future spouse. The afternoon, however, promised to be interesting. There was a....I guess you could translate it as an annual fine arts appreciation event? At any rate, it entailed that the entire school had to walk to a performance hall near Izumi-Chuuo station to watch a Rakugo performance. From Wikipedia: "Rakugo (落語 literally "fallen words") is a Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone storyteller (Rakugoka, 落語家) sits on the stage, called the Kōza (高座). Using only a paper fan (扇子, "sensu") and a small cloth (手拭, "tenugui") as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical story. The story always involves the dialogue of two or more characters, the difference between the characters depicted only through change in pitch, tone, and a slight turn of the head."

Well, a few of my friends in the class didn't feel like walking all the way to Izumi-Chuuo, so we just walked to Yaotome station and rode the subway the rest of the way.

The Rakugo performances were very cool, and I'm really lucky that I was able to see something like that. Even many Japanese people have never had the opportunity to see it live. The first guy was especially cool. He specialized in 紙切り (the cutting of paper). While moving his body all around, he would cut incredibly detailed profiles/shapes with scissors. He even took orders, and cut out what people yelled out (Date Masamune, Godzilla, etc.) Photography wasn't allowed, but I managed to snap a shot surreptitiously.

After the the final performance (a very creepy one set in the Edo period), we exited the theater and had the rest of the day to ourselves. So, some of my friends in the class and I decided to go for 回転寿司 (sushi conveyor belt). We walked for about a half an hour and got there around 3:30. It was pretty empty because of what time it was, so we could make our orders directly to the people making the sushi. Everything was 100 yen, so we could pretty much go for whatever struck our fancy. They had all kinds of sushi: squid, octopus, egg, hamburger, hot dog...wait, what? Who thought it would be a good idea to put two wiener dogs on vinegar rice?

Everything I had, though, was delectable. Well, with the exception of one thing. I finally tried 納豆 (nattou). I was hoping I would like it so I could be one of those "cool gaijin" who actually like nattou, but I was sorely disappointed. It smells bad, and doesn't taste much better. Ah, well. Nattou and good stuff:

After we had had our fill of sushi, I broke out a gigantic bag of Starburst. They couldn't get over how cute the little candies were. I had a great time.

According to the girls I was with, the standard thing to do when out with friends is to wrap up the day talking at McDonalds. So, we did just that (at a two story McDonalds, no less). It was nice just chilling, talking, eating Mcflurries. In the middle of it all, Rinako got a call from her family and was informed that they had just gotten a puppy. We spent a while discussing what its name should be, which was fun. She ended up deciding on Maru.

From left to right: Kanna, Yuuri, Chiaki, Mei, Rinako, Moe

Overall, it was a great day.

A soccer filled weekend

2009-06-28T02:09:00.000-07:00

I got up around 8:30 on Saturday, June 21, and found myself with a good bit of free time before the plans I had that afternoon. So, after breakfast, I decided to go for a walk. I had no particular destination in mind, so I just went where my feet took me. Walking in Japan can be kind of harrowing, because even some of the busier streets don't have sidewalks. This entails cars/bikes/buses passing you at an uncomfortably close distance. This picture doesn't show it too well, but...

I kept walking down the street I had taken the time I rode my bike downtown with my host dad. Eventually, I found myself near Sendai station in the heart of downtown. This meant I had covered quite a distance, and I wasn't wearing the right kind of shoes for the job. I decided to turn back when I realized they were starting to rub against my skin in a quite painful way. Had I been thinking, I would have taken the subway home, but walking back didn't end up being all that terrible. Overall, it was a really great way to see some of the city on my own. I ended up walking for about 3 straight hours.

After lunch, I got ready headed over to my host grandpa's house to head out for the afternoon. Ah, I haven't even mentioned my him yet, have I? Well, he lives about a 3 minute walk from my host family's house and comes by decently often. When my host mom told him I spoke Japanese, he simply accepted it as fact and talked as he would normally, with dialect and all. This makes him kind of difficult to understand sometimes, but most of the time it's no problem. He's really into soccer and even plays on a 70-plus team. This is one of the most hardcore things I had heard in a while. Anyway, that day he and I were going to help at a U12 soccer team's practice. He had helped out before, and he wanted to take me along.

Japanese youth teams all practice on surfaces like the one you see above, which is basically just compacted sand. I introduced myself to the team, leading them to all just kind of stand there with their mouths open in bewilderment. Practice started, and it was my turn to be surprised. These kids were 4th-6th graders, and they were better than at least half of my high school soccer team. No lie. I was really impressed with the skill that some of them displayed.

The last part of practice was a scrimmage with three teams that would change out as one of the other teams lost. I was on the team with all the adults at the practice, and it was a lot of fun playing. I managed to avoid getting burned by any of the kids, thankfully. Overall, a great experience.

The next day, my host parents and I went to a professional soccer game! The home team, Vegalta Sendai, vs. Tokyo Vindi. Why both teams' names start with "v", a sound that doesn't exist in Japanese, is a mystery to me. But a game between Begaruta and Bindii is something you don't want to pass up. There are actually two soccer stadiums in town. One is in Izumi-ku, pretty close to Itoyokado, and the other is a bit more on the outskirts of town. This game was at the second stadium, which is quite huge. It was one of the venues of the 2002 World Cup. Look at my host dad rock that USC shirt.

There were about 12,000 people at the game. At one end of the stadium were the hardcore Vegalta fans, who kept chanting and waving flags the entire game. At the other end were the Tokyo Vindi fans who had come up all the way from Tokyo to cheer on their team. These fans' dedication rivals that of those of Toronto FC. It was really great.

It rained a bit at the end of the game, but nothing unbearable. Despite a scoreless first half, the second half saw 4 goals, with the game ending in a 2-2 tie.

While waiting in the long line of cars to get out the stadium, I found out that the screen in the car is not only a CD player and GPS system, but also a functioning television.

After the game, we stopped by Coop and I got an Engrish shirt. Then, we went home and had a delicious meal of homemade ramen. I was, as my mother would say, one happy camper.

A couple more things from Friday, June 20

2009-06-28T01:31:00.000-07:00

I realized I forgot to mention my trip to Book Off in the last post. Last week, I asked Eva where she recommended that I buy books in Sendai, and her immediate response was, "Book Off!"

Book Off is a large store of discount books, movies, CDs, clothes, surfboards (seriously), etc. To a Japanese learner who usually has extremely limited access to such materials in Japanese, it was like paradise. Books for only 100 yen! Movies for 500 yen! Crayon Shin Chan manga! I walked away with quite a bit of merchandise that day.

The ride home from Book Off was also quite interesting, as we stumbled across a couple of neat places. First, there was this little shrine hidden away from the busy street that we almost passed right by. It was, of course, very cool and Japanese-y.

We also almost passed by this long staircase that led up to....well, at the time, we didn't know what. We ascended the stairs and found it led to a pretty steep path up a large hill. It was very peaceful, and we found ourselves surrounded by dense foliage even though we were in one of the busier parts of town.

Upon reaching the top, we were treated with a great view from a little structure that was built up there.

On the way home, we stopped by a store for some snacks, and found a bottle of whiskey that cost $1000. wooooo

That night, after yet another delicious dinner, I gave my host family the present I had brought for them. They really liked the shirts, and it turns out my host sister loves beef jerky. They liked everything else, as well. I was really glad that I could give them a little something after all they had done (and were still to do) for me.

Week 1 - School, mostly

2009-06-23T01:30:00.000-07:00

Man, it's hard to find the time to update this. I'll try to bring you guys up to date on what I've been up to.

Monday was my first day of school. I'm going to a school called, no lie, Touhoku Seikatsu Bunka Daigaku Koutougakkou. It has about 1000 kids, making it quite big for a Japanese school.

It takes about 15 minutes to ride my bike to school, and, despite the killer hills, it's a nice ride. The first day, however, my host mom took me in the car. Upon arriving, we talked for a bit with the principal and vice principal. They introduced me and the other exchange YFU exchange student at my school, Rebecca, to a year exchange student from Lithuania whose name is Eva. Being European and all, she's fluent in English. Next, I went to my class, 2-9. I walked in to a lot of stares, whispering, and giggling. I gave a self-introduction in front of the class, which induced a few head explosions (what I call how Japanese people react when a gaijin speaks Japanese at a level above beginner). They had a desk prepared for me in the back of the classroom. I sat down, and classes started. Learned some biology words and a bit about ancient Japanese poetry.

What were fun, though, were the periods of free time between classes (which are about 10 minutes). I talked some to the guy next to me, and then a group of about 6 girls came up and started asking me a bunch of questions. That was fun. Those six and this one guy, Onomasa, have become my best friends in the class. You may think that male/female ratio is strange, but what's strange is this: in my class of about 30, there are only about 7 guys. I have yet to discover the reason.

We had gym before lunch, so everyone started changing into their gym clothes...in the classroom. This kind of surprised me, but changing into gym clothes just entails putting a different shirt over the undershirt of the school uniform, so nothing explicit. You also have to change shoes. This brings me to the interesting topic of shoes in Japan. You need a lot of them: shoes to go to school in, shoes to wear in school, shoes to wear outside for gym, shoes to wear inside for gym, slippers to walk around the house in, different slippers to put on when in the bathroom in the house, etc. Never in my life have I taken of my shoes so many times a day. But, I digress.

The guys went outside for gym that day, which entails going to the guraundo (ground). This is basically a large sand/dirt surface on which all sports have practices. I didn't have a change of clothes, so I figured I wouldn't participate that day. So, I was a little surprised when the first thing I had to do was 30 push ups in the dirt. I heard the guys muttering behind me, "dakara motenase ttsuno", which is kind of like, "Come on, welcome your guests." Luckily, I didn't have to take part in the activity of the day (baseball), so my uniform only got slightly dirty. I spent the rest of the time talking with one of the gym teachers, which was fun. I went back to the classroom and it was lunch time. My host mom packs me a delicious bentou every day, for which I'm eternally grateful. We eat lunch in the classroom and someone always turns on music, so it's pretty fun. I talked some more with people in the class. In the afternoon, there was one more regular class, and then an hour and a half art class. Turns out I'm in a class that specializes in art. I'm not to into doing artsy stuff, but I figured it could be fun. We went to a pottery class that day, which was pretty cool. Made a few, um, pots.

I sat next to Onomasa, which was pretty funny. He kept saying stuff about the guy across the table like, "Hee izu derukkusu gayee" (he is deluxe gay). The other guy would respond, and they'd go back and forth for a while, which was quite amusing.

The school day came to an end around 3:30. Then the cleaning started. As I'm sure many of you are aware, Japanese schools don't have janitors. The students do the cleaning. It's not bad, though; we were done in about 10 minutes. I stayed around and talked for a while, then headed out. On the way home, I bought some wagashi (japanese sweets) at a supermarket. I do love red bean. I think I'll be doing that every week.

No connection with anything else: my host mom just had a phone conversation that consisted of her saying "hai" 19 times in a row. True story.

Anyway, there were tests the rest of the week, so we three exchange students spent those days in the library. Here's how pretty much every day went: we went to the library first thing in the morning, worked on this art project they gave us, talked, ate lunch at 12:30, and left school. A couple of the days we watched American movies in Japanese thanks to the English teacher from Montreal, Bouchard-sensei. He is such an awesome guy. He is incredibly helpful and fun to talk to. On top of that, he speaks excellent Japanese. Khatz would be proud.

After school every day, Rebecca, Eva, and I did some fun things. One day, we went to this huge mall called Itoyokado. I bought a couple of Harry Potter books and experienced my first taiyaki in Japan. mmm taiyaki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiyaki) Another day, we went to karaoke. That was incredibly fun. It was Rebecca, Eva, Sora, Kailee, two Japanese guys and I (Sora and Kailee are the two other YFU exchange students in Sendai). We sang for 4 hours! The best part: before 6:00, it costs only 10 yen an hour. Add one mandatory drink and you get 4 hours of karaoke fore 340 yen. You could also bring in all the snacks and drinks you wanted, so we had a veritable mountain of snack items on the table in the room. It was truly great. Oh, Susi, I suddenly had a sister who was really into Arashi, if you know what I mean.

One of those nights, I also visited the kindergarten where my host mom used to work. It's a pretty unique place because almost all of the teachers are gaijin (foreigners). Kids go to this school until the 4th grade and half to all of the instruction is in English. It's a child's paradise. There are waterfalls, tons of slides, a horse, bunnies running around, etc. It was a very interesting experience. (I'm just giving a basic overview of things because I'm pretty behind)

On Friday, I went back to the class and talked with some of my classmates. There was an earthquake drill, and this gave me a lot of time to talk with people. That was fun, and those 6 girls I mentioned earlier invited me to kaitenzushi (sushi conveyor belt) and purikira sometime the next week. I was (and still am) really enjoying myself.

There's so much I left out in this post, but it's a pretty good overview. This post brings us up to Friday, June 19. Today is Wednesday, June 24. Eh, not bad.

The first couple of days in Sendai

2009-06-17T23:43:00.000-07:00

After having tea with everyone at the station, my and Rebecca's families took us to an observation deck to see the city we would be living in for the next 6 weeks. Sendai is quite the large city. It really is. (sorry, just reread The Catcher in the Rye. Now I'm reading it in Japanese!) Seriously, though, downtown Sendai actually reminds me a bit of Shinjuku.

After spending a good amount of time at the observation deck (it was my host sister's first time there!), my family and I headed to their house. You think the roads are narrow in Germany? We were centimeters away from every person and car we passed on the ride home. It was a a pretty harrowing experience, but by now I've gotten use to it (writing this about a week later). The house is quite big by Japanese standards. It has a garage at street level and two floors above that. Inside, I'd hazard a guess that it's a pretty normal Japanese house. There are two traditional tatami rooms with sliding doors and all, one of which is my room! haha, I have to duck to get into it.

In the bottom right of the picture of my room, you can see part of the welcome sign they had at the train station.

After showing me around the house, we went to Coop, which is a supermarket. haha, I made a bit of a mistake in the car. The music playing was your regular J-pop/boy-band type music, which is totally fine with me. However, they asked my what kind of music I liked, and the first thing I listed was hip-hop. We finished up the ride to Coop with Hollaback Girl serenading us >.<

For dinner that night, my host dad decided we would have sukiyaki. From wikipedia: Sukiyaki consists of meat (usually thinly sliced beef), or a vegetarian version made only with firm tofu, slowly cooked or simmered at the table, alongside vegetables and other ingredients, in a shallow iron pot in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin. Before being eaten, the ingredients are usually dipped in a small bowl of raw, beaten eggs. It was totemo oishii (very delicious) (that's for Caden).

The next morning, I did what any good Wolff would do when he/she finds his/herself in new environment. I went for a long walk around my neigborhood (Mizunomori). By the way, I've found it's pretty amusing to say my adress translated entirely into English: "Me? Oh, I live in the Forest of Water in the Blue Leaf District of Sendai City. No biggie." It's like I'm in Naruto or something.

Had a delicious breakfast.

I always kind of try to hide the fact that I'm taking pictures of the food, but my host mom is always sees and is like, "Go ahead! Go ahead!" teeehee

After breakfast, I set out on a bike ride with my host dad. The original goal was just to go to the school I would be attending, but we ended up being out for about 4 hours. After going to the school, we went to a temple called Rinnouji that's about a 15 minute ride from the house. The temple was incredible, but what really amazed me was the traditional Japanese garden. I took so many pictures. There was also a 茶会 (tea meeting?) at the temple that day, so there were all of these ladies walking around in kimonos. A very cool experience.

Next, we went to a small 和菓子 (wagashi - japanese sweets) shop that sold a certain type of mochi that Sendai is famous for. Its exact name isn't coming to me right now...

We kept riding until we got to downtown Sendai. We went up the street where they do this things called the "Pageant of Lights" in the winter, which is basically a huge display of Christmas lights. There was some event going on downtown and there were a lot of food stands set up, and I tried a couple of things that I had never heard of before. Finally, on the way out of downtown, we ran into this German festival with a beer tent and everything. I found myself forgetting what summer it was.

Oh, someone tell Yuki I ate at Mos Burger. It was better than McDonalds.

Tokyo Day #2 and Arrival in Sendai

2009-06-16T00:22:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to get up at 6 the next morning, but most of us ended up getting up earlier beacause of jet lag. Big J turned on the radio, and right away we heard rajio taisou (radio excercises). These are basically light stretches accompanied by a calming piano tune that many (older) people in Japan do every day. See if you can spot the elderly people doing the rajio taisou in the picture above. We had done these in San Jose every morning, so we kind of took part in the hotel room as well.

We had a few choices for breakfast that morning (all of which were free for us :D), but, since we were in Japan and all, we decided on a Japanese restaurant called Kagari that had a breakfast buffet. It was the right choice.

After breakfast, we went to the Tokyo American Center (where pictures are not allowed). There, we listened to 4 people in the foreign service talk about their work for about an hour and a half. This may sound cheesy, but it was something of a life changing experience for me. What they were describing sounded like something I would love to do, and I`m definitely going to consider it as a future occupation.

turns out Tokyo is crowded

Next, the JUSSE and Okinawa Peace Scholars students went to the YFU Japan office to meet ambassador Okawara. We got there, went into a conference room, and listened to the good ambassador speak for a while. However, I`m afraid I didn`t pay too much attention. I was busy going over my little speech again and again in my mind to make sure I had it down! Finally, after about 15 minutes of the ambassador talking, I was called to the front. I gave the speech (remembering too slow myself down ;) ) and presented the plaque. I was quite nervous, but everyone said that it didn`t show. We ate lunch afterwards, and the YFU office had a very nice meal catered for us.

After lunch, we had about an hour to walk around the neighborhood we were in. This was like giving water to a parched man in the desert since we weren`t allowed to leave the hotel to explore. We were in Roppongi, which is one of my lease favorite Tokyo neighborhoods. All the same, though, it as nice to be able to freely walk around.

We got back to the hotel around 4 and just chilled for a while, playing cards in Skyler`s room. Caden left (because his host family lives in Tokyo) a bit after an episode involving him leaving his passport in the room after checking out. After a bento dinner, we decided to go ahead and do karaoke at the place on the 47th floor. So, we got a room with 8 or 9 of us splitting the hourly charge of $84 >.< It was so much fun. From the Backstreet Boys to Seishun Amigo to Kanye West, it all went down with a breathtaking panorama of Tokyo at night right beside us.

The rest of the night was also very fun.

The next day was the day we were to go our separate ways (i.e. go to the cities our host families live in). Everyone was pretty sad about parting, but also excited about finally getting to meet the people who would be their families for the next 6 weeks. 3 other students going to Sendai and I got to go there with the shinkansen (bullet train)! I far prefer traveling by train to traveling by plane because you get to see so much more. What really struck me on the trip was just how far out the Tokyo metropolitan area spreads. It`s not sprawl, in the convential sense, either, as what you continue to see is high density, mixed residential/commercial development. Oh, Susi, I finally read Ender`s game. Yes, it was awesome.

After about two hours, we arrived in Sendai! It was a really great moment, because all of our host families were waiting right on the platform with welcome signs and all that good stuff. After taking a couple pictures, we all went out for tea. I talked a good deal with my host dad and sister. My host dad, Yoshiyuki, is a software engineer at a company called Fujitsu. He really likes basketball and used to play in his younger days. My host sister, Maasa, is 16. She`s going to America for a year-long exchange in August. My host mom had to be somewhere at that time so I didn`t really get to talk to her. My family is really nice.

I`ll try to update this more, btw (seriously, though, it takes a really long time on this computer)

Flight and Tokyo Night #1

2009-06-12T00:48:00.000-07:00

We (all, like, 100 of us) got to the San Fransisco airport around 9:00, checked in, waited a while, and eventually headed to the gate. We agreed that it didn't really seem like we were actually going to be in Japan in a matter of hours. Finally, after a few final phone calls, we boarded the plane and settled in for our 10.5 hour flight to Tokyo. I was stuck in the middle between a bro-ish psychologist from California and a lady from Toronto who was bringing her daughter's dog to Singapore.

Oh, right, I forgot to mention in the last post what happened on the last night in San Jose. The staff called me to the YFU office there and asked me if I would be willing to present this YFU-supporting ambassador with a plaque on our first morning in Tokyo. Sounded good to me, so I accepted. As I was walking out, he added, "Oh, if you could also give a short speech in Japanese to show everyone's appreciation for all Ambassador Okawara has done, that would be great." I was all like, ":0....ok." So, this brings me to what I did during the flight to Japan. I slept a good deal, read some nihongo Harry Potter, and, of course, worked on the speech I would have to give the next day. It was pretty rough because I tried to write most of it in keigo (the most honorific form of Japanese), and I wasn't really sure what exactly to thank the good ambassador for. Nevertheless, I managed to get something down on paper that I decided I would have some Japanese person in Tokyo check.

Surprisingly, the flight didn't drag on like I thought it would. Before I could say "oh my goshimashite" (thanks, Peter), our altitude started dropping and I saw glorious Nippon for the first time. I thought of all of my hours spent doing reps on my SRS, listening to ripped Japanese shows on my ipod, going to Japanese school, reading Ore Tachi no Tabi before bed, everything that had gotten me to that point. I guess it was a pretty momentous occasion. If you had asked me what I was going to write about this moment before it actually happened, I'd have answered that I would probably say something like, "What really struck me during that first descent was ________." But there was nothing like that. I was just floored that I was actually there.

So, we disembarked and went through a couple of swine flu checkpoints. Then, the craziest thing happened. On my way to customs, I glanced to the side and saw this Japanese girl. But this was not ordinary Japanese girl; it was my friend Saori from Greenville! And with her was another friend, Tasuke! They had just come in on a different flight. Our minds were blown by the guuzen of it all. We just happened to be in the same place in the Tokyo airport on the same day at the same time. Craziness. So I got through customs, and went out to the terminal. Then things got insane. Who was standing in the terminal waiting for her friend to arrive? Our family friend Haruko and her daughter Keeto (they live in Tokyo now)! She had no idea that I was coming at that time! We were so happy to see each other and talked for a good while. Everyone thought that she was my host mom, hohoho. I was feeling pretty good as we headed out to the bus that would take us into Tokyo.
Narita airport is actually about 2 hours from Tokyo (by bus, at least), so we got to see some of the Japanese countryside (read: ride fields) before getting into the city. I had always though that my first ride through Tokyo would be surreal, and I wasn't disappointed. It was everything I've ever hoped. The funny thing is though (I'm writing this at about 5:30 PM the next day), the surreal feeling wore off pretty quickly. It's hard to explain, but when I walk down the street, it's more like, "Oh, everyone else finally got the memo that everything is supposed to be in Japanese." Still, though, whenever I look out of the hotel window and see the city spread out before me, that feeling comes back slightly. What I've dreamed of for 3 years now is finally reality.

All corniness aside, though, it's incredible to be here.

Ferrari Enzo

We got to the hotel and found out it was a 47 story building in the middle of Shinjuku! Needless to say, we were pretty pumped. We went inside, and 3 Japanese former YFU exchange students talked to us and told us what we would be up to for the next day and a half. Then, we had the rest of the night (from about 6:30 on) free! The only catch? We...couldn't ...leave....the....hotel >.< We bought some Japanese drinks (CC Lemon, Pocari Sweat, and Calpis) at the conbini in the hotel to go with out bentos and just chilled in the rooms for a while. We explored the hotel (found out there was a karaoke place on the 47th floor - see night #2), played cards, talked, and did all kinds of other boring stuff we could have done in the US. .... (I finished this on my host family`s computer, and I can`t get it to allow me to put up pictures. Until I manage to get them up here, imagine there are cool pictures of me. sankyuu~) I came back to the room, accidentally woke up big J (my roommate John from Hawaii), and went into the bathroom to get ready for bed. I decided the time was right to try out the options that the famous Japanese toilets offer. It turns out getting your behind sprayed with water simply leaves you with a slightly uncomfortable feeling while it happens and a wet behind afterwards. Thus ended my first night in Japan.

San Jose Orientation

2009-06-11T04:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates; I've only used a computer for about 5 seconds since I left. Right now, I'm with friends playing cards in our room on the 23rd floor of our hotel in Tokyo with an incredible view outside the window. Life is good.

Now, back to where I left off. I arrived in San Francisco after 7.5 hours in a plane (about 6 of which were spent sleeping) only to find we had to wait at the airport for two more hours -.- It was ok, though, I met some people, played some mafia, etc. Eventually, we got on the buses to head to San Jose.

Upon arrival at San Jose State University, we got our rooms and got divided into kumis (kumi is Japanese for group or class) of about 12 people each. I was in the kiiro gumi which was, naturally, the best of them all. I mean, look at this stud (my boy "Big C" Caden from Denver).

We spent a good deal of the time in the classroom, learning stuff like how to not bring shame upon your family by turning your shoes around in the genkan and how to deal with chikans on trains. We also had Japanese classes. All I have to say is, AJATT is where it's at, man. If you're still dubious, um, don't be. I was feeling pretty good about my Japanese by the time of departure.

Keiko-sensei and Lance (our alumni assistant)

However, they had a good deal of genuinely fun/novel activites planned for us as well, like the cultural activities, bafa bafa, barnga, and rajio taisou (radio excercises). I also made a lot of friends at orientation, and we did a lot of fun stuff on our own as well. Note to self: whenever you go somewhere, bring a frisbee. Here are some pictures of various things I did/things I saw/blah blah blah:

Finally, Wednesday morning, we headed off the the San Francisco airport again. Off to Japan :D

(this is a pretty condensed version, but these take forever to write up and, well, I'm in Japan.)

Host Family + I leave for Charlotte in 3.5 hrs

2009-06-06T19:03:00.000-07:00

So, I got my host family information! Here's the scant information I was given:

I have a host father and mother (Yoshiyuki and Miki, respectively) and a 16 year old host sister. My host parents have suitably vague occupations: my dad is a "company employee" and my mom is an "instructor". I'm going to be living in the Aoba district of a city called Sendai (仙台), which has about a million people. The prospect of living here excites me greatly.

I actually called my host family yesterday. It was pretty nice; we talked for about 20 minutes, introducing ourselves and all that. My host mom asked me how tall I was, and, after getting my dad (who's German) to estimate my height in centimeters, she was relieved when I said I was about 172 cm. If I had been much taller, they would have gone out and bought a new futon for me to sleep on. awww yeah Japanese hospitality. Another interesting part of the phone call was when I talked to the 21 year old daughter who is studying abroad in Minnesota. It went something like this:

Her: どうやって日本語を勉強したの？
Me: 独学で二年間死に物狂い勉強してきた。
Her: (in a perfect Midwestern accent) Sweet! That's pretty awesome that you've come so far with Japanese in such a short time.
Me: ...

It turns out she's really good at English.

No fear, however. She's returned to the US already, leaving me to bask in the Japanese environment with the rest of the family. I'm really looking forward to going truly AJATT. Since that call I've been packing blah blah blah.

In other news, I've spent the last couple of days hanging out with friends, which has been a lot of fun. I'll miss everyone while I'm in grorious nippon.

Well, sorry about the brevity of this post, but I actually have to get up at 1:30 tomorrow in order to get ready and to go to Charlotte to catch my plane. From there to Washington, Washington to San Francisco, stay in San Jose for 3 days for orientation, and then off to Tokyo! Feelin' pretty excited right now.

Letter from YFU!

2009-06-01T14:57:00.001-07:00

But it just had all of my flight details -.-

Leaving Charlotte at 6 AM on Sunday.

Intro

2009-05-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

Hey, this is a blog that I started to keep my family/friends abreast on what I'm up to while I'm in Japan this summer. For anyone who doesn't know my history with Japan/Japanese, here's a quick run-down: In 9th grade, a guy I knew named Tony Tran went on a summer exchange to Japan and I thought it sounded cool. I started to teach myself Japanese, starting with just hiragana and katakana but eventually getting pretty into it with kanji and all that good stuff. My Japanese learning was revolutionized at the end of the summer of 9th grade (2007) when I discovered the site alljapaneseallthetime.com. Using Khatzumoto's method, learning Japanese became a veritable obsession. I've stayed pretty faithful to my studying regimen, with a couple of breaks for things like exchange trips to Germany and studying for exams. During this time, I started sporadically showing up at the Japanese Saturday school in town and taking part in the high school discussion class. The picture above is me (the one with curly hair/天パ) and a few of the other students at the class Christmas party.

That, and a variety of other Japanese-related experiences, have been a lot of fun. But, I've never had the chance to actually go to Japan. That changes this summer thanks to a program called YFU (Youth for Understanding). I applied for the summer exchange in December, interviewed in January, and found out I got the Japan-US Senate Youth Exchange scholarship in April after a seemingly endless wait. I leave June 7 for San Jose and spend three days at an Japan-specific orientation there. On the 10th, it's off to Tokyo! The only problem right now is that I have no idea where I'm to go after that. I haven't received my host family information yet, which is kind of anxiety-inducing. To be fair, though, YFU said we may not find out until the day before departure -.- Hopefully I'll know soon.

Until then~