Japan

The Last Supper

2006-08-01T04:54:00.000-06:00

Well, I leave tomorrow. I just finished my last full meal in Japan. I love it here, and I really don't want to go, but I know I have stuff to do when I get back. Lots of memories, lots of pounds gained. I don't really feel like writing about leaving, it makes me think about it more. So, I'll leave you with pictures of my dinner to make you all salivate.

Red Robin loses

2006-07-28T06:28:00.000-06:00

Up until this day, I held the belief that the Royal Red Robin Burger was the best burger ever made. I was mistaken. Today I ate the greatest hamburger that has ever been conceived by humankind. It was called the Takumijyuudan baaga, and it came from the Japanese fast food chain Mosburger. This burger had all of the elements the Royal Red Robin Burger has, egg, bacon, cheese, plus one added feature: Teriyaki sauce. But this wasn't just a normal burger with teriyaki sauce hastily slapped on it. It was like every ingredient on the burger was part of special ops team; and the Teriyaki sauce was their delicious captain, orchestrating a strike on my unsuspecting taste buds. The burger was delicious, but what was the amazing part was the experience of ordering and receiving it. I told the employee what I wanted, and rang it up, but then paused to inform another employee what I had ordered. She immediately turned around to start making it. Normally, you order your food, and you wait at a table with a number for someone to bring out your burger on a tray. This happened to Gun and Hitome, but instead of bringing food first, the employee brought out an artsy paper placemat (which I will bring home) along with a fork, knife, and spoon, and said something polite in Japanese about waiting a little bit more. I looked behind the counter, and I see not two, but three people standing around this burger, building it to be perfect. They brought it out and placed it in front of me, and handed me a card with a bunch of Japanese on it. I'm still not sure what it says, but I like to think it bears the signature of approval from the CEO of Mosburger. Anyways, I devoured that thing in probably 40 seconds.

Takahashi

2006-07-27T18:57:00.000-06:00

So a couple of days ago, Gun and I took the Shinkansen down to Tokyo to visit Mr. And Mrs. Takahashi. For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, Mrs Takahashi is my Grandmother's cousin, who wanted to meet me when I came to Japan. The two days we spent with them were great. They were very hospitable, and Mrs Takahashi cooked all order of good Japanese food for Gun and me. On the first day, we went to see Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, Mt. Fuji didn't want to see us, so the top of the mountain was totally covered in clouds. I also wasn't feeling so well when we were up there. This hurts my Colorado pride to say, but I actually got a headache and started to feel sick from the altitude, even though Mt. Fuji is only like 3000 meters. Being at sea level for too long makes you a wimp.

oooh, my head hurts... This place is almost as high up as the altitude I was born at.

After Mt. Fuji, or lack thereof, we drove to a real Japanese Onsen. I was really excited, but confused because I didn't bring a swimming suit or anything. Then I remembered that nobody wears anything at an Onsen. Great. The Onsen was quite possibly the most relaxing place I have ever been. Huge pools of steaming hot water, surrounded by dense Bamboo and rocks. The sauna was also awesome. Smearing salt all over yourself is kinda strange though.

ahhhh....This is the real Onsen, where all the hot water comes from. These onsen are way too hot and way too filled with Hydrogen Sulfide to bathe in.

YFU party

2006-07-26T19:03:00.000-06:00

Because the Japanese YFU students are just about to leave for America for a year, and the American ones are about to go back home, YFU decided to throw a party for us. It was great fun. Everybody helped cook a big meal of Japanese food. My favorite was the Okonomiyaki. Everyone talked about their favorite parts of Japan, and we all told the new exchange students how great America is. I also got to play Taiko drums. The party was great, but it served as a depressing reminder that my time here is almost up. I hadn't even thought about coming home until then (well, I did think quite a lot about how I'm going to switch to polyphasic sleep when I get back). Fortunately, I was financially wise and saved as much money as possible for the last week.

I've decided that I really love wa-shitsu (Japanese style rooms). Tatami mats are awesome.

Here are two girls Kevin would have loved to talk to (they both speak only German and Japanese).

School Festival

2006-07-26T05:55:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven't been updating. I now have a great deal of things to blog and only 300MB space to upload, so I'll do several updates as often as the server will let me.

The first thing that has happened since the last update was my finishing school. Luckily, my last day of school coincided with the last days of school before summer vacation, which is when the entire school has a big festival. Ikuei's festival is not too over the top; each class sets up their own table area where they sell food or display artwork from the year. The students work together to sell whatever needs to be sold (In our case, fried potatoes and Ramune), and the extras walk around to the other class' kiosks. Luckily, our table was right next to one of the all-girl classes who sold shaved ice. Even more luckily, selling shaved ice is an intensive job that requires no fewer than 8 cute Japanese girls' attention at all times. Needless to say, I ended up eating a lot of shaved ice.
Mmm...

The table across from us was selling bananas and marshmallows dipped in chocolate and covered in sprinkles for 100 yen a stick. 1500 yen well spent.

The festival winded down and I said goodbye to all of the awesome people who go to Ikuei. I had such a great time at school. I'm still a little annoyed that I couldn't play in their orchestra, though.

coming up next: YFU party

Festival

2006-07-17T03:52:00.000-06:00

Here's the pictures from my fun at the festival. It was so wet, and we only had 2 umbrellas between the six of us. I've never had so much fun in the rain (besides maybe that one time playing soccer with my dad).
Ai wore tom's aviators for the entire night, well past the sunset. I have no idea why.
Tom sure had fun in the rain.
The guy ducked behind Tom was from Denmark. He looks a lot like Spenser.
All in all, I'd call the night a success.

Tha Weekend

2006-07-16T21:43:00.000-06:00

This weekend was way busy. On Saturday, we went to a YFU follow up meeting where Gun and everyone else who went to America talked about their experiences and such. After that meeting, Gun was on a panel talking to all the kids who will be going this year through YFU to America. Here's, a small world story: one of the kids going to America is Jeff's host sister from his stay 2 years ago. So I got to meet both his host sister and the girl from Virginia that they are hosting this summer.
This is the only picture you will see of me with the peace sign thrown up. I have no idea what I was thinking.

Anyways, the meeting was cool, I got to meet a lot of cool people who spoke English, and I also met a guy from California who's coming to my school. Oh, Jeff, they said they really loved the watermelon.

Yesterday was a blast. I met my Kiwi friends Tom and Matt in Sendai Station, where we took a train out to this big arena called "biggu arinaa" to watch Ikuei (my school) compete in a Japanese cheerleading competition. Ikuei didn't win, but I still consider the event a success.

These Girls have even more enthusiasm than their American counterparts, if that's possible.

After the event, we went back to Sendai to meet Paula (from Bolivia), Ai (Japan), and their friend from Denmark to go to A festival and Firework display. Paula and Ai were dressed up in full Yukata, which is a summer Kimono. Ai kept asserting that Tom and I must buy Yukata, but neither of us had enough money. It ended up not mattering, we saw plenty of people there without them. It was supposed to be a nice cool day, but unfortunately as soon as we got off the train it started raining cats and dogs. I ducked into a nearby Jusco and got an umbrella, but Between the six of us we now only had 2 umbrellas. Tom and Matt ended up getting absolutely soaked. The festival was great, but really muddy. I kept trying to get Ai and Paula to mud wrestle, but to no avail. I'll add all the pictures in another post next hour.

Daily Life: Part 3

2006-07-14T04:57:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I left off with going to the afternoon classes with the rest of the kids. The teachers in Japan are way more apathetic to who is listening and who is not, so lots of them talk all throughout the lesson.

Yes, this guy is actually wearing a mask while sleeping on his desk. Maybe he's doing Uberman sleep and this is one of his necessary naps?

After 3 hours of class, I have from 4-5:20(when the busses leave). I usually either hang out in the computer room some more or go toss a rugby ball around with the Kiwis. I neglected to mention there are 2 other New Zealanders who know enough Japanese to be fully integrated into the classes. There is also one guy from Kenya who is in a different JSL class.

Paul is the most quirky person I have ever met. He doesn't speak a lot of English, but he gets along fine with a hybrid of English and Japanese.

After the bus ride home, I get back and have Dinner right away. Did I mention that my host mom is the best cook ever? Take a look at this okonomiaki:

In the evening, depending on the day, I either stay home and do homework, or go to English class with one of Gun's friends. After returning, I take a shower ( one of those hand held ones where you have to sit down) and go to sleep on a futon in Gun's room.

Daily Life: Part Deux

2006-07-13T07:36:00.000-06:00

Sorry for taking so long, I've been distracted with reading this book my friend tom lent me. It's the autobiography of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers' lead singer Anthony Kiedis. It's a really amazing book. Anyways, back to what a normal day is like in Japan.

I wake up at about 6:30 to the smell of an awesome breakfast that usually includes miso soup, an egg, a salad, some rice, and maybe some toast. I dress up in the seifuku(school uniform) that I bought because I didn't want to stand out (it was only like 30 dollars, and now I have an extra tie). My host mother (who is the greatest cook ever) gives me my obento, and I walk about 50 meters to the place where I catch the bus.

Here is where everyone lines up to get on the shuttle bus. The bus is a manual transmission, which I found really interesting. The guy to the left of the yellow umbrella is Masato; he's in my class and one of my best Japanese friends.

The bus ride is a full hour, during which I usually try to sleep. By the time I get to school, I'm usually more tired than when I got on the bus. I walk from the bus area to the south wing of the school where my JSL class is. Then I have about an hour before homeroom starts.

My JSL class is really diverse. From the left we have Paula (Bolivia), Tom(New Zealand), Natsumi(Taiwan), Joe (Finland), and Gustav(Sweden). Sensei is teaching us the kanji for cloudy at the moment.

The class is pretty much review, but it's great because even though the teacher speaks fluent English, she never does to any of us. I only became convinced she knew English when she translated a rather complicated sentence I created to prove that she could. JSL lasts until 11:45 when I eat the delicious Obento my host mom made.

I look forward to this every day. Oishii desu-ne.

After eating, Tom, Gustav, Joe, and I usually spend our time in the computer room checking e-mail and watching videos on youtube.com. At 1:00, we head up for regular classes. This is the most boring part of my day, because the Teachers speak in such dense Japanese I have no chance of understanding them. I don't think a lot of the students do either. Usually I study Japanese or read, but occationally I read aloud for the class, since I'm the only native english speaker there (Joe is in my class, but he has too heavy of a finnish accent). I've hit the limit on photos for this update, sorry for the interruption, I'll finish this when Blogger lets me.

Karaoke!

2006-07-10T03:25:00.000-06:00

In lieu of the second Daily life update, I'm gonna blog about that Japanese national pastime: Karaoke.

I finally did the whole karaoke thing. Yes, I did sing and yes, I did have lots of fun. For those of you that don't know a lot about karaoke, here's how it worked:

We drove thought the rain to a karaoke palace place that was way bigger and way nicer than I was expecting. They had a main lobby with a front desk, as well as a grand piano and a giant flatscreen tv playing Japanese pop. To either side of the desk there were hallways that lead to numbered karaoke rooms. Adjacent to the front desk, there was a staircase that lead up to the second level, which had a drink fountain and even more rooms. Gun and Asami got a room, and we went up. Inside the room there was the obvious karaoke machine, a booth, and food menus. We grabbed the ridiculously nice remote(complete with touch LCD screen) and rocked. In Japanese.

For the most part it was Gun and Asami doing the rocking. I got to pick a couple of English songs, but most of the fun in Karaoke is knowing the songs everybody is singing. Fortunately for me, almost every Japanese pop song has at least some English lyrics, so I was able to sing as well.

About 20 minutes into the karaoke, we get a knock on the door telling us to come down to the lobby where everyone is gathering. Turns out they were giving away a Sony PSP. Asami won it. You'll never guess how though. She won it playing a mass game of rock paper scissors! A PSP! It was the coolest thing ever.

Now, Karaoke was fun for a while, but after about 2 hours it gets really tiresome. God, I wish we were only there for 2 hours. We stayed in that little room singing for a total of 4 hours. I wish I could express in words the relief I felt when we finally left. The Japanese sure have vocal stamina. If I were singing for that whole time I would never sing again. All in all, I call it a success. It would have been way better had I won the PSP.

Daily Life part I

2006-07-08T19:54:00.000-06:00

Well, It's been a while since I updated, so I'll do a two part update about my daily life. I'll start with the area in which I am staying.

Tomiya is like a suburb of Sendai. Although I think it can be considered its own town, everything here is centered around Sendai anyways. Also, by my definition, a town has to be distinguishable from neighboring towns, which Tomiya is not. If you discount the fact that Tomiya is pretty much connected to Sendai by a never ending sprawl of houses and such; I guess you could say it's a nice little town. I took these pictures from atop a pedestrian overpass that leads to a park. The whole overpass looks like that with beautiful marble benches and sculptures every 30 meters or so. God bless socialist governments.

See that brown house right behind the Laundromat? Didn't think so. Anyways, that's where I live.

Last night, Gun's friend Asami and her family came over for Dinner. As you can see from Gun's face, it was great fun. Asami just came back from a year homestay in Texas, so a lot of the night's conversation centered around America. At least I think it did. The parts I was able to join were about America, at least. Japanese is hard. One of the funniest parts of the night for me was when Asami's dad brought out a printed e-mail he wanted me to translate. It was written in really difficult English and Asami couldn't understand it. I started translating it paragraph by paragraph, half in Japanese and half in more simple English, which was then converted to Japanese by Gun and Asami. I got about 3 paragraphs into it when I realized that I was wasting my time. It was one of those "Give us your bank account so we can *cough* send you money" spam e-mails. I guess to someone who doesn't speak English those sound really credible and serious.

Asami is the one resting her chin on her hand. Hakko, my host sister, is sitting next to her.

One more "Japan is so cool" anecdote: In the supermarket, if you have ice cream or something that melts, you take it to this machine that sprays dry ice snow inside the bag, so the ice cream won't melt on the drive back. So cool.

Part II will come when I have pictures of everything.

Why did I come to Sendai?

2006-07-01T22:51:00.000-06:00

Here's the picture of Chris being all sad and disgruntled at his misfortune.

Back to the Tokyo Area

2006-07-01T22:06:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Gun (my host brother) came back home from a year in Boulder. Because his flight arrived at Narita airport, we had to leave bright and early at 10:30 to make a 4:30 arrival. We drove in ojisan's (the guy who took us to sushi) van on the Highway all the way down to Tokyo. It should have taken about 4 hours by the speed limit; but luckily for us my host father used to race motorcycles, and consequently is a very skilled driver. It took us more like 3 hours, because we were going an average speed of about 150 km\h (affected, of course, by the times we slowed down to pass under a radar detector). That's only about 80-90 miles per hour, but the speed limit was 80 km/h. The reason for such a slow speed limit is that the highway is built around a slightly mountainous area, so it is narrow and turns a lot. Also, seatbelts in the back seats are optional, so nobody wears them. Driving in Japan is fun!

We picked up Gun from Narita, and went straight to Tokyo Disney Sea. It's a lot like Disneyland, It's just built around a big artificial lake.

Pretty awesome.

We went on a couple of rides, only having to wait 20 minutes because it was cloudy and late; and then watched the evening water show that I guess happens every night. It was the most amazing display of pyrotechnics I have ever seen in my life. A giant robot bird moved around and sprayed fire everywhere while boats shot fountains of water lit up by colored spotlights, the entire lake set on fire, and the boats launched a barrage of fireworks into the middle of the park. I wish I had a tripod.

ridiculous, huh? They do this every night.

When everyone (especially Gun) was ready to leave, we headed back, stopping for some Udon on the way. Yes, we went just as fast, even though it was dark. We got home at about 1:00 am.

Chris loses

2006-06-27T04:58:00.000-06:00

Well, today was strange. Jeff and Chris came up from Tokyo for the day. The first portion was a success, but some unfortunate timing and unclear meeting plans quickly made things difficult. For narrational purposes, I'm going to attempt a Tuckermax-style run down of the days events.

9:30-Host father returns from work to pick me up and take me to Izumi-Chyuou, a nearby subway station so that I can go to Sendai.

9:45-I take train to downtown Sendai. On Sunday I went shopping with one of Gun's friends, so I know what stop to get off at and how to get to the agreed meeting place, but nothing more.

10:00-I arrive at Sendai station and follow the same path that we took on Sunday.

10:08- The escalator we took up to the main part of the station on Sunday was closed. I search for another route.

10:10- I arrive at the JR(shinkansen platforms) area. I turn around

10:15- I arrive back at the subway platform. I turn around

10:17- I decide to follow the people who seem to know where they are going.

10:30- After finding my way out to the street, I go back in the main entrance and wait by the statue of the Samurai on horseback for Jeff and Chris to come at 10:45.

Some kids enjoying the morning together. Their chaperone is not far out of the shot.

11:25- Jeff and Chris arrive. We say hello and head to the nearby mall.

11:45- We find a small Udon and Soba restaurant and eat lunch. Jeff and Chris tell their stories of getting lost, not being able to find a hostel, etc.

12:00- We go to a game center on the mall. We hang out, play awesome Japanese video games, curse at the obviously rigged Japanese prize-crane machines.

(Jeff was completely Owning Chris at this game)

2:30- After gaming and shopping, Jeff decides he should buy a watermelon to give his host family from his exchange two years ago.

2:32- We set off to find a market.

3:00- Upon finding a market with fruit, Jeff buys a watermelon with a firm command of the Japanese language that Chris and I envy.

3:30- We return to the Sendai station, get on a train to Izumi-Chyuou. On the train, we lay out our plan of action. Jeff's host family lives one stop before Izumi-Chyuou, and he wants to find them and surprise them by himself. I am supposed to call my host father at around 6:30 to be picked up from Izumi-Chyuou in order to go with Hakko(my host sister) to the second part of a Meysen(Hakko's English school) anniversary party. Chris has nothing to do, wonders aloud why he came to Sendai.

3:45-After arriving at Izumi-Chyuou, We decide that Chris and I will find a way to my uchi, Jeff will go to his host-family's house and surprise them with the watermelon. Afterwards, he will try to find his way to the Meysen party, because his host brother and sister also went there. Afterwards, he hopefully plans to find Chris. Chris again, with more annoyance, wonders why he came to Sendai.

4:00- Chris and I leave on foot to find my uchi, with only my memory of the drive to Izumi-Chyuou to guide us. While walking, I have a refreshing intellectual discussion with Chris, completely free of language struggle. Chris frequently brings up his annoyance with Jeff and his regret for coming to Sendai.

6:00- We finally make it to my uchi. I introduce Chris to my host mother, who is surprised to see me back without a ride, understandably, as Tomiya(where my house is) is about 10km from Izumi-Chyuou.

6:45- Chris, who has no idea what he is going to do upon leaving, decides to leave so as not to impose on my host family if they find out about his lack of plans. I concur, and decide to walk with him for a while. I decide this is a perfect opportunity to break in the geta I purchased on Sunday.

7:00-After walking with Chris for a while, I remember that I need to be back home very soon to go to the Meysen party. I say goodbye to Chris, start walking back home.

7:05- I start running back home, worrying they might leave for the party without me.

7:06- I curse at myself for wearing geta and stop running before I break or sprain my ankle.

7:14- I arrive at home to find that Hakko left without me.

7:18- My host mother returns, I apologize profusely for being late. She assures me that it's okay, but also tells me that right after Chris and I left, Jeff called wanting to meet Chris in Sendai.

So that's what happened. I couldn't contact Jeff or Chris, and they can't contact each other until they get back to Tokyo. As for the party, I think I made it out to be more important than it was; I went to the party yesterday as well. They had two because there are so many students. I hope Chris isn't too lost tonight.

Matsushima Zuiganji

2006-06-24T18:29:00.000-06:00

Yesterday my host family took me first to meet my "host uncle," although I'm not sure exactly what side of the family he is from. We went out to sushi, and it was easily the best sushi I have ever had in my life. Not only that, but it came at me as fast as I could eat it. I must have had every species on that fish placemat back home.

Take a look at all those plates!

After sushi, we went to an extremely old temple in Matsushima. It was originally built in 828, but it had fallen apart and was ressurected in 1609. Unfortunately, they didn't allow pictures inside. I know what you're thinking, Dad; I could have turned off the flash, but I'd rather not push the Japanese to their limits.

As you can see, it's the most beautiful area I've been to. I'll give you the brochure when I get back.

Pictures (finally)

2006-06-23T19:40:00.000-06:00

I wonder how he got this picture?

This is the number one reason I love Japan.

My hotel room view.

This peaceful temple was smack in the middle of Tokyo and right next to the hotel.

Home sweet home

2006-06-21T04:28:00.000-06:00

This is the best country ever. And Tokyo is the most amazing city ever. I'm amazed at the harmony between eastern and western cultures that exists here.

After a long flight over the Pacific, we were taken by bus to the Tokyo Prince Hotel. The Tokyo Prince Hotel is one of those hotels that were tip top in the 80's, but haven't been updated yet. They have old tv's, lots of lace and gold, and really old alarm clocks. The best part of the hotel was the view. Not 1/4 of a mile away from our window is the entrance to the tokyo tower. I'll upload a pic as soon as I can.

Anyways, the next day we visited the Foreign Affairs office and the yfu japan office. Every was ordinary besides the unusually classy food they fed us. Holy crap, there was shaved gold on my whipped cream. After a nice meal, the real adventure began.

They trusted us enough to give us the rest of the day to ourselves. A bunch of us had fun walking all over, having several near-misses with motorcycles, and enjoying are time as gaijin. For dinner, me and Sam found this little ramen place in a restaurant mall thing. Nobody spoke english, so we got to have an entire meal with the locals. It was awesome.

Today, I got on the shinkansen for sendai. I met my host father, and he took me to the school i'll be attending whilst I am here. My host father is so amazingly nice. I pointed out a WRX, and the next thing I know we are at a subaru dealership checking out the sti engines.

I'm gonna have to get to bed now, I start school tomorrow. Take care.

pictures soon.

Off to Japan

2006-06-18T13:22:00.000-06:00

Well, I've been at the pre-departure orientation in San Jose, California for the last two days. It's all been pretty straightforward. We did a bunch of cultural workshops and such, as well as language workshops. Apparently "hochikisu" means stapler in Japanese, so the language teacher (who is the cutest Japanese lady ever!) had a lot of fun calling me hochikisu-san. Everything is great, I'll update when I get over the pond.

Japan

2006-06-12T10:28:00.000-06:00

This is my continuing journal of my time in Japan. I'll try to update it as much as possible, but I don't know how often that will be yet.