lingering relatives and imminent test

room, pre-dinner - Windy and sunny today. The grandchildren and dog are still here... not sure when they are leaving...

Class was good. Afternoon class was tea ceremony which is always fun for me because I get to eat a delicious Japanese sweet and drink delicious Japanese matcha (powdered green tea). :d

I have a test tomorrow over two chapters. XP

Sunny Sunday (didn't let it get me down) alternate title: Joes everywhere!

room, post hair washing - Today went well. It was sunny (>:P). I went to Aikido practice and worked on homework and studied. Even more relatives came to visit and Joe, the dog was still here. The dog was really clingy with me. It was annoying when I was trying to eat lunch and dinner. My dad's name is Joe and I have a friend at the Aikido dojo named Joe. A lot of Joes floating around...

I will head to bed soon and get up bright and early for another week of commute and classes.

nice day

room, post shower time - Today was clear but I didn't leave the house so I was ok with it. I studied after I finished with the cleaning. We aired out the bedding in addition to hanging the laundry on the balcony today. Then for dinner my host mom's daughter and her two kids came over, along with their dog. We had a mega tempura dinner. It was epically delicious. Xd

After dinner I talked with the little boy for a long time. He showed me magazines and talked and talked about all the interesting facts in the magazines. They were magazines for little kids and they were uber educational. This kid knew his stuff, really smart.

I eventually showered and I am now back in my room. Tomorrow I have aikido and then I hope to get more work done.

FRIDAY!

room, afternoon - Sunny today (yuck). :P Class went well. In the first lesson we watched the first 20 minutes of the movie, My Neighbor Totoro, which I own and have thus seen many times. However it was so cool watching it in class! I highly recommend that movie to anyone who reads this.

My afternoon class was cancelled so I got to come home early!! XD Not a bad Friday at all.

Toyota, kindness, and an overactive mind

This was a thing in the Toyota museum. I don't know what it is but it's interesting.

Robot playing the trumpet. He was a bit of a ham.

room, post dinner, pre shower - Rainy all day yesterday and today. :D I love rain.

Yesterday after my kanji class let out I walked purposefully to the main gate of campus where the students going on the Toyota field trip were meeting the bus. Toyota's headquarters is in Nagoya and I wanted to go just to see.

It was a bit of a bus ride over. But there were a lot of people I knew going and we all shared our lunches and talked and stuff. We arrived and first toured the assembly plant. We weren't allowed to bring our cameras inside (guess they were afraid we'd sell their design secrets to Honda or something. Although after the recent break fiasco I'm not sure their design secrets are in high demand...). Our tour guide was awesome. She told us it was her last day on the job! I didn't catch if she said why. She looked really young so I doubt it was retirement. Or who knows, in Japan there is still a strong impetus for women to work a few years before they are married or before they have kids but once they settle down to quit their jobs. Anyway I thought it was a shame because she was really into her job, you could tell.

All of the body shaping, large assembly, and welding is done by robots!! :o I was impressed. There were plenty of humans working on the more fine tune stuff though. At one point we walked by a sign that said "brake testing center". I turned to some of my friends and said, "This is it! Where it all went down!" We all had a few good laughs over the whole brakes malfunction thing. Hmmm, I wonder if it might have been in poor taste... is it too soon?

In the welding plant we got to watch the robotic arms do some welding from behind a think tinted glass wall. Afterwards we went to the museum they have. It has a bunch of futuristic stuff in it and a robot that plays trumpet (seriously). Cool stuff in there. Then it was time to head back. Our poor tour guide started tearing up when she was saying good-bye to us!! Poor thing. I say if you're gonna miss your job that badly, don't quit. But hey, I don't know her story maybe she had no choice.

Back at Nanzan I hurried home as fast as I could but it was still close to 7 by the time I got there. Enough time to eat, shower, do homework and crash from exhaustion. (but not enough to do a blog entry, sorry!)

On the way home a Japanese student saw me walking without an umbrella in the rain (light rain). If you've read some of the previous entries you know my take on umbrellas and rain but to reiterate I tend to be too lazy to bring out my umbrella if it isn't raining really hard. But this super, super nice girl saw me and came up and said she'd share with me!! I was so surprised and stammered a thank you. (I was too embarrassed to admit I HAD an umbrella with me in my bag but was being a lazy gaijin and not taking it out.) She asked where I was going and I said Nagoya Daigaku subway station and she was going there too! We talked all the way there. She said, "It's ok I forget my umbrella sometimes too." I was like, "O yeah, hehehehe." But she was so nice and smiled at me so big. This is the second time I have had such a warm encounter with a Japanese person I barely know. The first was Naoko san when she and I rubbed hands and when she hugged me. Now this girl had taken it upon herself to help a complete stranger, a foreign complete stranger, who had (seemingly) forgotten their umbrella. The kindness was just staggering for me. Maybe I haven't been looking in the right places but I haven't experience kindness like that very often in America. Americans we don't help each other as much as we could. We have a distinctive coldness to us that it took me coming to Japan to notice. Certainly not all Americans, but a great many. I would have to say I am guilty of it myself sometimes.

On the subway train this girl and I exchanged names (hers is Wakana), and I asked for her email address. Naoko san and Wakana san might be exceptional Japanese but I don't think so. Most every Japanese I've met and gotten to know is so genuinely kind. I don't mean friendly and cheerful (though they certainly are that as well) but they seem to truly care more. I think it's really cool.

Today was good. Class was late start today and otherwise proceeded as usual. It is always a little different on Thursdays during the morning commute though. For one I don't have Kai san with me (she and I come at different times on Thursday). Also the hour later puts me out of rush hour so the bus and trains are not stuffed and I can usually actually find a seat!

I had language class in the morning and we did intonation practice in the first lesson. Intonation is so hard. Pronunciation, easy. Intonation, insane. I got points off my most recent dialogue quiz for lousy intonation. >:( Ah well, I'll get it eventually I imagine.

In the afternoon was history of tea ceremony class, always good. The sensei always talks to me because he says I have to practice my Japanese! So sweet of him to take an interest in my development.

I am home now and will soon hop in the shower room and hopefully get to sleep soon after. I've been so tired lately. I get adequate rest at night. But my mind is never still "and the mind is what counts"* after all.

*quote from the play, "Death of a Salesman"

rainy day

room, post dinner - It was rainy today which I enjoyed. ^_^

It was the first day back from spring break and we had a kanji quiz. We also had brand new sections in class. When our class splits into section 1 and 2 go with our section to the assigned room. I really like who is in my section this time so that's cool. The people are quiet and NOT dysfunctional like some of the ones in the other section. Although I am still not in a section with Kai san (my going to school buddy).

Had a midterm exam in translation class which felt easy. Since I finished it early I got to head home early. Of course my internet was acting up for a while so I couldn't get online to get much done. Oh well.

Tomorrow I am going on a field trip to the Toyota headquarters building which is here in Nagoya. They only just stopped talking about the brake fiasco in the news. I hope it's enjoyable.

days after trip

room, afternoon - I have been doing virtually nothing since the trip. I did go to aikido practice and walked around Meijo Park though.

On the way back the trains were delayed for an hour and a half due to high wind. Talk about inconvenient. I didn't even have anything with me to study.

Today my host mom's grandkids and their mom came over, fun, fun.

trip

Atomic Bomb Dome

random lemon sitting on the gate outside the dome!!

the telegrams written to various countries by Hiroshima mayors

world's largest rice scooper

room, post lunch - FINALLY I am writing about the trip. Geez that took me forever.

So on Wednesday I made it to Nagoya Station by 9:00. By 9:45ish everyone else was there so we went and got on the shinkansen. That is the bullet train of Japan. France's TGV just edges it out of being the fastest train in the world. We stopped at a bunch of stops though so it took 2 and a half hours. After having a lunch break at Hiroshima station we went by street car or rail car (however you call it) to our hotel.

Whenever we, the IES program kids, go on a trip together our director books our stay at a traditional Japanese inn. They are so cool: tatami floors, futon, yukata (Japanese robe like things), an onsen (big fancy Japanese bath), good Japanese food, etc. I really like the ryokan (inns). However when we got to our ryokan we couldn't check in yet so we deposited our stuff in a corner of the lobby and were told we had until dinner to explore on our own.

I was in a group with seven people, including myself. We walked all around the area and found tons of memorials. The atomic bomb dome was right across the street from our ryokan. This was a government building originally and it was one of the few few buildings that was still standing (although completely burned out) after the atomic bomb's blast. It was decided that it should be preserved as it was after the blast and memorialized for future generations. So we took a lot of pictures of that.

After our 5th or 6th memorial our group split into two. Some of us wanted to go to the Peace Gardens and some of us wanted to go to the Peace Museum. I and three others went to the museum (I have seen plenty of gardens and I was tired of being outside in the bright sun).

The museum was as horrific as you can imagine. I have studied WWII a lot and I have also studied the atomic bombings a lot so I was not shocked by a lot of what I saw (desensitized to some degree). Some people were pretty affected by it though. My "favorite" part of the museum was the huge walls that displayed all the telegrams that the mayors of Hiroshima have sent to countries every time they test a new nuclear missile. I hadn't known that since 1968 they have been sending letters asking / pleading with other countries to stop testing and creating nuclear weapons. There were so many telegrams on the wall, so many.

After the museum I stopped by one more memorial and then went back to the ryokan. Got checked in, settled in, and then went to dinner in one of the banquet halls. Dinner is always delicious and there was sooooo much of it. :D

After dinner I went to an internet cafe because this ryokan didn't have wifi or an internet room like the last one at Inuyama did. I spent time walking around the streets after I was finished at the internet cafe. It was so nice and cool because it was night and that day had been so warm and sunny (yuck). I was loving the darkness and cool breeze outside. The buildings were cool and everything was lit up. I happened to pass the video game store a bunch of the students said they were going to after dinner. So I went in and looked around and talked to some of them. I walked back with 2 of my 3 roommates. Then I visited the onsen with them (community bathing is a huge cultural aspect of Japan). Stayed in the hot water until we were dizzy and then went back to our room.

The next day we ate breakfast at the ryokan and checked out. We took a rail car and a ferry to Miyajima, an island off of Hiroshima. This island is a well designed tourist attraction / trap. First thing you notice is that there are deer everywhere. They are tame (unless they think you have food, then they follow you mercilessly). It is a small town with a ton of shops and attractions. They have the world's largest rice scoop there (that is, the wooden spoon used to scoop rice not like, a mountain of rice or something). They have a huge tori (Shinto gate) that is in the sea when tide is in and on the beach when tide is out. They of course have a huge shinto shrine to go along with the tori. They also have a mountain with lots of various shrines and attractions on it. You can take the rope way most of the way up the mountain and walk up the remaining fourth on foot.

We went to our ryokan first, and again couldn't check in right away. So we dumped our luggage and split into groups again and went off to explore the island. Dinner was at 7, so we had plenty of time. It was raining off and on so that made me happy. ^_^ My group saw everything I mentioned in the above paragraph. The mountain was really cool. We went up to the summit and it was a great view (when the clouds weren't blocking it). Eventually we got above the clouds and above the rain so that was neat.

After quite a long day we returned to the ryokan and checked in. I discovered that this ryokan had free wifi so yay! Dinner was delicious again and even MORE food this time. :D The onsen was bigger than the last one too. I got to bed early and we left the island at 10ish.

We took the railcar back to Hiroshima station and took a shinkansen to Himeji. Himeji has a big castle that our program director really wanted us to see. In another week or so it will be closed to the public for 5 years so it can undergo renovations. We dropped off our luggage in coin lockers and were off. It was a cool castle.

After everyone was assembled back at Himeji station (which actually took some doing) we took another shinkansen all the way back to Nagoya. I took the same train as Leigh so we talked until her stop came up. Then once I got off at Kōzōji I called my host mom and she came and got me. It was a very good trip definitely.

HIROSHIMA!!

internet cafe in Hiroshima, post dinner - Just wanted to do a quick entry because it would be the first cool place I:ve written from. :3 Definately more details later.

wrong bus, concert, homework

room, post breakfast - On Sunday I had every intention of going to Aikido practice and then meeting my host mom afterwards to go to a free concert put on by Nanzan University. However I never made it to practice.

The bus schedule changed and I accidently got on a bus that didn't go to the train station. I got off the bus after realizing this. I walked around for quite some time. I originally recognized my surroundings and thought I could find the train station on foot. Of course after a bit my surroundings were no longer familiar and I was totally just wandering around. At any point I could have called my host mom but I wanted to figure it out for myself. I'm stubborn sometimes.

What eventually wound up happening is that I suddenly saw a building that I knew very well. It was the same building that I have looked at a dozen times from my balcony in my room. I often look out across the rice fields and I see buildings. The largest by far is a huge pachinko casino. It is red and white and just massive. Once I saw it I knew where I was. I was basically several rice fields away from my host mom's back yard! I immediately walked around to the back of the casino and found the rice fields. The houses that made up the subdivision my host mom lives in were just visible. So I started walking.

When I walked into the house my host mom was so surprised! I explained what had happened and at first she told me I should have called her but then she said she was so happy I had been able to find my way back. (It was blind luck and I had been trying to find the bloody train station but at least I wasn't lost any more.)

So I didn't go to practice but my host mom and I did go to the concert which was really great. She treated us to lunch first and then we enjoyed the koto (Japanese harp) and vocal concert. When we got back I was exhausted. I think it was all the walking around I did that morning in the bright sun. I HATE the sun. I am never out in it for longer than I have to be and therefore don't have much of a resistance to it. Anyway after dinner and shower I went to bed early.

Monday (yesterday) I did homework most of the day. Today I will do the same. Tomorrow is the trip to Hiroshima! :D

soba, dolls, tough week

room, post lunch - After cleaning my host mom took me to a soba noodle restaurant. It was quite delicious.

Then we put the hina matsuri dolls away and had tea. I have been fixing this blog ever since. It has been acting up. :( I am sorry my posts have been short and boring lately. I was so busy this past week before break. :o

Zen

room pre dinner - Not as cold today. Last day of classes before break and it went well. Religions was especially fascinating! :D All about Zen Buddhism. So, what is the sound of one had clapping? If numbers didn't exist how old would you be? Do dogs have a dharma-like spirit? Ruminate on those for a while and see how you feel!

one more day...

room, pre shower - It was cold and windy today. Had a conversation test and survived it. Melinda and I walked around campus taking pictures of the foliage, which was fun. She showed me how to get to the roof of one building; it was a nice view of the surrounding area. I intend to go back when it isn't so cold. Had history of tea ceremony class and then started the commute back. Tomorrow is Friday and then starts spring break. So excited for break.

Taihen (hectic)

room, pre shower - It was rainy again today. I like rain so I'm not complaining. After language class I had translation in the afternoon. I have been doing homework since getting back. Taihen

3 day post!

room, post shower - So on Saturday not much happened so I didn't write an entry. And then on Sunday too much happened and I didn't have time to write one! Fail.

Saturday I jogged (in the rain, one of my favorite things to do :D), did pilates, and did sentaku and souji (laundry and cleaning). I proceeded to mostly goof off the rest of the day. Yeah, not proud of that.

Sunday I went to Aikido practice and afterwards I walked around Meijo Park which is right next to the dojo.

It is a really nice park. It was lightly raining and I had my umbrella and Sai (my camera). I saw an abandoned bouquet of flowers standing up on a park bench. I was rather curious so I took a picture of it. [If I ever figure out how to put my own pictures on this blog instead of just internet pictures I will post stuff like that.] I wish I knew that bouquet's story. I made up one for it. The jist of it is that some well-intentioned person tried to give someone else bouquet of flowers not realizing that the someone else was allergic to flowers. When they leave the bench that well-intentioned someone leaves the bouquet there or forgets to take it. It is a pretty lame story but my brain's been tired lately so it will have to do.

I also saw a cat in the park. I heard from a classmate that there are cats all over Meijo Park. ^_^

Now if you remember a few post ago I said I was going to a Cat Cafe on Sunday with a friend. Unfortunately we both had things come up. My thing was that my host mom's daughters and their kids were coming over and I wanted to be around. My friend and I are trying again next week.

We had a ton of sweets when I got home and found the daughters, grandkids, and a dog all in my host mom's house. The dog's name is Joe. I told them that that is my dad's name and they thought that was really cool. One of the daughters (forgot her name but it was the one that isn't Megumi san) pretended to be the dog and said in a puppy like voice, "Boku mo Joe desu!" {I am Joe too!} I was tickled by that. =D I was also happy about the sweets we had.

My host mom got out the atlas, which she loves to do, and we all talked about the different places we live in and had been.

Then they all wanted me to put on their family kimono and stand in front of the hina matsuri dolls so they could take pictures. I agreed because I figure this woman is putting me up, the least I can do is let them play dress up with the exotic gaijin for a little while. And they had a ball too. I was really uncomfortable with the whole thing but eventually the four of them (my hot mom, her two daughters, and her granddaughter) got the kimono completely assembled around me. And it was a project I tell you.

It is a beautiful kimono. It was just inconvenient to walk, stand, sit, breath, or otherwise move in. They took their pictures and then released me from the silky prison. Then I had much more fun sitting on the floor with them as we folded and packed the kimono away and just talked.

At one point, tabi, traditional Japanese socks came up. My host mom had a pair that went with the kimono and brought them out. She wanted me to see if they fit me. So I took off one sock. They didn't fit (too small) but the four of them were really surprised when they saw my foot.

So far almost every part of me has been scrutinized / admired for being foreign. Now it was my feet's turn, or more specifically my toes. They taper. Big toe is longest and each one after is slightly shorter than the last. My host mom said, "They're different from Japanese teoes!!!" They showed me how their toes were shaped. And indeed they were slightly different. The big toe and next toe were the same height or the next toe was a little longer. Then the three remaining toes formed more like stair steps across. I had to admit this was really interesting. I have seen Caucasians with their second toe longer than the first but even then the shape is a little different. I want to research this really badly but I don't know when I'll have the time.

That night I wahed my hair and talked to my parents online.

Today was nice; Kai san and I took a slightly different path from the subway station to the university. I liked it; it was a nice change of scenery. :3

Te kanji test was annoying. Every time I forget ONE STINKING KANJI. >:( It's unjust I tell you.

After lunch was my tea ceremony class; always enjoyable. I headed straight home after and had a snack and a quick chat with my host mom and then did homework. until dinner. I did homework after dinner until shower time. And now I will check email and go to sleep. Happy Monday!

technical difficulties

I am experiencing some technical difficulties with the blog. Hopefully I will have them sorted out soon.

Friday - acknowledgement and exhaustion

2/5/10 room, post dinner - It was a good Friday. I had my religions class in the afternoon and found out that class was cancelled last week because Raj Sensei PARTICIPATED in the Naked Festival. My friend Diana saw him there! That was cool. :D

When I was walking from the bus stop to my host mom’s house a lady saw me as I walked by and said hello. I forgot to mention yesterday that for the first time a neighbor said more than hello to me. We talked for a bit yesterday and today the same lady said hi to me. She saw me walking by and asked if I work here in Japan. I told her I am a study abroad student. I told her I attend Nanzan University and we talked about how long the commute is. After a bit we said bye and I was happy to have been acknowledged. I hope my Japanese gets better quickly so I can feel confident enough to initiate conversations myself. ^_^ Then again I don’t usually initiate conversations in English… I have been meaning to work on that.

I am so exhausted I plan to go straight to bed after shower time. ;O Honestly I thought it was bad at Rochester but here it is worse. I am like, “WEEKEND! YES!!!!!! I CAN SLEEP NOW!!!” I sleep during the week but I get really worn out from the commute so the weekend is really a mini vacation from that. I like my commute, don’t get me wrong. It just doesn’t like me. :P

club, test, dango, tempura, and a good chance of rain

2/4/10 room, post dinner - Yesterday after classes I went to the Aikido club practice on campus. It was good. Different from my school but one of the club members really took me under his wing and told me how to do things. I appreciated that. :D

All that night I studied for the two-chapter test we had today. I studied for it all the way to school and up until the test was handed out in the third period of class. It felt pretty easy so I’m taking that as a good sign.

My afternoon class was good too and when I got home my host mom had dango for me!!

Then we made tempura together. It was delicious. Xd

We are supposed to get a lot of rain tonight, an effect of the tsunamis that hit the coasts of Japan recently.

Tomorrow is Friday!

warm weather

2/2/10 room, pre-dinner - it was a good day today but nothing out of the ordinary. I went to class. Ate lunch, and then went to my afternoon class (translation).

The weather is getting warmer and warmer. My host mom says it is very unusual weather for this time of year. It hit 20 degrees Celsius today. That equals about 68 Fahrenheit. Personally I feel shortchanged. I LOVE snow and cold and ice and wind and rain and, well WINTER!! ^_^

Back in Rochester a friend told me there is snow everywhere and someone built an igloo on campus!! I’m envious. : (

I have a Kanji test tomorrow so I will be studying tonight.

FOOD!!! XD (i got to use this title again!)

3/1/10 room, post dinner - today was an AMAZING food day. Xd

I had apples and three of the breads my host mom made for my lunch. It was two anpans and one melonpan. :d

I was eating my apples during our fifteen minute break for language class and my friend Diana came into the room from her class (she is IJ 700 but all the levels break at the same time). She was eating fish crackers and gave me some. I gave her and Jennifer a slice of apple. I am not opposed to sharing my food if I have enough of it. :P

After class I ran into Tana. She gave me three pieces of the mochi she made with her neighbors over the weekend. :D I put them in Koibito for later. Tana and I also made plans to go to a cat café together on Sunday. What is a cat café you ask? I could tell you now but what fun would that be? You’ll just have to read Sunday’s entry to hear all about it. :3

In tea ceremony class we had our usual delicious sweet and bowl of matcha. AND THEN we repeated the ceremony a second time for extra practice. The second time around we got to choose from a tray of puffy crispy thingys and matcha candies. Xd Adam almost dumped the tray accidentally when it came to him but caught it just in time. Only a couple of crispies fell on the floor and the instructor snatched them up in a flash and popped them in her mouth!! We all laughed. It was awsm!!

After I got home my host mom gave me milk (XD), 2 cups of tea, a melonpan, an anpan, and a manju!

Later I helped make dinner and we had this amazing soup stuff and sautéed scallops!!! Scallops are my favorite shellfish!! Xd

I am so full right now! My goodness, what an amazing food day. Tonight my host mom and I are watching the closing ceremony of the Olympics. Not bad, far as Mondays go. :D