the national pastime

drinking.

japanese people love to drink. being drunk at 4pm is nothing unusual (certainly not common, but not unusual). there's something called nomihodai in japan ~ all you can drink. it can sound like a horrible idea, but i don't think there's anything wrong with it if one knows where to draw the line. since drinking is an inherent part of socializing in this country, i wonder how japan compares to the united states in terms of alcohol abuse.

i guess this post will be more about my observations than anything else. things i see:

1. drunkenness in the afternoon. a few months ago, i was surprised to see drunken people on the subway when i was going home from classes. however, my friend informed me that it's not unusual. and i've seen this a couple more times since.
2. vomit on the streets. also not unusual late at night. i suppose it's cleaned up before morning.
3. people who often look nauseous in or around bars.
4. vending machines that sell alcohol ~ present everywhere.
5. middle-aged men with severe asian glows before it's even 8pm. 
6. salarymen passed out on the train. they usually take up two or three seats because their bodies are sprawled out. 

so what does this have to do with me? for one, i've had more alcohol in japan these last few months than i've had in my entire life. but with the exception of new year's eve, i've been responsible in terms of knowing my limits and when to stop. since the drinking age in japan is twenty, all my friends and i are legal. since this isn't the case in the united states, one would assume that we'd "take advantage" and drink as much as we can. for me anyway, this is far from the truth. it's nothing special anymore. being able to buy alcohol whenever we want has simply become a way of life. (furthermore, a night out at the bar can become quite costly.) 

if teenagers were to be taught how to drink responsibly, and if the drinking age were lowered to 18 in the united states, i wonder if there would be fewer deaths/incidents amongst college students relating to alcohol abuse... 

new year's eve!

i suppose i'll start off with the events of new year's eve. in a nutshell, ben came over to my house because his laptop unexpectedly died the night before. while he was building a new one online, i finished the rest of my "top-to-bottom" new year's cleaning. we stayed at the house and hung out until dinnertime. i wanted to take him to osaka osho, an inexpensive and extremely delicious (japanese) chinese restaurant in katsura, but it was closed. so we went to shijo, where he wanted to take me to gyoza no osho, another inexpensive and supposedly yummy chinese restaurant, but that was closed too. *surprise surprise* it was new year's eve, after all. we walked around for a while and finally decided on a matsuya-like restaurant.

then we went to starbucks (sanjo) to meet becca, eric, and lauren before going to the hub. ben and i had gone to lawson's just before, but i was already glowing from the can of 5% peach cocktail. (he finished a stronger, larger can of beer looong before i did >_<) when we got to the hub, it was surprisingly relatively empty. we found coat hooks on the wall and managed to get a table. i waited a while before i got a peach cooler, followed by a tarantula (yummy, but 30 proof), some of becca's beer, some of ben's mojito, and then too much champagne (ben generously got the table a bottle). there's a reason for listing what i had to drink last night---i'll get to that in another post.

the rest of the night involved: immature 16, 17-year olds at the next table over who couldn't dress themselves from australia, brutal/hard-to-watch boxing matches on tv, party poppers at the end of the countdown, followed by four kisses to open the new year, warding off older guys who wanted to do karaoke,  and meeting ben's girlfriend rika for the first time. 

i got home around 2:30am ~ i wasn't feeling too well, but a lot better than about an hour earlier. elliot texted me, hoping that i could make it to the pig & whistle, another british pub. i would've loved to go, but i was already at kawaramachi eki (and was in no condition to wander back to sanjo by myself in dress heels). i texted danielle earlier too, but she was nowhere close to where i was. with the exception of mia (and elliot), i haven't hung out with the other midd kids in a while. the other day, my host mom asked me what they had been up to, and i couldn't give her an answer. *red flag* why didn't i know? even if we were all going in different directions, i felt like i should've at least had an idea of what everyone had been doing-- but i didn't. 

i'll say this much, "it shouldn't be this hard."

[holder entry]

no worries. i have much more (than just superficial things) to say about the first half of my time in japan. however, it's now nearing 1am, so i think i'll head to bed. i'll collect my thoughts over the next few days and hopefully write an entry on the reflections before the clock strikes midnight on the last day of 2008.

-jean

ten days

...since my last entry.

i figured i'd have to make some time to update. it's nearly midnight, and it's been an exhausting week, so i'll do my best to be somewhat coherent.

first big news: my sister alice has been accepted to middlebury (early decision) for the class of 2013! the couple days leading up to december 13 were too full of anxiety and excitement--sooo glad it's done and over with. congratulations, alice! you've worked so hard ~ you deserve it!

second big news: leslie came to kyoto and stayed with me this week. it was great to finally see her again after four months :)  leslie, have fun in hokkaido and tokyo with your family! i'll miss you, but september will be here before we know it... can't wait!

not big news: three more "meetings" with starbucks guy since the last entry. the next time i have an opportunity to talk to him, i will. for real, this time.

now on to smaller updates...

#1 end of fall term class party with imao-sensei

￥10000 (about the equivalent of $100 USD)

this was really yummy, but it was also really difficult to eat.  

we called for reinforcements after a little while... 

not even half-way in, and most of us were about to give up.

#2 starbucks.

i'm still going. everyday. overkill? perhaps. 

why am i going so often? many reasons. 

for one, obviously, the coffee. 

two, i love the atmosphere (awesome for reading). 

three, it's a great place to meet up with friends. 

four, it's one of few places in kyoto where 

one can actually sit down and 

have conversation for hours on end. 

five, i come across (interesting) people 

that i normally wouldn't otherwise.

#3 finals week.

i have never been so relaxed around exam time.

there was no need to cram or study excessively.

i reviewed the material with some friends at starbucks

in between good conversation and just plain silliness :)

[elective grades aren't in yet, but i received an A for japanese]

#4 leslie!

mia and i were able to spend a lot of time with leslie

over the past few days. we did a ton of shopping and

ate delicious ramen. we also had yummy chinese food with

nestor and greg before they went to nagano for part of break.

grant also met us at starbucks for more catching up/reminiscing

over some good coffee before he had to head home to pack.

#5 awesome finds.

(the perfect) off-white wool coat on sale.

cute deep purple dress from zara.

new bag! similar style. different color.

beautiful handmade pouch with eiffel tower.

lots of inexpensive, but pretty jewelry.

<3

magical.

is what today has been.

....well, not in the cheesy sense. but it has been an amazing, amazing day.

it started off with cinnamon toast ^_^

then my last class of fall term let out 30 minutes early.

yummy lunch with good friends.

wandered around doshisha library.

starbucks. enough said :)

hung out there with friends until food time.

[oh, and starbucks guy happened to be there too. the third meeting, and i STILL couldn't say "hi"]

make-your-own okonomiyaki <-- DELICIOUS. explain more later.

"let's become beautiful" purikura XD

returned to starbucks and hung out some more.

walking home, i noticed the BEAUTIFUL full moon.

....and then i saw a shooting star.

soaked in the [hot] tub for a while.

came back to my room to find skype msgs from matt.

whs had a snow day, so alice was home to chat with me.

i really couldn't have asked for a better day ^_^

chicken x2

i saw the starbucks guy again.  i was on my way to get parfaits with my friends when we passed each other on the street.

next time [if there's a next time] i'll say hi.

i hope.

>_<

books :)

i love them.

i'm about to finish my fourth book in two weeks.  because of my extremely high productivity levels lately, i've had a lot more free time to read (for pleasure!)  i go to starbucks, satisfy my coffee addiction, finish homework, curl up on one of the couches and just turn pages for hours and hours. and then wander around a nearby five-story bookstore when i have even more free time.

sound wonderful? 

trust me, it is.

^_^

chicken.

not the food.

me.

=]

went to starbucks again after classes. finished a separate peace and got a lot of work done. silently played what felt like a waiting game for several hours... 

i should've just said hi.

>.<

a temporary band-aid

i've never been one for starbucks. 

coffee in general, definitely <3

but not starbucks.

yet, today marks three full months since i've been in japan, and i've been to starbucks over a dozen times already. it's not that i think starbucks coffee is the best thing that has ever graced the planet. it's just that home-y feeling of america that i get when i'm there. or maybe more specifically, the grille at middlebury. i'm sure being homesick has something to do with my recently frequent trips to this overpriced (especially in japan!) café, but more than that, i can unwind and productively do my homework and studying there.

i would've gladly extended the time i was there this afternoon (from four hours upward) if i didn't have to catch the hankyu home for dinner. after a series of events yesterday, i broke down crying in front of a couple of my akp friends. luckily, they lent me a shoulder and an ear until my stop at katsura. i took it easy for the rest of the night yesterday and looked forward to some coffee after class (today). i got a friend to go with me, but he headed home a little thereafter. (not a big fan of coffee. or starbucks, for that matter.) 

so i curled up on a big, comfy chair and read john knowles' a separate peace for the first time since freshman year of high school. (thanks for the lend, mia [...or rather, mia's younger brother] ^_^)  great book, but unfortunately, its content didn't really take my mind off of what i was trying to forget. in any case, being in a café atmosphere and enjoying a cup of caramel-flavored coffee over a good read did wonders for my spirit... at least for a little over four hours.

i hope i'm not conditioning myself to turn to starbucks every time i need a pick-me-up, but i've learned that i want little coffee shops and/or diners around whatever town i'll end up settling down in.

not much of an update :)

...."attractive" screenshot ^_^

just some thoughts...

...not really an update, i suppose.

after a relatively expensive day yesterday, i decided to stay in. i woke up late and found the house empty. my host mom had left a note for me on the kitchen table saying that she'd be out until 3pm or so. until then, i had watched a few episodes of the OC and caught up with a couple friends online. 

when my host mom came home, i was picking up my room... but one thing led to another, and i began to "REALLY" clean. fortunately or unfortunately, i found some things reminding me of high school, japanese summer school, and the first month of being in japan.

i realized that many things that i may have been unhappy about stems from issues more deeply rooted in just the "weird ways in which japan works". and i wish that i had tied up loose ends before leaving the country, but i didn't. so now, i have to figure out what it exactly it is that i need to do to "fix" a few things in my life. i won't have the answers before this month is over, let alone before break ends this weekend.

but as always, i'll がんばります。

it's all that i can do.

fall break!

....has begun! ^_^

i've been terrible about keeping this blog updated for a while now. 

BUT, i've been keeping a separate journal so my misadventures don't go unwritten :)

sometime this week, i think i'll post a video blog ~ since i can talk a lot faster than i can type (which i'm sure you all know what i'm talking about...lol)

i'm doing extremely well now. it just took me forever to figure out that there's nothing i can do about the way the japanese go about things sometimes. most of the time, it's practical. and when it's not, i just want to scream in frustration. 

...but i can't. because it's not middlebury. and i can't do random "crazy" things like that.

(the closest my friends and i have gotten to screaming "randomly" is when we saw the election results come in on the computers in the akp lounge. we went out, bought drinks, and raised a toast to obama in the middle of the street ^_^)

oh midd... how i miss you <3

i didn't vote either.

i just read a friend's post about not voting in the 2008 election. i could literally copy and paste her entire post, and that would sum up perfectly how i feel.

i wish i had worked harder to make sure i got my absentee ballot.

i wish i could've been a part of making history.

i wish i could tell future generations that my first vote was for obama.

i have very few regrets in life, and not voting in this election has become one of my bigger ones. can i reason why i didn't care enough to secure my absentee ballot? i'm not sure. like some americans, i had lost hope in our country. for a period of time, i seriously considered living elsewhere in the world after graduation because i didn't see reason to stay. i disagreed with decisions that our government was making. i became frustrated, and i guess i just didn't want to care anymore. maybe i was "certain" that others would vote for obama, and my vote wouldn't have "mattered". i don't know.

three weeks worth of posts are missing. during this period in october, i was not in a very good place mentally. japan was driving me up a wall with some of its strange habits and customs ~ culture shock, i suppose. (maybe it's a matter of "getting used to it". but one thing i doubt i'd ever get used to is seeing girls pile on fifty layers of mascara in a restaurant or moving subway car. this morning, i saw a woman walk onto the hankyu with a mirror held up to her face. she couldn't wait five seconds until she was actually on the train?!) anyway, the point i'm trying to make is that being here in japan has made me realize that i do love america. and i'm ready to see america change for the better. but by the time i had come to realize this, it had already become late october.

it's about time i fly again ^_^

for whatever reason, i decided to practice some cheer stunts (on a wobble board) after stretching at renaissance tonight.

then a trainer comes up to me, and i thought i was about to be scolded for doing strange things on the wobble board in the stretching area. instead, she started to say something about cheer, but then she saw the middlebury cheerleading shirt i was wearing. やっぱり (after all/as it turns out/"i thought so"), she says.

long story short, she's on a cheerleading squad based in osaka and wants me to join ^_^  practices are saturdays and sundays from 11am to 5, 6pm.  if it's both days every weekend, then i might have to reconsider, but it's much better than what doshisha's squad requires.

i had contacted the doshisha cheer angels in september, but all hope was lost when i found out that practices were three weekdays (at three hours each day) and once or twice on the weekend (at six or seven hours) PLUS, having to cheering for doshisha's sports teams at their games. furthermore, practices are held at tanabe campus, about an hour an a half (one way) from imadegawa campus, where i have my classes. it's also expensive for me to commute there because my 定期 (commuting passes) take me nowhere near tanabe.

so until tonight, i thought joining  a cheer squad in japan was pretty much 無理 (impossible)

^_^

my crazy sports club ^_^

another quick post.  

because it seems like it's all i can handle nowadays :) 

and i'll get to "updating" those three missing weeks of october soon.....

so i happily going along on the elliptical when a trainer approaches me---the same one who i had orientation "g" with.  i already knew what she was going to say.  one, i should do more weight-training. i've been avoiding that part of the gym because i didn't do orientation "i" yet. two, there was a period of time that i had been absent. i got sick, and homework had piled up. 

at renaissance, everyone has a file---but it's hardly private. at the end of each session, one puts the file in a separate place for review (and gets filed away by a trainer afterward for easy finding the next time one goes)  so they know everything i do on any given day.  members also take their blood pressure+heart rate and note their weight before and after each session. maybe that's how it's also done in the US, but it seems like this sports club is intensely attentive. they greet you several different times when you arrive and say お疲れ様でした at least twice on separate occasions when you leave; they are always floating around, and meet with you at regular intervals to discuss your progress, goals, etc.

it gets a little suffocating at times, but i think i'll get used to it. i just dislike that feeling of guilt if i don't do a full workout---and knowing that the trainers know i didn't. for instance, i had one really busy night in which i was lucky i was even able to go at all. i only spent thirty minutes on the elliptical ~ so that day's column was practically empty >.<  and it shows... oh well, not my problem :P

a feast every night

quick post about my host mother's delicious food.

i've been meaning to write an entry about this for quite some time now. anyway, it's delicious. and she cooks A LOT of it.

tonight's dinner consisted of:

• a bowl of rice
• a giant (and i mean, HUGE) bowl of ramen
• veggie tempura
• little dumpling-like things with tofu <--they were really good
• chicken wings made with amazing spices
• korokke

i'll never starve so long as i'm living with the nakamura family ^_^

it's been a while... i know...

it's been three weeks since my last post, and i have much to update on.

....however, i won't be doing that tonight XD

things should calm down soon, and i hope to write A LOT on friday.

how am i doing? i've been a lot better.

v_v

i <3 precor ellipticals

renaissance sports club.

day one: 

• left house around 8:30pm. during the 3-minute walk, i was hoping that i wouldn't do something embarrassing, but i really wasn't nervous since the gym is like my second home
• gave my membership card to the trainer at the front desk and started to head upstairs to the locker room. unfortunately, i didn't know that in exchange for the membership card, one gets another card that serves as a key to a locker... so she chased me halfway up the stairs
• got to the locker room. took shoes off before stepping onto the tatami-like part of the floor. then i couldn't figure out how to work the locker with the card, so i asked the two naked older women next to me
• after they helped me, i got changed freely. japan does that to you. nudity in public areas... not an issue for me anymore-- it's become relatively normal.
• went to the machines/equipment part of the sports club. found my file, took a clipboard/pen, and headed straight for the elliptical. didn't know where to put my record, so i just placed it on the floor beside the machine. apparently, the file goes into a little box in front of the elliptical, which i had failed to see. luckily, i was told by a familiar face. it was a trainer who had i done orientation with a week earlier
• became THRILLED when i realized the elliptical was precor. [ same company that midd uses ] most everything was in japanese, but i understood what i needed to understand :)
• not having brought water with me, i stopped several times to drink from the fountain. the elliptical had reset all my workout stats the first time i took a break, so each time thereafter, it was on an interval so i could easily recalculate (and add on to) what i had already done.
• after burning about 850 calories, i figured it was a good place to stop. went to the stretching area, took a mat, set it down, and began cooling down.
• returned locker key card at front card and received membership card back. walked home while texting mia about the embarrassing moments ^_^

i forgot socks. yeah, pretty gross >_<  but i wasn't about to let that be an excuse to leave and return to my comfort zone that is my homestay house :)  my feet are okay for the most part. no blisters, thank goodness! but stretching barefoot was a little awkward XD

i also knocked off my mp3 player that was resting on the "magazine holder thing" TWICE [ or was it three times...? ] it made a lot of noise, and i had to step off the elliptical to retrieve it each time. now that was pretty embarrassing >_<

but aside from all the little mishaps, i'm happy i can finally get back to a regular exercise routine =]

ligers & tigons

i missed out on THREE weeks of total insanity. okay, not really. but i moved up and absolutely loved japanese class today. it was SO much fun, and i finally felt "challenged". class wasn't difficult by any means, but i definitely welcomed the faster pace. we already covered blood type personalities in summer school, but i don't mind doing it again because it's an interesting topic :)

someone led us off-topic before we actually got to the reading... we wound up talking about the difference between ligers and tigons...

^_^

[almost] flutternutter!

mama set out a new kind of bread/roll for breakfast this morning. i took a bite into it, and it seemed like there was a marshmallow-type filling ~ and since i usually spread peanut butter on whatever bread there is, i [almost] had a fluffernutter today :)

that really made my morning. i was wondering just yesterday if fluff was sold in japan...

^_^

déjà vu

once again, i find myself stuck between levels. at the advice of prof. lofgren and my friends, i finally approached my homeroom teacher about how easy class was for me. and after [a ton] of talking with various sensei, they decided that i should move up for a week and see how it is. i don't think it'll be very difficult at all, but the problem is, we're already three weeks in. at least when i moved up in summer school, it was only the second day of classes. 

why do i keep finding myself in these kinds of situations? >_<

bring it on.

[coming soon ~ blog entry on the BEST friday night ever ]

ups & downs

sorry it's a little blurry v_v

*i apologize in advance for the fairly negative entry, but i didn't want to sugarcoat things, or leave out the bad for the sake of keeping up appearances.*

so i don't know what it was about this morning that just made me not in the best of moods... i have reading/writing class on wednesdays (as opposed to language/grammar the rest of the week), and i usually look forward to the change of pace. but as class went on, i found myself less and less willing to participate. my mind had begun to preoccupy itself with something i've worked hard to shelter myself from thinking about. [yes, it's about a guy. and no, chances are, it's not who you're thinking of. or maybe it is, lol ^_^] 

so then class ended, and we received our graded second-draft essays back. i got an A+!  [i really owe a lot to summer school for my writing. out of reading, speaking, listening, etc, i think it's my most improved area by far.] so yay, good grade. but good grade = good mood? ...no, not necessarily. i killed an hour and a half in the akp lounge waiting for lunch with prof. lofgren ~ talking to people, checking email, using nestor as a pillow as i mindlessly watched this japanese film about food, sex, and etiquette... 

anyway, i went out to lunch to café bazaar with resident director/professor lofgren and four other akp students (nestor, elliot, althea, and david) to talk about life in japan so far. [and problems with classes, homestays, etc] it was a good time, for the most part. prof. lofgren told us to just "suck it up"-- in regards to some minor complaints about classes. i was slightly annoyed by that, but i just brushed it off. and then not surprisingly, the whole midd "clique" thing came up.

don't even get me started. i was nice about it earlier, but now i'm just... *grumble* we hang out because we enjoy each other's company. and other people hang out with the people they like too. so what's the problem? well we all happen to be middlebury students, and somehow, that makes it "wrong". we're by no means an exclusive group, and i'm really sick and tired of constantly explaining that to people. furthermore, i always make an effort to acknowledge everyone in the room, not just my close friends. [at least althea notices that >_<] but then someone mentions that the "midd kids" are not exactly on her friends' good sides. normally, i would care. that would bother me. but guess what? it doesn't. why? because if they're that quick to judge us without even trying to get to know us, then i'm not so sure i'd want to be friends with them anyway.

...so on to the ups of today. besides the job well done on the essay, lunch was on akp today :)  i had the "taco rice", which consisted of a fried egg on top of some ground beef with rice on a bed of shredded cheese, lettuce, and diced tomatoes. [tako in japanese means octopus, so that brought some initial confusion lol] i thought it was pretty delicious ^_^ throughout the meal, there were humorous anecdotes from everyone-- and they made me smile, so that's good :)  after lunch, we went back to the lounge, where i saw mia and danielle :)  and they made me smile too ^_^  i adore them sooo much! around 3pm, my friends all left for their landscape gardens class--which i'm not in--so i headed home.  

a crazy, hyper dachshund greeted me at the door. his name is leo. he's about seven years old and belongs to my host sister mari. leo stays with us when her family gets really busy and isn't home much. [leo has separation anxiety?] this little dog reminds me a lot of lei ~ my crazy, hyper black lab back in new hampshire ^_^

playing with lulu and leo definitely lifted my spirits, and i'm expecting to be in a much better mood once i get that sports club membership tonight :)

...and what do you know

the picture is already printed on photo paper, sitting on the kitchen table waiting for me. i went downstairs, and there it was.

thank you, papa! ^_^

even more to be thankful for

• i think my host family knew early on that i liked sports and being active, but i probably left no doubt in their minds after soccer with shinpei and kento's field day this past weekend :) my host brother keita, who lives right next door with his wife shinobu & three kids, suggested this sports club [for me] to my host mom-- to which she took me tonight ^_^ sometime this week, she's going to help me officially sign up for a membership. i'll have to do a formal orientation, but i was already given the tour of the building tonight. [it's huge btw. more details later] there's a gym at imadegawa campus, but i hear it's relatively small. furthermore, class is early enough as it is, and timing-wise, it'd probably be very inconvenient.  
• my friends and i have been talking about a "girls' night" for some time now. i mentioned it to my host mom last week, and she did research on public baths and massage parlors in katsura [where we live] for me. papa's going to get me directions to a nearby onsen, outdoor hot spring. and as for the massage parlor, it's actually right across the street from the sport club, which is a three-minute walk from my house :)  AND, since mama and papa are going away to a botanical garden this coming weekend [mama, for painting & papa, for photography], she suggested we do the girls' night then-- so that we can have the house to ourselves! and because the girls are planning on spending the night, mama's going to pull out some mattresses for them.

• the temperature severely dropped last week. so i went from sleeping with the AC on to waking up freeeezing almost overnight. i found some more blankets though, so it was warm and toasty last night :) anyway, papa bought a new heater/AC combo for me and will install it sometime next week.

• going back to the sports club ~ i'll need to submit a 3cm x 2.5cm picture of myself [probably for the membership card], so papa took pictures of me tonight-- and i'm guessing he's going to do the cropping and printing of the picture for me.  *just a feeling* oh, and papa also set up wireless printing on my laptop for me last week :)

• mama also took me to get my official alien registration card this morning in kami-katsura. i thought i'd be going by myself sometime after class... getting to the municipal building from the kami-katsura station (next stop after katsura on the hankyu) isn't too difficult, it takes twenty minutes by foot though. the two doshisha students had taken me there during orientation to get my temporary one, so i had a pretty good idea of how to get there. well i woke up this morning to find directions on the kitchen table that papa had printed out for me using google maps. i definitely should not be getting lost now, i thought. it turns out that instead, they had called a taxi to eliminate all possibility of me losing my way lol ^_^

• i love peanut butter. mama knows that. before the current jar of peanut butter is even empty, another new jar appeared in the fridge this morning. and then at dinner tonight, i commented on how yummy the bread was. she asked if bagels were popular in the u.s., and i said, yes. well, i guess she's going to buy me bagels now.

• it's been rainy lately. instead of using my mom's plain umbrella, she went out and bought me a new one. it's got cute flowers on it. and they're PINK, lavender and baby blue. ちょうどいいだろう？ ^_^

kento's field day :)

kento ~ far left

my host cousin kento [technically host nephew...] had 運動会, a field day at kindergarten, and i was invited to go with the family :)  the events themselves were nothing out of the ordinary, but quite a number of things surprised me. for starters, i didn't see even one chubby kid. in the four weeks that i've been in japan, i've seen very few overweight adults. it is said that because japanese food is much healthier than american food, people in japan tend to be on the slimmer side. i don't disagree with that. however, japan still has sweets, desserts, and other unhealthy foods, so there must be a better, more comprehensive reason. 

anyway, update later about other surprising things.

toward the end of field day, everyone [including alumni, parents, and friends] was able to participate in a [very long] relay race and tug-of-war. i did both ^_^ it was definitely my cup of tea. i wasn't as competitive about the relay because there were sooo many people running in it. tug-of-war, however, i really wanted my team to win. and we did. both pulls :) after the event was over, i ran laps around the schoolyard and practiced some roundoffs and handsprings. i also did several sprints with shinpei, which earned me some brownie points with him. and the fact that i have a DS now and my love for soccer also helped ^_^

my beautiful metallic rose-colored DS ^_^

the color is sooo much prettier in person ^_^

i finally did it. i joined the rest of them and bought a DS in osaka today. before japan, i didn't really understand what it was, let alone understand the craze. but it seems like everyone in akp has one! i've never been a big gamer, but the kanji dictionary "game" is reason enough to buy one. electronic dictionaries can run upward of $300, whereas a used DS and the [extremely user-friendly] kanji dictionary game card can be bought for as little as $180.

as tempting as that sounds, i already have an electronic dictionary [with english, japanese and chinese] that i'm pretty happy with. so why buy one, right? well, there are many reasons, but here are several: 

• pokemon platinum! it was released exactly two weeks ago in japan ^_^ [fond memories from childhood playing pokemon blue on the old school gameboy LOL]
  
• assuming i will buy the kanji dictionary at some point, i will save a lot of time on doing hw [the electronic dictionary is handy, but is best for advanced students... i'm not quite there yet]
• "everyone has one" ~ this has more to do with being able to better connect with friends-- i know almost nothing about gaming [yes, my ps2 is "wasted" on me because i use it for playing dvds and not video games]
• i found a "used" one in practically new condition ~ and got it for $60 less :)  [and it's in a beautiful pink color!]
• elliot was VERY persuasive. [haha!] but no, really, he made some pretty good points XD

teramachi, mr. young men && the typical friday night

mr. young men is a little restaurant in teramachi-dori, a pedestrian street lined with a ton of different shops. teramachi is kind of hard to describe, but it's an amazing place to do shopping on a rainy day. [i will take some pictures the next time i go] anyway, mr. young men was where my friends and i decided to have dinner after a couple hours of shopping. 

danielle and i split the okonomiyaki meal, each of us paying only ￥390 for dinner. okonomiyaki is delicious ^_^ it's a popular dish, but i've never really had it before. i tried a little bit over the summer, but not enough to have developed an impression either way. the okonomiyaki also came with soup and onigiri. i was full before i had even finished half of it! 

something interesting about mr. young men: it has porn magazines for the customers to "peruse". we saw a man sitting by himself at a nearby table indiscreetly flipping through one. i wonder if that's normal in japan...

anyway, the guys went to an arcade-- and the girls did some more shopping ^_^  we met up again after a few hours and did the usual ~ go to a lawson's, buy cheap beer and snacks, and then off to the riverside to chill and talk. i tried a 4% mango drink this time. it was a little sweet, but still my "cup of alcohol" lol :)

again, sitting by the riverside and seeing all the couples there... it really made me feel lonely/sad about the current situation =\  

[but i guess i'll just have to wait and see... it won't be too long ^_^]

don't talk to strangers

shijo station ~ google image result

i was walking to the subway platform in shijo station when a businessman/salaryman? approached me. i thought he would ask me for directions, which at that point, i laughed to myself silently. it would not be long before he figures out that one, i don't speak japanese very well, and two, i have no idea where anything was. 

well, he wasn't asking for directions. he spoke very quickly, and all i picked up as i was rushing to the platform were the words 友達 and ビジネス--friend and business, respectively. it was probably 30 seconds before i was able to cut in and tell him that i was a student studying abroad and that my japanese wasn't very good ~ to which he responded, すみません。分かりました。 i'm sorry [for bothering you]. i understand. and that was that.

well, thinking this experience was kind of funny, i retold it to my host mom and host sister, who had stopped by to visit. i immediately knew their perceptions were different from mine when they looked worried, as opposed to amused. then i learned that there are many yakuza in shijo and i best be careful. and that i was to pretend i didn't speak japanese should something like this happen again.

though this is what nakamura-sensei from summer school had to say:

"でも、日本人のサラリーマンの中には、日本語がわからない

女の子をさがしている人もいますから、気をつけてネ!"

and in english:

"but there are also japanese salarymen who look for 

girls who don't understand japanese, so be careful!"

like many foreigners, i've fallen into the trap of thinking that japan is very safe. and while compared to america and other places, it is very safe... unfortunately, the crime rate has been slowly climbing up. so lesson from childhood relearned ~ don't talk to strangers.

>_<

akp thank you party for the doshisha students

left to right: chiai, me, masato's friend && masato

before the thank you party, i really didn't know what to expect. would we all just sit together and eat? i was worried that we wouldn't be able to mingle with the japanese students very well. on the contrary, the night was a hit ^_^  i met up with one of the students who guided me around during orientation [masato && aya] and met some of his friends from esa, or english students association.

me && manami

and then out of nowhere, i hear nestor say, "she takes chinese too." i instinctively turned around to see what was going on. nestor introduced us, and the rest is history :) through our conversation in both japanese and english, i find out that she loves shopping and the color pink! then she asked me if i had a cell phone so that we could exchange information. after having "phone sex" [i'll probably write about that at some point...], we compared class schedules and found that we are both relatively free on tuesdays, so we're going shopping next tuesday ^_^

i was also invited to karaoke tomorrow night with chiai, masato, and his friend. the homework pile grew pretty big though =\  i had planned on getting ahead tonight, but i'm already behind on what's due for tomorrow... so that's very unlikely. *grumble*

if we were dogs :)

greg drew this in the akp library while waiting for class to begin

i don't think words are needed for this post ^_^

[note the tail on me, lol]

exploring katsura

it's a four-day week once again :)  i forget what the occasion is today, but i welcome the mini-break. my host parents are out hiking and left me the house, telling me to invite friends over. LOTS of friends. [lol] but my friends are taking it easy, which probably a good idea after last night ^_^  

so i decided to go to the little stationary shop that i pass by on the way home sometimes. [i was in search of a 26-hole puncher <--yes, they exist!] unfortunately, it was closed-- probably because of the holiday. instead of turning back, i walked around katsura for a little bit.

some awesome finds:

• a bath house
• a massage parlor
• a cute corner coffee shop
• an indoor parking lot for bicycles!
• a beauty parlor where one could get a "peam" or a "stright"
• vending machines with "rainbow blend" coffee in a can

...all within a 5-min walk from my house ^_^

greg's birthday ~ night at the pub && riverside

セロバさん、お誕生日おめでとう！ happy 21st birthday, greg!

to celebrate greg's birthday, we met up with tom, grant, and michael [non-akp midd kids] for drinks. the name of the pub was the pig & whistle-- a pretty chill place. i don't remember the name of my drink, but it was a mix of mango liqueur, orange juice, and pineapple juice. sound delicious?
it was! ^_^ a lot of my friends went with sapporo beer--not bad. then ピットさん [michael from japanese summer school] ordered the cider--delicious! danielle had a green tea drink--pretty delicious too :)

one of the best moments of the night was when nestor threw yen into the plate of salt used for chasing tequila. in japan, people put money into little plates/receptacles when they pay for things<---nestor thought it was one of those. [HAHA!] we were a loud bunch of slightly to moderately intoxicated college students at a bar in japan...on a monday night... LOL ~ but it was a really good time :) the random conversations about chest hair and other things that shall not repeated, lowered inhibitions leading to weird confessions, etc... XD

the last item on the menu: smile for ￥0

after the pig & whistle, we went to a mcdonald's, where elliot ordered a smile for ￥0.  it was actually on the menu! but anyway, it wouldn't have been a night out unless we went to lawson's for onigiri and cheap beer...so we went to lawson's for onigiri and cheap beer. [okay, so some of us didn't get onigiri, and i didn't buy fruity beer, but the entering of lawson's is the most important part ^_^ ] 

with more food, snacks, and alcohol, we went to the riverside and hung out until the last train/bus. the scenery was beautiful. and there were couples everywhere. [maybe i can convince m. to come to kyoto sometime in the winter or spring...]

on a different note, 三条 [sanjo] is unfortunately a popular tourist spot. so even though we'll be living in kyoto for the next eight months, we look like we're just here for sightseeing. it's something i'll have to get used to, but that doesn't mean i'm too fond of being thought as just another 外人 [foreigner] on vacation.

soccer with shinpei ^_^

the extremely beautiful park entrance

shinpei taking a quick break from soccer ^_^

"red light, green light, 1-2-3"

naoki hunting for bugs?

i walked to a nearby park with mama and my host cousins. [technically, they're my host nephews... but that's a little weird]  anyway, 9-year old shinpei loves soccer, and i'm so glad! we juggled, passed the ball around, and played some one-on-one ~ it was just what the doctor ordered :)  we kicked the soccer ball over the fence into the kindergarten playground and had to jump it several times in order to retrieve it. it was very entertaining to say the least. 

the younger ones were playing a game similar to "red light, green light, 1-2-3" with mama. they are so adorable! after the game, 5-year old kento and 3-year old kazuma disappeared to somewhere else, while 7-year old naoki quickly became preoccupied with finding ants and other bugs...?  lol

right before we left the park, i showed them some simple gymnastics--roundoffs, handsprings, etc.  they loved it ^_^

my legs and body in general were really sore the next day ~ which is actually not a bad thing. [to me, that means a good workout haha]

:)

staying in on a friday night

after a long few days.

my body is exhausted. and probably extremely confused. i won't get into details here, but i haven't been feeling 100% for about a week now. so while my friends are shopping in shijo, then dining out, and finally off to karaoke afterward, i'm sitting in front of the computer at 8:30pm writing this post. 

during summer school, after doing the same reading assignment, class was held in a very similar fashion as today's was held. <--poorly phrased. i'll edit it when i'm not so tired. [but anyway,] japanese class this morning was like a 90-minute long déjà vu. 

page 1.  mistakes?  there are probably many LOL ^_^

after lunch today, i worked to finish my essay that was due by 5pm. i started writing it this morning before i left for class, but had outlined a draft the night before. i finally scribbled the last characters around 3:30pm in the akp lounge. i could've gone home then, but i decided to stick around to hang out with some of the other [non-middlebury!] akp students. i made it back by 5pm or so, took a nap until dinner, ate dinner, and now after this post, i'm going to bed.

^_^

not getting as much out of class as i should be...

i miss japanese language school SO much =\

i finished the third day of akp japanese classes this morning, and so far, i've already done two of the assigned readings during summer school! i'm not pleased to say the least. while it's one thing to reread something for pleasure, it's another to reanalyze the same thing for the sake of learning. *sigh* i hope next week is better. and if i find myself in this situation multiple times over, i may have to talk to the teachers about moving me up a level-- even though i'm comfortable where i am right now. it's relatively easy, but not to the same point as what second-year language school would've been like for me [at the beginning of summer]. i've been studying more advanced grammar and vocabulary on my own outside of class anyway, so i'm hoping this won't become a big issue. 

*crosses fingers*

unnecessary partial all-nighter

i started "homework" after midnight by my own fault and didn't get to bed until 3:30am. however, if i had just passively done the extremely short reading without the internet distracting me [and if i didn't bother with writing down vocabulary or grammar that i liked, or thought would be useful in the future], i could've gone to bed a couple hours earlier. i am such a nerd for the japanese language >_<

....and i unnecessarily got up at 6:27am this morning. why do i do this?

^_^

定期券!

we finally got our doshisha id cards this afternoon ~ which makes it possible for us to buy teikiken, or commuting passes, at a lower price.  the subway costs me ￥7500/month and the hankyu ￥2300/month... which isn't bad. [and doesn't matter anyway because we get reimbursed by akp] the forms weren't too complicated to fill out, thank goodness. 

i definitely will be looking forward to using the passes tomorrow. up until today, we were using single tickets [which some of us bought each day] each way.

today was also the first day of japanese class. it won't be a total breeze, but it will probably be really cozy and comfortable compared to third-year summer language school. and being the nerd that i am most of the time, i asked to correct my placement exam essay with 桑平先生 after class. 

[and i did ^_^]

yummy treats in uji

for some more pictures from this mini-adventure, please visit:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038073&l=639c7&id=4404537

i met up with several of my friends to see mia and hang out in her home away from home [uji]  after a 30-min jr train ride.  we enjoyed a yummy lunch at a little corner restaurant, followed by delicious softserve ice-cream ~ matcha and houji-flavored! [different kinds of green tea] afterward, we strolled over bridges around the river until we made our way downtown again. walking through the streets, shopkeepers were eager to prepare green tea samples for us to try. as common courtesy, we bought small souvenirs for our host families from many of these little stores. 

fun fact: the tale of genji was mainly set in uji.

things i did not expect

 extremely clean. and extremely pink.  && the "flushing sound" button.

1. that literally everything in japan can be made cute. i've even seen a pink garbage trunk on the side of the road.
2. the extremely watered down soap in public restrooms.
3. the lack of paper towels [there are dryers sometimes] in said public restrooms.
4. there aren't many trash cans on the streets, or in train stations for that matter.  a friend asked an officer where she would find one--- the officer responded by taking the trash, and [i'm guessing] he disposed of it somewhere else later on.
5. how expensive peanut butter is in japan!
6. the train stations are very, very clean.  no trash to be found anywhere.
7. there are cushioned seats in the subway.
8. people line up on one side of the escalators in stations/department stores to leave room for those in a hurry to run up or down.
9. shopkeepers and cashiers are super 元気, or energetic, and they greet/thank their customers almost overzealously ~ but that's just the culture. 
10. money is usually never handed to the cashier. rather, it's placed on a small, rectangular plate-like receptacle.
11. how often laundry is done sometimes. it seems like every other day at my house.
12. it's very possible to be bitten by a mosquito four times over the course of breakfast alone. it's happened to me two days in a row.
13. things purchased online from amazon may be picked up at 24-hr lawson convenience stores all over japan.
14. a 25-minute/month cell phone plan without texting runs around $20.
15. on some toilets, a button may be pressed to imitate the sound of flushing ~ with volume control.

#16. that this list has been mainly about toilets/restrooms, money/shopping, and cleanliness ^_^

and the results ^_^

last minute adjustments last weekend before the competition

papa's team placed 13th out of over 50! and have two trophies to show for their hard work. papa played a slideshow of pictures from the weeklong competition on our tv ~ all he had to do was plug a flash drive in! so cool.

not the best start to the long weekend

our view while we hung out on the giant steps of kyoto station

enjoying good conversation and yummy drinks ^_^

after a great night out with my friends friday night, the weekend took a turn for the worse. first of all, my body woke me up around 6:30am, which on a normal school day, isn't a bad thing. however, it's saturday. anyway, i had breakfast around 9am and actually went back to sleep until 2pm because i wasn't feeling well. i hope i'm not getting sick already, but i can believe it if i am. the constant changes in temperature (air-conditioned rooms and the 30ºC weather outside) can't be too good... my host mother suggested i stay at home today and get some rest [probably an extremely intelligent idea], but all my friends are out visiting a temple, and i am so so jealous.

furthermore, last night, i found out i was placed in kuwahira-sensei's group---i'm not sure whether that's level 3 or 4, but i'll be very unhappy if it's 3. long story short, elliot and danielle are dealing with the same problem. they both should be in level 5, the most advanced. however, judging by where the other midd kids were placed, their group [different from mine] is most definitely not level 5. the combinations of students in both our respective groups don't make any sense to us. it's very ambiguous which level we were placed in. it doesn't make sense that elliot and danielle would place below me---making their group level 4, and mine 3. either way, nothing seems logical to us right now. we are hoping that a very BIG mistake has been made.

it's 3:15pm on a saturday afternoon, and i'm sitting in my room blogging. my headache hasn't gone away, and i have no motivation to do homework. i'd really like to study some japanese, but my mental and physical state is prohibiting me from doing so. at some point, this 3-day weekend has to get better. i'm waiting...

disaster prevention

mia && the pamphlet from the disaster preventer center

akp took us to the disaster prevention center this afternoon. what an interesting experience to say the least. i pretended to hang out with my friends in a simulation room when an earthquake "struck". the room literally started to shake violently as we dove under the kitchen table. then when the shaking was at a minimum, we mocked the steps we would take if a real one were to occur. at another station, my friends and i were hit with "winds" at 32 meters/second to simulate a typhoon. some other things we did: attack fires on a huge sensitive screen with real extinguishers, sit in an unlit room to experience the severity of a mudslide through headphones, and escape a burning "hotel" through winding hallways filled with smoke. [unfortunately, none of the above-mentioned activities are shown on that particular page of the pamphlet] anyway, it seems that disaster prevention is really taken seriously in japan.

during middle school in the united states, i learned to hide under my desk or run to a corner of the classroom should anything happen. 

hmm....

lost again on the backroads of kyoto

practically all the backroads look like this >_<

they are not marked by road names, and the homes hardly ever have house numbers on them. furthermore, the roads are not "gridded" like new york city's ~ read: good luck if you get lost. 

when i made to back to katsura station from campus by subway and the hankyu, i was sure that everything would be okay and felt proud for being able to navigate the subway systems without screwing up.  well, i definitely "thought" too soon. long story short, i got horribly lost on the 5-10 minute walk home. i asked for directions, and the two women by the side of the road had no idea either. i took out the map with the marked route home that akp provided each of us and showed it to them. it was confusing, and even they couldn't comprehend it--- so one of them actually took me around to try and find my house. after getting even more lost, she stopped at a little shop and asked for directions. 

the shopkeeper took out what appeared to be a directory ~ but not only was this book like an address book, it showed plots of land with the owner's name and address on it. lucky me, nakamura is a very popular name... there were a ton of people by that name on my road alone. we eventually found my host family on the map, and the very nice lady actually walked me home. when we got to my house, she realized that she knew my family and has had some connection to my host sister mari. i couldn't understand what she was saying, so i still don't know how she knows my family. maybe she said she was a teacher? i don't know >_<

oh well. thanks to kawamura-san, i finally made it home! :)

could not have asked for better :)

this is only a part of my room ^_^

to name a few reasons...

1. my host parents are amazingly warm and interesting people.
2. the grandchildren and lulu are so much fun.
3. my room has fans and AC ~ which is a pretty big deal in japan, i guess [concerning homestay situations anyway]
   
4. my room is HUGE. and is complete with cable, dvd/vcr player, and a playstation.
5. no curfew.　[still good to be home at a reasonable hour though.]
6. mama tends to my food likes and dislikes. [before japan, i've been a pretty picky eater... getting better]
7. i'm allowed to use their phone and kitchen. [homestays are not required to provide either]
8. i may shower in the morning or evening. [some families only bathe at night]
9. drinking is allowed in the house. [responsibly, of course.]
10. wireless internet && printer!
11. the house is very traditional. [sliding doors ~ which i love ^_^ !]
12. commuting time is relatively short.
13. mama will cook lunch for me every weekend. [homestays are not required to do so.]
14. pool in the backyard!
15. widescreen HD tv in living room.

.... are those reasons sufficient enough? それだけ大丈夫？ ^_^

the wonderful 中村 family!

yeah, i know i need a better picture of mama && papa LOL 

my host family is awesome!  mama is so incredibly nice and cooks extremely yummy food ^_^ ! papa works for horiba and lectures part-time at doshisha's tanabe campus. he's also an engineer and has spent a great amount of time with his students building a racecar from scratch. i was lucky enough to watch them practice on saturday before the nationwide competition next week.

 

formula project ~ http://www.jsae.or.jp/formula/index.html

mama and i went to the library to read while papa had his meeting. afterwards, they took me out to dinner. soba noodles. とてもおいしかった ^_^！that same day, i met more of the family. they have three children ~ two daughters, emi and mari, and a son named keita. emi has a 12-year old daughter named hana and a 9-year old son named shinpei. they live about a 5-minute walk away. keita, on the other hand, lives right next door with his three sons ~ 7-year old naoki, 5-year old kento, and 3-year kazuma. they are absolutely adorable! it's like having a ton of little brothers ^_^ ! i have yet to see mari's side of the family. she lives farther away with her 4-year old daughter haru.

kazuma :)

and i can't forget lulu ^_^ !  she's a cute little chubby welsh corgi. she begs for attention--and i give it to her lol :) i have short video clips of her online ~ ask me for the links if you want to see them.

lulu-chan with the bone i brought her from home ^_^ !

note to self

.... ask mama where the light switch for the living room is.

i just had to navigate my way through the house to the bathroom in the [practically] pitch-black darkness.  that was fun ~ considering how much i like being alone in the dark >_<

akp welcome party

the beautiful midd girls :)

i went home with the 中村 [ nakamura ] family after the akp welcome party friday night. everyone was anxiously waiting in the banquet room lobby for the arrival of the families. it seemed as though mine would never come, as i was the last one left waiting of the midd kids. finally, kuwata-san pulled me aside to introduce me to my host mother. mama was dressed in a traditional kimono ~ 本当に素晴らしい！ i didn't feel overwhelmingly nervous, but i definitely got really hot really quickly. she told me to relax and said that she had been a little nervous too.

dinner was extremely おいしかった！ many speeches were given, but one in particular について、the presenter commented that if one understood 100% of what he said, then it was very impressive. well, i didn't understand it 100%, but probably around 90-95%. i felt pretty good at that moment ^_^  

anyway, if i had written this post friday night, then there probably would've been more details about the welcome party.  the banquet really pales in comparison to the fun i had with my family this weekend. 

nakedness in the public bath

google image result of a sento

danielle, erin, mia, and i went to the 銭湯 [ public bath ] together tonight. what an interesting and unique experience! we had been given free tickets and decided to take advantage. anyway, so we go to the public bath underneath kyoto tower hotel, check out a couple lockers, and head to the bathing area. we get into the changing room [ little hallway with more lockers ] and realize that one had to be fully unclothed upon entering the bathing area. after some expected giggling/nervous energy, we finally dropped our towels and embraced the experience.

we sat on little stools in front of the showers and thoroughly washed our selves from head to toe with the other women in there. then after wrapping our hair in a small towel, we entered the extremely hot bath in the middle of the room and soaked for a while. it was an amazing experience, and i hope to do it again one day soon ^_^

http://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php?cID=359&pID=318