...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

like two personal assistants

where we had lunch :)

after making it to campus on our own this morning and getting through homestay orientation, we each met up with two student volunteers from doshisha.  they were responsible to showing us how to get to class from our houses, helping us apply for alien registration cards, and making sure we had the proper forms to get commuting passes when we get our student id cards next week. it might not sound like much, but aya-san and masato-san were with me all day long. 

we began by going out to lunch at a nearby restaurant.  the food was really good, but i didn’t even finish half of my [alfredo sauce?] pasta—let alone the bread, mini-salad, and soup.  we each ordered our choices off the menu by putting yen into a vending machine to receive a ticket indicating what we wanted.  i wonder if there’s anything like that in the united states. 

after lunch, we took the subway and hankyu in order to get to my house. unfortunately, the map we were provided was not very clear, and we lost our way several times. it appeared no one was home, but we could hear loud [and scary-sounding] barking coming from within. i wondered if it could’ve been my host dog. anyway, we headed back to the hankyu to go one stop further to kami-katsura, where i would apply for my alien registration card. the process was relatively long, but luckily, some of the other akp students were waiting with their respective doshisha students as well. 

they decided to go to a karaoke bar for the evening. as interesting as that sounded, i was ready to head back to the hotel and get some rest. i was exhausted to say the very least. however, not wanting to rain on the parade, i agreed and went along. but because i’m a terrible singer, and because i don’t know too many japanese songs, it wasn’t all that fun for me. still, i was very grateful for everything that aya-san and masato-san did for me today. and after a little while, i was finally free to run to the comfort of my hotel room! 

…but who knew that my friends and i would be getting naked together in a public bath later that night? 

^_^

raw fish && cheap fruity beer

*update*

so this actually has a name ~ kaitenzushi, or "conveyor belt sushi"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conveyor_belt_sushi

we decided on a small sushi restaurant for dinner tonight. we sat down in a booth and watched plates of food go by on a conveyor belt. customers help themselves to whatever they want by lifting a plastic cover and removing the sushi off of it. the design on the plates correspond to a price, so the tab is kept by the empty plates on the table. unfortunately, i didn't have anything. i really had my heart set on some いなり [ rice in fried tofu ] or かっぱまき [ cucumber roll ]、but they never made an appearance on the belt, so i didn't have anything from the restaurant. i was reluctant [ complete understatement ] to try raw fish. i did sample the tiniest bit of raw salmon though. it tasted... really fishy?

i bought some yummy seaweed おにぎり [ onigiri ] and apple-flavored beer from a コンビ二 [ convenience store ] afterwards. the girls and i had planned on trying the public bath tonight, but time got away from us. so instead, we put on yukata, drank beer, and hung out in my hotel room. even though we elected not to do karaoke with some of the other students tonight, i thoroughly enjoyed the company of my friends.

after orientation this week, we will [ hopefully ] make friends with some doshisha students. but i'm not going to feel guilty for "staying in the comfort zone" by spending time with the midd girls because we're already really good friends--we're not sticking by each other solely on the grounds of attending the same college. it doesn't make sense to ignore the people i love hanging out with ~ though that is not to say that we can't make friends with others too.

bic camera

...is an amazing electronics store. it's huge! i think there were six floors altogether, but it seems like one could find virtually everything there. my friends and i walked there together, but we wound up splitting up into small groups. mia and i wandered around and found probably over a hundred different types of photo albums and photo frames! they were all so かわいい [ cute ] and hard to resist buying. we each got a "therapy color" photo album and a case for our 電子辞書 [ electronic dictionary ]. i had searched high-and-low for a case on the internet before but couldn't find anything. minutes after walking into bic camera, we came across a small wall completely full of them. furthermore, i found a pale pink/chocolate one, and mia chose a pretty orange one ^_^

on another floor, countless models of clocks were showcased. since my LG chocolate is of no use to me in japan, i was left without a method of keeping time and no way to ensure i won't oversleep. scanning the walls and displays for something in my favorite color, i mentally eliminated all of them but one. and this one was perfect. this clock is pink in color, egg-shaped, and includes features such as temperature, calendar, timer, and alarm. however, the awesome thing about this egg clock is that each feature [ when backlit ] is in a different color, and the backlight is activated when it is thrown off balance--meaning, this clock literally rocks [ all in directions about its base ] without falling over. && it's portable!

but shopping aside, mia and i struggled to understand what a bic camera "point card" was. the cashier was patiently trying to explain to us the benefits of having one, but we just got really confused. then i found an explanation sheet in english at the counter, and we finally figured it out. however, it took a few tries to express that i wanted to apply for one. the difficulties in communication didn't end there though. i needed a phone number, and i hadn't memorized mine yet--so mia gave me hers to use. but then, i needed an address. luckily, after writing it five times for my luggage tags and customs declaration forms, it had made its way into my long-term memory. the problem then came down to putting that address onto to paper--but in kanji... long story short, after all the communication issues, mia and i both have bic camera point cards now :)

everyone else was waiting for us outside the building at this point. somehow, we got "lost" on the second floor. when we realized we weren't on the ground floor, we headed towards the escalator to take us down. however, we first came to the one coming down from the third story, so we turned around and kept looking. the next one we came to would take us up to the fourth floor. after some more wandering, we finally found our way out.

the end.

^_^

p.s. rain + flip flops = bad idea.

first day of orientation

i'm getting so excited for this year! orientation has been fun and not the slightest bit overwhelming so far. my day started at 6:30am because i just couldn't stay asleep any longer. we had breakfast in the hotel, and i did something i'm not really used to doing--trying new food! i tried everything [ minus the pickles ] to the right of the rice, which included strange things i've never seen before. most friends know that this is highly uncharacteristic of me. even i was surprised for doing that. before arriving in japan, i was convinced that i wouldn't step out of my [ dietary ] comfort zone.

anyway, we headed out as a group after breakfast for doshisha's imadegawa campus by subway. the seats are cushioned! and i found myself at ease--as opposed to being completely on guard in nyc. the campus is merely several hundred feet from the station, which should be nice in the winter months.

i had ごほうてんぷら [ some kind of veggie tempura ] for lunch. it was delicious! and it only cost ￥110! the cafeteria is relatively small, but it's very cozy in that respect.

then at 2pm, we were turned loose in the computer lab--and here i am ^_^ ! but time's up, and now i'm off to explore kyoto!

finally in japan!

after a six-hour flight to san francisco and an eleven-hour flight to osaka, i've made it to kyoto!  i'll be staying at the kyoto tower hotel with the other AKP students until friday.  after the welcome party friday night, i'll be going home with my host family.  i'm so excited to meet them!

it still hasn't hit me yet.  i'm in japan!  after settling down in my hotel room, i went to a nearby convenience store with my friends, bought お弁当 (lunch box) with お酒 (alcohol--in this case, sparkling wine) for dinner, and wandered around kyoto for a little bit. breakfast is at 8am or so tomorrow morning, so i should get some sleep soon.

i'll try to blog more (and in more detail) later this week, but the flights were fine and comfortable.  the entire process was actually rather smooth-sailing.  i had no trouble with customs, and AKP staff were right around the corner to greet us.  our large luggage were shipped to our homestays, and after a two-hour bus ride, we arrived in kyoto from kansai airport.

and the journey begins... [part one]

mom & grandpa dropping me off at jfk :)

i went to bed after i got off the phone with matt around 1am. everyone else was already asleep, so i was talking in the bathroom as not to wake anyone up.  i really didn’t sleep too well.  i tossed and turned because the taxi service was going to take me to JFK at 5am, and i still had not finished packing. 

upon entering JFK, the first thing i noticed was the huge line at check-in.  much to my dismay, the line was actually a lot longer than what it had appeared to be at first sight, wrapping around the corner and then extending some 50 meters or so.  i was definitely glad i had arrived an hour and a half before boarding time.  however, it wasn’t until about five or ten minutes later that i realized I was standing in the wrong line. 

luckily, the line for united—not us airways—was short and much less intimidating.  i scanned my passport, but i received the same error message [something like, length of stay exceeds limit] when i had tried to check-in online the day before.  i was directed to a representative, and he got me taken care of—it was pretty painless.  as soon as i exited the check-in, i saw nestor and his family come in.  i ran to give him a hug and waited for him to get through check-in. 

going through security was relatively smooth-sailing too—until they found my nalgene with some water in it.  i just had to empty it at a nearby water fountain, but i had to go through everything all over again. 

>_>

*the rest of the story to come soon... i keep finding drafts of blog entries on my pc while i'm cleaning up some folders =]*