HAPPY CHRISTMAS SMILE LIFE!

I don't know what it is but Japan seems to skim the very top off the materialism and tackiness of American holidays to take for themselves. My mother can attest to some of this, but Christmas "decorations" displayed and sold here are limited to inflatable Mickey Mouses and dancing tabletop Santas. I'm used to it, but it appalls my Swedish roommate who claims they only use white lights, candles, and greenery where she's from. Of course Christmas has even less spiritual significance to this non-Christian nation, whose people usually spend the holiday eating KFC with friends. But I found it so funny when I walked into the local supermarket and was greeted by a huge inflatable Santa Claus, Japanese kids excitably bouncing around it, grateful for this novelty within the familiar grocery trip routine. One child was punching the lights out of poor Mr. Claus like he was out for revenge, but his victim always waved back to shape. I smiled knowingly at them, as though I as an American was doing them a favor by lending them our precious bobbing air-giants. They stared mesmerized back at me before, of course, saying "HELLOW!"

Yes, America, I ate raw chicken.

My face was blazing red from the izukaiya's flourescence, the bowling alley curse, and the new winter's 3 AM chill. We pedaled in pairs alongside an unsightly man-made stream, unconcerned at that hour about women rounding corners with babies and eggs in their bicycle baskets. Yuuki--whose parents didn't tell him until high school that they were actually Korean--told me, "I love cultural exchange" and I gladly accepted my position as wise informant on the differences between Japan and America. Crime, uh, situations for women, um, fashion? I could no longer hear the other pairs speaking amongst themselves, but I listened to Yuuki advise, "Do not be shy to use Japanese. It is nice to try. When I go to Australia over the summer, I think my Japanese--I mean English--was so bad but I had to try." Yuuki is a young man who hates the thought of it but will likely end up in a semi-traditional Japanese male career path. His major is English and he also attends an English Speaking school, so his language skills will be highly marketable in the business world. I watched him with his girlfriend last night; she flirted much more with the redhead guy but Yuuki didn't seem to mind, or notice. I wonder what will happen to them, or her more specifically. As he and I huffed up the final hill of the home stretch, vertical on our bikes, now completely alone, I told him, "I (pant) would never (pant) feel safe riding (pant) my bike at 3 AM (pant) at home (gulp)." He just laughed, knowing I was talking about a feeling he'd never really have. "I think it's cool that you got through the application process to study abroad. You have to work very hard, and it's cool that you got to Japan. I just, I just really respect you guys. I have so much respect for you." I almost handed the man a tissue, but just smiled and said with the last leg pump to the hill's crest, "Finally, it's down-hill" and we both knew at that moment that nothing could feel better than riding full speed down that hill towards our beds.

I can't believe it is already November 18th. It absolutely doesn't seem possible. The past two weeks have been so busy that I forgot to think about the dates. I have only three weeks left of classes, one week of finals, and one week of saying my goodbyes to Japan for good. Unreal.

Once upon a time I was being carried through a crosswalk in Umeda (Osaka's northern downtown) by the bustle of youthful nightlife, and I laughed and thought I could never imagine my parents in Japan. Nothing against my parents, or Japan, but I knew it was a place they would likely never go had I not had the unreasoning to come here myself. Yet they came and they conquered, McClain/Dennis Rodman in tow.

Despite my dad's constant struggle with the pronounciation of "arigatoo gozaimasu", I think they fared pretty well and hopefully took some of the experience home with them. I will also take some of the experience home with me in the form of a nice new coat. Thanks Mommy, I've gotten many compliments.

My 3 favorite dudes.

So now it is autumn in Japanland. Yesterday several of us went to the Ginkakuji (Silver) Temple in Kyoto to witness the land's changing colors. The weather was gorgeous and almost warm on our trek down the Philosopher's Walk, and right before sunset we reached the tree mountains surrounding the temple and got a view of the city below. We later met up with Japanese friends and Corey had a blast teaching them even more party games that somehow work cross-culturally (Umbrella, i.e.). They're particularly fond of Kemps, a card game, so I ended my night by winning the last match with my partner Nagi, who calls me Andy.


Classes are becoming more demanding, as is always the end-of-the-year trend. Especially in my Japanese language classes, grammar and kanji are becoming more complicated but they're moving us just as fast. I have enjoyed learning Japanese but I know I'll discontinue my studies of it once I return to the states. I can only handle one long-distance relationship anyway.


I just received a call from Andrew Sartorius on my computer. If you're interested in his own story of Japan, visit his blog by clicking here.

Kuruma Fire Festival, Kuruma, Kyoto, 10/22/07:



Corey, Panda Skeleton on Train, 10/31/07:

"The Lock-Up", Shiji, Kyoto, 10/31/07:


I dressed as an old-fashioned golfer using the clothes I have plus a beret, pom pom, crazy checkered socks, and broom-turned-club. I don't think many Japanese got it, but maybe I could have done better with it. The restaurant was decorated as a dungeon, with black lights, cages, people running around banging on the cages and screaming, that sort of thing... It was interesting to celebrate an American holiday that was brought to Japan just in the 80s by Tokyo Disneyland. Many of the Japanese people in the photo above were not inclined to dress up too much, but there were many who weren't so shy.


I just registered for my spring courses at Wooster this morning. If my anthropology courses I took abroad count toward my major, I will hardly have any sociology left to take besides Statistics and I.S. That's too much freedom! It's strange, sad, and terrifying to see the end in sight already. Maybe I'll stay a college student forever.

Hope your Halloweens were SPOOKtacular, or at least FANGtastic. Happy Birthday again to Aunt Kay, and Happy November to all.

Some Kind of Warp

I apologize for not informing you sooner, but I have enabled anonymous comments on my blog. If you do not have a Blogger/Google account, you can still comment on my entries. Click the "Anonymous" tab that appears somewhere after the text box for comments; just sign your name (or not) at the end so I know who you are. Thanks to those who already went to the trouble to make a Google account just for my sake. Hopefully now I'll hear from even more of you!

Onto whatever else. Since I have been in this unfamiliar place for a couple months now, I have gotten somewhat used to being uncomfortable all the time. Still, there have been a few moments where I experience something that snaps me back to home. Last week it was the bagpipes I heard being played beyond the park by my seminar house. It was so jostling, for the rest of the night I could not shake that puzzled, bittersweet feeling of random connectedness to something I could never explain.
This week it was at the mall in downtown Hirakata. We passed by the children's clothing section after an unsuccessful DS hunt and I heard Corey say, "Hey look." Well:



There's home, on a headless child's figure on the 4th floor of some mall called "Vivre" in Hirakatashi, some relatively tiny, dirty prefecture of Osaka, Japan.

Rainbows and Peace and Ponies and Japanese Anti-Terrorism Efforts

One of the true reasons I wanted to study in Asia was to (attempt to better) understand what it feels like to be a racial/ethnic/cultural minority. I am of course a white American attending an overwhelmingly white school in an overwhelmingly white city of Ohio, yet as a part of my major I have studied in-depth the various types of issues regarding the experiences of racial "others" in America.

In light of recent terrorist threats on a global scale, Japan's government (undoubtedly encouraged by their buddy, the US) has added another precaution at their borders dealing with the permission of foreign-born persons into the country (fingerprints, even). Even people who have given up their lives in their native countries and have become permanent residents of Japan are not recognized as true Japanese citizens. Only native-born Japanese people can vote, for instance, but I won't even begin to discuss Japan's so-called democracy right now. Anyway, the borders have tightened even more so, and foreign-born residents face no lighter treatment than foreign-born visitors when it comes to entering this country. We are all suspect, basically, but I'm not sure this has anything to do with terrorism. Sounds familiar.
Link to article.


Foreign residents (gaikokojin) in Japan make up about 1.5% of the population and seem to be clumped into very apparent categories. There are Koreans, Chinese, and...everybody else. The Koreans and Chinese are distinct because Japan has an ugly history with such countries and the effects are lasting. Even though the "everybody else" category is generally treated with respect, even admiration, even as some spectacle...as a part of it I have still felt a great sense of unbelonging. The stares and whispers overwhelm me, as I am usually comfortable with "blending in". I feel like a burden, stumbling over their language, stumbling with the customs. I feel like there is never a way I could adapt or even feel apart of it. My professors, residents for more than a decade, are still "foreigners"; they will never be Japanese.

A couple of times a group of us gaijin have been denied entrance to a bar or restaurant, though they don't say why. It is humiliating, yes, but I know this is on such a low scale compared to the daily harassment, discrimination, or even physical violence against many nonwhite Americans, foreign-born or not. They may be called Americans, perhaps with some hyphenated term stuck on the front of it, but many of these people are not treated as they should be by law or, well, morals. I am not suggesting that such treatment is always personal or always intentional, as much of it is most definitely not, but it exists everywhere. We are all devoted to the idea of our nation-state, so even in such a melting pot as America, we develop this commitment to the protectionism of "our" culture and "our" people. Immigrants threaten this, maybe. We struggle with it more in the US because we don't quite understand what is our culture, our people. Our Constitution is based on these open-arms ideals, but how effective is it?

Japan, however, just refuses to open its arms. They let me in because they know I'm going home.

Drunk cows and empty wallets.

Only in Japan...

I slept for 12 hours last night. I'm still a teenager at heart.

Yesterday was a big travel day, meaning we spent more time in train/subway stations than anything else, or so it seemed. Even so, we eventually reached Kobe, another major city of the Kansai region that sits on the southern coast. There is no real distinction between Osaka and Kobe as the buildings and concrete stretch on and on and on... I did, however, see the Pacific Ocean (briefly) from the train and also from atop a mountain. I still have never touched its pacified waters, which seems to be one of those things I would get emotional about.
Did you know that 60% of Japan's entire coastline is paved over in concrete? Ah, those beautiful Japanese beaches...


We rode the ropeway to the top of this here mountain. They let us off at the top, where we could explore a "European"-esque fake village covered in potted flowers.

This is Kobe, or a small section of it. See the ocean back there kind of?



If you are an expert of fine meats, as most of you are, you will have heard of Kobe beef. They treat their cows pretty well here in Japan, feeding them only the finest of beers and giving them daily massages--before, you know, slaughtering them for our benefit. Anyway, supposedly that is why their world-famous steak is so world-famous. Truly, it was the best steak I have ever eaten. I paid about $64 for the combo meal of steak, rice, potatoes, beans, soup, salad, and one half-glass of white wine. A plate of Kobe beef has been known to run at about $150, so we lucked out with our "deal", which was still the most I've ever paid for food. Worth it, though, I'd say. The picture is of me looking awkward in my baby bib.

The rest of today will be spent learning how to conjugate my Japanese adjectives. Muzukashii desu yo!

Safety, trust, and Marci.

Happy birthday, oniisan, big brother.

It's most remarkable how safe I feel here. I feel more comfortable walking down dark corridors alone at night in Japan than I do even walking to Masonic Home in Louisville at night, with my ferocious dog. Last weekend Corey and I were trapped in Kyobashi prefecture of Osaka after we narrowly missed the last train home. We snaked through shady alleys of closing businesses but never once did I feel any threat like I would in an unfamiliar area at home-- even with a muscle machine like Corey at my side. Nobody even threw a strange remark in our direction. Last evening I wandered around Hirakatashi but hundreds of other young women were out alone on the streets as well, immersed in their cell phone activity, oblivious to their surroundings. It must be nice to grow up in a society that doesn't implant that "gitchy" feeling in everyone (Remember: if someone grabs your ankles from under your car... Remember: if you're not careful with the coin return slot... Remember: if you make eye contact with anybody...). Japanese people have other kinds and degrees of trust issues, of course, but at least they can trust each other in that regard.

In any case, I miss my dog terribly.

That hasn't happened for the longest time.

To express more digressive, if not obnoxious, insights:
Some of the best moments of life occur when nobody mentions it. Maybe I'm a sap, but I love getting that sense, that overwhelming appreciation for where and even who I am--but only when it comes out of simple, even mundane, moments. I'm not talking about being at an exotic festival or 5-story arcade or New Years Eve bash, with people exclaiming, "Isn't this awesome?" or "What a great place/party/time!". I'm talking about such moments as hitting the key change of Billy Joel's "For the Longest Time" at a karaoke bar in Japan. It's not just that song and the memories tied to it, or just the foreign country, or just the neon lights and monstrous echo of the microphone, or just the new friends, or just the successful feat of hitting the right notes after a couple beers... it's all of it, and more. Really, these moments are few and far between and I could probably jot down a short list of them, but such things are far more valuable in the archives of my brain.

Fall has sprung, and the weather feels perfect. I tell people I love when it's in the 70s, only to get blank stares in response. I then remind myself to learn rough equivalencies of the Fahrenheit to Celsius scales. America is a part of the larger world, but in its development, it forgot that.

Decipher this--written everywhere on the walls of a multi-tiered arcade/bowling/roller rink/karaoke/mini golf extravaganza center--if you dare:


Seriously, by any means, stay tasty. Sports play will probably be enough.

Getting older, wiser,

By 2050, 33% of the Japanese population will be over 65 years old.

Have it your way.

The relationship between Japanese cashier and customer might be one of the most noticeable differences between here and home. Of course, the philosophy of both of our capitalisms (?) is to put the customer first, but here the language and mannerisms are completely different; "O honorary customer, it is our greatest pleasure to accomodate you in this establishment" is basically what they are saying over and over.
It's creepy.
I never have any idea what they are rambling about to me, but they are trained to use a certain voice and intonation that drives me absolutely crazy. They will rarely step out of this character, except the select few who struggle through their English to make me understand what they're asking. It is hard to believe that their Japanese cashier voice and Novice English voice can belong to only one human.
The funniest is when I'm treated to fast, quality service at a KFC, i.e., and am sent away with a bow and ultra polite form of "Thank you" from a slim, attractive Japanese college student. Now imagine an American KFC worker. See? Funny. I apologize for stereotyping fast food workers in America, but if you allow yourself to do so as well, it's funny.

Not much to say.

I'm just seeing if this works. It's a video from last weekend's Danjiri Festival, that could have been taken at a better angle.
Edit: It should work if your computer is compliant. It seems to take forever to load up, though, so I apologize if that's the case for you, too.



Apparently shaking your leg up and down while seated is a sign of disrespect in Japan. Likely having already offended my Japanese professors and friends, I need to quickly adopt a new nervous habit. It's the little things that are the hardest to shake off, pun intended.

I'll take suggestions of which English/American slang to teach my Japanese friends. The farthest I've gotten thus far is "What's up?", "Hanging out," "Awesome," and "Bummer." Surely I can do better than that.

Irrashaimase!

Sometimes I get Japanese phrases "stuck" in my head, like a song you somehow wake up with and repeat to yourself throughout the day. The voice is always a very high pitched Japanese woman--sometimes computerized, as it is at the ticket station or ATM. The title of this post is an example of this; it means "Welcome!" but of course is 5 syllables long. Every common phrase is at least twice as many syllables in Japanese than it is in English. What is said is thus much more valued.

Back to business. This weekend has been wonderful. Monday is a holiday ("Respect for the Aged Day") so we had an extra day to travel and experience this place more in depth. I went to the Danjiri Festival on Saturday in southern Osaka. It's a Shinto tradition where hundreds of people represent a town and each craft their own float. Men ride the float while these people pull it as fast as possible through the narrow streets. It has no steering device or brakes, thus injuries occur. Fortunately I did not witness any such thing.



It was an exciting festival, with the floats running almost every 5 or 10 minutes. We were captured by a hyper old Japanese man who called himself Marky; he took us to the information center where we met other foreigners and had our pictures taken wearing the traditional little outfits you see in the above photos.


Today, Sunday, I went to the EISA Festival--a dance and song festival--somewhere else in Osaka. Osaka is enormous, by the way. The highlight of the day was when my British friend and I were approached and invited to a booth for free food and drink. Drunk old men talked to me in Japanese for hours while I shrugged and smiled and said "Hai, hai, hai, huh?"




To close this post, I'll leave you with a really cute kid:


Awwwww.

Finders Keepers What?

Today I left my precious little iPod in the women's restroom. I went back after class and it was gone, because it was already in the Lost & Found.
I recall cases where Wooster students would send out notices: "I lost my iPod, please contact me if you find it!" but never hear back.
Welcome to Japan, where personal property is actually respected.

Day Trip, Tuesday, September 11th, 2007. Himeji Castle, about 1.5 hours away from campus near Kobe.


Getting to the actual castle took awhile; they structured it much like a maze and it was uphill the whole way, of course. We stormed through the gates nonetheless and captured Princess Sen.

Me, tiny, standing at the back of it. Aw.



View from the top tower. Unfortunately a picture can't quite capture what it felt or even looked like to be up there. Especially after climbing all those flights of stairs, it was a wonder.

My friend and I dressed in traditional kimono, playing a game of Kutsukanee. That's the castle cat watching us.

It was a good, though tiring, day all-in-all. Seven of us went at a moment's notice and paid far too much money for the train and castle entrance. But money's never wasted on art or travel, as they say.

It was strange realizing that yesterday was September 11th. Of course it was not a discussed topic in Japan from what I saw, but I can imagine what kinds of stories ran in the paper and on the news at home. I thought it would be impossible to think so, but America seems so small and distant. I am almost embarrassed to admit I'm American here and I can't quite explain why. It's been six years since 9/11/2001 and non-Americans didn't understand why I even made a passing comment about it yesterday.
Ethnocentrism in practice, on everyone's part.

Now I must study. Goodnight, or God natt as the Swedes say, or Oyasuminasai as the Japanese say.

P.S. Those "women" in the last picture are fake if you didn't guess. The castle cat is real, though...

Thursday... one day from Friday. As of yesterday, I had attended at least one of each of my five classes. Was that proper grammar? I think my English has declined tremendously in constantly simplifying it for my Japanese/ESL friends. Being back in beginning language classes feels bizarre. I'm 20 years old and learning how to count, tell time, and identify colors. I'm also learning how to cross the street safely, hold utensils properly, and be polite to my elders. I stare at the TV in wonderment, watching the flashing images but not understanding what is going on. I also now play with rattles and scream and throw my bottle when riding public transportation.
Jokes aside, it does feel like I am a child again. It's kind of nice having free reign to make mistakes for that reason (silly foreigner) though of course I do not wish to offend anyone and would never exploit my foreignness (?).

About my other English-speaking classes:
My professors are American and have all taught at American universities, so the feeling within these classrooms is familiar. I'm taking an economics/business class which I have not done before. It's supposed to be about the merging of Japanese society/culture with the economy, so there is the sociology half of it that I hope I can master. I'm a little intimidated since the class presupposes I've had some basic background in economics or business, and my fellow classmates are all International Business or Asian Studies majors. Err...
My anthropology classes are quite anthropological. Much of what we have gone over is review for me, but of course the first days of such classes professors always need to cover "What is anthropology? How do we define culture? How and why do we study it?" which is always a snore fest. I'm still optimistic!

It's proven interesting to be in such a multicultural environment. Today I had lunch in my dorm's kitchen with a Japanese girl, my Swedish roommate, a Norweigian, and a Brit. It was a mishmash of language and miscommunication to say the least. It keeps surprising me how cultural humor is, and how much of my own humor does not resonate with others. I tried telling my Swedish roommate "Yo Mama" jokes last night--if you're familiar with those--but that kind of thing can not be explained to a non-American. It does feel nice to be asked which English word to use to convey a particular meaning or to be asked about my country in general, even if they just want to know what kind of wild animals we have or why we would ever reelect George W. Bush for a second term. I love hearing what they have to say about America, even though it's rarely complimentary.

I need to do homework, but here are some pictures.

Classic "Engrish", though I have seen much worse since:



Sometimes restaurants have "fry poteto" on their menus, and it's always a treat, especially alongside traditional Japanese foods like onigiri and yakitori:


Yumiko san and me on the train. She is a local Gaidai student but lives in the Seminar House in order to improve her English. She thinks she's fat, by the way, if that gives you any idea of what body image is/means here:


Thanks for reading.

Pictures, finally.

My laptop's internet is up and running! Now I can post more often and more easily. I have uploaded my pictures to my computer, so I wanted to share some of them here. Please click on them individually to see a much larger, more detailed version.

Here is my dorm room. Typical Japanese style with sliding doors that are paper-thin (made of rice?) that separate our study area from sleeping area. The floors are made of tatami mats. We sleep on futons that we're supposed to stow away during the day but... we don't. Anyway, the closets are spacey, we have many shelves for storage, we have curtains to keep the sun out in the morning, and my roommate and I get along really well.





Here is one of the many temples in Kyoto. Wonderful view of the ominous clouds, ne?




Corey and I in Kyoto. Precious.




I didn't ask about this water-drinking ritual so I am unsure what it means, but it was picture-worthy:




Our group of foreigners + Japanese friends, working the peace signs Asian youth love so much:


And Osaka's madness.



Osaka's version of Mt. Rushmore, perhaps.



This is within Hirikata City, where I live. Rice fields are aplenty, but I found it interesting that they're located in the midst of suburbia, surrounded by highways and internet cafes.



Hope that gives you a better sense of where in the world I am.

Japan is a society that is amazingly efficient, whose smoothness is directed by some great invisible hand. It is incredible to witness such structure and compare it to America, my big sloppy homeland across the sea. The U.S. implements such strict health and safety codes and laws--helmets, seatbelts, smoking bans, FDA requirements, etc--and yet in my short time here I realize how America seems to stumble over itself so often because its people have such a difficult time obliging to rules that inconvenience them. It is not just enforced laws that keep the Japanese "behaving" but rather some underlying force, deeply embedded in their history, that makes this country run like clockwork. It could be its homogeneous population, or its shame-based honor system, or just the fact that there are so many of them in such small space that it could run no other way. America is so young (and sparsely populated) a nation whose people have such different backgrounds and values; it can not run like Japan and never will. I am not saying that this is a positive or negative thing but I find it interesting making such observations.
I was thinking about this mostly when Corey and I walked into "Mos Burger" in Hirakatashi after buying our bicycles tonight. We were set on eating burgers for dinner but were too proud to walk into McDonald's just yet (which are everywhere, even on campus). The place was a typical Western-style fast-food restaurant, but because it is in Japan it somehow had a nicer atmosphere (and nicer cashiers). They were playing Justin Timberlake overhead as we ate our burgers, fries, and shakes. I was feeling very comfortable there because of its relative familiarity, until other customers pulled out their cigarettes and started to smoke. Smokers in Japan are plentiful but stationary. Though legal, "smoke-walking" is socially unacceptable, as is eating/drinking (especially alcohol) while walking. Anyway, I have become very unused to smoke clouds hovering over my food in restaurants, as I am from America where smokers are being increasingly shunned. I don't know, however, if our laws are causing the negative attitudes toward smokers, or the negative attitudes are encouraging the laws to be put in place...
...I don't think I am taking this post in the direction I intended at all, and I don't suppose there is really any point to it, but take what you will. Maybe I can conclude that the societies run so differently because America's laws and customs--the ones I'm talking about anyway--seem to mostly be in protection of the individual (safety, health), while Japan's are more in protection of the collective conscience. Fine. I'm not sure anyone cares.

Here's a list of what I should have talked about instead:
-A group of us went into downtown Osaka on Saturday... well, one of the downtowns. It felt like Chicago but crazier. Spent millions of dollars on transportation/food alone. I avoided the Chanel and Gucci stores, of course. Japanese women dress so impressively and their hair is always perfect even in this humidity that I always feel like a mess compared to them. They also wear high heels to do anything, be it travel or play volleyball.
-We spent yesterday with Corey's Japanese friend that he met here two years ago. Small world?
-Rotating sushi place ($1/plate--wonderful)
-Classes started today. Looks okay so far.
-Bought a bike! Biking in Japan is not leisurely, but necessary.
-These French people behind me in the lab are driving me crazy. I do understand their curse words.
-I'm having a wonderful time.

Goodnight!

The sun sets early here (6-6:30ish) as it moves on to your side of the world, thus it always feels much later than it actually is. The side streets are also so quiet that you get a feeling everyone is in bed and your normal conversation voice is disturbing their sleep. The only insulation Japanese homes have is the rack of clean clothing drying on the balconies, and yet on the walk home you may hear a distant TV or crying baby and that's it.

What a day! I loved it but I could fall into bed (or, futon on the floor with a small bag of beans for a pillow) right now. This morning was the semi-formal opening ceremony for the Asian Studies Program students. They told us we're their biggest group of students enrolled for a semester, rounding out around 440. 260-some of those are Americans, but 37 countries are represented. After several speeches, we were treated to a buffet luncheon. I remember luncheons in America: pork roast, mashed potatoes, three bean casserole, iceberg lettuce + ranch, iced tea, etc etc. Luncheons in Japan: raw beef, fatty chicken, unagi (cooked eel), tuna rolls, spicy shrimp dishes, hand-held pyramids of rice, green tea, Coke Zero (?), and probably the most delicious desserts one could ask for. It's little things like that that challenge my ideas of what's normal or even what's right (shouldn't it be cooked??). It's just food, but it means much more.

Later in the day was our "field trip" to Kyoto, a nearby city that is a huge tourist attraction for its beautiful temples. The point of the trip was to get us familiar with taking the train to Kyoto as well as to interact with local Japanese Kansai Gaidai students. They matched one Japanese for each foreigner and we traveled in small groups. Luckily my friends and I were matched with several of the Japanese girls who live in my Seminar House. They knew English hardly and we know even less Japanese (me being the worst), but we actually ended up forming great friendships with them. Japanese girls my age are my favorite people to interact with; they're so excited about everything you tell them ("Aooh! Kentooky, ne! Like Ken-took-ee Flied Chicken?! Yehh!"). I bonded with Amiko-san specifically. We were the only ones who were willing to be line leaders. We talked about our respective boyfriends in verrryy slowww Ennglissh, and in GirlWorld that means we must really feel comfortable with each other.

Kyoto itself was gorgeous. Even tourist shops in Japan seem wonderful to me, just for the novelty of it. I should have bought an "I [heart] Kyoto" shirt, ne? The city was very mountainous and we climbed a huge hill dodging cars and taxis to get to the temples, but the view was worth it. I took many pictures of today but I can not post them here yet. Still waiting for that laptop thing to work out. The Japanese prefer to remain isolated from the rest of Asia, the world, and each other really (there exist many "rivalries", as between Tokyo and Osaka), and this is why I imagine foreign electronics do not work here.

So I registered for classes, which start on Monday. I am in Spoken Japanese 1, Reading & Writing Japanese 1, The New Japan Economy: Culture, Society, and Power, Visual Anthropology, and Culture & Everyday Life in Japan. 5 classes total, just so I get the needed 16 credit hours for Wooster. They discourage us from taking 5 classes because they like to stress how we need to "get out of the library and experience Japanese culture first-hand"... which to college-age students likely means different things than what they intend. Hopefully I can handle it all and still "get out". I guess holing up in the library at Wooster was okay since there wasn't much culture to experience there anyway.
I do miss Wooster though. Maybe what I miss most about it is getting honked at while walking along the main road on campus... Japanese men do not honk to get your attention or to express their feelings about you being a girl and they being a man. I don't know if that's only an American thing, or only a Wooster townie thing.
Well, if you didn't catch the dry joke, I do not miss such a thing and would never miss it.

The end for now. Pictures to come sometime next week. Hopefully I'll go somewhere interesting again soon. Downtown Osaka is likely next. See the REAL Japan.
Love love.

Bonjour, mes amis. Oh, to know French and never use it. Oh, to not know Japanese and never know what is going on.

Hello from Yapan! I know this is only my first post and I have been gone for a long time, so it seems. How can I calculate the hours, as I am in a time warp here? To my surprise, I have survived the first rough days of exhaustive travel and the awkwardness of adaptation. The plane ride was okay; it felt like a terribly boring 12 hour long sleepover party where everybody slept but me. I sat across the aisle from a Japanese woman who sat perfectly still with her jacket over her head for at least 10 hours of the flight. Suffocation must not be a threat to her, this superhuman. I sat next to a boy named Corey who giggled at his comic books, and the other man in our row sat basking in his laptop light for 12 hours. This man and I did not sleep.
Hai. Japan is wonderful in its own way. Almost everything they said about it turned out to be true. Rachel-san was a great help to us on our first night; we did not know her before but she allowed us to stay in her apartment somewhere south of Tokyo. Her Japanese roommate cooked us dinner and was very excited to meet and speak English with us. We had a great time just talking with them. The beer I can now legally drink was a somewhat unpleasant addition to my 28 hour sleep deprivation, however.
So now I am at Kansai Gaidai University. It is orientation week and thus I am very busy sitting in auditoriums listening to people on microphones. Campus is about a half-hour walk from the dorm, something I am very unused to at Wooster. Here I am always walking and always hungry (rice only seems filling). New diet: living as a Japanese. My roommate is 25 years old and Svedish. I have been interested in Sweden because I always learn in sociology classes how much it contrasts with America in many good ways. Japan, also, is a society that so impressively contrasts with my own homeland.
The first thing I noticed on my arrival here is how quiet it is. Though there may be many Japanese compacted in a small environment, they will not talk to each other or they will talk very softly. Most of the time it would only be Rachel, Corey, and I saying anything when on trains. Sometimes young children will screech in excitement in public, but the older they get, the less likely this is to occur. About the children: Japanese children are hands-down the cutest in this world of ours. It takes a very beautiful American child to impress me, but every Japanese kid I find adorable. This is the only reason why Japan is better than the States.
Kidding. There are many interesting aspects to this culture, and yet living here even for so short a time has proven how frustrating an experience it is trying to fit in. As is everywhere, unwritten rules govern the people, but I am only slowly learning these rules and thus always embarrassing myself. The Japanese are so polite, however, that they will never say anything about it. I wish they would, though! They are so polite that they will listen to me speak English to them and nod and say "Hai" ("Yes, that's right, I understand...") and then end up not knowing anything I said. They will pretend to know, though. They will always be content with my answer to their questions, even if I do not answer it how they meant for me to. This is not how I believe communication should work, but that is how it works here.

Well, there is much more to talk about but I am not on my own computer. There's a computer lab very close to my room, which is convenient considering how the internet does not work on our computers until we register them. I am sorry for not being in touch more.

Hope all is well with everyone.