My-Summer-Saga

Reflections

2006-12-16T08:36:00.000+09:00

It has now been a few months since I have returned from Japan. When I arrived back in America, everything felt so surreal, I told myself to let it all soak in for a while. The funny thing is, not much has changed. It still is surreal. There aren’t many other words to describe what this past summer meant to me. I have documented pictures, tangible gifts... and even a translated health insurance report about my hand, - yet the trip seems too big and too good to be true. To put it in a different perspective, I haven't been too successful at efficiently explaining my trip to friends and family. When people ask me " How was your trip? Tell me ALL about it" it is almost overwhelming. I tell them to ask me questions, smiling, because otherwise it just seems impossible to even start talking about Japan. Even my blog doesn’t cover minute by minute what happened (and I did learn things minute by minute!), it just retrospects the highlights of the day. One of the YFU requirements is to make speeches of your exchange experience when you return to America. I was offered to make a few presentations in my school to groups of faculty, foreign language classes, and social studies classes. When I was preparing a picture slide show, I was worried how I would present it to the audience, and if I had enough content. This worry is now a laughing matter. To put it in perspective, I barely got through my first week of my trip in my hour-long presentations, each time I did them. There is just TOO much to say. In my reflection about Japan, to truly serve it somewhat justice, is to write a book about it (... maybe this is a head start!). Japan has so much to offer. The country is a land of contrasts, and although that is almost cliché now, it is so true. As in old and new, I drove through Fukuoka seeing state of the art buildings right next to ancient shrines. Industrious and natural: Japan may be a technological leader, but it still puts so much emphasis on the natural aesthetic world. Maybe a plate of food delicately placed, a structured tea ceremony, ikebana flower arrangement, or simply a car dealership in an urban landscape backed up to a small family rice paddy can show this. The list of these is endless, that is why it is so hard. The country has a uniqueness of having native traits as well as adapted, borrowed ones. Never in my life thus far have I learned so much, so fast. The great thing is, only parts of these things were Japan specific. They are skills important everywhere. From this experience, I learned that it is just as important to give as to receive. What I mean is that you must teach while you learn. I didn't go to Japan just to learn about the country. I also went there for them to learn, or possibly change their perception of, America. This is what I discovered there. As I learned and fixed my misconceptions about Japan, I also was able to see what the world thinks of America. This alone is an amazing reason to travel abroad. The new perception of the world. I feel myself not making any conclusions in my writings here. This is possibly because this trip was not a timed learning experience. My learning has really only just begun, and new interests have been discovered because of this trip. Of course, I still cannot not express how thankful I am to Organizations like YFU and the JBSD for giving me this opportunity of a lifetime. I also am so thankful for my host family. I feel so lucky; since I truly believe that I received the best host family anyone could ask for. I still keep in contact with them by phone every weekend. This brings up another fact that amazes me still. When we talk on the phone, time flies by. Hour and a half conversations aren't rare. Before this summer I never would have imagined having the ability to talk, fundamentally in Japanese, on the phone for that period of time. I am still very close with my host parents and sisters, as well as ALL the friends I met along the trip, Japanese and American. The bottom line about this trip is that everyone should do something like this. If you have the opportunity to go somewhere, do it. If you have the opportunity to bring someone in to America, do it. I have met some amazing foreign exchange students over the past few years that have come to America, and their excitement and enthusiasm is one reason that influenced me to travel. The world has so much to offer, and I don't think that many people realize that. The connections and lessons that I have learned from this trip have only inspired me further. The experience was a once in a life-time one. There are memories from this that will last forever, and so many different opportunities that will come out of this. My journey has only just begun!

The longest day of my life

2006-08-06T03:10:00.000+09:00

Wednesday, August 2nd was the longest day of my life. Literally. Technically it was 37 hours long. I had seen the sun rise twice. On the way to California we actually were beating the sun, until it caught up to us, for a beautiful 2nd "in-air" sunrise. When my plane from Saga arrived in Tokyo, I met up with a bunch of other YFU students in a bus to go to the other Tokyo airport to head home. The air trip from Saga was the perfect amount of time to just think about everything from the past summer by myself. Meeting up with my YFU friends was great, since there were so many stories to share. Although many of us were exhausted, we didn't sleep on the 10-hour trip over the pacific to California. We all were out of our seats, practically sitting on floors in the narrow isles just to talk with friends. Like I said before, we may have only known each other for days, or hours, but yet we were so close due to our experiences being in common. It was so funny because I think EVERYONE had their last box of Pocky or other Japanese candy to share on the plane. Along with this many had cheezy souvenirs from their past summers, but each had their own unique story to go along with it. When we got to California is where many of us began to depart our separate ways. It was annoying, since all of us were confused as to what was going on. We felt like a heard of cows, on top of the fact of feeling light-headed and dirty from the long plane trips. On that day I spent almost 18 hours in flight, and up to 24 just being in airports. It was a long day. So long in fact that saying bye to Japan, and saying goodbye to American friends actually felt like different days. Regardless, all of the discomfort was forgotten when I was greeted by my friends and family that night at the airport, and the next morning at my home. I am sure other YFU kids are experiencing the same thing I am right now: peace sign withdrawls. It is hard since I have to remind myself not to do it... it has become so natural! The only immediate reverse culture shock that I can report right now is the fact that Michigan and Troy's space took me by quick surprise. I hadn't realized how crowded everything was in Japan. It may be one of the first of many things that I am realizing I took for granted before. I think this new awareness will be a good thing.

Coming home

2006-08-04T21:52:00.001+09:00

I published the last post only minutes before leaving the Kai's house with all of my luggage. I am now back in America, safe and healthy, trying to look back at the whirlwind that was the last few days. I said goodbye to my host father right after pictures, since he had to go to work. It was a happy goodbye (however I received a phone call on the way to the airport. Erika said he sounded close to tears. That goodbye was a little more formal.) After I packed my luggage into the car, I went to the convenience store to say my last goodbyes to Ojichan. While pulling out from the driveway, I was lucky enough to take a picture that is now one of my favorites from the entire summer. Nothing can sum up my last view of the house better than Ojichan outside waving me farewell.

Driving to the airport was awkward. It felt just like a regular drive anywhere. We listened to music, and laughed a bit. When we got to the airport we dragged my luggage to the counter to check in. Just a little more bad luck. I was off by just a bit. Next we had to re-open my luggage and re-organize right there in the lobby. Time must have flown by, since when we went upstairs they were telling me to quickly get through the gate. I was confused, but instantly realized that it was last calls for my flight. My host mom was signaling for me to quickly get through, but I couldn't pass up my time for goodbyes. It all happened so fast. Much like my summer. I am not a person to cry, but something mixed up with the frustration of luggage and the hecticness of the airport burst me into tears hugging my host mother and sisters. The funny thing is, I don't think they were ready for the hugs... they just don't hug in Japan. It was actually the first and last time I would hug them this summer. I took a deep breath, walked through the gates, waved one last goodbye... and I was gone. I got myself situated, and discovered a surprise out my window. Up on the balconies of the tiny Saga airport was my host mother and sisters waving goodbye. I was so frustrated I could not wave back. It meant a lot to me. They were there the entire 15 minutes my plane was in stand-by.

I thought a lot about what my last day would be during the summer, but never thought I would feel the strong feelings that I did. During take off I took a look out my window, and once again burst into tears. What had gotten into me. I never cried. I had truly become attached to this city. The Kai's really are an extension of my real family, and Saga is a second home to me. Looking at my stuffed luggage and camera reminded me of my great adventures, yet looking at the clouds and checkerboard rice paddies below made me realize that "just yesterday" I had seen the same thing, anxiously wondering what my host family waiting for me would be like. I was so satisfied with my experiences. I wouldn't change a thing. However, I felt a heaviness of depression that one of my life dreams was already over... amazing... yet, over. I realized then and there that I had a lot of reflecting to do. I have never experienced such strong feelings like this. I did not want to be sappy when writing this... but it is true, even I didn't expect it out of myself. Luckily I had the hour and a half flight to Tokyo to put all the pieces together.

It's hard to say goodbye

2006-08-02T07:39:00.001+09:00

School, Friends, Parties, Families, Stitches, Thousands of pictures, and 22 "tada" tissue packets/fans later, my summer is coming down to its final hours. It really doesn't feel like it is over. It went by fast, yet I have so much to account for it. The stress on my luggage zippers is proof. All of my pictures show all of the great activities I did, and also some of the wonderful people I met. That may be the most important of all to me. What really proved that I built relationships with so many people here was that many made special visits at the BBQ and after Saturday just to say goodbye. As for my host family, we have spent the last few days relaxed and quiet, opposite of the upbeat weekend, just spending time with one another. I liked that. We have had a fun time laughing and sharing stories and jokes. (We had a little celebration when I finally successfully packed.) They really have provided me with SO much this summer, as in great hospitality, care, food, fun, education, and so much more that doesn't match up with words. My feelings over the summer evolved. Of course when I first arrived in Japan, I was in a daze of excitement, and everything hit me really hard and fast since every experience was new. Although the summer was great, I cannot lie that homesickness and culture shock affected me a little. There were a few days where I just thought, "I need to have a conversation in English!" or something along those lines, but then usually minutes later a friend or event would get me right back on with why I am here in the first place. To learn, meet people, and have fun doing it all. My phase as being a "guest" was very short, if not nonexistent, meaning that I fit in with my family right away. However, the actual feeling of being acquainted with the city, and the people of Japan came much later. Only this past week did I feel like this was my home, and my city, and I wasn't a visitor, but really a part of the society. That sounded really weird in writing. Much of this does. Living abroad does something special to you, and now just when I consider myself "molded in", it is time to go remold to America. Kind of unfair. This post will be the last one I write in Japan. It doesn't mean I am done writing. There is still going to be stories of my flights home (in terms of my luggage... there will be stories). There is still a lot that is unwritten and must still be shared. This isn't the end. It is a very unique beginning, with so many special opportunities that could only come out of an experience like this one.

Chef Yurina

2006-08-01T15:32:00.000+09:00

Early on in my blog I introduced the fact that Yurina studies cooking, and has participated in a few big contests also. She is very shy and extremely modest about her accomplishments, but in the past she has won honors in two contests. One in a junior ramen contest, and another in a junior pastry contest in Tokyo. Throughout the summer she was very timid to make me her award winning dishes. As a matter of fact, it was my host mom who told me everything about the contests. Well today was a surprise for me. Yurina offered to make me her award winning Ramen noodle soup. I thought it was very cool, and watched her prepare everything. Her ramen is a vegetarian broth. It has a base of shoyu and oyster sauce, as well as toppings of green onions, tempura, and seaweed. The soup was very delicious. After we ate it she even showed me the video of her competition. It looked like it was a lot of fun. As a matter of fact Yurina wants to eventually study cuisine in France. Her aunt lives there (my host mom’s sister), so my host family has a high interest in France on a personal level. Along with this interest, Japanese and French cuisines often share traits off of each other. Aside from that, French style bakeries here are almost always attached to Japanese wagashi shops it seems!

ス [su] ト [to] レ [re] ス [su]

2006-08-01T10:07:00.000+09:00

Japanese has many loan words from foreign languages. It is fun to sound them out phonetically to figure them out. Su TO Re Su... Yup stress. Right now the final hours of my stay with my family are ticking down. We are making the most of it, spending a lot of quality time together. There is a lot of stress though, since I have learned that I am a terrible shopper and packer. I have already unpacked and repacked 5 times... I'm trying to get the puzzle pieces of weight and size just right. At least my family’s humor helps me not go semi-insane. I am trying to pack everything... I bought too much. I never have been a shopper, and have always hated spending money. Well, Japan triggered something different in my head. The land that is a "shopper’s paradise" really made me follow suit. The nice thing about the past few nights is there have been many visitors stopping by just to say a last goodbye. It is very nice and very fun to sit and chat with everyone. The joke with my family is that I am Un ga Waruii... living bad luck. My hand, luggage, and other embarrassing moments have all earned my prized title. We have been using an internet translater sometimes when language difficulty gets in the way. Pretty much our translations have all come down to the simple phrase "life’s lessons". Simplicity is nice. The past few nights have been simple, which I have enjoyed, since it is the best way to keep building all of these great relationships that have been created. The pics are of my host sisters and Ojichan. This past summer I observed that my family would ocasionally buy Ojichan some wagashi (Japanese sweets) as an unexpected present. I did the same sometimes and would surprise Ojichan with some mochi or something, and enjoy some time with him in the R shop. Our conversations never got too detailed due to our language/dialect barriers, but the times were always nice. The next is Erika, Honami, and me, when Honami and her mother came for a last visit. Later that day Toshi and his family came by to visit. Toshi is a unique example of a great international relationship. Of all of my classmates, Toshi probably had some of the most limited English skills, however, we sat close to each other, and he is now one of my closest friends from this past summer.　　I Just re-read this post, and realized how unorganized it is. I guess that sums up how the past few hours of packing up have felt like.

Okonomiyaki

2006-07-31T11:44:00.000+09:00

After the concert we went out for dinner to a restaurant that specialized in a dish called okonomiyaki. The restaurant had rows of tables that you knelt around and each had their own flat iron grill! The dish of okonomiyaki is a Japanese classic. The best way to describe it is like a Japanese omelette or pizza because of the variety of ingredients used. The word okonomi means "as you like", or "what you want" and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked" so, when eating okonomiyaki, it simply means you can pick whatever ingredients you want combined along with the grilling time that you want, since it is done at your table. First you order what type you want. My family got 2 that had pork, shrimp and squid in it. After you place your order, bowls with all of the raw ingredients, along with batter, egg, and shredded cabbage comes to your table. You mix it all up, and make one huge "pancake" right in front of you. It is very fun! After it is cooked, special okonomiyaki BBQ sauce and mayonnaise goes on top. For as popular as this unique Japanese dish is, it has gone largely unnoticed in the states. I think that is a shame, since it is delicious. This one quickly made it on to my recipe list! The evening was a very fun and social one to spend with my host family. It is so nice to spend time all together.

Yurina's Band Contest

2006-07-31T11:29:00.000+09:00

All summer Yurina's band class has been practicing hard for a large band competition that happened this past week. This was not just any average recital, this was a very highly attended musical function. Bands of all ages and levels from elementary to college came to play for awards in their divisions in this three day concert competition. Yurina plays the tuba. She can be seen in the far left. We went to the large theater where the concerts were taking place to watch some performances. The theater was able to hold hundreds of people, and it was packed. Yurina's band's practice definitely payed off. They sounded very good. Later that night we found out that they received gold in their age division. 1st place. We were all very excited. The family decided to use this opportunity to celebrate by going out for dinner.

More Friends, More Memories

2006-07-30T00:20:00.000+09:00

It's all standard. Japanese party : Food, friends, fun (Yeah, that's Nintendo all right!), fireworks, pictures, and peace signs!

BBQ : PARTY : SAYONARA

2006-07-30T00:09:00.000+09:00

It is hard to sum up today in words. Big. Fun. Amazing. Today my host family hosted a big party in their side yard as a goodbye party for me, since this is my last weekend here in Japan. Many, many guests visited to have some fun. It was a great time. I have to start somewhere, so the morning is a good place to begin. We first prepared the house and a bunch of food for the party that was to take place later on. My contribution was some chocolate chip cookies, and oatmeal cookies (neither very common at all in Japan). The funny story about the oatmeal cookies is that it was made from instant oatmeal packets I brought for my host family to sample for breakfast food. They simply told me that Japanese people don’t like oatmeal, so I got creative and researched a cookie recipe. My cookies were a hit that night . Anyways, a few of Erika’s friends came over early around lunch time, and so the party began! From that point on many guests filtered in and out throughout the afternoon until late into the night. The neat thing about the BBQ was that it was Japanese style... always going. When you were hungry, you grabbed the THINLY sliced meats from a selection of beef, pork, or chicken, and some vegetables (cabbage, squash, corn) and took it to the grill. It is all a "do it yourself" process done with chopsticks. Yakiniku (literally grilled meat) is very fun. I have to try to make it the same way in America when I get back! The afternoon was very social, with many friends stopping by. The neat thing was that so many people stopped by, and each had their own special story from this past summer. Not all of the kids were from Ryukoku high school. Many people were from other schools, or even other cities. Going along with the unwritten rule of Japanese hospitality: if someone hosts a party, always bring a gift. I think almost everyone brought big bottles of juices and teas, or gourmet desserts. There was a lot of food! With all of the friends, we socialized, partied inside, outside, grilled, and talked some more. It was so much fun. Even though I already stated it, it was so great to see all of the people I met this summer, and your challenge is to match them up with their part of my journey. I was so grateful for my family for providing me with such an amazing day. To finish it all off, when dusk fell, we walked down the street to light off fireworks and firecrackers. The evening was very laid back, and all of the people were extremely nice. I really have made so many great friends here. The least I could do was give them some small Troy trinkets and my email address. I really crammed a lot into this post. There are so many great side stories about my time spent with each great individual that I have met, left unwritten. So many great memories have been created. A few more still to come with my final few days!

Only in Japan

2006-07-28T23:50:00.000+09:00

While walking the streets of the festival, one of the vendors at a snack booth was dressed as a pikachu! Some people really get into their summer festivals, and this guy wanted to add something extra to his booth. Well, it caught my attention. The funny thing is, people look at me the same way I probably looked like seeing this pikachu man, since I am a gaijin. When the guy saw me taking a picture, he laughed, and stood up to take one with me! After that some girls wearing their summer yukata were giggling at me... next thing you know I am taking pictures with them too. Being a gaijin has it benefits, haha! These pictures are just an example of some of the crazy stuff you see in Japan, but also it shows the funny situations I get into because I am a foreigner. You know I love the attention.

Great food and Fireworks

2006-07-28T23:22:00.000+09:00

Tonight Erika and I were invited to attend a different Natsu Matsuri (summer festival) with Honami's family. The festival was in a different part of Saga, in more of the mountainous region. Along with the festival, Honami's family was also going to a special company dinner for Honami's father. He is part of a carpentry business. It was very nice for them to invite Erika and me along since the restaurant was very nice. The restaurant was in a large building up in the mountains. As a matter of fact it looked over the Kasegawa river that I visited a few weeks ago. There were pricey cocktail lounges in the building that had perfect views over the river and mountainsides! At the restaurant we walked to our own special reserved room for the party. The restaurant was in a traditional style, with sliding doors, tatami mats, and ground level seating. We met a few of the other families attending and got ourselves situated. For dinner we had very nicely plated sashimi (raw fish slices) and tempura (Japanese style deep fried seafood and vegetables). Along with this, there was a buffet with many Japanese salads, side dishes, and soups. It was very nice! After dinner we walked out of the restaurant to another part of the building. We went to an outdoor terrace that many people were settling down at for the night’s fireworks show. That was a surprise for me. The building itself wasn’t that tall, but because it was tiered on the side of a mountain, it seemed very grand. We had a great view of the river, bridge, and roads where the fireworks were going to take place - prime seating! The fireworks show was great. Like the Umi no Hi show, this one was also one hour long! The Japanese like to slowly enjoy their fireworks. Although seeing the fireworks over an ocean was neat, I think the mountain and river view was even better! It was also great to be looking down at the bustling festival streets. The fireworks show consisted of airborne fireworks, water plunged fireworks, and even large strands of sparklers over the river. It was so cool to see the Bridge ignite into a sparkling outline, and also large strands of sparklers to go off over the river, which looked in the reflections like a waterfall of fire. It was an excellent evening. After the show we strolled the streets of the bustling festival. It was great to take in all the excitement from the atmosphere. The pictures are of Erika, Honami, and me at the restaurant, Honami and me overlooking the terrace, and finally the fireworks display!

Hanging out with friends

2006-07-28T23:13:00.000+09:00

Today was a neat day because some of my friends actually came to my host family's house to hang out. Yoshi and Bernardo (Yoshi's exchange brother from Brazil who is 18) came over after their school today. It was just like hanging out in America: tv, music, snacks... except it was just all in another language. It doesn't strike me as being an out of the ordinary experience until I think about it later. "I just spent a few hours with friends speaking a totally different language!". Luckily both understood a little English, which helped some conversations to be more smooth. It was a neat experience to have friends visit me here. We had a good time.

A real Onsen!

2006-07-28T00:26:00.000+09:00

Today I was invited to go to an onsen with the Kais' relatives, the Ootsukas, which is Takuji's family. Okay... so in terms of America, yes it is weird to attend a public bathing facility with friends, but that is just because of the nudity factor. In Japan it is totally common, and even a highly practiced form of gathering! It is a big social activity. As a matter of fact, many groups of teens from various sports teams attend the public baths after games and such. I don’t think I could ever see that forming as a hang-out activity for American teens. Today though, we were going to a REAL onsen, which is filtered with natural spring water from the mountains. It is said to be very healthy due to its minerals. (I got to wear a nice latex glove, secured tightly with velcro straps to keep my hand dry. Well... I guess I was more clothed than other people then!) We drove up from sea level, to the winding roads in the mountains. The roads were narrow, and much like those at the Kasegawa viewing post a while back. We first stopped for dinner at a restaurant that the Ootsuka family highly recommended. It was so cool because it viewed all of the bamboo and pine forests on the mountains through the windows. This traditional restaurant had floor seating and low tables which I still find very nostalgic. The specialty there was soba noodles. We all ordered cold soba with dipping sauce, and tempura. Wow, what a day! All my Japanese favorites... Sushi, Soba, Tempura!! It was a very neat experience. After dinner we drove a little higher, but then actually went down just a little. In contrast to the other onsen that I visited last week, which required you to go up to enter the spa area, this natural onsen went down. You first entered the building, and after that, went down to a walkout basement where all the baths were. This may seem very cliché on my part, but this onsen was very nice simply for the fact that it was, well... natural. It was set up with lots of bamboo, wood, and rocks, in a very tranquil mountainous area that was beautiful especially at night. It was different than the, "man-made" onsen because it didn’t have all of the special pools. It was just hot, warm, or cold water. Of course at this onsen the baths were man made, but the water is not artificially pumped in. That is the main difference in addition to its location and decor, but it was the more natural feeling of the place that made the biggest difference. From both of my experiences, I have to say that if you ever go to Japan, make sure you visit an onsen. It is very cultural, as well as relaxing. It was very generous of the Ootsukas to let me join them, and I had a great night. Since it was a Thursday, the facility was much emptier than last Saturday’s experience! The pictures are of Takuji and me sitting in the restaurant, the tatami room in the facility, and finally Takuji, his sister Tomo-chan, and me outside this onsen.

An afternoon with my host dad

2006-07-28T00:22:00.000+09:00

Even though my host dad may have tediously long working hours, I have had many opportunities to spend time with him, and they have been great. Today he actually had a day off from work. This would be the first time it would be just me and him to hang out together for the afternoon, so I was excited. We ran some errands, and before we knew it, it was lunch time. My host father loves his sushi (as do I), and today he found out about a good lunch special at one of his favorite sushi restaurants. For as much as I am crazy about those kaiten sushi (conveyor belt) places, I have found out that they are more economical and almost "family style" in terms of quality (still better than anything you could find in America... or at least Michigan for that matter). You have to go elsewhere for the apparently "real" stuff. I have only had sushi relatively seldom, so I am by far not a connoisseur, but I went with it. We went to a very traditionally decorated sushi bar specializing in Osaka style sushi (The best translation I could make out was that it deals with the education of the chefs). Of course we were first served our warm towelettes for our hands, and then green tea. The sushi came soon after. It was plated so beautifully and artistically. It definitely lived up to its growing fame as being a "sophisticated" meal. It was very good. So fresh, that the pieces just melted apart in your mouth. Along with the sushi were steamed vegetables, a salad, and some miso soup. My host dad also wanted to treat me to some traditional Japanese desserts, so we ordered some azuki bean treats. This classic, traditional sweet was served like a soup. It was very sweet, with mochi and melon in the bowl. It was very good. The outing today was filled with many great grammatically incorrect conversations, and along with the delicious lunch, it was nothing less than a great day!

One Crazy Night

2006-07-27T01:54:00.000+09:00

Some more pics of me sporting my pj's and sweats, oh yeah, and my new bandages, along with the great medical staff that helped me at the hospital.

Hospital : Just one more check to mark off on my list!

2006-07-27T01:48:00.000+09:00

Okay. The title of this post is a complete joke. The events tonight were a big surprise to me, as well as my host family.

Let me start from the beginning...While riding our bikes back from karaoke we were going down some narrow sidewalks. Well, in the blink of an eye, I somehow sandwiched my hand in between the cement wall and my bike handle and tore up my left hand. It stung for a second, but I just shrugged it off, and let my hand stay high to stop all the bleeding for the rest of the half hour bike ride. It was only a bit of bad luck...

When I returned home, I washed up the wounds, which were pretty sore, and bandaged them up myself. I had dinner, and even typed up the previous post with my amateur-bandaged hand. After I took a shower, I asked my host mother for some antibacterial medicine. This is the first time she seen my open wounds and kinda freaked out. It had been almost 2 hours since I had returned home, and my hand had swelled, and the slightly dried gouges presented their depth. Almost ironically, my host dad arrived home just in time for the "hand inspection". They were both very concerned. I now know it is a universal parenting trait. To the hospital it was for me... at 11 at night.

My host father took me to the local hospital, which wasn't Beaumont hospital huge. It was a quaint hospital, barely lit, since only one doctor and two nurses were there at this time of night. When we went in, all three were immediately caring for me with gauze, paperwork, and questions. A quick, funny story... This past year in Mrs. Lowry's Japanese II class, we spent a significant amount of time learning vocabulary about sickness and health. Many of the kids in my class complained, saying, "when will we EVER use this". Well the moral of this is, today I did, and I used it in a very big way. On the bright side of this whole ordeal, I was able to use a whole new array of Japanese vocabulary. The two nurses treated me as if my hand was off. They were very caring. First I had x-rays taken. My wounds were then cleaned out with saline water and iodine, which wasn't too fun - yes... stick some gauze and tweezers into a small, but deep open wound...ouch. Then I found out that I would need a few stitches for some of the gouges on my knuckles. It all happened really fast. Iodine, anesthetic shots, gauze, stitches, ... pictures, haha. After the procedure was done, we were ready to return home... at 12:30 at night. Wow, what a day. After the hospital, we stopped at 7-11 for some puddings to take home. When we arrived, Erika and my host mom were waiting, and my parents at home in America were already notified by Okasan! The situation may have given my host parents a few gray hairs, but now it is definitely something to laugh about. It was surprisingly a great bonding time. Now I laugh, while trying to type this with my tightly bandaged hand, that there were so many things I planned to do in Japan, but there have been so many great surprises. If I have a scar or two, or not, I will always be able to think back to this crazy, hectic night here.

Karaoke Time!

2006-07-26T21:56:00.000+09:00

Today Erika invited me to go along with her and some of her friends to karaoke. This would be the first time I would experience "real" karaoke, since I would be doing it in an actual karaoke parlor, and also with Japanese people... or at least it would feel more real than the Narita Hilton "American" experience! Some of Erika's friends had to cancel, but it still turned out to be us two, and two other friends, so it was a lot of fun. There almost seems to be a karaoke parlor every two streets or so here in Japan. It is very popular. The place we went was near the Eki (the train station, with many entertainment activities and restaurants, which is a downtown hot-spot for Saga teens) and on the second floor above a restaurant. It was neat to see the layout. You pay at the front, and are lead through a hallway that almost seems like a hotel. There are many small rooms, each equipped with karaoke systems, couches, tables, and dimming lights. The reason today was a big deal for us to go was because there was a deal for Wednesdays. Only 4 dollars for the time slot of 5-8 pm. That is a very good deal. It definitely lured us in. Along with this deal, we received a free fountain drink (which is great, since food and drink is what really racks up a bill in a karaoke parlor... try 4-7 dollars just for a pop!) and also a snack... well more like a dish with about 20 pieces of popcorn, haha. Ehh, it was free, so I'm not complaining. Good thing we stopped to get some cheap snacks before we went (crackers, off- brand calpis [everyone really likes the stuff!], and toppo [which are the opposite of pocky... the chocolate is IN the biscuit stick]). The karaoke itself was very fun. The system had a wireless touchpad/catalog to search for your song. Of course, the majority of the songs are Japanese, but there are many American, and even Korean artists with only a few of their most popular songs in the catalogs. Some Japanese songs have the real music video playing in the background, but that was rare. The common thing was for some random video to be playing during your song. When I say random, I mean that when you are watching your lyrics scroll by, there is a camera panning over ,say, a woman walking the beach, a man reading a magazine, a different women opening a fridge... ya, it just makes no sense, but it is filmed in a "slo-mo" music-video style. Another thing is that the microphones are made to echo so much, that they could transform anyone into a singer. I was able to magically hit some Daniel Powter/Maroon5 notes tonight, haha. One thing I found funny, was that all the English songs had small Japanese phonetics on top of the words... and I could just imagine how funny it would be to hear someone really sing with it. Overall the night was very fun. I never thought I could enjoy karaoke for that long (other than its "Japan" nostalgia, I didn't think I would find anything truly enjoyable about it). The 3 hours flew by, and we had a great time. The pictures are all very bright (due to my camera flash), but the lights were dimmed to almost darkness.

Some Free Time

2006-07-26T07:50:00.000+09:00

The past two days have been the first two days of my host sister's summer "vacation", so we have had a little bit of extra free time to do stuff together. I put "vacation" in quotes, because Yurina still has band class everyday, and Erika has homework, and extra classes for studying... so really it is like "half-day" vacations. Regardless, when they return home, I get to do stuff with them. When they are at school, I get some time to explore on my own (which I have loved doing, since there is so much to see and discover within the few blocks near my house). Accompanied by my host sisters, I went to the public library, the super supermarket, or just relaxed at home and watched a movie with them. My host mom has also gotten us involved in cooking with her, which is always fun. On Monday we made mochi, which is the sticky Japanese rice sweet I have mentioned in some of my past posts. The mix was powdered, but as soon as water was added it was sticky, then turned to goopy, then to crumbly, all in the matter of seconds. You would make small balls, put a thumbprint in them, and boiled them for a few minutes. The mochi itself isn't sweet (it is a texture more than anything). To make the dish sweet, special toppings are added. On that particular day, we added kinako (the brownish powder, which has a nutty taste), an edemame bean puree (we popped out the beans from the peapods, added honey [MI honey that I supplied ], and blended it). The last one is the deep red azuki beans. This is a famous Japanese taste. It is very sweet, and one of my favorites.
The next day we made gyoza for dinner. Gyoza are Chinese steamed dumplings, but are just as common in the Japanese kitchen. (They are similar to wontons, but the dough is a bit thicker and the shape is more like a tiny turnover.) We gathered around the table with the filling (pork, cabbage, onions, shrimp, and spices) and carefully folded up each gyoza dough parcel. Mine never turned out looking the right way, with the pretty folded crimps... Erika said we should feed mine to John, haha. At dinner time, I thought it was cool that the gyoza were cooked right at the table. My host mom had a transportable hot pan that we steamed the gyoza in right there at the dinner table. Along with a soy-vinegar dipping sauce, the gyoza were delicious. Both the mochi and the gyoza are recipes I plan on bringing back to America (along with many, many more)!

Onsen

2006-07-23T13:49:00.000+09:00

On a Saturday night, there is one building that is packed, and the place to be. No, it isn't the movies, or the mall either, it is the public bath! Quite late on Saturday afternoon, my family told me to get ready because we were going visit an onsen. An onsen is a building that is dedicated specially as a public bath center / spa. I had a small experience with the community ofuro at camp, but this onsen was different. It was much bigger, with many more baths (all public and together). I was very skeptical on how the trip would be, since in America, it seems almost unheard of to go to a place to relax in the same huge hot-tub together with several other, well, lets just be obvious, naked people. It turned out to be EXTREMELY relaxing. For only 5 dollars a person, I was surprised that all of the bath/spa facilities were open, which I thought was really amazing. There were, however, separate facilities for men and women, but other than that, there is NO privacy. The first floor of this facility had spa goods, a massage parlor (for additional prices), and a restaurant with a dining room with low rising tables and tatami flooring! The second floor is all baths. Before you enter the ofuro tubs, you must wash yourself very well. There are rows of low showers, mirrors, and stools to wash yourself right outside the tubs. No soap ever enters a Japanese tub. You must wash yourself outside, the tub is for relaxing. Japanese showers are not stand up. You have a stool, and clean your self in a low seated position. The experience was wild for me, since I have never done anything quite like it before. Your privacy barrier must almost immediately break down, since the place IS packed, and there is nothing else you CAN do! The more intimidating thing is that the spa staff can go into any shower/locker room... that means women too. Here in Japan, there have been several occasions where women have been cleaning in bathrooms, but I was shocked when they were working in this part of this spa! It is crazy. The ofuro itself was amazingly comforting once you get past the fact that you are amongst dozens and dozens of other spa users. The facility had indoor baths of many different styles. There were jet pools, and high power jet pools to massage you. The baths were all extremely hot at 105 degrees fahrenheit. There was also a bath at only 60 degrees that chilled you in it's icy waters. I could barely stay in that pool for three minutes! There was a pool tinted deep pink due to it's hibiscus infusion, and even this totally unique bath, that had electrodes running through it. It was the wildest feeling. Your muscles felt like Jell-O! Those were the indoor pools. The facility went outside too... onto the roof! Outside there were steaming pools set up like natural rock baths, and even strong waterfalls to pound down on your back for a great massage. The outdoor facility also had a sauna room. I was amazed at how much was there! I would definitely go again, since I felt so refreshed and relaxed afterwards! Now I know why Japanese citizens love them. After using the baths for about an hour, the family met back downstairs. We had dinner at the restaurant, and ate in the tatami room. It was so comfortable. Dinner was tempura vegetables and seafood with dipping soba noodles. Delicious. We also got some soft serve black sesame ice cream! It was very good. The night was a great one, and we all went back home very happy and refreshed. The pictures are of the tatami room where we ate (Yurina is wearing the green shirt). The second is me with my host mother. I was brave enough to take pictures of toilets for you... but there was NO way that camera was going even close to the stairway leading upstairs, haha... Even for your educational purposes! I figured I could use this opportunity to introduce a picture of the ofuro at my house. In Japan, the ofuro room is completely separate to the bathroom. As you can see there is the stool and shower out side the bath where you clean yourself. The tub has the lid on it to keep the water very hot to soak in. The whole family shares the same bathwater, and then the next day, that water is used to wash clothes with. That is how the Japanese conserve water!

Natsu Matsuri

2006-07-23T13:32:00.000+09:00

I love when my host family is all together for a weekend evening, because they always fill them with many activities to spend time with each other. This Saturday was no exception. In our area there was an elementary school with the community center next door hosting a city summer festival, or a "Natsu Matsuri". At this event, which took place indoors and outdoors, there were many tents with food and also many activities. There were so many people there! Many people wore their summer yukata and jinbei robes there too. Inside there was traditional Japanese dancing, which we participated in. As a matter of fact, some of the dances were just like the ones I did the previous night at camp! Another thing about this festival had to do with the "women's club". Our city has a club for women that enjoy planning and helping out at events like this. Apparently they also enjoy dressing up together for the events. Saturday's summer festival theme was Minnie Mouse. Going along with my host dad's humor, I got a picture with one of the senior citizen club members. Just like Disney Land! The pics are of me doing a traditional dance, and me with a women's club "Minnie Mouse" member!

Touring the city

2006-07-23T13:07:00.000+09:00

My host dad has a way of turning what seems to be aimless sightseeing, into great memorable experiences. I love his spontaneity. After the mall touring, we went back down to the underground center where the subway station was intermixed. Apparently we were going to just ride the subway for fun, I was game! It was great to witness everything, and see how smoothly Japan can order up and transport so many people. Tickets and gates were all electronic, and the subways lived up to their name to being insanely prompt. At this time of day the subways were empty, but I have heard that Japanese city subway systems get incredibly packed. We didn't go far, only a few blocks away, switching subways once, but I loved it. It was a very cool feeling moving around amongst the bustling pedestrians. I first figured that we had just went in a small circle to just sample the subway systems, but I was wrong. My host father took me to see the bullet train station, or Kyushuu's "Shinkansen" as they are called in Japan. The bullet trains are very fast due to their magnet technology. I have always wanted to see one, and not only did I see it, I touched it! This particular train was headed for Tokyo. I got to experience the station and see how the above ground system works, and what it looks like inside. It was very interesting. That wasn't the last surprise of the day. I figured we were going to return to our parking structure only a few blocks away by subway, but I was wrong. My host father waved down a taxi and all four of us got to drive down Fukuoka mainstreet in a Taxi Cab! Not only was it my first time ever in a Taxi, it was also a great way to view this amazing city of Japan. The short trip was pretty awe-inspiring. When we arived at our parking garage, there was a large event set up in a courtyard of a large building. There was a collaboration of business sponsors advertising Japanese youth education, along with the current campaign for Fukuoka to be the 2016 olympic host. I got a tada fan with the olympic campaign logo on it, so it was a great way to finish off such an amazing afternoon. I had so much fun this Saturday, with the camp, and the city touring, but I later learned that my day was really just starting! The pics are of me with my host father on the subway, my host sister, Erika, and her friend Honami having fun on the subway. The last is me next to the Shinkansen!

When in Fukuoka... Go Downtown!

2006-07-23T12:25:00.000+09:00

At noon on Saturday, my host father picked us up (Erika, Honami, and me) from camp. After recapping the great experience for him, He asked me a question that I assume must have been extremely rhetorical... "what do you want to do today" *smile*. Well, being only minutes away from downtown Fukuoka by highway... of course you know where I wanted to go! And that is exactly what we did! I was so excited! The city is amazing. For many hours of the afternoon we got to explore even more of the vastness of this huge city. We went to a big mainstreet that had three very tall buildings. On one cross section, each corner had a huge skyscraper mall! Now, one week ago, Canal City was massive with 5 floors. These malls didn't quite spread out like Canal City, they went UP! The first mall we went to was the InterMedia Station. This mall was massive! (I am sorry I use that expression so much! It is so hard to explain the incredibleness of what I am witnessing). This mall went up 14 floors! All the floors weren't used for stores mind you, (some for restaurant centers, or spa/beauty parlors) but it went up high! I thought it was neat that the decor "theme" of the center mall area was "Jack and the Beanstalk". The beanstalk was displayed as growing up through the center of the mall. The higher you went, you began to see connected clouds, like you were up in the sky. That is the first picture, I thought it was creative. Afterwords we went outside to cross the mainstreet to visit another mall. This mall was unique in that it only contained womens stores! The "Tenjin Core" had 8 floors of clothes, shoes, makeup, and girly trinkets that just made my host sister and her friend go crazy. I guess it truely was a woman's paradise. Surprisingly, that trip was not boring or uninteresting at all for me. I got to see so much crazy fashion that Japan is known for. The second picture shows the mannequins from one of the stores. I personally think the style sometimes becomes very cluttered with lots of bright colors, patterns, and garish accessories, but it is fascinating to look at. It is said that Japan is right behind Europe in terms of fashion... so this could be the new thing to catch on in America within the next few years! As we continued on, we did not cross the mainstreet, instead we went to the basement of the mall that connected to the subway stations. This is also where I witnessed one of the coolest things of the day. All the malls on this intersection of the mainstreet are interconnected underground in a huge checkerboard setup of more stores, fancy salons and coffee shops. It was so neat because the underground "streets" were set up like they were outside on the mainstreet itself... just underground! We finally zig-zagged our way through this mecca (which was just packed with people - it was extremely crowded in every mall.) and made it to the last mall on our tour. This mall was so intimidating. It was possibly the ritziest mall I have ever been to in my life. In the "Mitsukoshi" I really felt so out of place that I fit in with the expression "It took my breath away". This mall was 9 floors of the highest names in fashion and cuisine. We walked through stores of European, American, and Japanese brands where everything seemed to be priced from hundreds of dollars to the tens of thousands. In this mall, I looked at suits and dresses priced at thousands of dollars, and even went to a kimono store where everything was silk stiched and ranged upwards of ten thousand dollars! This mall even had art exibits with lavish pieces of artwork up for sale! I can tell you that I felt so out of place, but the mall was PACKED! I have heard that Japan is a nation obsessed with name brand goods, and it seems it must be true. The basement floor of this mall was also a very famous area. It was just counter after counter of department store pastry companies in one area. Everything was expensive and way too beautiful looking to eat. The best thing about Japan is that their products may be expensive, but they always lure you in with free samples . I was in heaven. The third picture shows one of these stations among a seemingly endless sets of several dozen cake, bread, wagashi, and chocolate shops. The last picture is of a view of Fukuoka city taken from one of the high floors of a mall. My tours of these malls were not only overwhelming, but filled with some of the coolest things I have seen related to modern Japan.

Fukuoka Camp

2006-07-23T11:31:00.000+09:00

This past weekend, there was a YFU sponsored camp held in Fukuoka city for all YFU students on the island of Kyushuu (a southern island of Japan, where I am living). This camp invited all exchange students, including Japanese students returning from their year exchange to America, Japanese students preparing to leave for the next year, American year students living in Japan now, summer exchange students to Japan (me), and siblings of any traveling student who wanted to attend. The event took place on Friday and the morning of Saturday at a community building that I think may also serve as a hostel, since it had rooms with bunks, and everything else necessary for us to stay there over night. On Friday the activities were various, all dealing with Japanese culture. We had origami classes, participated in a Japanese flag lowering ceremony, "Kitsuke", and also learned Japanese dances. One of the coolest parts of it all was that we wore our yukata (summer robes) for many of the activities. As a matter of fact, just learning how to put them on was a 45 minute class on its own. The summer, year, and siblings of American students all wore their robes, which was so neat, since everyone's was unique in its own way. The thing that I liked best about the weekend was the unique conversation opportunities we received. I loved talking with all of the Japanese year students that just returned to Japan. They had many great stories, and on top of that, they actually knew English. I can't stress enough how happy some of us summer YFU students were to hold fluent English conversations. For many of us, it was our first chance to do so all summer! Everyone was extremely fun, and you can bet that our "traditional" Japanese dancing kinda lost its authenticity, haha. The Japanese girls liked to mix in what they "learned in America", haha. That was one of their favorite things about American schools, the dances.
After the first afternoons activities, we were told to go to the ofuro, and head to bed. Ofuro is a Japanese style bath, and in a public place... always communal. All of us were wondering what was going on... and almost frantically asked around "is it really communal", "are there separate showers"? We got "Yes" answers for both... so we were confused. Well, in any case, for most of American students it was our first time using a communal bath (separated for men and women), but we were all going to experience it together, haha. As for the answer about separate showers... it just meant that they were separate shower faucets with stools to sit on (Japanese showers are "sit-down", but more on that later) all around the community bathtub. Perfect example of "lost in translation". After our unique washing experience, it was bed time. Of course many of us were too excited to sleep. Many groups of boys and girls met together in rooms talking about all stuff related to our culture clashing experiences late into the night (until we were busted of course ), but that is what made it special. The second day was a little different in terms of activities. This day we had small group sessions to introduce and share about our Japanese or American cultures and experiences (pretty much a more formal version of what we spent hours doing the night before!). After that we all got together for a ceremony for YFU Japan students. The year long students returning and leaving were all recognized for their accomplishments. On top of this, American students were also recognized as guests for our trips to Japan. Afterwords we sang traditional Japanese songs, and took many, many pictures with all of the people that we just spent over 24 hours with. Some of the students at this event I had already met and had become friends with while at the Narita Hilton hotel when we first arrived to Japan. But there were many other American YFU students I met for the first time at this event, along with all the new Japanese exchange students that I soon became close friends with. The amazing thing about this YFU experience is how quickly you can create strong bonds with people, only hours after meeting them, possibly due to our very noticeable cultural differences, but most importantly what we all have in common with our travels. I had a great time at this camp, and now have a whole new list of people to stay in contact with all around the U.S. and across the Pacific!

The pictures are of a few of us hanging out the first night in our yukata robes.

This is a picture of me with Erika and her friend, Honami, that joined us for the weekend.

The second picture is of me with Derek, who I became friends with earlier this summer. He is from New York.

It was great to recap all of our YFU friends on all of our experiences from the past weeks. The last two are of me with a few of the great Japanese foreign exchange girls. They were so much fun to talk to. The pictures can also show you a VERY MILD form of what Japanese fashion for girls can be.

What you all have been waiting for?

2006-07-21T16:49:00.000+09:00

This post was not my idea. Let's just say it was made due to popular demand. Possibly the #1 question that family and friends from America have asked me is... "What are the toilets like?". (The #1 question here in Japan is if I have a girlfriend and/or want one. Talk about a culture shock! That question is just as foreign to me as some of the Japanese I am learning!) Anyways... if you're curious about it too, then this post is probably for you. So, as for toilets here in Japan, you can usually find modern western style ones everywhere. Along with this, you can also find traditional Japanese toilets almost everywhere too. The traditional Japanese toilet is in the ground, almost like a long trough to a hole. The main difference... there is no sitting involved. Get ready to squat. I have yet to use one haha, but we were educated about them in pre-departure YFU materials. As for the second pic, the urinals are all like this in Japan. I haven't seen any like the ones in America. Even my house has one like this (yes, my house has a urinal... probly the first house I have ever seen with a urinal.) The toilet in my house is unique. It does not fill up with water. There is a button for a small trickle of water, and if you need more, there is a hose connected to the toilet with a high power squirt gun feature. Kinda fun... Ready, aim, fire... okay, that is just weird. I have heard about crazy Japanese toilets that are totally electronic. I haven't seen one yet. Supposedly by the touch of a keypad you can adjust the water temp, turn on an attached bidet, and other crazy features. The pictures are from the mall toilets. I am not a freak, haha. I had a high anxiety that some Japanese guy would walk in and see some American teen photographing the stalls, haha... but luckily nothing happened. For all of you who asked for it, I did it for you!

Kawaii Culture

2006-07-20T17:48:00.000+09:00

Okay, a few posts ago I introduced you to kawaii, which is the word for cute. This post is intended to elaborate on it and its culture here in Japan. This country has a fascination with cute things. Little animated animals or things accompany EVERY product it seems, and then even become a novelty item on their own (like stuffed animals, clothing patterns, and stickers). As for the culture, a lot of clothes or collection items for Japanese women can be based off of kawaii. That means lots of pastels, and girly things that American's would sooner associate with a 5 year old, or possibly a pre-teen. I think that is what describes this `culture`. For many women here, they strive to capture possibly the bubbliness or innocence of girls much younger than their own age. A good example of this is the clothes the toddlers at the daycare wore. They were pretty much just smaller styles of what older Japanese women may try to emulate. Along with fashion, brightly colored hair clips line girls' hair, and keychains/stickers of "cutsie" characters ornament many school girls' belongings.. A perfect "poster-character" for kawaii things is the one and only Hello Kitty, and its creator Sanrio. I have been to a few stores that specialize only in Sanrio goods. The consumer base ranges from the ages of toddlers to 20-30 year old Japanese women... and they are all pretty much the same. Hello Kitty is EVERYWHERE here in Japan... but that will be another post. The pictures are of Yurina cuddling up to a kawaii character that she likes in a shop that specializes in girly kawaii products. The other is of a Sanrio store with products intended to be sold to a surprisingly older age-group of 20 year old Japanese women. The last one is me sharing some love with Kitty-chan! (a nickname for Hello Kitty here in Japan, which means something like little kitty. Applying -chan to any name automatically adds a kawaii factor to it. It is a title for little kids. This is why my family calls OjiSAN, OjiCHAN. It is because he is now a cute little old man.)

My last day at school

2006-07-20T16:24:00.000+09:00

Today at school, all of the students were lead to the gymnasium for a schoolwide assembly. This day marked the last day of school before their summer break. It also means that it was the last day I would be attending Ryukoku High School. I can't believe how fast the past 5 weeks of school has gone by. It is even more shocking to know that this is the "beginning of the end" with all of my goodbyes having to take place within these final two weeks of my stay. (The students have a short break during this time through August, but they still received thick homework packets to work on. Along with that, school clubs still take place over break... so it really isn't TOO much of a vacation.) At this assembly all of the classes formed lines and sat on the hard wood floors. I was very impressed with the respect and attentiveness that the students gave at this seasonal assembly. Whenever the principal or another speaker (various teachers) would walk on the stage, the teacher that served as the "Master of the Ceremonies" would command everyone to kneel in seiza position (the same position used during the tea ceremonies) and bow. You did this when the speaker walked up and off of the stage... for every speaker! During the assembly the principal talked about topics which I think dealt with events taking place during this time of year at the school (I couldn't comprehend it). The other speakers honored and congratulated Ryukoku athletes of different sports and disciplines for their successes at a recent all-city sports festival. The Ryukoku kendo team received top honors, which was a big deal for the school. I was also later recognized for being a visitor at the school for the past month and a half (as if know one knew, haha) I didn't have to recite a speech to the student body, but I was able to thank the school staff and students, and also bow. It was very neat. Later that day I made a few speeches to some classes, and to the teaching staff thanking them for such a great summer. At this time, I passed out lots of gifts and candy, and took pictures with many of my newly-made friends from the past few weeks. For some, it may be the last time I see them, for others, we may get together next week during their vactation. Either way, lets just say that I have many pen pals! It was a good day, just in a different way than other days. After school I visited my teachers that I had become close to, to say goodbye, and gave them some Michigan souveniers. I also went to see the principal in his office ( a room that I still feel is very intimidating. It is as large as a classroom! I guess that shows the level of respect for superiors in a Japanese sense). We chatted for quite a while about my past summer, and my personal background in America, and were even served green tea by a secretary, wow. I was very, very grateful to everyone for granting me such a great oportunity to attend school as a guest for so long. I really appreciated it. Ryukoku High School may have been very different from American schools, and slightly weathered from age, but it will still be remembered as a special place during my stay here in Japan. So many new things were experienced there, and so many new friends were made. The pics are of me and Takuji (a good pic of us two this time!), me with other friends in my class, and finally a picture of me with the "Kocho-Sensei", the school principal.

Half Day!

2006-07-19T23:03:00.000+09:00

Wednesday was a halfday at school due to parent-teacher conferences ( I was surprised when I learned the school had them). Like America, halfdays mean fun afternoons, usually hanging out and going out to lunch with friends, here in Japan. On Tuesday, I spoke with one of my friends, Yoshi, who has been wanting to get together to do something fun. I told him to e-mail me the plans (that way I could translate them if I had difficulty). Well, I should have figured that by trying the easy way out, I wasn't going to get it, haha... this is what his e-mail said : "call me" and it listed his phone number! So I called him up. I have been surprising myself all along here in Japan (and it isn't always about what I eat either ). After I talked with him on the phone, I thought back to what I just did and realized that I just had a phone conversation entirely in Japanese... Woah. Anyways, we made plans to meet after school the next day and go to the mall. I was also going to meet his family's foreign exchange student from Brazil (which was a surprise to me that he was even hosting a foreign exchange student).
On Wednesday, we met up after school and went to his house. His home is very close to the school (like 5-10 minutes walking). I met Bernardo, who is 18, and is from Brazil. Unfortunately, he does not attend the same school as Yoshi and me. He is on a much different kind of program than I am on. He is part of a rotary club. He is living in Japan all year as a regular student, and was required to change families three times. I felt that was extreme. The Isse family (Yoshi's family) was Bernardo's 3rd and final host family. He was very nice. It is amazing to note that he speaks Portugese and Spanish fluently, good Japanese, slight English, and can read Italian... I would love to have that capacity of languages! The Isse family has hosted many college students before, but Bernardo is their first high school student. The first thing that we did was meet up with some of Yoshi's classmates at the Saga Castle Museum (right behind the high school). It was very fun, and even though I had seen it before, I think I enjoyed it even better this time. I love castles and ancient buildings. It is amazing to me how well we all communicated. None of the kids had great English speaking skills, Bernardo's Japanese was much superior to mine, but yet not perfect, and I am still at a very premature level of the Japanese language in a conversational aspect. The amazing thing is that we did talk, A LOT, and had a great time. Thinking back, it still doesn't make sense of how it worked, haha. Lots of describing, and added body language I guess! After the museum, we said goodbye to Mari-Chan and her friend, and we headed back to Yoshi's house. At the house Yoshi said we were going to go the mall at that time, and offered to borrow me some of his clothes, since I still had my uniform on. I was very shocked, but appreciative at the generous gesture. I guess that was the closest I was to Japanese fashion all summer, haha. We went to the mall with Yoshi's mom and older sister (who is 21), but split up from them. We checked out some stores and later got some "Sattii WaN" ("31" - Baskin Robbins) ice cream. The day was a lot of fun. I am looking forward to hopefully meeting up with Yoshi, Bernardo, and Mari-Chan again for some other activities sometime next week! The afternoon was a blast, one of the best of the summer. The pics are of Me with Mari-Chan, her friend, and Bernardo, outside the Saga Castle. The next is me with Yoshi and Bernardo, and finally us outside Baskin Robbins (and me sporting some of Yoshi's clothes, haha).

HanaBi

2006-07-18T22:19:00.000+09:00

That night was the spectacle we were all waiting for: The Karatsu Umi no Hi fireworks display. The word for fireworks in Japanese is HanaBi, which literally means flowers of fire. I think it is pretty. We stayed on the Karatsu Castle island and found a spot on the beach. It was very crowded. On the beach there was live entertainment with singers and also many traditional Japanese snack booths. Some of them included Yakitori (grilled chicken skewers), Takoyaki (grilled buns with octopus meat and Japanese BBQ sauce), and kakigori (Japanese style snowcones) just to name a few of the many that were set up. On the beach there were also a lot of women and a few men dressed up in yukata (brightly colored traditional Japanese summer robes) or jinbe (mens traditional summer wear with a short sleeve robe top and matching shorts). It was very cool to see. At 8 o`clock, the fireworks show promptly started. It is interesting to note that an American fireworks display may be on average, about 15-20 minutes with large, spectacular, synchronized blasts. This Japanese fireworks show lasted 1 whole hour! It was quite different than an American show. Each firework was lit off almost individually, or in tiny spurts. It seemed they liked to enjoy the fireworks individually, not the shock and awe of a big huge blast. Could this possibly be viewed as a cultural perspective on how to enjoy the view of something? There was no finale in this long show. The fireworks did get bigger, but there was no big final mass explosion of many fireworks. The show just ended promptly at 9. One of the neat things about this show was there was a boat that went along the shallow waters. It would drop special fireworks into the water, and seconds later a huge colorful shroud of sparks would erupt from the light waves. It was awesome (except... I wouldn't want to be the guy on that boat, haha). Also the freight ship bridge was lined with sparklers that all went off in white and green! Along with that was the phrase in Japanese, roughly translating to, "Exciting Saga, Karatsu Newspaper" (It was one of the sponsors of the event). It was quite the sight to see. The pics are of me and the Kai family all together, at the fireworks display! Umi no Hi was a GREAT day. I am so glad I got to spend this Japanese holiday with my host family and that they took me to "sea" so many neat places and things! (ok... that was a REALLY lame play on words!)

A "Lively" Dinner

2006-07-18T22:14:00.000+09:00

For dinner that night, we went out for the special occasion to a very traditional style Japanese restaurant. When entering the restaurant, you removed your shoes to enter one of the tatami floored dining rooms. All of the tables were low to the floor, and you knelt around the tables (I am very used to it now, since this is how we eat at home). For the holiday, there was a set menu. It is good to mention that Japanese cuisine has many, many small side dishes. First, there are always warm, damp towels to wash your hands with, and hot green tea is served. Then, individually, tiny plates of side dishes are brought out by the waitresses, who, in this restaurant, wore traditional Japanese summer robes and socks. There are TONS of plates used in serving Japanese meals, and each side dish only amounts to about 2 spoonfuls of food ( it is funny to talk in terms of spoonfuls, when you are really eating with chopsticks ). For example, the meals that we received contained, soba noodles, Japanese pickles, vinagered vegetables, fermented soybeans, soup, egg custard, soy sauce, orange slices, and rice, all served in their own tiny dishes (with the exception of the rice... it is always plentiful at the meals). The bigger portions were the tempura (fried shrimp, seafood, and vegetables), and its own dipping sauce in yet another small dish. Most everything in Japanese cuisine, as I have noticed so far (at home and at the restaurants), has been served individually for the person; not family style. There was one exception... the main course at this restaurant. This dish is what titled this post. I have already mentioned that Karatsu was famous for it's squid. Well, I was very much mistaken when I thought the conchshells I tried earlier were going to be the last exotic taste of the day. The waitress brought out a platter with 3 very, very fresh, raw squid, a Karatsu delicacy. When I say very fresh, I mean Very Fresh as in... alive! At the table, the squid's fins and tentacles were cut up right before our eyes. It was crazy! Surprisingly, I wasn't grossed out, I was in shock from amazement of what I was witnessing. I have eaten squid before, both grilled, and as sashimi (raw) here in Japan and have really enjoyed it, but I never thought I would eat it like this. To eat it you grabbed your freshly sliced wedge from the slowly writhing creature, and ate it just like sashimi: a little soysauce, wasabi and eat! It was weird, but still quite good. Talk about taking the word exotic to totally new levels! WOW! One of the squid actually turned red while we were sitting. My host father said it was angry, haha... I just can't wonder why?! After we were finished eating the raw dish, the waitress took the rest and had it tempura fried. That was very delicious, and at least a little easier to eat... it wasn't staring at you when you grabbed a bite to eat! The meal was very unique, and in a way, educational for me. Although very extreme, I was very happy that I got to experience this meal, and of course, the company of my entire host family. The pics are of me and my host father kneeling around the table, the next is the waitress in her traditional garb bringing out the seemingly endless side-dishes, and the last is the "lively" main course.

Dinner Pics

2006-07-18T22:12:00.000+09:00

That was a long post! (and it deserved to be one too!)
Here are the pics that didn't fit!

Karatsu Castle

2006-07-18T21:25:00.000+09:00

Later on, we met back up with my host father. The scheduled plan was to head over to the historical Karatsu Castle. The castle is located on an island, so we had to drive over a bridge to get to it. As a matter of fact, the island is where the fireworks show that night was going to take place. We unfortunately found out that the castle museum on the inside closed early, at 5 pm, for the holiday. My host father and I decided to check out the building anyway. Along the way, I was given a free fan by some business advertisers, so I was a happy camper regardless of what was going to happen next. There were a lot of stairs to get up to the high castle. The castle itself was awesome, with ivy gardens and high rock walls. It was a short stop, but a VERY worthwhile one. The pics are of the castle, me next to the tall tower, and the great view of the ocean and city from the castle courtyard. It is so neat to think that this castle used to be where samurai warlords would reside and fight in battle!

Karatsu Festival Floats

2006-07-18T21:02:00.000+09:00

Every November in Karatsu, there is a huge parade for 3 days running through the city. In this parade, there are 14 different creatures, including fish, dragons, birds, and beasts, turned into massive man-moved floats that weigh over 5 tons. There are also lots of traditional Japanese drums and flute playing during the festival. The first thing that we did with my host mom was go to the Karatsu Festival Museum, where the annual massive floats are stored for the rest of the year. The pictures really don't serve them justice. They are truly majestic works of art. We watched a movie about the parade and also looked at many historical parade artifacts. As a matter of fact, one of the first pictures I recieved of my host mother in the initial E-mails is of her at this Karatsu festival with some floats in the background. After the museum, we visited a traditional Saga pottery store next door to view all of the neat, very expensive, clay masterpieces, and then to a UniQlo next door to check out some clothes. It was a very fun afternoon. The pics are of the Red Herring fish float (possibly the most famous), a sea dragon and a sky dragon float, and then some nice pottery at the culture shop.

Jusco

2006-07-18T20:40:00.000+09:00

After the visit to the second mountain, my host dad had to stop at work for a few hours. He dropped Erika, Sora and me off at the Karatsu Jusco to hang out at and wait for my host mom. The Jusco was similar to the one in Saga, with 3 floors (supermarket, department store, mall), just not AS massive. There we got to spend almost 2 hours walking around shops and relaxing. We also grabbed lunch at a small chain restaurant called Mister Donuts, which sells noodle bowls, and guess what... lots of donuts. It was a fun time, and we later met up with Okasan and Yurina. The pics on this post were taken in Karatsu, but pertain more to a previous post; they just couldn't all fit earlier. The first are of the many boats in the harbor, the second is a small shop air drying their freshly caught squid on a fast spining contraption, and the last one is a unique Japanese forest with gnarled trees.

Yama 2

2006-07-18T20:30:00.000+09:00

After the beach and the snack, we drove to the more modern, city side of Karatsu. There, we visited another mountain (Yama). This one was bigger than the last and had many traditional structures on it. First of all, at the entrance to the road up the mountain was a huge torii, the red gate (shown in the first picture). On top of the mountain there was a building shrine, and other smaller torii. There was a great view of the city and sea along with these cultural architectures. Also, atop the mountain was a booth with jars of good luck papers that read your fortune and luck. We each gave a donation and reached in for our sheets. My host dad translated mine and said that now I have so-so luck, but in the future I will find luck in business...ok ). We each took our sheets to the front of the building shrine and tied them to dangling strings along with other people. This is what the Japanese do. I was very excited to be on the mountain because of the beautiful scenery I was able to witness. The other pics are of me standing in front of the shrine building, and me under smaller torii gates (torii gates are usually painted a reddish color called vermilion) with the sea in the background.

Local Specialties

2006-07-18T20:23:00.000+09:00

As I mentioned, we went to the bay's local cuisine shacks for a quick snack. The shacks were all connected, but each individual grill and table section had a seperate door. It was VERY interesting. The booths sold packages of dried seaweeds and squids, but as for cooked food there were two choices, grilled squid, or char grilled conch shells. I really expanded my boundries on the word "exotic" that day. The squid, which is a Karatsu specialty (It is EVERYWHERE due to its mass abundance), was delicious. The freshly caught squids were hanging out on a string. For the four of us, we ordered two. The squid was taken down and grilled right before us! It was very chewy, but very enjoyable, with a sweet glaze (which I think was teriyaki). After that, we orderded some conch shells, or sazae. Those were weird. They were steaming and boiling right there on the char grill. They were served to us extremely hot, and had to be handled with a towel. To open the shell you had to use a metal tool and break off a separate shell. It is done carefully since the... slug... or what ever you call it, is connected to this and you must twist its curly body out of the twisted conch shell. Wow. I was very skeptical about this one. I have been very good about trying everything here in Japan, and this was going to be no exception. The slug... thing was chewy just like the squid. It wasn't that bad except it was VERY salty, or a better word might be briny. My host father, sister, and her friend even drank the "juice" out of the shell afterwords! That was just too much salt for me. The snack turned out to be very exotic and interesting, but at the same time very cultural and fun! The picture is of a woman rotating the grilling conch shells, squid in hand. Yes, those are fresh squid hanging in the background. The other pics are of the where we sat, and the sazae.

The Bay

2006-07-18T20:10:00.000+09:00

The next stop the beach itself. We visited a small cove on one of the bays with a great beach. We didn't go swimming due to time (it was actually cool that day too, very windy), but we did get our feet wet combing the beach's tides for shells. We collected a very nice selection. This beach was still in the rural part of Karatsu, and along the road, right next to the beach and the parking lot were a series of shacks that served fresh seaside japanese cuisine. That is where we got a quick pre-lunch snack. The pictures are of me on the seashore, the beach, and then the fresh seafood "snack shacks".

Karatsu (and Yama 1)

2006-07-18T19:46:00.000+09:00

Karatsu was very unique. It had a beautiful bayside city, modern and busy, but in the morning, we visited a different area. We first toured the rural part of Karatsu. This really was my first time seeing a fully rural community here in Japan. This area was barely modernized. Many narrow streets with traditional stores and homes, many rice paddies, and even tanadas which are the rice paddies staircased up the side of a mountain! It was very worthwhile sightseeing. My host father drove us up a mountain (In Japanese, yama is mountain, hence the title) to get a good view of the surrounding bay and city. It was very scary, the roads are extremely narrow and there isn't too much other than a piece of aluminum to stop a car from going over the edge, haha! I have no idea what would happen if one car was going up while one was coming down... at least it didn't happen to us. Atop the mountain, the scenery was beautiful. There were statue shrines and even tables to relax at when spending time up there. While we were up there, there was a grandmother with her grandkids catching dragonflies with nets. We looked over the horizons and got an amazing view of the rural landscapes, the blue ocean, and small mountain islands in the distance. It was a great site, and the perfect thing to do on the day of the sea, to just stop and take a moment to view the ocean! The pictures are of a statue atop the mountain, me with the landscape background (the wind mills in the background were common in this area for energy... they probably work very well because it was windy!), and the tanada rice paddies.

Umi no Hi

2006-07-18T19:41:00.000+09:00

Monday was a national holiday in Japan : Umi no Hi, which literally means day of the sea. On this holiday, people in Japan simply take the day off to enjoy the ocean. I feel that it is very appropriate since Japanese people are so close to lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and of course, the Pacific ocean. Early on monday morning, my host father, Erika, and I got up to head out to the city of Karatsu (Yurina had A.M. band class, and my host mother had errands. We were going to meet up with them later.) We first picked up Erika's friend, Sora, and we were on our way. Karatsu is the closest city to the ocean (about 50 minutes away). Actually, as a matter of fact, it is where my host father works. I was very fortunate that my host family packed so many activities into this holiday. The next posts are of everything that we did! These pictures are of the rural community side of Karatsu.

A little more about Nabeshima

2006-07-18T19:12:00.000+09:00

This post is a continuation of the last one I made about Nabeshima, the small community block that my house is in here in Saga. Some of the pictures are a little funny.
At the end of the street there is some construction taking place at one house. Well... I guess if you need the job done, call Hello Kitty ☺!

This picture is of a street sign that I have seen almost all over Kyushuu, and especially Saga. It simply tells you to clean up after your pets. I love how Japanese street signs always have a small kawaii cartoon to go along with the signs. It happens quite often. I guess it eliminates the language barrier difficulty.

This last picture is of the great mountains which are pretty much my backyard. I have really loved all of the mountains here in Japan. They are beautiful.

Sagantosu Soccer

2006-07-18T18:57:00.000+09:00

On Sunday night I was invited to watch a soccer game with the Kai's relatives. "OF COURSE!", I was really excited. It ended up being Yurina, Takuji ( Erika and Yurina's cousin, who is actually in my class and sits next to me), Takuji's dad, and his sister ( who is Yurina's age). It is funny that I became friends with Takuji before it was even revealed to me that he was directly related to my host family! The game we went to go see was Sagantosu vs. Sapporo. Sagantosu is a collaboration of the neighboring cities, Saga and Tosu (get it... Saga `n` Tosu... they made it one word, haha). Sapporo is a city in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The Sagantosu Stadium is located in Tosu and is very large. As we entered, I could see many fans wearing the team colors... teal and hot pink (unique, I know, for a pro Men's Soccer team). These teams are part of the J2 pro league which is the secondary pro-soccer league in Japan. The entertainment involved with the game was very fun to watch. There was a section filled with die-hard fans that sport the team colors, flags, drums and lots of other stuff. There was constant noise and cheers throughout the whole game. It was a great experience. The game itself was also very exciting, lots of break-away runs, many fast paced plays, and even 2 yellow cards. Sagantosu won 4-0, which is a rare and exceptional score in this level of soccer. It was an awesome night, and a great event to go to! The pics are of the lit up Sagantosu Stadium, me and Takuji ( sorry his eyes are closed... we were more interested in the game, and less in us being in pictures... oops, this is the only one I have of the two of us), and the Victory Celebration after the game with the team mascots.

Ramen Stadium

2006-07-16T13:27:00.000+09:00

Ok, I needed to make this a post of its own. In Japan there are these arcades, amusement parks, museums, or whatever you want to call them that celebrate a type of food. These venues usually have all things about the food, and then several different restaurants side by side all selling different styles of the same food or dish! Well, in the Fukuoka Canal City mall there was a section of the mall called the Ramen Stadium. It was an area devoted just to the food of RAMEN!! There was a shop, some museum things, and then many small sit down restaurants all selling ramen, except all from a different region of Japan: Fukuoka style, Tokyo style, Hokkaido style, etc. It was very cool. For dinner at the mall we went to the Ramen Stadium and went to the Hokkaido restaurant ( Hokkaido is the northern Island of Japan) which specialized in Shoyu broth ramen soups. The restaurants are all tiny sit-down places, very unique and neat. There are actually cue lines for the restaurants. I hear the place is packed with lines of people at lunch. It is a famous place at the mall. Every restaurant had a vending machine with tickets outside of them. You picked out what you wanted to eat before you even entered (this supposedly happens at many restaurants in Japan). When you are seated, you give the tickets to the waitress, and receive warm wet towels to wash your hands. The food comes quickly and you get to enjoy! It was a great and very unique experience and place! The pictures are of the Ramen Stadium, outside of the restaurant, and the large bowls of ramen we split for dinner. The great thing is that this isn't the cheap dried packaged stuff. This ramen is the freshly made "real-deal!"

Canal City

2006-07-16T12:24:00.000+09:00

After Hawk "Town", ironically we went to Canal "City", which is a mall in Fukuoka. Forget making a dent in Fukuoka! In one afternoon we barely made a dent in this mall! It was MASSIVE! 5 floors. It was packed with people and shops. Some areas were so clustered, you didn't even know where one store ended and another started. There was so much crammed into the mall, and it was big to begin with! There were tons of large department stores, small shops, kiosks, restaraunts, and food courts. There were many clothing stores of American brands, along with pricey European ones mixed in with tons of Japanese fashion brands. Besides all of the clothing stores, the mall was known for a large Sanrio store (Hello Kitty), a huge arcade "club Sega", The Pokemon Center Fukuoka (Yes, pokemon is still HUGE in Japan!), The Ramen Stadium (more about that in the next post!), and a movie theater! Probably the coolest thing about the mall is what it was most likely named after. The mall has a man-made river running between the buildings! There were many fountains and water-works shows, along with terrace restaurants and stores overlooking the river. It is beautiful! The mall was so big, I barely got to walk everywhere, let alone visit all of the shops and attractions. Since the mall was part of a big city, of course it had shops and restaurants at astronomical prices, but the mall seemed to be a cool place to hang out. I seen many Fukuoka students in their uniforms hanging out there after their Saturday classes. One thing that my host sisters liked was the Starbucks there. Saga does not have a Starbucks. We bought some Frapaccinos and enjoyed them before we returned home for the night. It was an awesome day. Definitely one of the top highlights of my summer so far! I think I would want to return to Japan just to visit this mall once more! The pictures are of the outside of this huge mall complex, and the other two are of the mall's canal with water fountains, and terraces along the sides!

Fukuoka!

2006-07-16T11:22:00.000+09:00

After our trip to the shrine down the street, I got a big surprise. My host father was going to take us to Fukuoka for the afternoon! In case you don't know, Fukuoka is the 8th largest city in Japan, and it is the largest city on the Island of Kyushuu! It is huge! I was so excited! This would be the first time I would be visiting a major city in Japan! We came back home, changed, went to pick up Yurina from band school, and we were off! I didn't realize this until Otosan metioned it, but this was the first time I was on the highway in Japan. It is very expensive, with many toll booths. The travel time was about 40 minutes. Just driving past the city on the highway made it look massive! The first place we stopped was the Fukuoka Yahoo Dome, home of the Fukuoka Hawks pro baseball team. There was a game today, so it was crowded (baseball is a very big deal in Japan), but the dome's other facilities were still open to the public. It is called Hawk Town, and it is big. This baseball park has a mall in it, a movie theater, a grand hotel, and many restaurants. We obviously couldn't go into the park itself, but there was still so much to do inside the dome! Also the dome opens up to clear skies! Amazing. The pictures show the front of HawkTown, the Fukuoka Yahoo Japan Dome. The second shows the crazy traffic in the city (I can't imagine what Tokyo is like!). If you look closely at the street signs, it says Fukuoka 2016. Right now, Fukuoka is campaining to be the host of the 2016 olympics. I thought that was neat. The next photo is the other side of the massive sports complex with the mall and the grand hotel, and finally me supporting the hawks, haha. I needed to put some humor into this site... at least it got my host sisters to laugh!

Nabeshima

2006-07-16T10:48:00.000+09:00

Nabeshima is the street our house is on. It is actually a small block with many traditional houses. The streets are lined with tall bamboo plants, and dirt paved roads. At the end of the street is a hill, and if you stand at the top, you get a great view of all the surrounding mountains. Actually, I found out that many of the neighbors are in someway distant relatives of Ojichan.

Today my host father, Erika, I went down the street to the Nabeshima shrine. It is literally 30 seconds away, walking! It is very cool. At the small building there are many rememberance stones of family members who have passed away. I think it may be similar to a cemetery. From my observations, I have found out that Buddhists are very close to their family members who have since passed away. We went to a small grouping of stones that belonged to the Kai family, and we cleaned up the area's weeds. After that, I watched my host father and sister perform some practices that were uniquely Buddhist. They first poured water on the stones to clean them, but it happened in a special order, possibly in chronological order of their passing away. After that we lit incense, filled up a tea cup with water, and lit a candle at each stone for their family members. It was all very neat to watch. After that we went into the shrine to light more incense, give a monetary donation, and pay respects to another shrine. There is still much I have to discover about this religion, but I am happy I was able to witness and help out with today's activities. The pictures are of the street we live on (and my host father!), the shrine on our street, and me cleaning off the stones with water in a special order.

Child Care - Day 2

2006-07-16T10:29:00.000+09:00

Friday continued the Ryukoku internship projects, and I returned to Shokuba Taiken with Erika and here friend, Misato, to help out with the childcare. The day had the same schedule, except the kids had swim time instead of pompom dance today. Aside from the actual activity, the only real difference I noticed was during clothes changing time; instead of underwear-bearing kids playing tag while being bored... it was just naked kids, haha. It is amazing that when you work with toddlers, you don't need a teacher or instructor to tell you what to help the kids with. The toddlers ask you themselves. I got many "shensheiii" calls, and tugs on my pants to assist them all the time. I was so surprised that I was immediately accepted amongst the kids as a real sensei to them. During the free time and nursery time after class, I got to play with the kids again. I believe that I know the songs "Bingo (the dog)" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" forwards and backwards by now. The kids love it, along with many other English song requests. They would demand, "MO HITOTSU!" ("ONE MORE TIME!") - I loved it. Later on, at the end of class during "sayonara" songs, I was treated to the "Bingo (the dog)" song in Japanese. As the kids left, I received many hugs and lots of games of JanKen (Japanese Rock-Paper-Scissors), which they love to play. They all asked if I was coming tomorrow, and the teacher had to explain that tomorrow is Saturday.... They truly were a lot of fun, and a great part of my visit to Japan. After the whole day was over, Erika, Misato, and I went next door to a bakery. This also happened to be an establishment where a classmate was completing their internship (which I thought sounded so cool). The bakeries name was KusuKusu (which, like the restaurant Ufufu, means to chuckle/giggle). We purchased some fresh pastries and finished off a great week with a sweet snack.

Random

2006-07-16T10:23:00.000+09:00

These pictures are so wierd they need a post of their own.

It is somewhat well known that Japanese fashion can get rather crazy. Many T-shirts are often printed with wild pictures, and English that makes no sense. This shirt my host sister wore one day is a prime example.

The other picture is... well... I just dont't know! Japan has a uniquness to make many things cute and smiley... it is actually a culture of its own (kawaii or "cute"... but that will be another post!) Many products have a little cute character that advertises it. Another thing about kawaii things are that many inanimate objects are turned into characters with faces and expressions... such as fruits, veggies, food, nature things, tvs... etc. Look at the picture I have attached... smiling, rainbow... haha. Actually, this character is quite popular with girls. I found these stickers at a girls' stationary shop while shopping for Erika's birthday present a few weeks ago at the Super Supermarket!

Child Care - Day 1 (continued)

2006-07-13T21:09:00.000+09:00

During playground time (8-10 am), I met many of the little kids and was personally lead by many to the swings, the tunnels, the monkey bars, the turtles, and the sandpit to name a few☺. I was very surprised how many times the kids change. They come to school in their button-up shirts and overall uniforms, and then change into gym clothes for playground time. They also have street clothes for after school nursery time (which I think is optional). There is a.m. school and p.m. daycare I think. I helped with both. At 10 o'clock, class began with songs and changing back into uniforms... which takes a while with toddlers. Many get bored so you have a lot of them playing tag with only underwear on, haha. After songs and circle time, it was time for a field trip. This was a surprise to me. We all filed into the busses and went one block away to a community center which had a large activities yard... of course, made of gravel. It was dance time. The students all put their containers of ocha on picnic mats and got into lines. Colored pompoms were passed out, a stereo set up, and it is was time for dance (or syncronized pompom waving... whatever you want to call it). There were four lines... and 3 teachers... surprise... I was expected to be the leader of the 4th group. Poor kids. The toddlers all rely on their teacher for the movements. So my group relied on me... who was relying on the other teachers, haha. It worked out okay. After arriving back at school, there was coloring, different games, and singing, and then time to go. They all line up to say sayonara to the teacher individually as they leave... and well, I was a "sensei" today... so I got some hugs, high fives, and questions if I was returning tomorrow, haha. After school let out, it was daycare time. I met Erika and her friend, and we went to a different part of the school. At the daycare, there were many kids, some of which who were in my class, getting changed into street clothes. After everyone was changed, it was obento lunch time! It was cute... I had to get down to the toddler size tables to eat my lunch... and they thought it was comical. Next, I got to play with the kids during their free time. Many colored or played with blocks. I discovered that they loved the ABC's and wanted to sing it with me over and over again. After all that energy, it was time for naps. We unrolled tatami mats and blankets for all the kids. During nap time, almost half of the kids were picked up by their parents. The rest woke up to snack time. At 4 o'clock it was time for us to leave. As we were leaving, the kids were getting ready for pool time. I had a great time with the kids. They were so full of energy and excitement. I am looking forward to going back tomorrow. The pics are of the front of the school, and the busses!

Child Care - Day 1

2006-07-13T19:47:00.000+09:00

At this time of the year, Ryukoku students are getting opportunities to experience different jobs by participating in community service. This Thursday and Friday, many students are learning about various jobs within and around Saga on an individual basis. I am going with Erika and one of her classmates to work at the children's preschool/nursery, Shoku Bataiken. I was very excited to attend. The school is new and very nice. The classrooms are all connected to an open roof courtyard with a playground. It has a gym and even a small, shallow pool! There is also a large playfield with more playground sets and a covered pond with pet turtles. I really liked the set up. We rode our bikes to the school and arived at 8 o'clock. We were separated to our own classrooms and met our room's teachers. I learned that from 8 -10 was free playground time, and that the students all arive during that time frame. There were already a few kids entering and I was able to meet them. The class I was in were 4 year olds. They weren't shy at all! They were so lively and cute! They don't know English, but they did immediately comprehend that I wasn't from Japan. They asked if I was American and spoke English. I was very impressed with their observations. They also surprised me that they knew the phrase "hello my name is ...". They introduced themselves to me in both languages! Of course we couldn't fully communicate, but I was able to converse with the toddlers very easily. They refered to me only as sensei, haha. (well, shenshei if you want their cute toddler accent). They couldn't grasp Chris. Kurisu (as it is phonetically) just made them giggle and say, "Haha, KURISUMASU!" (Haha, CHRISTMAS!) Like all toddlers, each one attaches to you as a "best friend". So many times during the time on the playground, a new toddler just grabbed my hand (and I didn't even know them) and just lead me to their fun activity. I really liked helping out at the preschool! The pictures are of some students going to pompom dance ( I'll explain in the next post) I am in the momo (peach blossom) class, (each class is a different flower) so my class wears pink hats. The second picture is the classroom and an excited early arrival, and the last picture is the large playground and the turtle pond.

Noodles

2006-07-12T18:32:00.000+09:00

For some of my meals here in Japan, I have been able to try many different varieties of Japanese noodles.
Somen noodles are thin wheat flower noodles, usually eaten cold with a dipping sauce. Udon noodles are just like somen, except they are very thick and usually in soups. Soba noodles are buckwheat noodles eaten in either way listed above. Ramen is native to China, but is found to be totally different and unique in Japanese cuisine. It is extremely popular, since it is a cheap and fast meal, and there are aisles of the dried packages in stores! I have been able to try the fresh, or should I say "real" stuff, if you will, and it was delicious. Yakisoba are noodles fried with sauces and vegetables in a Chinese style. Sorry if I sound like an encyclopedia... this really is stuff I am learning. My host mom has prepared each of these on different occasions! She really loves to cook, and I really enjoy learning about the food, as well as the preparation of the food. Oh, and I love to eat what she cooks! Eating the noodles is the fun part. In Japan, slurping your noodles is accepted, and even an expected practice. It shows that you are enjoying the texture and flavors. I still find it so awkward to do; I feel so impolite and silly, haha. If you have noodles with a dipping sauce, dip away and SHUOoOoP! If you have a bowl with soup, get right up to the edge of the bowl, grab some noodles and SHUOoOoP. My host family members are champs. It may seem funny, but it is actually difficult for me to do! These noodle dishes have been turning out do be some of the most delicious, and noisiest meals that I am having here in Japan. The picture is of some cold somen noodles we had for dinner tonight. It is delicious on a hot day with a dipping sauce of shoyu ( a blend of soysauce and other ingredients)

Uniform Check

2006-07-11T21:18:00.000+09:00

Ok. I had to make this a post on its own! Today at school, a few of the grade levels were escorted out to the gland. Everyone was formed into large lines, with teachers and administrators at the beginning. All the students were being checked randomly to see if they were following dress code. I'm not sure if this was in any relation to the 3 girls yesterday... it may be a coincidence. As for dress code, I mean shirt, pants, correct shoes, no jewlery or makeup, proper hair length ( I think it is no longer than neck length for boys, and no longer than shoulder length for girls) and correct undershirt ( that means either no undershirt, or a white 0ne. No other colors). Now I laugh at the fact that I have seen many boys wearing yellow, red, and blue under their shirts. I first wondered why they did it, since it didn't match, but now I know they wanted that "daredevil" persona of breaking the rules! I have seen that girls love to put on as much jewelry and make up that they can get away with. That, and of course skirt rolling, haha. In addition to that, some girls were getting in trouble for having their eyebrows plucked too thin... as a matter of fact some girls at school have no eyebrows at all... apparently it is a fashion statement (or they are trying to make it one to shave off their eyebrows... I have only seen like 5 girls have this though). I don't like the look of it haha, it is hen-des (very weird)! In the inspection lines, the teachers and administrators would watch students individually walk by, and yell, HAI (yes) if they were free to go. There were checklists of names, so I'm sure there was no way out of the check!

Busted!

2006-07-11T21:00:00.000+09:00

I guess every school, and country for that matter, has its own form of punishment. In America, it could mean detention or suspension. As for Japan as a nation, I am not quite sure what the standard disciplinary action is, but for Ryukoku at least, it is very unique. Before lunch, I was walking in the main hall and saw 3 girls kneeling in the hallway. I didn't think anything of it, just said, "hello". After lunch, I seen them in the same place. I asked them why they were kneeling in the main hallway. Well, it turns out they were being punished! They were caught with their skirts rolled up too high! (Well, I suppose that it doesn't matter which country you go to... the kids will always push the dress code to its limits, haha) They had to kneel in the main hallway for everyone to see them right outside the main office! I guess it is supposed to be a form of public humiliation. They were there until the end of the school day. That was over 4 hours! It is funny to mention that they weren't ashamed of their punishment. They proudly stated that they were in trouble for their skirt length. I now recall a week ago seeing two boys kneeling outside the office... they weren't as happy though! Ironically the next day was a random school uniform check... but that is another post! The girls were very friendly, and even let me take a picture of them for my "Japan studies", haha.

Sunday

2006-07-11T20:39:00.000+09:00

Every Sunday and Tuesday, Erika has dance at night. She is learning hip-hop dance. This past Sunday, a few hours before dance class, two of Erika's friends stopped by to hang out before class. I got to meet them and hang out with them too. The two girls were nice, very giggly, and wore unique Japanese style fashions. The girls listened to music, watched MTV, ate snacks... I guess not too much different from America, haha. They had a great time with the jelly bellies too, and actually were the first people to like Sour Skittles! It was a nice time. The pics are of me with the girls ( I can't tell you why she is covering her mouth with a towel... she isnt the first girl here in Japan who has done that in a picture either!), and the second is Erika and her friends outside with Jhon!

Saturday

2006-07-11T19:50:00.000+09:00

The internet is back up! I'll try to get right back on track. On Saturday morning, Erika had an English proficiency test. After that, I found out were were going to pick up a family friend to spend the afternoon with. The first place that we went to was a clothing store called UniQlo. There are actually two in Saga, one near my house, and one in downtown. The store is very popular from what I hear. Japanese clothing, especially trendy or traditional clothing, is very expensive. UniQlo offers popular styles in casual wear and and traditional wear (kimono and summer yukata robes) for very reasonable prices. I think the name is clever. My guess is that it is the combination of Unique Clothes, UniQlo, which I think is a neat name for a clothes store. I really liked looking around the store at all of the clothes. Some of the T-Shirts really lived up to "crazy Japanese fashion" that I have heard about! There are many shirts with absurd English slogans that usually go along with a goofy picture or product ad. Interestingly enough there was a style of shirt that said, property of Michigan University! I thought that was so cool that it was a part of Japanese fashion! There were a lot of bright colors, unique patterns, and even army camo pants and shirts. After browsing through the clothing store, we went out for coffee and sweets... of course at a nice wagashi shop... that was styled like a french confectionary shop! The name of the shop was Ishimura and it sold traditional Japanese rice sweets, and also French cakes and puddings...mmm. On top of that, free coffee, hot or iced... I love free stuff if you haven't noticed yet, haha. It turned out to be a very nice afternoon. The pics are of UniQlo, and me with Erika's friend, Takuya.

Technical Difficulties

2006-07-11T10:24:00.000+09:00

I am sorry for the sudden stop of posting for the blog this past weekend. A typhoon has just recently passed through this region of Asia, by way of the Sea of Japan. The typhoon was on the morning news reports because there were speculations that it would directly hit southern Japan (actually school was tentatively cancelled for Monday). The storm changed paths, and headed straight for S. Korea (school was back on... bummer... I got to explain to them what a snow day is though for Michiganders, and how that was similar, haha). As you can see by the map, only the outskirts of the storm had hit southern Japan. However, that still resulted in lots of rain and very strong winds, but nothing severe, and no damage. The school has internet, (which is where I am writing this post), but as of now, my home's internet is down. I am safe, and will get back to posting about my weekend and other events ASAP. I am very behind, so you have something to look forward to . I was very surprised how little coverage the typhoon had on TV. It came on only sparingly, and the reports were very calm. I guess thats what happens when tropical storm weather is an annual thing!

Visiting

2006-07-07T22:47:00.000+09:00

Tonight we visited some family friends of the Kai's. They live about 20 minutes away. The daughter of the family is Erika's friend, Chika, from elementary and junior high school. They go to different high schools now. The house was so nice. It was larger than most houses I have seen in Japan. The only rooms I was able to see were the main foyer where you remove shoes, and the tatami room. Both were beautiful. Very new and traditional at the same time. In the tatami room, we first lit incense by the small shrine, chimed a small gong, and paid respect to the family's deceased. Gifts are also placed on the shrine. The same things happened at the Kai's house 2 weekends ago when their relatives came over. I can't say much more than this because I am really not familiar with Buddhist practices. It is something I am still looking into and learning about. It would be inconsiderate of me to analyze the religion at this time. I am always respectful though, and pray along with my family, just in my own way. The same goes for prayer time at school. The family was very nice. Erika's friend was very funny, and I enjoyed talking to her. We made good use of her electronic dictionary that night, haha. I was amazed at the hospitality we received. First we were served green tea. Later, we were served small cakes. After that, chilled green tea was served. Finally, a tray of wagashi (traditional Japansese tea cakes made of mochi, sweet beans, and jellies). I felt kind of awkward, since I didn't know really what to do, "Do you drink with two hands... the only utensil for the cakes is a thick toothpick... am I supposed to cut up small bites or spear it?", etc. I watched everyone very closely. I was very interested in everything. (To answer the above quesions... yes, you drink the tea with two hands on the cup, and you cut up the cake bite by bite with the thick toothpick wedge.) As for gift giving, (which is a must in Japan), we brought a nice bouquet of flowers for the family. As we left, each of us individually got a box of fancy cookies! It was a very neat experience for me, and I made a new friend in Chika, who was very funny and bubbly. The first pic is the big beautiful tatami room (the shrine is on the left with Yurina at the bottom), and the second is me with Chika and Erika!

Surprise

2006-07-07T22:23:00.000+09:00

Today, I received a message at the beginning of the school day that I was invited to introduce myself to an English class on a different floor of the school. I was excited and thought over a short speech in Japanese to share with the class some information about myself and my country. Later that day, I went to the class to make the speech and met the sensei of the class, who was very nice. I spoke to the class briefly and was ready to go back upstairs. What I came to find out, is that my speech concluded only the formal part of acquainting myself with this class. Until just then, it was unknown to me that it was only the beginning. The students started rearranging their desks and pulling out bags of Japanese snacks! They prepared a party with me being "the guest of honor"! It was so cool. Most of the kids I had met casually, only a few times before (they are a grade level above my class), and they were nice enough to do this for me! I was so thankful and excited. During the hour we shared the snacks (luckily I had brought a big bag of American candy for my class upstairs, which I was able to divide in half, to share with this generous class), took pictures, and shared questions. The reason this class' uniforms are different is because they are "junior high alumni". It is hard to explain, but Ryukoku High School also has a wing devoted to junior high school education. These students have been part of Ryukoku since junior high school. This means that they have been studying English for 5 years. Their English was pretty good, being that they understood most of the simple sentences and questions I asked. Along with their English being a little better than other classes, they seemed to understand the level of Japanese I was able to speak and spoke to me on that level. Other people have forgotten this sometimes and leave me in the dust with their fast speaking. It turned out to be some of the best bilingual conversations I have had here in Japan. I had a great time! I don't know how many times I said domo arigato! (thank you very much)! It meant a lot to me. The pics are of a class group shot, me and the English sensei for that class, and a goofy shot of having fun with all the snacks!

Sports

2006-07-07T13:23:00.000+09:00

Ryukoku High School has many after school sports clubs, and I have been able to participate with the soccer team. Most of the events take place in the gym or the gland. The gland is a large field for all types of outdoor sporting events outside the school. The unique thing about it is that it is made up of a fine gravel, not grass. This is supposedly standard here in Japan. I'm not sure why it is named the gland. My best guess is a shortened form of gravel-land... well of all things, it sure isn't grassland, haha. On the gland, baseball; rugby (yes, a rugby team); and soccer all practice at the same time. It can get a little tight, but I've noticed that it works out okay. In the gym, basketball; badminton; (once again... yes, a badminton team, for both boys and girls); and volleyball (boys and girls) practice with large nets hanging from the ceiling to divide the gym up. The only problem with the gland is that is doesn't drain too well. Since it rains so much here in Saga, there are many puddles. I learned the hard way that if you want to head the soccer ball, get ready for a face full of wet sand, haha. This week, the baseball teams are preparing for a large tournament being hosted at Ryukoku, so they got half of the gland. Due to limited space, soccer has consisted of small sided games and dribbling/shooting exercises. The only added element to the game here in Japan is dodging the fly balls from the baseball team!

Jhon

2006-07-06T14:23:00.000+09:00

Jhon is the Kai family's pet dog. He is a black Lab. In Japan (especially the big cities), not many families have pets. Saga, on the other hand, surprised me with many families having pet dogs. Big dogs, too! The most common of what I have seen are the native Japanese Shiba Inu breed. Jhon is trained to sit, stay, jump, beg, and do other obedience tricks, which are commonplace, I know, but I guess I have never taken into consideration speaking to a dog in a language other than English. How naiive of me! It is odd to listen to dog training in Japanese! We play with Jhon by giving him the dog treats I brought as a gift for him from America (haha, when I said gifts for the WHOLE family, I meant it!). We balance the treats on his feet, order him to wait... wait... he is drooling now... wait... HAI! and he happily eats his reward and runs in circles. The other day my host father and I gave Jhon a bath. We didn't stay in our yard though. The river down the street was more spacious! Jhon was a happy camper that day.

Okasan

2006-07-06T14:03:00.000+09:00

In Japanese, mom is Okasan (pronounced Okaa-san). I have yet to really introduce Chizu, my host mother, here in Japan; so this post is about her. My okasan has been an important figure in making my stay in Japan so comfortable. She is very nice, caring, and (aside from language barriers, which are slowly breaking down for the both of us,) very fun to have conversations with. Since I have spent more time with her than any other person I have met in Japan, I give her a lot of credit to much of what I am learning. Okasan has two part time jobs (by part time, only about once a week for each). She is a teaching instructor for cooking at the local Saga Women's Community Center, and also a secretary at the Saga health care center. Other than those jobs, she works at home. Agriculture is also a subject that interests her, and she takes classes for it at the Saga community center. She is an excellent cook, which I am very fortunate for because I get to try many new Japanese foods. I have gotten to eat many delicious meals and obento boxes made by her everyday. One thing that I recently learned about both of my host parents is that they used to be officers in the Tokyo Police Department. That was 15 years ago (Erika was born then in Tokyo). When Otosan's mother passed away, the family moved to Saga to stay with Ojichan. At this time, their daily lives changed since they were in a new city with a new child. Okasan became a housewife (which I have learned is commonplace here in Japan), and Otosan switched to the insurance business. That was just a little history about my host family. My host mother has a sense of humor of her own, not a goofy one like my host father, but a slightly sarcastic one along with very funny animated facial reactions. She still gets a kick out of my constant picture taking of commonplace Japanese items, but the better laugh is when I say in Japanese " It's ok! I'm a gaijin!".

More Yoshinogari Park Pics

2006-07-05T19:47:00.000+09:00

Here are some movies of the historical park! (Sorry, they are blurry due to YouTube's downloading, but still cool.) Two are views from atop the watchtowers and one is inside a historic Yayoi hut.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jHiM8qfPI0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuJv1e1ofhI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R54ZYrnDmnI

The pics are the village viewed from a watchtower, a different watchtower, and another village distantly viewed past the gates. It was awesome!

Yayoi History

2006-07-05T19:09:00.000+09:00

After running some errands and going to the somen shop and waterfall, my host mom surprised me by taking me to the Yoshinogari Historical Park. The national park is a museum and restoration zone of ancient Japanese architecture and artifacts from the Yayoi period of Japanese history! It was so cool! The Yayoi period is the time frame of ancient Japan from 3c. BC to 3c AD! That is 600 years of ancient Japanese history! I was fascinated because it tied in with the Japanese history we studied in Mrs. Lowry's Japanese class this past year. It is amazing to me how much more history there still is in this country and the rest of the world. I mean this in the perspective that all historical museums of America cover only a little more than 200 years! The Yayoi era alone is 600! Amazing! The site of the park is where many ancient cities were discovered. The facility is very new with the restorations. So new, as a matter of fact, that I was the first person to use the portable English digital tour guide for the museums and tour! At this museum it wasn't a head set, it was the shape of a phone. The park was very spacious, something I haven't seen too much of here in Japan. The history was awesome. I was able to tie some connections to some Native American history, but otherwise, it was all new to me! I got to view pottery, clothing, tools, armor, and architecture all restored from ancient Japan and Korea! The restored villages were my favorite. You were able to go inside almost every hut and tower, which is decorated with tools and pottery, like it is presumed to have looked thousands of years ago. There were park guides, reenacting the roles of the villagers, that were willing to answer questions while they worked on traditional historic activities. I witnessed a women weaving silk, and a man carving a wooden shovel. The huts were pretty much underground with only the entrance ways and roofs above. I was interested in the study of the progression of the culture during the 600 years. The Yayoi period is marked either by the start of the practice of growing rice in a paddy field or a new Yayoi style earthenware. Historians and archeologists are proposing the probability of increasing wars and battles occuring over this time frame due to the abundance of watchtowers, defense walls, moats, armor, and tools being discovered from the later half of the era. I was so happy I was able to visit this national park. At the Saga Castle ruins I was able to see feudal period Japanese history, and today I was able to see ancient Japanese History! The pics are of me as a Yayoi warrior (It seems that "photo opportunity cutouts" are all over the world!), me inside a restored ancient style hut, and the entrance gates to one of the restored villages.

Somen Shopping

2006-07-05T15:22:00.000+09:00

This morning I went out to run a few errands with my host mom. We drove to an older part of Saga with many old, traditional style buildings. The roads were inclined and VERY narrow due to it being somewhat in the mountains. It was very neat. We went this way to go to a somen shop (somen is a style of noodle in Japan) to pick up a few packages of good quality noodles for Okasan's cooking classes. For all of the old buildings, the somen shop was very new and modernized in a traditional Japanese architecture. After we purchased the somen, we went down the street and turned into a parking lot next to a small park. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but it was a good thing that I brought my camera with me. We only walked for a few seconds into the woods when we came across a small bridge, and then a beautiful waterfall! It was so cool to see the old houses and shops along the rough river with this cool waterfall. I am so glad Okasan took me there! The pictures are of a watermill down this narrow street, the river with the houses and the mountains behind it, and the waterfall!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpERMQ2KLLs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k6phdz6Iig
I also have some movies! (...but they are blurry due to YouTube downloading)

Dessert

2006-07-04T22:23:00.000+09:00

After dinner, we pulled out the desserts to give to Erika. She really liked the sweet sixteen brownies! Everyone tried them. The first thing my host mom said was, "AMAII!" (Sweet!). She must have still liked them though, since she later grabbed a second ;). I then ran to my room to grab Erika her birthday present and card that I wrapped earlier during the day. I gave Erika some Polish candy (a change of pace, since everything so far has been American) and a personalized sweet 16 frame that I bought from the Things Remembered store back in the states. Her reaction was saying, "SUGOI!" (Amazing!). She really liked it. When she read the birthday card, I explained to them what a sweet 16 is and how it is a big birthday for girls in America. Later, we pulled out the ice cream cake, which was delicious! Chocolate, caramel and nuts! The pictures are of me and my host sisters around the sweet sixteen brownies, and the second is the ice cream cake! It was a very nice evening, and I hope Erika had a great sweet 16!

Dinner

2006-07-04T22:10:00.000+09:00

Dinner was very enjoyable. We all sampled our pizza creations, which were served along with Japanese chicken dumplings, and french fries (probably one of the most American-like meals I have had here in Japan!). Of the pizzas, the shrimp was the best. I liked the flavor of the shrimp with all of the veggies on the pizza. The grilled chicken pizza was good, too. The seaweed and mayonnaise added a unique saltiness and tanginess to the pizza, which was actually good with the marinated chicken and tomato sauce.

PIZZA time!

2006-07-04T18:57:00.000+09:00

Later that night, we started making dinner. I helped Okasan, and Yurina joined in later. We were making one of Erika's favorites : pizza. Although it had some similarities to what we know, there were many differences in our creations. Our pizza had no edge crust... sauce all the way around. The dough is very thin, but the pizza is just as thick as a deep dish with all of the toppings added! We made three small pizzas. One with bacon, one with shrimp, and one with grilled chicken. The rest of the ingredients got interesting. They had onions, which is normal, but LOTS of onions, covering all the sauce! There were peppers, some cheese mix ( not quite mozzarella... all the bag said was "Australian Blend"... I have never heard of it before), basil leaves, seaweed strips, shiso ( a Japanese vegetable), and on the grilled chicken pizza... mayonnaise! They were definitely unique Japanese style pizzas! I had a great time! On subject of pizza, Japan is different than the U.S. (and it isn't just toppings I am talking about). In the U.S., pizza serves as a quick, inexpensive dinner for the most part, but in Japan it is almost the opposite. It is a special occasion in itself. Your average medium could cost more than 30 dollars! I was looking at advertisements in the newspaper and seen how expensive it is! And the topings range from eggs, mayonnaise, corn, squid, potatoes, bean sprouts and other unique things!

Ikebana

2006-07-04T16:29:00.000+09:00

The first pic is me with Mrs. Yukari, our "ikebana sensei". Our finished products are in front of us, and Erika's is in the bottom right corner of the picture. Their's were both very nice. The second pic is me working on my "jungle", and the third is my finished product!

Flower Arangement

2006-07-04T16:14:00.000+09:00

When Erika got home from school, one of the Kai's family friends came over to help us make some flower arrangements for Erika's birthday. Traditional Japanese flower arrangement is called ikebana, but I was told that what we were making wasn't too traditional, since it was in a European style. First we started with these green sponges to stick the flowers in. We cut up the branches and layed them all out. You don't just stick anything wherever you like. You are supposed to have a form of symmetry and color balance in your arrangement. This is where it gets tricky. There is a strong element of things being "visually pleasing and aethstetic" in Japanese culture. Erika and Mrs. Yukari's turned out very nice. Mine was laughable because it looked more like a jungle, haha. I really enjoyed making them. Afterwords we displayed them in the house and had tea. Erika pulled out the Jelly Belly beans and other American candy to share with Mrs. Yukari. So far, all of the guests visiting the Kai's house have loved the Jelly Belly beans. They get a kick out of the popcorn one, and always challenge themselves with the black licorice flavor, which everyone has hated, haha. I also like how everyone who samples the nerds candy eats them piece by piece... and nerds are so tiny! They are amazed that there is a Wonka brand! They always say, "like the movie!". The pictures are of the first steps of our European styled ikebana!

ice cream cake

2006-07-04T15:46:00.000+09:00

We went to Baskin Robbins (or "31" as they call it here in Japan) to pick up an ice cream cake, which Erika loves, for her birthday. Like I said before, it is exactly the same as America, except for just a few special flavors ( like matcha {green tea}, azuki {sweet bean}, and musk mellon sorbet {I dont quite know, haha}). It is also very expensive! The scoops are about half the size of America, unless you pay quite a bit extra for the large, which is our familiar size scoop. The first picture shows a variety set of flavors you can purchase. The columns are for 6 scoop or 12 scoop, and the rows are for regular or large. The prices are all almost double compared to what it would be in America! (Yen is rather easy to convert - 1 penny is roughly one yen. 1 dollar is about 110 yen right now.) As for ice cream cakes, we picked out a chocolate ice cream cake with nuts for Erika. The cake in the picture is different than the cake on display. It was very small (probably the size of a coffee dish) and was 26 dollars!!! If you want a cake to feed a small party, like us, prepare for a nice bill of 40-50 dollars! And you aren't getting "American" portion sizes either! Regardless, it is still delicious!

Brownies!

2006-07-04T15:32:00.000+09:00

This is the first of a series of posts of Erika's birthday, which is today : The 4th of July! Unfortunately, Erika still had testing, so she had to go to school for the half day to take exams. In the morning she had a special breakfast. It was this special red fish on red rice served on birthdays. I have learned that for birthdays, red is a color of good luck. While Erika was at school, Okasan and I took the chance to bake some brownies for Erika. It was the brownie mix I brought from America. They are not that common in Japan since they are very sweet for the average taste. Erika likes them though. We had a little trouble converting everything on the instructions. Cups, celcius, etc. On top of that, the Kai's don't even have an oven! Their microwave is a conventional oven combo, which works, but it is small. The brownies came out, and I decorated them with frosting, powdered sugar, and candles. I hope Erika likes them!

The SUPER store!

2006-07-03T21:22:00.000+09:00

While Yurina was at Juku, Okasan, Erika and I went shopping. Many posts ago I introduced you to the jumbo supermarket/department store. Well, we went there again! This time I was able to get a better understanding of everything inside. The place is huge - 3 levels! The first level is all groceries and foods. There is everything from your basic everyday needs to very fancy booths selling expensive cakes and wagashi. I was amazed that the groceries are displayed so nicely. Common things such as eggs and packaged obento boxes are all neatly organized into pyramids on their own freestanding refrigerator sections. I got to see many neat products from common U.S. brands that are different. For instance, Coke has different flavors like citrus coke, and Lipton tea has a sparkling lemon ice tea beverage! Another thing that was cool was foods such as candy and ice cream sometimes had big advertising TVs and posters right next to the products with their commercials running! I could have spent a whole day on this floor exploring, but we moved on quickly. We were going to a different part of the complex for Erika to pick out her birthday gift (which is tomorrow, the 4th!). The second floor is all clothes and makeup. There is so much stuff! It is interesting that everywhere signs say Bargain! or SALE! yet the prices are still very high! 30 dollar SALE rack tshirts and 50-60 dollar purses and backpacks! The makeup booths seemed never ending. This floor also had a food court and a huge arcade! The arcade had tons of crane-games, other games, and, of course... Purikura! The 3rd floor had more department store products with toys, some electronics and more clothes and makeup! Wow! We moved farther into the store, and this is when I discovered the new section. This super store actually had an attached mall. I call it a mall because it was a large walkway with many small shops on both sides, on all three floors. This attatchment to the Aeon-Jusco store is the Yamato. It wasn't huge like an American size mall, but think of it as part of a mall attatched to this jumbo department store. It had many many stores ranging from clothes, collectibles, girly trinkets, stationary, more clothes, and just a few more clothes shops! On this part of the store there was yet another food court and a McDonalds! Big! I got to see so much stuff. Erika ended up picking out a nice blue and black backpack. After this, we went downstairs to grab some groceries for dinner. We also grabbed some juices for a drink. It was so hard to choose! I ended up picking 100% kiwi juice, which I have never seen in America. It was a good choice! I feel like I left out so much here, even though this post is so long. The bottom line is: If you ever go to Japan, go shopping! (Especially at the super department stores.) This country truly lives up to its name as a shopper's paradise. There is everything, and then some. Super expensive and fancy goods, to everyday products and great deals. The picture doesn't do it justice, but shows the one side of the super department store, and the other is some traditional summer yukata robes displayed amongst the craziness of all of the products available in the store.

Juku...

2006-07-03T21:10:00.000+09:00

Juku is not a very fun word here in Japan. It is cram school. It is extra classes at another building that families send their kids to to get more indepth education on certain subjects. Right now, Yurina is attending a Juku class for English. I got the chance to go with her and see the classroom before the class started. The building was big, and it had many small classrooms. Yurina's class was tiny and had few desks. Students attend Juku more often when they get closer to big entrance exam times. There are entrance exams to get into high schools in Japan! When Erika was preparing for high school, she attended Juku for English, Math, Japanese, Social Studies, and Science! Education is very competitive to get into a good school in Japan, which is why Juku is so popular. Yurina attends English Juku once a week for an extra 2 hour class after school. The pics are of Yurina and her Juku friends, and the teacher helping a student.

More delicious carbohydrates

2006-07-03T20:24:00.000+09:00

The first pic is of the cash register where they wear the cute chef hats and individually wrap each pastry. The products are all made at the bakery in the openly viewable kitchen.

Moulin Rouge

2006-07-03T16:49:00.000+09:00

After field work, Okasan took Yurina and me to the bakery, Moulin Rouge, to pick up some baked goods and sandwiches for lunch. I think Japan has a fascination with European style restaurants and bakeries. At the airports and here in Saga, I have noticed quite a few small diners and bakeries decorated and built in a very traditional European style. Well, Moulin Rouge was a cute French style bakery connected to Sagra : Italian Kitchen... a prime example. It is really close to our house (like half a mile... or is that a kilometer? The metric stuff is killing me, haha!). The stuff inside looked so good. All of the pastries were almost too perfect looking to eat, much like the desserts I had seen at the airport when I first arrived in Japan. There were breads, muffins, cakes, buns, donuts, sandwiches, and pizza-like flatbreads. You have to realize I was in heaven. We grabbed a tray with a pair of tongs and picked out lunch for the family. One of the unique things that we grabbed was butter mochi, which is a bun cooked in a small pie dish with mochi inside. I really liked it. The outside was swirled with cinnimon. The other was Melon Pan (that is pan as in pOn... tall A... not a frying paaaan. It is a joke in Japanese class, haha. Pan is bread in Japanese.) The melon pan was a big bun slightly sweetend with a glazed top. Mmmm! No melon flavor though☺. Other things we got were pretty standard, yet delicious: mini sandwich obentos with egg salad, vegetables, and breaded chicken sandwiches. Another unique bun that we got, which happens to be one of Okasan's favorites, is the "Akachan no Oshiri" literally baby's bottom. It was a perfect white, round bun with a crease for the butt, haha. Thats not all! There is a surprise waiting for you... delicious CHOCOLATE cream inside... Literally baby's bottom, haha! We took the pastries home and had a nice lunch with everyone sampling all of the tasty bakery goods just purchased.

R shop.

2006-07-03T16:25:00.000+09:00

R shop is Ojichan's small convenience store connected to the front of the house. It is small and sells very basic products such as drinks, candy, some packaged food, batteries, toiletries, and cigarettes. I think it is cool though. I still can't believe I live in a house with a convenience store! Ojichan is doing better. I think he may have been a little tired the first week I was here. The second week he has been more alert and talkative. I am happy about that. Something real interesting that I learned about Ojichan is that he speaks a different dialect of Japanese. He speaks Sagaben, which is a version of Japanese native to this area. Certain areas of Japan have different dialects. I have studied Tokyo Japanese in America. It is the main version of Japanese in Japan. The teenage generation here in Saga only speak and study Tokyo Japanese. Sagaben is disappearing according to my host parents. The good thing for me is that I am able to communicate with everyone because Tokyo Japanese is so widespread. I have two short videos of R shop attached. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMXxzPlXYl4 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQzNej3Aud4. The first is the outside of my house, the second is inside the convenience store. The second video is funny because it was a total accident. The Kai's aunt was visiting, and we were taking a few pictures inside R shop with Ojichan. I accidentally left the movie function on, and the rest just shows translation/mechanical difficulties, haha. It was supposed to be a picture of me and Ojichan, but I really like the movie better. It was a mistake that turned into a success. We are right next to the cash register. Unfortunately, Youtube is distorting all of my videos and making them very blurry. If I can find a way to fix it, I will repost the video!
The pictures are of me and Ojichan by the cash register. I really like this pic! The second is the other half of R shop. Uh-oh... Mission Impossible: Tom Cruise is peeping in on the left, haha! Actually, that is the entrance to the house from the store! ☺☺☺

Field Work

2006-07-02T20:02:00.000+09:00

Sunday morning Okasan, Yurina and I went to do field work at a neighbor's house in Saga. As we were driving down the street filled with many buildings and shops, we turned a corner and everything transformed into small plots of farmland. It is really amazing how fast this happens. There really isn't a division of farmland and city in Saga. No land seems to go unused in Japan. It is all intermixed. We arrived at the person's house where we were going to assist them with their farming chores. Actually, the person we were helping was Okasan's agriculture sensei. I think you could tie this work in with Japan's beliefs in helping your elders and superiors. Okasan studies agriculture at the women's community center in Saga. It is a subject that interests her. It was a nice day, not too hot. The only reason this was an issue was because we wore long pants and shirts to work in. First we were invited inside the family's house. It was very tradtional. Lots of tatami flooring and Japanese caligraphy, pottery, and woodwork. It was really nice. We talked with the teacher's wife and had green tea and mikans, small oranges, similar to clementines. After this, we got to work. We cleaned a little and planted vegetables. We also packed dirt in cups for broccoli. After a few hours we were done. Although it was work, I actually enjoyed myself. I got to experience working in a Japanese garden, and I also had some nice conversations with Okasan. The house was old, but very remarkable. They even had chickens! The pics are of Yurina and me working on the dirt packing, and the other pic is the inside of the traditional house.

Tsutaya

2006-07-02T19:46:00.000+09:00

Later that night, Otosan wanted to rent a movie. We went to the rental shop which was nearby, called Tsutaya. It was HUGE! 2 floors. The first floor accommodated entertainment merchandise: books, magazines, movies, games, and music. There were advertising posters EVERYWHERE! Even the stairs had advertisements plastered on them! The upstairs housed the rental place. The upstairs was about the size of a regular Blockbuster, but was extra packed with movies. Take a Blockbuster full of American movies, and then a Blockbuster full of Japanese movies, and cram them all into the space of one Blockbuster. That was the upstairs of Tsutaya, so many movies! There was also a section of rental music! I thought this was great. The CDs had labels stating that they didn't work on PCs, so I guess they are pirate-proof. I thought this was a smart idea. The pics are of the outside of Tsutaya, and Erika checking out the music rental section.

Mochi!

2006-07-02T19:33:00.000+09:00

At one of the shops we picked up some mochi for Ojichan. Mochi is a traditional Japanese food that is made of rice, which has been mashed into a very sticky substance. The texture is unique. The type we purchased were filled with sweet azuki bean paste. They are delicious. I learned that Ojichan used to make these himself when he was younger. Mochi is a main form of wagashi (tea ceremony cakes).　 The pics are of the mochi at the store. (These are the plastic showcase ones. Plastic examples of food are everywhere in Japan for display purposes. At the shop there was a dish with plastic mochi, and Otosan told me they were free samples. I didn't fall for that one, haha, but I liked his humor.) The other picture is the mochi "masher" seen through the window of the shop.

Kasegawa viewing

2006-07-02T19:20:00.000+09:00

These are pictures taken by the Kasegawa river. (It sounds correct like this in English, which is what it is called, but from a Japanese perspective it means Kase river river which sounds strange because gawa means river.) The first pic is me standing with my soft cream by the Kasegawa, the next is the seemingly endless mountains, and the last is the stone bleachers to view the natural scenery. Japanese people have always been very close to nature, and I thought this picture embraces that.

Mountain Viewing

2006-07-02T19:01:00.000+09:00

After swimming we drove up the road to some new shops that were built in a very traditional style. They were very cool. They sold traditional Japanese rice sweets and cakes and other traditional goods. I really liked it. The best part was that the shops backed right up to the Kasegawa, or Kase River. The river was rough due to the large rains the day before, and behind it in the background were the huge mountain ranges of Saga. I am fascinated by them. I really enjoyed looking at all of the traditional stuff and the natural beauty of Saga. We bought some ice cream and sat to view the nature. The soft serve ice cream is called soft cream in Japan. It was definitely soft. Almost immediately it was turning into cream, haha. The pics are of Otosan and me with our soft cream, and the majestic river, and the endless background of mountains. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf9kPTYiugc plus a movie!

More Swimming Pics

2006-07-02T14:23:00.000+09:00

The pictures are of the hard-wood floor aerobics room that looked over the indoor pool. Notice no shoes. They had to be taken off and put in cubby holes downstairs. The other pic is the outdoor pool.

Swimming

2006-07-02T14:22:00.000+09:00

Later that day Yurina, Otosan, and I went swimming. There is a brand new facility for activities and sports here in Saga. By brand new, I mean only one month old. It is really nice. It has 2 BIG pools. One indoors and one outdoors. It is interesting that to pay for the particular facility you are going to use, there is a vending machine. Once again, like lunch at school, you put in money and push the button that applies. To go swimming for 2 hours is 110 yen per person. Very inexpensive. The public pool required swimming caps to be worn. I had a really good time. I had many races with Yurina and Otosan and when we were tired, we did handstands underwater. It was really fun. The facility was beautiful. Some things I found interesting were that there were special eye rinse faucets right outside the pool to rinse out the chlorine. Also, the locker room lockers cost 100 yen to use (~1 dollar) which I figured was just likerenting a locker in America, but later I found out that when you put the key back in, it returned the money to you! I really liked the place. The pictures are of the outside of the facility and the indoor pool.

Kaiten Zushi!

2006-07-02T13:14:00.000+09:00

Awesome! I loved it. Watch the delicious morsels pass by, grab what you like, and tabemas! (eat). It was really fun. There were many selections, and if someone didn't see what they wanted, they called out to the chef their desires, and in a few minutes it would scroll by! Also, there were warm wet towels to wash your hands before you eat neatly layed out at our seats. Very traditional.

Saturday

2006-07-02T12:52:00.000+09:00

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day. After the huge storm the night before, the skies were blue and clear. Erika was at school testing, Yurina was at school for her brass band, and Okasan was working. It was just me and Otosan. We had a good time talking over breakfast since we barely see each other during the week. He is really funny. At 12:00 we left to pick up Erika and Yurina from school. For lunch, he wanted to take us all out to someplace special. We went to a Kaiten Zushi! I was so excited. It is the really cool sushi restaurant with the rotating selection belts of Sushi! I have only seen these types of restaurants in movies! How it works is you watch the small plates of sushi go by on a conveyor belt and grab the plate of what you want. You stack your plates, and your bill is on how many plates you took. There is hot water spouts at every seat for green tea, and all of the sushi fixin's are there too! So cool! So OISHII! The pics are of my host sisters ready to go to lunch, and Otosan acting like Tom Cruise... it is our joke... I'm Agent Chris (because that is my nintendo ds nickname) so he is Mission Impossible Tom Cruise.

After dinner at the store

2006-07-02T12:39:00.000+09:00

After dinner we stopped at the store to pick up some quick groceries. I love going to the stores here in Japan. Even the most basic of everyday products are different. It is fun to look at everything. The most interesting is the candy aisle. So many unique and cool things. The first picture is of Fruit Parfait Kit Kats. Yes, that is right. There are many many unique Kit Kat flavors here in Japan. They are extremely popular. One reason the snack boomed here in Japan is because of the advertising. "Kitto Katto" is like an informal saying of Ganbate Kudasai, which means good luck. In Japanese phonetics, Kit Kat sounds like Kitto Katto, which made it turn into the number one candy to give as a good luck gift. Very cool. I bought one as a surprise present for Erika for all of her big tests coming up.
The second picture is of Japan's wide selection of cereal! Just kidding. Cereal isn't really a common breafast item here in Japan, so the only thing sold in the store is rice bran. Take your pick... Plain, Sweetened, or Black Sesame, haha. The boxes are tiny, too. My family really liked the mini boxes of Kellogg's cereals I brought for them to sample. The girls and Otosan love them. Okasan thinks they are too sweet, and for some I have to agree. Other than fruits and yogurts, Japanese breakfasts are not sweet, usually containing eggs, vegetables, rice, and sometimes chicken, fish, or sausage.

Joyfull pics

2006-07-02T12:32:00.000+09:00

These pics are of Okasan's meal, and then the sink in the enterance of the restaraunt. Yes, that is a cigarette vending machine next to it. They are just as common as drink vending machines here in Saga... and there are a LOT of vending machines around the city. Just to note: The drinking and smoking age in Japan is 20. I have no idea how they enforce this, especially with cigarette machines being so common. I will have to look into it. Driving age is 18.

more Joyfull pics

2006-07-02T12:24:00.000+09:00

The pics are of Erika's "hamburger" and the soft drink selection at the drink station. Okasan laughs and calls me "gaijin" (foreigner) when I walk around such a common restaraunt taking pictures of things such as the pop machine, haha.

Joyfull

2006-07-02T12:03:00.000+09:00

It is Friday. It had been a long week for everyone, Okasan worked today, and it is pouring! No one really felt like doing much, so it was the perfect night to go out for dinner. This would be my first time eating out here in Japan (aside from the desert at Ufufu), so I was very excited. We ended up going to a restaurant close to home, Joyfull. It is a famiresu (Yes you read right... remember how Japanese people like to smash English words together... Family Restaurant. You actually all know of a famous case of this English-Smashing trend... Pokemon ring a bell? Pocket Monsters). It was decorated just like an American style family diner, except the menu was all Japanese food. I found this interesting. There were some differences. There is no need to go the restroom to wash your hands. There is a sink with soap and everything right in the entrance to use before you sit down! Another thing is that the drinks were "self service" at a station. Also, the waitress had an electronic pad and typed in your order at the touch of a button. That order is sent to the big screen in the kitchen. My host mother said that all of these things I mentioned are standard in Japanese restarants. Yurina ordered grilled chicken, Okasan ordered a spicy chicken dish, I ordered a tempura dish, and Erika got a hamburger. Wait... but you're thinking that I said it was Japanese food! Haha, got you there. The "hamburger" as it was called, was a patty of meat served with sauce over rice with Japanese veggies. Different. At the drink station I first tried "White Water"... bad choice. It was a white beverage that was twice as sweet as Calpis! Same type of drink, different brand. I have no idea why Japanese companies call that stuff water! The meals were served in a very Japanese way, small portions, but many small plates of sides. Rice, salad, miso soup, veggies, sauce, and then your main course. It was neat. The pics are of the electronic device used by the waitress, and then the drink bar. There was Pepsi and Mountain Dew, but the rest were unique Japanese drinks. White Water, Citrus Pop, Melon Pop, and Lemon pop. Of course there was tea availiable in several styles and flavors also.

Rainy Season

2006-07-02T11:25:00.000+09:00

I am sorry about the lack of updates the past 2 days. My family's internet was down, most likely due to bad weather, but it is back up. I am a little behind, but I will get right back on track with my stories on Saga!

Next week I will not be attending school for 3 days due to their seasonal testing, which is similar to our midterms. They actually even have testing on Saturday! (ahhh, school on Saturday! I know). So anyways, I won't be in school on the 4th of July, so I made up a small speech in Japanese to teach the class a little about the big holiday. I brought a big bag of the American flag wrapper tootsie rolls too! My teacher ended up telling the two neighboring classes about it, so I was invited to do it 2 more times, and share more candy. I really liked it because I felt that I have learned so much about their culture, and they were equally excited to learn something about mine. In one class, after the speech, I pulled out the candy and one kid said, "Oooh, I like Independence Day!" haha. It was very neat. Since their testing will be done next week, I will be able to do more fun stuff with my new friends since they will have more free time.

After school, Erika, Mi-Chan (Erika's friend), and I got on our bikes and started to return home. It was a nice day, only slightly overcast with WHITE clouds. Then, out of nowhere, a big Saga-rainy season storm hit. It is amazing how quickly it came. It was huge and lasted a long time. We quickly took shelter at the middle school down the road, while Erika called Okasan to pick us up. Rainy season should be almost done, but it is still here and going strong. There is always lots of rain, all the time. I like it because the humidity drops. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfjL1ARgNvE the video attatchment is of the surprise storm. Unfortnatly, YouTube butchers my videos and really distorts them. It may be blurry, but still shows the storm. At the middle school, we watched the basketball practices and the ping-pong practices in the gym. Yes, ping-pong. The girls were training their synchronization. It was very cool to watch. The pics are of the middle school gym with basketball and ping-pong on the second level.

All of the middle schoolers stared at me like they have never seen a foreigner before. I have never had attention like this. It is very... unique. The word in Japanese for foreigner is gaijin. Japanese people have like an internal "gaijin tracking system" haha. Throughout the past two weeks my family and I have seen one other White person, and two African people as we drove around town. While driving by, all at the same time, my host family members point and stare while exclaiming "Gaijin!" It is crazy, almost comical! I would never think twice about seeing someone of a different race or different nationality walking down the street, since Troy is so diverse. That has definitely been one of the major culture shocks for me. I wonder how many Japanese people do the same as they drive by and see me! Haha!

Hari- Potta-

2006-06-29T21:30:00.000+09:00

Yes, Harry Potter is here in Japan, and it is just as big as anywhere else in the world. It is funny to also mention that many kids call me Harry Potter...which is odd... because I don't think I look like him at all...oh well, we are both white with dark hair I guess, haha. Harry Potter is pronounced like a British person would say it. The Japanese phonetics make it sound like Hari- Potta-. The cover art is also different. I picked one up to do a little "light reading". Haha.... it looks more like the Matrix to me!

Late night at the bookstore

2006-06-29T21:29:00.000+09:00

After dinner, my okasan said she had to stop at the local book store to pick up an order. I went with her and got to see a lot. The word for bookstore in Japanese is hon-ya, literally book shop. The store was impressive. There were many books and tons of magazines. I should also note that this place would be a manga lover's paradise. Manga are Japanese comic books. I don't read them myself, but I do know that in America they are expensive at 10 - 15 dollars per graphic novel. In Japan though, I learned they are rather cheap at about 3-6 dollars per issue. Interesting. The first picture shows the packed isle of Manga graphic novels. There were many books in the store, but the main thing covering the shelves were magazines, zashi in Japanese. They were on all sorts of topics. I think this small store had as many magazines as a large Barnes and Noble! One thing I found interesting, (and I have read about this somewhere before) is that pornography and adult magazines are not hidden from plain view in Japan. Actually, they are openly displayed in a central location. Wild.... sorry... no pictures of that, hahah. Also magazines such as sports, outdoors, cars, and motorcycles have covers and inserts of "exciting" pages to attract readers, haha. Culture shock. OK...back to books...the books in Japan are tiny. Many books are slimmed down and come in separate volumes. The DaVinci code is sold in 3 different sections for 5 dollars apiece. I don't know why. The pics are of the Manga aisle, and a novel that was never released in English (just kidding).

More images of Saga

2006-06-29T20:26:00.000+09:00

Saga is a very unique and beautiful place. It is amazing to see how the city dramatically changes on the bike trip to school alone. About 25 minutes into the 45-50 minute bike ride, the more rural-looking part of the city transforms into a bustling mainstreet commercial mecca! I say "rural-looking" because it really isn't rural. It is just that the buildings are all pretty much one story, the stores are smaller, and there are frequent corners of rice paddies. The first picture shows one of those rice paddies, but what is more unique are the mountains in the background! I love them, they are so beautiful. It is so foreign to me since Michigan is so flat in comparison. The commercial/industrial part of the city is awesome at night. So many bright lights. On a day when we return home late, like 7 o'clock, from school, we get to see the city lights at their best. It is quite a sight to see. I'll get pics soon! The second pic is of downtown Saga City, and the entrance to the school. This pic was taken right outside my classroom window! I love the geographic diversity of Saga.

Cafeteria!

2006-06-29T20:14:00.000+09:00

Here are some more pics of the cafeteria. First the many juice vending machines, and then hanging out after school. Most students still eat lunch in their classrooms though.

The Cafeteria

2006-06-29T19:41:00.000+09:00

Our school has a small cafeteria in it. It has many dishes in which students who don't have obento may purchase. The cafeteria itself isn't that exciting, it is how you purchase the food that is. I have not bought anything in the cafeteria because I always have a great obento packed for me, but I do observe other people. There are two vending machines with many buttons of food names. The kids put in money, pick their meal, and a ticket comes out. They take it up to the line and trade it for their meal. Neat. The meals include everything from rice balls, to udon noodle soups. It is rather inexpensive too, with most dishes being 180 - 250 yen. The snack bar is cool too. It has a bunch of breads, puddings, and yogurts, and it is really cheap. A pack of homemade breadsticks with sugar on top is only 20 yen, and the bag is a snack that feeds like 2-3 people! It is interesting to find that Japan has some extremely expensive things, but you can find the inexpensive/free stuff if you look hard enough. The cafeteria has many vending machines for juices too. It is a popular hang out after school. It may be small, but it is a fun place to talk with friends. I go there sometimes when Erika has her extra Advanced class period from 3:30 - 5:00 and there are no clubs for me to attend. The pics are of step 1) purchasing your meal, and step 2) getting your meal.

The cooking pics that didn't load up.

2006-06-29T19:26:00.000+09:00

The cooking pics didn't load up the other day. Here are some of them. The class was very fun.

Tada! Its free!

2006-06-29T14:36:00.000+09:00

Ok, the title of this post isn't "TADA!" like the magic tricks; it literally means free! Tada is the Japanese word for free stuff, and you can find it in many places. While riding our bikes to school, Erika and I pass many businessmen standing outside their buildings or on street corners handing out pamphlets and free goods to advertise their business. The most common things are tissue packets. They are like the little travel size kleenex ones, but with maybe only 7 tissues. I think it is a great idea. Hey, just about everyone likes free stuff. I also came across one group giving out Asian style paper fans! I was thrilled by that one. It was a cheapy, but probably would cost me at least a buck at any store! The goods are decorated with the company's logo or coupons with deals. I think it is clever advertising. I am starting a little collection☺. I have two tissue packs. One advertising a cell phone company, and one for something dealing with percents (insurance maybe? Japanese is hard, haha.) The fan I received was for an apartment complex. I will repost if I find any new things. Abracadabra... TADA... this post is done! [ok that was lame ☺]

Cool Spray : Like air conditioning in a Can!

2006-06-29T10:43:00.000+09:00

Today we had gym again. I love it. But what is more important is what happens after gym. I have already told you about the unique changing methods at school (using the classroom as a locker room, haha). The new thing that I noticed were these aerosol cans that the kids use. The past few days I thought they were deoderant (which isn't really used in Japan, from what I hear) and dismissed it. Today I discovered it is something totally different. It is a cooling spray. It is intended to cool you and dry up the moisture immediately. Interesting. Omoshiroi. Now I know why they put so much on! The past few days I just thought they were overdoing the "deoderant"! One kid sprayed it on me and it felt quite good. Like an icy, dry mist. As a joke, kids take it and spray it down another's neck when he isn't expecting it! Haha. The reactions are great. The pic is of a particular brand of this cool spray.

Tea: O-cha: Japan's beverage of choice

2006-06-28T14:13:00.000+09:00

Tea is everywhere in Japan. I have been drinking it more than water. Tea in Japanese is O-cha. They have many different blends here, including the famous green tea. Tea is served hot or cold, and at all meals. Bottled tea is also huge. Everyone has it. It even beats out bottled water from what I've noticed with the general public. The pics are of a bottle of O-cha I normally have with my obento lunch at school, and the other is chilled tea we have at every meal. The large tea bags float in the pitcher. The Matsumoto family had always served this at their home too!

Algebra: Japanese Style

2006-06-28T14:10:00.000+09:00

Pretty self explanatory: difficult. The math class I am in is currently studying parabolas, which are rather simple to solve, but when it is written in Japanese with Kanji (the Chinese characters) things start to get scary!

Some Images of Saga.

2006-06-28T14:05:00.000+09:00

I am really enjoying Saga so far. It is a great mix of big city, and traditional Japanese shrines and culture. Every so often there is a little rural corner, too. I am getting to see the best of all worlds! The pics attached are of Saga City from the top floor of the school, and the other is a huge mass of bikers off to school. Bikes in Japanese are called jitensha. When I took this picture, my host mother said people will think I am in China when I show it to them! The bikers include students from all over the city, of all age levels.