Hiroshima

As you know, I went to Hiroshima last weekend, and it was a lot of emotions mixed into one: happiness, sadness, awe, excitement, and annoyance. I will give a detailed breakdown of what I did in Hiroshima.

Friday: I worked on Friday so I didn't get in to Hiroshima until about 9:00 pm. I took the bullet train, and on the bullet train, a guy sat down next to me and opened up an unlabeled can of what looked like wet cat food and began to eat it with a toothpick. He also had a half-drunken bottle of red wine that he was swigging from. I just thought it was interesting. So anyway, I checked into my youth hostel. It was my first time ever staying in a hostel. I went the cheapest route (about $25 a night) and stayed in a 6 person, mixed-gender, dormitory. It really wasn't that bad. Also, the place itself was really nice (it’s called K’s House Hiroshima, by the way). There was a really comfortable common room (I took two naps in it), a big kitchen, and a computer area. Although I shared a room, the bathrooms and showers were private. My first impression of Hiroshima was, “Wow! It’s so open and wide! It’s like America!” The kanji for Hiroshima is 広島 and the kanji for wide/spacious is広い (hiroi) so I wonder if it is a coincidence lol. One thing I like about Japan is that as a young woman alone in a city I've never been to, at night, I feel pretty safe. Sure, sometimes guys will approach you and try to hit on you, but only in a very rare case will a man actually attack a woman. Plus, I’m pretty confident that if a Japanese man attacked me, I could take him! It’s the other foreigners you have to look out for. I knew I wanted to go dancing in Hiroshima so I looked into some places in advance and found a place called Bar Edge. The website said it was very small but that it had a good sound system. So I decided to give it a try. It was my first time going to a dance club by myself, but I was excited. I can’t dance unless I have a drink first so I stopped at a konbini (convenience store) and bought a mini bottle of white wine and drank it on the street (something that is legal in Japan, but not in the US!). The bar didn't even open until 10:00 pm! So I went there at 10:30. I was the only foreigner in there the entire night! I stayed until about 3:00 am, I think…I didn't even realize how long that is until just now haha. The place was small, but had a great atmosphere. The bartenders were cool. It turns out that that Friday night was a J-pop night which I don’t really like, but when in Rome (or Japan), right? I think I knew like three songs haha. In any case, I drank, danced (in a silly, bubbly manner to J-pop), and talked in broken Japanese to many people. However, I mostly talked to a 20 year old guy named Shinya. He only spoke like 5 words of English, but we had fun talking nonetheless. He found it entertaining to try to force me to dance to the J-pop with a bunch of random Japanese girls…it was embarrassing! I was pretty drunk (but fine) so Shinya felt like he should walk me back to my hostel which was nice of him even though neither of us really knew the way (I got to the club staring at my iPhone map…it was like a 15 min walk). I kept telling him that he didn't need to walk me home, but he just said in English, “JAPANESE POLITE!” hahaha! We had to stop in two konbini and ask a taxi driver for directions :P So that was a very fun night!

Bar Edge. He was one of the bartenders I chatted with.

Saturday: I got up at about 9:30 and got ready. That day I planned on going to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and meeting my Japanese friend, Kazu, in the evening who studied at the University of Minnesota. That’s how we met. I took the tram to the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, and contemplated for a while before I realized I was really hungry. I decided to get something to eat real quick and then head back to the Dome. I ate at Subway…now, you may be thinking, “Why the heck would you eat at Subway? That’s so boring,” but it means something more to me. Well, first of all, I’m kind of sick of Japanese food and I wanted something more American (even though sandwiches at Subway in Japan are kind of different). Mainly, however, I went to Subway in Japan when I traveled in Japan a little over a year ago. It was actually the first place I ate in Japan. This is how it went:

I walked in thinking, “Oh, Subway. This will be easy.” I was nervous about ordering food for the first time ever in Japan. I go up to the counter and look at the menu. I decide to order the first thing I can decipher that doesn't have beef or pork. It was the shrimp avocado sandwich. So, in Japanese, I ask for the shrimp avocado sandwich. Then I hear him say something about bread. After a second, I realized he must be asking what kind of bread I want…same process as America. So I mutter out the word “sesame.” Then he quickly asks me something else that I don’t understand. Looking back, he probably asked me if I wanted it toasted. However, I started panicking in my head and just started pointing at vegetables I wanted on my sandwich. Last, he asked me what kind of sauce I wanted (I only understood because after starring at him blankly for 10 seconds, he pointed at the types of sauces). After the sandwich was made, he must have asked me if I wanted any sides or drinks. I didn't understand, but I knew I wanted a drink so I said Coca-cola (which is pronounced the same in Japanese). Then he went off quickly in Japanese about something else to which I stared blankly again. Then he points to my left at the pop machine, and I go, “Oh” and nod my head. Then he says something else, and by then I’m sweating from being so nervous. He hands me a point card. I smile, pay, and then get the f*** out of there! Not before being confused about how to work the pop machine of course.

So, ever since that experience, I have been too afraid to go back. This time, however, I was hungry, in a hurry to get my day started, and it sounded good. When C.J. came to visit me from America, I had told him this story, and he told me I should conquer my fear of Subway. That was the push I needed, I think. Plus, if I can go into a post office and send various packages to America and whatnot, this shouldn't be too bad, right? Plus, my Japanese has most likely gotten better. So, I went in and ordered the same shrimp avocado sandwich (it was good last time), and she asked me what kind of bread I wanted, if I wanted it toasted, what vegetables I wanted, what sauce, and if I wanted any sides, and I understood it all!! Whee!! The only part I had trouble with was the names of all the vegetables so when she saw that I was struggling to name all the veggies I wanted, she rephrased her question and asked what vegetable I didn't want, which was easier because there were only two things I didn't want, and I knew how to say them. SUCCESS! Haha! On a somewhat related note, I saw a Pizza Hut from the window of the shinkansen on my way to Hiroshima. I didn't realize that they were in Japan, and now I really want to go! In any case, I ate my soup and sandwich and walked back to the Atomic Bomb Dome. It was an incredible sight…it didn't even look real! I thought about how close the dome was to the exact spot the bomb hit, and it chilled me to the bone. On a brighter note, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was a very beautiful place by the river, and the leaves are beginning to change. There were cute stray cats living in the bushes, too. I then proceeded to walk around the park to the various monuments. The one that struck me the most was the one that was based off of Sadako. Perhaps it’s because I knew the back story of the monument because one of my teachers cruelly made me read a passage about it to my 3rd grade class. Basically, the memorial is based off of a girl named Sadako; a girl who survived the bomb, but later died of radiation. She believed that if she made 1000 paper cranes, she would not die from her sickness. Some of her cranes were displayed in the museum. It was very touching. Now, students and people from all over bring paper cranes to this memorial. There are glass booth things behind the statue filled with tons of paper cranes. I wanted to break down and cry when I saw this. The Peace Memorial Museum was just as bad. There were many artifacts that survived the blast, many personal stories from survivors, and info about the history and radiation sickness. Some things that struck a chord were 1) the model of what the city looked like right before the blast and right after 2) a watch found frozen in time, displaying the exact time the bomb hit 3) videos and written stories from survivors describing the blast and watching their family members die 4) actual human hair, skin, and nails on display 5) the pictures and descriptions of people with horrible burns and radiation sickness and 6) a three-dimensional display of what people who survived the actual blast looked like right after the bomb hit: their skin literally hanging in melted shreds from their body, clothes burned off, covered with blood and puss, walking aimlessly in shock possibly hoping to find their family, deformed. I felt so sick and terrified. I imagined when I burn my finger on the pan while I’m cooking and how much it stings and hurts from that little spot, and I can’t even begin to fathom the agony of being burned so bad that your skin is melting off your body. Ugghhhhhhhhhh. So, as you can imagine, going to the museum wasn't what I would call fun, but I think it was very important to see. I think everyone should see it. It really changes how you view nuclear weapons, war, and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It all seems like some scary story until you go to this museum and it becomes real. Actually seeing real things and hearing real accounts. It’s not just a story anymore. I can’t believe this really happened.

The Atomic Bomb Dome

I was very happy to see the changing leaves!

Sadako-san.

The watch that struck a chord with me.

After this experience, I was pretty mentally drained. It was about 2:30, and I was meeting Kazu at 5:00. I decided to go back to the hostel and grade some papers (I had a lot of papers to grade that weekend) which turned into a nap of the couch (by the way, you aren't supposed to bring students homework out of the school, but no one knows if you do or not so whatever lol). By the way, at the hostel, I got to talk a little bit to people from Germany, England, and New York which was fun. I met Kazu at 5, and we went to dinner. Hiroshima is famous for its own style of okonomiyaki: “A Japanese savory pancake containing a variety of ingredients. The name is derived from the word okonomi, meaning "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki meaning "grilled" or "cooked.” Okonomiyaki is mainly associated with Kansai or Hiroshima areas of Japan, but is widely available throughout the country. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to region. Tokyo okonomiyaki is usually smaller than a Hiroshima or Kansai okonomiyaki (from Wikipedia).” In Hiroshima, they put soba noodles in it, which is awesome, and it’s layered rather than mixed. We went to a place where you make it yourself on a grill built into the table in front of you…it was so good! Afterwards, we walked around downtown and then went to a bar. It was very American-Pub style. It was fun until a random guy started talking to us. He was our age and was nice, but he started out his conversation by saying that he doesn't have any friends and so he comes to bars every night to try to make friends…it was a little off-putting. He had lived in California for five years so he could speak some English, but Kazu was still better lol. It was about 10:30 and the guy suggested we go to another bar that he knew. We reluctantly agreed. There was a techno event going on at Bar Edge that I had learned about the previous night that started at 11 pm so I used that as an excuse to rush things since I wanted to go back there for the techno event. The bar he took us too was very different. It looked more like a cafe and there were two groups of people there doing what are like blind group date things where some guys and girls get together and chat and drink and see if there is any potential for a relationship. The weird thing is that the number of guys and girls doesn't matter. So there can be, for example, one girl and like five guys! In one group there were two girls and like seven guys haha! Weird! Anyway, it was a very quiet place. The only redeeming factors were that they gave you free popcorn and some of the drinks were cheaper than most places. ANYWAY!! We headed over to Bar Edge knowing that Kazu would have to leave after walking me there to catch his last train home. He wanted to accompany me so the weird guy wouldn't be alone with me. When we got to the entrance of Bar Edge, we were very persistent about how the guy should go somewhere else because Kazu had to leave, and I was just going there to dance and there was a cover charge. We convinced him to go to another bar he knew instead. HOWEVER, after I entered the bar and was there for like 30 mins, he showed up saying that the bar he went to was closed…YA RIGHT! I tried to do the whole benign neglect thing. Instead I socialized with the bartenders who had remembered me from the night before and with another foreign girl who was there that night. She is from Ohio, but had lived in Finland for awhile before coming to Japan. I danced a bit and enjoyed the music, but that guy just wouldn't leave me alone! He got into an argument with someone in the bar too which was weird. Hoping that he would leave the later it got, I eventually gave up at like 4:00 am! I wasn't afraid of him, but he was just so damn annoying. He suggested that we go do karaoke or go get ice cream or some s***, and I was like NO! I want to go to bed! I’m going to Miyajima in the morning!! Then he’s like, “What?! You are going to Miyajima alone tomorrow?! I should come with so you aren't alone.” I was like, “NOOOO, I came to Japan for three weeks by myself last year and I was fine. Stop trying to nanpa me (hit on/pick up), I have a boyfriend!” By the way, this all happened as he was walking me back to my hostel after I insisted that I didn't need or want him to. Once I told him I had a boyfriend he was shocked and said that I wasn't wearing a ring to which I replied that I’m not married. He said that if I was taken by a boyfriend, I would be wearing a ring on my right hand or some crap….whatever. He was all depressed. I finally got back to my hostel and will never have to see him again lol.

Hiroshima okonomiyaki.

Sunday: I had to check out by 11 am which was terrible seeing as I got home so late and was feeling icky in the morning from drinking. Just because I had to check out didn't mean that I couldn't go sleep on the couch in the common room for another hour, though haha. I planned on getting up in the morning so I could spend more time at Miyajima, but it just didn't happen. I probably got to Miyajima around 2 pm. I had to take an hour long tram ride and then take a ferry out to the island which was fun because I don’t think I've ever ridden on a ferry. It was a really misty, kind of rainy day, but the temperature was decent and it was barely sprinkling. Before you actually get to the shrine with the big, famous, tori (gate) floating out on the water (one of the top three sights in Japan), you walk through all these small streets of food stands and shops. It reminded me of Kyoto but had more of an ocean-y feel. I tried some of the local street food. There were these giant oyster things that seemed popular, but I have never tried oysters so I was afraid. Instead I tried something that looked good, but I ended up not liking. They looked like long deep-fried sticks of batter, and there were many different kinds like bacon, cheese, asparagus, corn, and many more. I got a cheese one and bit into it. It was all flimsy and rubbery. I had tasted the flavor before. It was a flavor I didn't like. I looked up the kanji on the sign. It turns out it was a long tube of fish paste with different things put in it like cheese and so on. I couldn't finish it. Instead I got one of the famous desserts, momiji manjuu, which is like a small waffle-y type thing shaped like a maple leaf with different kinds of sweet filling inside. I chose custard. I also got a corn on the cob on a stick. I was low on money, so I didn't buy any souvenirs, unfortunately. I eventually made it to the shrine, and it was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen! The tide was coming in, the mountains were shrouded in wisps of clouds, there were deer walking around that you could pet, and the leaves were starting to change colors. I stared for a while and took some pictures. A deer attacked my bag that had my partially eaten fish paste in it. I tossed the fish paste to it and ran away before it bit me. At another point, a deer came up to me and tried to eat my shirt! Yikes! I spent a while walking around the shrine. I followed these mysterious looking stairs up into the mountain and was greeted with a wonderful view! The sun began to come out which made a large rainbow appear! I was alone on the mountain, and it was so quiet. I watched the rainbow and the sun illuminate the tori floating out on the water from up above. It was great! I leisurely made my way back to the ferry port feeling very satisfied seeing as Miyajima was somewhere I had wanted to go ever since I started learning about Japan. I couldn't afford the time or money when I came two summers ago to travel. I made the long trip back home to Osaka. One guy approached me when I was walking back to the ferry port and asked me if I was Batman lol because I was wearing a Batman shirt…I told him I was Bat-girl. On the shinkansen, I ate this really yummy fall bento that had all sort of interesting things in it such as shrimp, salmon eggs, mushrooms, octopus, chestnuts, soy beans, egg, rice, and eel.

Fun streets in Miyajima

There it is! The famous tori!

Beautiful.

What an amazing sight?!

My bento on the shinkansen ride home.

As I said, this trip was filled with all sorts of emotions, but I would call it a very good trip. It was nice to feel like I am actually doing some traveling. I think that is the key to experiencing the “Japanese feeling” I mentioned in my last post. It’s the new things that make me feel that way. If you stay in one place for a while, you become familiar with it, and it becomes routine. However, that is also the key to learning about a different side of Japan. I am still very happy to be in Japan. Sure, I miss a lot of things about home, but I feel like I am where I should be right now in my life. The JET Programme can take its culture shock timeline and put it where the sun doesn't shine because I am completely unaffected. :)

A Hodge-Podge of Thoughts

Tea Ceremony Class: Last weekend Mary took me to her co-worker’s tea ceremony class (She doesn't teach it, she attends it). It was one of the happiest moments I've felt since I came to Japan. I've been looking for a place to practice, and now I finally have a place to go! The down side is that it is a bit early on Saturday mornings so I won’t be able to go very often. Anyway, it’s a woman’s house. She has a very nice tea room and very nice tea equipment. It was Mary’s first time experiencing the tea ceremony. She seemed pretty interested in it. I got to share some of my knowledge with her. I practiced usucha demae (thin tea ceremony) which was so much fun! I got to watch several other ceremonies, drink lots of tea, and eat lots of okashi (Japanese sweets). It was a great feeling to know that I shared the same interest and had some of the same abilities as these Japanese people. I’m so used to feeling like an outsider that it was such a relief to feel like I fit in for a bit…even if I couldn't understand a lot of what they were saying. On a somewhat related note, last Friday night I had my Japanese class that I often go to. This time Mary came along. I spoke with a man that I had previously spoken to. Our conversation was really difficult. He is an older man and is interested in businesses and companies…so he talked to me a lot about that. I couldn't always understand what he was saying, but we worked through a lot of things and I could definitely understand the main points. It was exhausting, but it felt really good to practice something I was not familiar with. I’m so used to talking about myself in Japanese and other simple matters that I felt like I accomplished something by talking about something more complicated. Oh, and after the tea class on Saturday morning, Mary and I got lunch in an area I've never been to before. We went to this place that had meat in every meal! At first I was like “Oh, crap!” but I found a chicken meal and it turned out to be really delicious!! It’s fun to compare my school life with Mary’s.

Halloween Dance Party: What can I say? It was another Saturday night of going out…except it involved all the aspects of a perfect Saturday night. 1) Good friends 2) Mexican food 3) Dancing with a bit of booze involved 3) Holiday festivity (i.e. costumes) 4) Making the last train in order to sleep peacefully 5) and no hangover. I had soooo much fun dancing! I feel so happy when I go dancing with friends…especially when my kind of music is playing! I wish every weekend could be this much fun! On a side note: despite the fact that it was a Halloween Party, I never got the Halloween feeling that I get when I’m at home which was kind of disappointing. On Halloween day in Japan, it was actually pretty uneventful. I tried to bring Halloween into the school. I made a Halloween bulletin board, I had the students decorate paper pumpkins, I incorporated Halloween into the lesson a bit, and I even wore cat ears in class. However, nothing can compare to the weeks leading up to Halloween where you go to a pumpkin patch, carve pumpkins, eat apple/pumpkin food, go to haunted houses, and then actual go out on Halloween night to either cause mischief or go trick or treating. I missed seeing kids in costumes running around on the streets, and something tells me that Thanksgiving will be equally as uneventful…good thing I’m going home for Christmas!!!

Halloween dance party!

Halloween bulletin board

Some of my students creations. Haha!

Shopping/Sweets Paradise: On Sunday, I met some friends downtown to go shopping (I needed a few things for work). Two of them are Japanese, but they speak amazing English, and the other is one of my JET friends. The two Japanese girls introduced my other friend and I to a place called Sweets Paradise. It’s a buffet. There is some normal food, but the buffet mostly consists of many different kinds of cake. It was really good haha! We did purikura after and then hit up a few stores. There’s a Japanese store I like that actually has pants in my size. It’s called G.U. Otherwise I've done my shopping at H&M. It was a fun time!

Girl time.

Food/Cooking: Well, I finally stopped eating school lunch. It was very convenient because you didn't have to prepare your own food the night before, it was super cheap, and it was hot which was nice, but I could just not tolerate eating meat anymore. Of course, if there was a lot of meat (for example, a hotdog), I wouldn't eat it, but usually the meat was cut up really small in a soup or something so I just choked it down. I hated it. Sometimes the food was good, but it was all really high in calories. The milk was so thick, it disgusted me. Now I am paying more to make my own lunches, and I can’t eat with the students (I’m the only person in the entire school who doesn't eat the school lunch) because it's bad if the students see me with different food because they will want it. However, I am so happy because I am eating vegetarian, low calories, and I’m still allowed to eat with the handicap class which is really fun! I've been experimenting a little more with cooking at home. There are times when I really want something that is not sold in Japan, but I am finding that I can make some things from scratch such as tortillas. The other night I made falafel and it was amazing!!!

The next two topics are a bit heavier:

The Difference between American and Japanese Schools: There is so way I can begin nor do I want to take the time to describe every difference because there are just so many, but I will talk about what I have been thinking about lately. First, it is getting colder. The rules with the school uniforms are very strict. The girls must wear skirts all year long. I thought, “Ok, well they will probably wear some thick tights or something so it’s ok,” but girls kept coming to school with only socks, and it was getting uncomfortably cold to wear just a skirt. I assumed that tights weren't allowed or something which seemed cruel. So, next thing I know, girls are bringing blankets to class to cover their legs. It seemed to be a bit much, so I asked my teacher and she said that the students are allowed to wear tights but the school rule states that they must still wear socks over their tights. To me, I didn’t see that to be any big deal, but the girls apparently think it’s really ugly so they refuse and just bring huge blankets to class instead…yup. The next difference which I think I’ve mentioned is the lack of discipline. There is literally no discipline system and the kids can do whatever they want and not get in trouble. In fact, many teachers seem to pity the students who misbehave…it’s so weird. Kids will literally sleep through the entire class and nothing is done. Kids can just get up and leave and there is no consequence. One student curled up in a ball on the floor and slept. At least the teacher made two students pick him up and put him in the hallway…I saw one kid bring a box cutter to school and pull it out in class…no big deal. Kids choke each other, punch each other, boys hit girls, girls hit boys, they put each other in sleeper holds, drag each other across the floor, and the worst part is that you can’t tell if they are serious or just playing. Yikes! The principal or vice principal has no part in the discipline of the students. Another difference is that the school is either hot of freezing because they don’t use the air conditioning or heat much. The corridors are the worst. I have to wear a jacket when walking between classes. Other random things: There are meetings multiple times a day between teachers and they are always so formal and serious. We have morning meeting every day! There is one teachers’ office. Basically all the teachers just live in it unless they are teaching a class. Desks are faced together and organized by what grade the teachers teach. For whatever reason, I sit with the 2^nd grade teachers (2^nd grade of junior high that is). The school years are different here. Kindergarten is separate. Elementary is 1^st-6^th grade. Junior high is 7^th-9^th (but we say 1^st-3^rd), and high school is another 3 years I believe, and it is optional. You must take tests to get into high school and you choose which ones you want to apply to, much like college. Then, they also have college in Japan which I believe is usually four years. In junior high, the main focus is passing entrance exams for high school. Another difference is the lack of technology. It varies from school to school, but overall, the level of technology is nowhere near as advanced as it is in America. Many people believe that Japan is so high-tech. Yes, they have a lot of little odds and ends that are high tech, but in daily life (in people’s homes and schools), it seems like they are like 30 years behind. Kids can’t have any food or anything to drink in class…and neither can teachers. In the beginning of the year, it was so hot, and I was sweating and thirsty, and I took a bottle of water out of my bag and had a sip. The teacher was so shocked and told me that it wasn't allowed. Then I was so shocked haha! It’s like the really bad things are allowed such as bringing knives to school, but the silly things aren't like having water in class. One kid threw a spoon off the balcony and the teachers acted like it was the worst thing that ever happened in the history of the school! It’s just so different!

The Japanese Feeling: Lastly, one more thing I wanted to mention. Before I ever came to Japan, I had a certain image of it. I’m sure it was similar to the images other people have of it that have never been there. Here are some words to describe the feeling I had: samurai, temples/shrines, foreign and mysterious, geisha, traditional Japanese art such as calligraphy, tea ceremony, and flower arranging, extreme politeness, and anime. Of course, some of these images were shattered (not necessarily for better or worse) when I came to Japan last summer, but many of them stayed intact. Mainly because I was exploring the main sights of Japan such as temples, shrines, and so on. Now that I have been living in Japan for three months now, it’s beginning to feel different. It feels very ordinary. Like Japan is just a regular place that isn't as foreign or exciting as I once thought. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t traveled to many cultural sights since I've gotten here…thank goodness I’m going to Hiroshima for the first time this coming weekend!! It’s just that I’m a little worried because all the things that drew me to Japan in the first place seem to be a face of Japan that isn't really as true as I thought. Yes, I can search Japan and find places that feel “Japanese” and I can do things (like practice tea ceremony) that give me the feeling of Japan that I’m looking for, but on a day to day basis, I'm becoming very accustomed to life in Japan except for maybe the language barrier. I’m sure that wherever I travel in the future, it’ll be different than I imagined; in some ways good and some ways bad. I am still interested in Japan, and even if the culture isn't as predominate as I’d like it to be in daily life, it’s still there. I’m just finding that I have to go looking for it. Or perhaps it’s always been there, and I’m just getting used to it. Now that I think of it, I don’t get excited anymore when I see a woman on the train wearing a kimono…it’s all just interesting to think about, and I’m sure that once I am back in the U.S., Japan will seem “Japan-y” again haha.

A Bit More to Add: Since I have been writing this long post over the course of a week, another weekend has passed so I can cover it quickly because I didn't do too much. Friday I went to the mall in Kyobashi and shopped alone. It felt good to have a little alone time. I tried the seasonal teriyaki chicken sandwich at McDonalds, and it was good. It’s just after Halloween and it's like Japan became Christmas-ized which is a little weird. Stores are playing Christmas music and everyone is selling Christmas stuff. I understand seeing as they don’t have Thanksgiving, but I feel a little sad that Thanksgiving will pass without anything happening. The day after Thanksgiving has always been the day where the Christmas stuff comes out, and I will stay true to that in my own apartment. :P Saturday I met Satsuki (and her husband for the first time!). It was fun! We went to Rinku Town (where I had that language seminar by the ocean and airport in the beginning). We shopped around the outlet mall and went to an onsen. The weather was beautiful!! I saw a wonderful sunset. That night, Kris and I went to the bar he took me to one of my first weeks here. I love it there. It’s the perfect bar atmosphere and the drinks are so good. I had a really good time hanging out with him, but I still don’t know how our friendship is progressing. I feel like I have many friends and acquaintances in Japan, but there isn't anyone that I can call a best friend yet. I suppose those things take time seeing as all my best friends at home I've known for years. I guess maybe I am just a really enthusiastic friend and want to be very close with people, but that is somewhat uncommon. At least I can Skype with my friends back home!! Now I will end this very long post….to be continued.

A beautiful sunset in Rinku Town.

Working Life vs. Social Life

It seems like my life in Japan has two sides; the working side and the social side. At work, I feel like no one really knows the real me. Maybe the woman I ride the bus with and talk to every day knows me a bit better than everyone else, but I feel like in order to fit in with the Japanese working society, I must repress myself a bit. I feel less that way when I’m interacting with the students compared to the teachers. It’s not that I’ve changed anything about myself, but instead, I’m just letting the very serious and hard-worker side of me dominate. This results in me letting loose a little more when I’m not at work. When I am not at work, I am me completely for the most part, but I just am a little more outgoing, I think, in order to compensate for how much I repress myself at work. I’m coming to realize that for Japanese people, this is what their lives are like too. Maybe I am fitting in more than I realize. Anyway, this post’s theme is the contrast of my two lifestyles. I will start with the social side.

As you know, my friend from Ohio recently stayed with me for about a week. I have already explained the craziness we got into the first night. Anyway, I just wanted to give you an overview of how the rest of the visit went. During the week, I had to work still. So, each night I planned and itinerary for him for the following day. I was pleased that overall, I was able to give him enough instruction to get from place to place even though he doesn’t know any Japanese. I just wish there was some way I could’ve helped him more when it came to eating out. Since I wasn’t there to order for him, he had to resort to getting food from the grocery store when I wasn’t around. I’m sure it would’ve been more fun for him if he could’ve tried many restaurants. However, each night when I came home from work, we usually went out. It was nice when I got to meet him by the Aquarium after work. I really like that area. Another good night was when we went to Amemura (America Town) and window shopped and went to a bar I really liked. Another highlight of that night was that beforehand, we met my Japanese friend (who studied abroad at the U of M) for burritos. We discussed me going to visit Hiroshima (where he lives) which I am pleased to say I now have booked! On his last day here, there was another festival in my town with big floats and performances which was really fun. Anyway, it was cool to have a friend visit and help provide him with an experience. I already have plans in the works for another friend to come visit in January.

Giant Ferris wheel by the aquarium.

Osaka Aquarium-Kaiyukan.

C.J. wearing a festival shirt, haha!

Waiting for their turn to dance.

Danjiri matsuri-Float festival.

Another situation where I really enjoyed myself was when I went to a fellow JETs home for a house party to celebrate her birthday and Halloween early. Several other JETs were there along with two of the Japanese girls who we met at the bar who we've been hanging out with a lot recently. It was a super fun time!! There were all sorts of drinks and snacks. I brought a lot of the booze, but the best thing was the sangria that the girl hosting the party made. We played different card games and talked until at about 3 am.Then like ten of us slept on the floor. This was the fourth weekend in a row that I didn't make it home that night thanks to the stupid last train. This is why I feel like perhaps I’m being a little more crazy than usual. In any case, I felt that this was a night where I became a lot closer with many of the new JETs.

Party with friends.

Moving on to school life…I started working at the elementary school. I feel like I work there very sporadically compared to how others go to their elementary schools. Most people go on the same day once every week or every other week etc., but I go whenever it’s convenient for my junior high school. In other words, if nothing unusual is happening with the schedule at my junior high, then I will stay there, but if there are few or no classes due to various reasons like sport’s day practice or examinations, then I get to go to the elementary school. Since this month has been a sh*t fest with exams and sports day, I’m going seven times in three weeks! It’s not a problem though because I really like it there. The students are cuter, the teachers are a lot more friendly (I think because they aren't as busy and serious as the junior high school teachers), and I don’t have to do much. I think the most classes I have in a day there are three. One day I’m going, I don’t have any classes at all! I’m literally just going to play with the kids all day. The teachers there hardly speak any English, but they think I’m really good at Japanese and try to talk to me all the time haha! The Japanese school system never ceases to shock me in their methods, for example, the nonexistence of substitute teachers and discipline. One thing that was quite surprising though was one of the mentally handicap kids at the elementary school. She’s not mentally retarded; she instead has some severe behavior issues and seems to be bipolar. Instead of having her in some sort of class, they literally let her roam the teacher’s office all day wreaking havoc. Sometimes there are volunteers that try to work with her or designated teachers who try to teacher her stuff in their free time, but it all just seems really disorganized. The point of me writing all of this is not to complain, it’s to say that I spend a lot of time with this girl because she is always in the office, and she absolutely loves me. She’s a cute second grade student who hangs all over me. Since I have such few classes, I have taken to teaching her when I’m in the office and the teachers seem to really appreciate it. The down side is that she likes me so much that when I give attention to any other students around me, she tries to literally beat the crap out of them. Unfortunately this includes a student who actually is mentally retarded. I was asking her her name when the girl came over and smacked the handicapped girl’s face into the side of a table. I was so sad…They made her apologize, but that was basically the end of it.  So that’s been interesting. In elementary school class, I feel kind of silly because I have to do silly things like sing the alphabet. Overall, I like it though.

Notes from my elementary school students. LOVE!

The final thing I want to write about it my school’s sports day and the enkai (work party) following it. Sport’s day is something uniquely Japanese. Teachers and students spend weeks preparing and practicing for it. Teams are chosen far in advance (I was on the red team, but I didn't know it until the morning of sport’s day >_<). It’s an all day event that parents and come watch. There are many different competitions such as relay races, tug of war, 100 and 200 meter dash, and a few wacky games. It was pretty entertaining and fun, but the students take it super seriously. Two of the three students representing their teams after the competition cried as they gave speeches to their classmates. Red team won, so I was happy lol. I didn't have to do anything…although, I wouldn't have minded. After sports day, almost all of the teachers, including myself, went to a nice hotel for a party. We had to pay in advance, and it was super expensive. However, it was all you can drink and a multiple course fancy dinner. Most of the food was pretty strange to me but I ate it anyway except for the steak that I gave to one of the young male teachers. I drank a little, but it had no affect on me. Enkai are supposed to be one of the only places you get to see your coworkers let loose, however, mine was hardly like that. We drew numbers for seats, so I got stuck sitting with teachers that I didn't talk to much, but I guess that’s good because I talked to them a bit. Only one teacher got noticeably drunk which was entertaining. He fell asleep outside the dining hall and a couple teachers drew on his face. Other than that, the dinner was very calm and fancy. Another weird aspect was that we got to use the bathing facilities in the hotel. I like public baths in Japan, but it’s weird when you are naked with all your coworkers who you are not that close to. It’s not that I had a bad time at the enkai, I just think that I was expecting more. I was really hoping to show more of my fun side at the party, but it just didn't happen.

On an unrelated note, I’m sick for the first time since I’ve come to Japan. I have a cold. It’s nothing serious, but it’s kind of a depressing thing to think about how I am hesitating to go to the doctor (it’s only been 3 days so I’m going towait it out a little more because I felt better today than yesterday) because I’m too nervous and reluctant to speak with one because of the hassle of the language barrier. I think that if I were really sick, I’d for sure go, but it just seems so stressful.

I hope this post isn't a downer. I don’t feel down. I just want to explain some of the thoughts and differences I’m experiencing in this different culture.

Another Happy Note

Sub-Topics: All-nighters, Culture Day, and Moments of Bliss

All-nighters: Apparently, the life I have chosen to live doesn't involve sleeping on the weekends. Is this common for Japanese youth? I blame the existence of the last train (why do they have one anyway?) and the misconception that you can stay overnight at certain places… Despite my weekends being extremely tiring, they are always interesting and/or fun. I have basically stayed up all night the past three weekends in a row with each weekend being more extreme than the last. I believe I have already written about the night a few friends and I stayed out and eventually slept a couple hours on my friend’s floor. The next all-nighter I want to write about happened two weekends ago. It was very fun! I met a group of friends at L&L bar and we had a couple drinks and some snacks. I invited my Ken who I have already told you about. It was nice to see him again. After that, the group split up and a few of us went to a dance club called Club Joule. That night Takkyu Ishinno was DJ-ing and the music was really good! There were a total of six of us and we danced and drank for a couple hours. One girl didn't want to miss her last train so we walked her to the station. I was planning on leaving too when the others asked me if I wanted to pull an all-nighter. I wasn't planning on it since the weekend before, I missed my last train, but I decided to do it since everyone else was. I forced everyone to do purikura (Japanese photo booths) first before deciding to go to an all night karaoke bar haha. We sang karaoke for like 5 hours! Also, some of the people we had split up with before the dance club came to do karaoke all night with us. It was all you can drink alcohol and soft drinks so it was pretty interesting haha! I ended up getting back to my apartment at about 7:30 in the morning. I had intentions of sleeping the whole day even though I had made plans to go to Oktober Fest. However, after sleeping like 4 hours, my friends coaxed me to join them at Oktober Fest. I ate some German food, but didn't drink any of the large selection of German beer because I was sick of alcohol after the night before and I don’t like beer. We hung out, talked, and listed to traditional German music. It was fun! I even made a new Japanese friend! So I am glad I went.

German festival.

The next all-nighter happened last weekend. Right now, my friend from Ohio (C.J.) is visiting me. He flew in to Tokyo on Saturday. I took the Shinkansen to Tokyo in the morning. For the first time, I actually could see Mt. Fuji from the window! It only took me 4 tries haha! I met my him in Ueno, and from there I took him to Asakusa to see Sensoji Temple. I finally found a damn chasen (tea wisk) at a store I remembered! I’m so happy!!! When we came back from Tokyo, I made six bowls of maccha (Japanese green tea)! After Sensoji, we went for kaiten sushi  (sushi on a conveyor belt). I sat next to a Taiwanese man who told me not to speak to him in Japanese because he is from Taiwan lol. He kept watching me while I ate to see if I could use chopsticks and to see what fish I was eating. >_< After dinner we went to Shinjuku and literally just messed around. We ate at like 3 more freaking restaurants!!! We played in an arcade, did purikura, and looked in shops. I showed my friend the red light district of Shinjuku called Kabukichou. I would never go there unless I had someone with me… So, it got pretty late and my plan all along was to stay in a mangakissa (comic book cafe). They are popular because they are very cheap and you can shower and sleep in a private cubicle that has internet and TV. You can also read manga to your heart’s content as well as drink all you can drink fountain drinks. I have never stayed in one before, but I have always wanted to. Here is the problem… It’s about 3:30 am on a Saturday night in Shinjuku, Tokyo which is like the New York of Japan, and everyone who is out, has missed their last train which was probably at about 12:30 am. We try going to two or three different mangakissa, and they are all full. Also, we didn't have a hotel reservation since we planned on staying in one of these places. In Japan, front desks aren't usually staffed during the night (unless it’s a fancy place). So you can’t just go to a hotel and get a room at 3:30 am. My last thought was that we could go to a love hotel. They are hotels specifically designed for doing you know what. You usually just pay a fee for about 3 hours, but you can stay the night if you pay a bigger fee. At that point, we didn't really care if we could only stay 3 hours or more. We just wanted to shower and nap. Alas, all of the hotels would not allow you to enter between like midnight and 5 or 6 am. This makes absolutely no sense. They don’t want the love hotels to be used as actual hotels, but you would think that between the times of midnight and 6 am, doing the dirty would be common. Anyway, we waited until 5 am when just a few hotels opened, and none of them had availability. At that point we just decided to say screw it and stay up all night since it was already past 5 am. We got to see the sun rise which was fun. You began to realize that at 6 am on a Sunday morning, the people who are walking around aren't up really early; they just never went home. You’d be surprised at how many people were out. We saw some interesting things by staying up all night. For example, we saw rats fighting, a man laying in the street in his own puke while sobbing, people falling over and screaming at each other, transvestites, an extreme amount of litter (I thought Japan was clean until that moment), and who knows what else I’m forgetting. If I knew that all the magakissa and love hotels were going to be full, I would  have suggested going to an all night karaoke room like I did the previous weekend at like 3:30 am, but by the time we realized we couldn't get in anywhere, it was like 6 am. We were debating on whether or not we should just keep waiting until stores started opening, and we could go see the strangely dressed people in Harajuku, but after much debating, we decided to just take a 7 am shinkansen back to Osaka. We slept a little on the train, but it wasn’t the most comfortable. It was so nice to get back to my apartment. Even though it was only like 11 am, we felt like it was super late at night. We took showers and I napped for like 2 hours (my friend slept a lot longer lol) because I didn't want to not be able to go to bed at like 11 pm because I worked the next day. I cooked us dinner and showed my friend the supermarket nearby before calling it a night. What an adventure! I will probably write another post after my friend leaves to tell you about the other stuff we do while he’s here.

Oh! By the way, I forgot. There was a typhoon on Sunday. It was pretty bad when it hit Okinawa, but by the time it got to Osaka, it was pretty tame. It just rained a lot and was a little windy. No big deal! I just cooked during it :P That was my first time experiencing a typhoon/hurricane.

Mt. Fuji from the shinkansen window.

Sensoji.

Culture Day: Culture Day takes place at every junior high school. Culture Day along with Sports Day are the most important days of the school year, and maybe graduation lol. Students and teachers spend many weeks preparing. I really had no idea what to expect. I assumed it had to do with learning about different cultures around the world, but I eventually realized that it’s about the students’ culture. The first year students sang songs on stage, the second year students made videos and mosaics, and the third year students did a play with dancing. Also, there was a performance from the guitar club which was really good, and the students' and parents’ artwork was displayed around the school. Some parents came to watch the performances. Among the parents’ artwork, there were legit scrapbooks. I really enjoyed looking at them since scrap-booking is my hobby. Anyway, that is what Culture Day is at a Japanese junior high school.

Moments of Bliss: I will once again point out that it is not fall here yet, and I am envious and sad when people back at home tell me it is fall in the US. However, here are some other things that have helped besides decorating my apartment:

1) I have decided that in the second half of November when the leaves are changing, I am going to go to Kyoto to do fall foliage viewing which is common. Some temples even have illumination hours where they are open extra hours at night so they can illuminate the fall trees with bright lights. It looks so cool.

I Googled this picture so you could get an idea. This is Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto.

2) I have started buying persimmons. Maybe I already mentioned this, but they are a fall fruit in Asia, and they are good.

A persimmon.

3) Despite hot days here and there, the overall temperature has been dropping.

As the subtitle suggests, I have had moments of bliss because it's becoming fall, I've been staying out all night with my friends, and so There have been times when I am in some situation, whether it’s standing in my classroom of students, dancing in a club in downtown Osaka, or just sitting in my apartment drinking tea, where I have come to a strong and happy realization that I am in Japan. It has taken two months to accept that I am in Japan. Originally I thought I would never realize it, but I have, and I am happy. I know that when I leave here, whenever that is, I will miss things about being here, and I will always want to return. 

Happiness

The JET culture shock timeline.

I’m sure many of you are wondering if I feel homesick/culture shock. The JET Programme always emphasizes that everyone in one way or another will experience culture shock which goes in phases. I haven’t really followed their chart, but I think I have felt some homesickness since I’ve been here. For example, I feel really homesick when people back at home talk about the weather cooling down or it becoming fall because it is still a hot, sweaty, humid, hell-hole here. Of course I miss my friends, pets, boyfriend, and family too. For some reason, it’s the weather thing that really gets to me though. Also, I miss food from home. Other than that, I’ve been ok. It’s not like I’ve sunken into a stage two depression or anything like the chart suggests. In fact, I’ve been overall pretty happy and enjoying my time here so far. I still haven’t traveled much because money has been tight, but I plan to at least visit Hiroshima, Tokyo, Hokkaido, Kyoto, Nara and possibly Okinawa before the year is up. If I’m really lucky, maybe China or Korea. If I stay two years (which I’m planning on), I will most likely visit a neighboring country. Anyway, the point of this post is to write about the things I’m enjoying so far.

First, I have some good news. My friend from Ohio is coming to visit in less than two weeks! He’ll be the first person from America to come visit me! I couldn’t take work off, but we will still be able to enjoy the weekends and the evenings. I hoping he’ll be brave enough to explore downtown while I’m at work. Next, I got plane tickets to go home for two weeks during Christmas/New Year’s! I’m so excited to know that I am for sure going home!

Next, as I have mentioned, I’m anxiously waiting for it to become fall (my favorite season), and when people back home talk about it becoming fall, I get sad. So, this is how I have recently coped with it, and it helps: I have decorated my apartment for fall. I also have fall scented candles and fall foods like pumpkin soup, maple candies, and chai tea. Even though it’s disgusting outside, when I’m in my home, it feels so nice. Soon the weather will match my home, I hope. One thing that excites me is that Japan is supposed to have some of the most beautiful fall foliage. I want to look into some of the most famous places for fall foliage and then go there when the leaves change. On a somewhat related note, I wasn’t feeling that comfortable in my apartment so I made some adjustments. It’s amazing what a simple bit of rearranging can do (and by simple, I mean it took me hours lol). Highlighting the most important parts; I changed my desk into a kitchen table seeing as I never used the desk. I still need to buy one more chair, but it’s amazing how much more home-y it feels to have a kitchen table. Next I made the sitting/entertainment area cozier by dividing the living room in half and turning a bookshelf into an entertainment center. I don’t have a TV, but I set my laptop on the entertainment center, and it works out nicely. I rearranged the bedroom and made the bed more secluded in the corner. Last, I hung like 30 pictures on my wall above my bed. It looks great! Now my apartment feels like a haven…except for the unfixable tiny bathroom.

Rearranged.

Rearranged

 I thought I already wrote about this, but apparently I didn't. I got to see my Japanese friend who currently lives in Singapore. She was back visiting her family, and she decided to visit me too. We went to Spa World. It’s a multistory building with a pool/water park on one floor, an Asian themed hot springs on another floor, and European themed hot springs on another. This month, the women got the European floor and the men got the Asian. It alternates each month. First we swam in the pools and did a big water slide thing, and then we went to the hot springs. It’s becoming a tradition to go to onsen (hot springs) when we visit each other. At the onsen, I ran into two other JETs. It’s not exactly the place you would want to run into acquaintances seeing as you’re butt naked, but it was fine. I thought it was funny because my Japanese friend was like, “Hey! This is my country! How come you are running into people you know and not me?!” Haha! Even though it was a work night, my friend slept over and it was super fun!

My friend! After Spa World.

Another fun time was somewhat unexpected. It was a Saturday, and I had no plans. I really wanted to hang out with some friends, and I figured it wouldn't be a problem because it was Saturday, but it turned out that everyone had already made plans. I was faced with the choice of doing nothing or going out alone. Going out alone didn't seem that fun, but I remembered how I came to Japan last year by myself, and it was one of the most exciting and fun experiences of my life. With that initiative, I decided to go to the zoo. It was near Spa World so I knew the area pretty well after going there with my friend. The area is called Tennoji. It is famous for Tsutenkaku (an observation tower), kushi-katsu (fried things on skewers=delicious), and Billiken (a golden mascot thing that is supposed to give you good luck). Anyway, the zoo was really fun even though I was alone. I felt really content and it reminded me of when I traveled alone. I got so see some neat animals that are uncommon in American zoos such as lesser pandas (red pandas) and all sorts of Southeast Asian cats. Afterwords, I went to the famous kushi-katsu place and had delicious fried vegetables. I’ll admit that it would've been nice to have a friend with during dinner time, but since it had a bar for single eaters, I didn't feel weird. I even felt some satisfaction by going to a restaurant by myself and enjoying it.

Lesser Panda (Red Panda)!

Tennoji. I actually took this picture before when I went
with my friend.

Last weekend was really great, but before I go into that I want to mention something I forgot. My Fridays are actually not like the weekend for me because after I get home from work, I cook dinner, eat, and then go to a Japanese class for foreigners in the Shijonawate area. It’s at the Municipal Center, it’s run by volunteers so it’s free, and it’s an hour and a half. It’s actually the thing I mentioned in my last post where I met the lady at the Shinobugaoka Matsuri, and she was all hyper and wanted me to come to her class. This is the class lol. I just started going two weeks ago so I've only been there twice. Both times I literally sat there and spoke with a Japanese person for an hour and a half. Most people bring textbooks and study, but no one has really told me what to do. I prefer to just speak the whole time because that is what I want to improve the most with. I like going. Anyway, back to last weekend. On Saturday, I went to Round 1 (which is a multistory gaming/entertainment building). They have tons of arcade games, batting cages, roller skating rink, ping pong, darts, bowling, pool, and more! I went with a group of older JETs. I hadn't swung a baseball bat in so long, and I loved it! I got the high score on one of the arcade games too! After, we ate dinner at a really good Mexican restaurant (they actually have Mexican in Japan…I was misinformed. Apparently Osaka is one of the few places in Japan that you can actually get good Mexican) called Uncle Steve’s or Steven’s…can’t remember. They had super legit frozen margaritas. My only complaint about Mexican food here is that it’s not spicy enough, and there’s not enough cheese. However, the ingredients always taste really fresh. I've eaten at one other Mexican place that serves cheap burritos (I think it’s called El Zocalo’s). I liked it there too. After dinner, I met up with a different group of JETs (mostly new JETs) and we went bar hopping. We went to a place called Cinquencento first that serves drinks for 500 yen. Then we went to L&L (what does L&L stand for anyway?) which is a bar in America Town. I had actually gone there early one time to see a comedy show which was fun. It’s full of foreigners and Japanese people, and you can do hookah! So, of course I did some hookah and had the best sangria of my life there. The sangria was cinnamon-y! A few Japanese girls were at the table next to us celebrating one of their birthdays so we asked them to join us and we all drank and smoked hookah together. We plan to meet them again next weekend. I missed my last train along with a few others so we all crashed at Aimee's place (of the new JETs). Out of all the new JETs, I really seem to connect with Aimee. I was going to go to a big festival in Kishiwada the next day, but after not sleeping much, I chilled at home. It was a three day weekend though, so I went out on Monday which I will briefly describe next.

L & L.

On Monday, I went to a Mexican festival that had been going on all weekend at the Umeda Sky Building. I went with Aimee, and we ran into a few people we knew. Before that, we had sat down with two random Japanese men (seating was sparse) and began to have a conversation with them about booze and Japanese while watching the live Mexican performances. I was drinking a strong margarita at the time and one of the men came back after getting up with two shots of tequila. One for him and one for me…oh dear god. I had Aimee help me drink it. Needless to say, I felt pretty good. Not to mention that I got another margarita later, and Aimee got a free shot of tequila that we also shared lol. It was fun! We got to eat Mexican food again too haha!

Happily eating a quesadilla.

The point of this post is to let you all know that I am having a good time. Even though I miss home, I know that once I am done with JET, I will miss it too.

Let's Play Catch Up

Since so much has happened between my last post and now, I am going to highlight some random things that have stood out in lieu of describing everything that has happened in detail…and to be honest, I can’t remember everything anyway.

1.       Noon (and possibly 6pm) Song: One thing that I didn’t understand when I first came here was the loud music playing every day throughout the town from an unknown source. I noticed that every day around noon (and supposedly at 6pm…but I haven’t noticed yet), there was some weird orchestra music playing on loudspeakers wherever I went in my town. I asked Kris about it and apparently every town has its own song that they blast through speakers that are strategically placed throughout the town. I haven’t really noticed the speakers yet. It makes me laugh because when I hear it at home, there is this dog that starts barking like crazy at the music every day. The song is about one or two minutes long. This first impression I had was that I was in North Korea or some socialist country where they force feed you nationalistic songs that you are meant to enjoy. So now I think about that every time I hear it :/

2.       Rinku Town-Japanese Language Seminar: All the new JETs in Osaka had to go to a three day Japanese language seminar in Rinku Town (about an hour and a half away from where I live). It’s on the ocean and actually right next to Kansai International Airport. Although you go there to study Japanese, I think the main benefit from this experience is to meet and mingle with other JETs in your area. I really enjoyed the Japanese classes and Osaka orientation part, but I loved hanging out with everyone…and having a nice, spacious hotel room to myself with an ocean view. While I was there, I got to do many fun things with my new friends like going out to eat, walking to the beach, lighting fireworks, karaoke, bike riding, shopping, riding a Ferris wheel etc. There was an outlet mall that felt just like I was in America! Overall, a fantastic time! I wish I could have stayed longer!

View from my window in Rinku Town!

Singing the YMCA with my fellow Osaka JETs.

3.       Balabushka: I met a couple friends at a bar in America Town in downtown Osaka called Balabushka. Since it is in America Town, there were many foreigners there. It’s nice to know I’m not the only circus attraction in the area haha! We drank and played darts (the girls lost and had to buy drinks for the boys). It was a lot of fun!

4.       Shinobugaoka Matsuri: There was a two day festival in my town before school started. I stumbled upon it on my way to the grocery store. I had never been to a matsuri (festival) in Japan before! They are somewhat of a big thing here. I was very excited because I finally got to try “festival food.” Comparable to carnival food except Japanese. It was awesome! I tried candied fruit, yakisoba (stir fried noodles), and kara-age (fried chicken). There were tons of carnival-type games and live music. The live music was fun because I got to see a taiko (drum) performance in Japan for the first time, and there was a band that played music that you hear when you are in the local grocery store haha! Eventually, Mary and her friend came too. Together we played a game where you try to scoop as many goldfish as you can into a bucket using a thin, papery net. Also, while I was there, I ran into this very energetic woman in a yukata (traditional Japanese summer clothing). She told me she ran a Japanese conversation club for foreigners in the area, and she wanted me to come! It’s every Friday. I plan on going. She was very nice but overly affectionate. She kept holding my hand and dragging me around everywhere to meet a bunch of people in the club! It was fine, just weird.

The fish game.

Taiko.

5.       Starting Work!: There is just so much to say about work so I will abbreviate. First, I teach at Tawara Junior High School (and Elementary School sometimes) in Shijonawate. It is far away, but supposedly has the highest level students out of the 4 different junior high schools in my town. There are 4 English teachers that I work with. They are all very nice and very different from each other. As of now, I've only taught in a few classes, but I like it. I got to do an introduction lesson where I give a speech about myself using pictures and then quiz them after. The kids are really excited by me and always say I’m cute haha! It makes me feel happy. In my intro lesson, I tell them I have a boyfriend, and they all freak out! Some of them asked me to see pictures of him after school. I asked a group of girl students if they had boyfriends and they all pointed at one girl in the group who proceeded to become really shy and get mad at all her friends for betraying her lol! She ran away and then came back swinging lol! It was so funny! There are many differences between schools in the U.S. and Japan. For example, the teachers’ office, the classrooms, the lunches, the club activities, and the students. One thing I’d like to point out is how crazy hyper the students are! They get a 10 minute break between each class where they proceed to bounce off the walls screaming at the top of their lungs while tackling each other and injuring themselves! I couldn't believe it when I saw it! I thought Japanese students were supposed to be studious, calm, and mature. At least they still wear their cute little uniforms haha! During the swimming competition in the first week, a kid wrestled with a teacher and threw the teacher into the pool and it was perfectly funny and acceptable! I was like wtf?! Although, I thought it was funny too. One thing that is particularly hard about school though is not being on top of it. I’m the kind of person who is super organized and always has to know what’s going on. Since I can barely understand anything or read the kanji (Chinese characters) on the board, I never know what’s going on. Also, I might have mentioned that people seem to have this false impression that I am better at Japanese than I actually am, so everyone neglects to tell me anything. I will find myself sitting in an empty office only to have the vice-principle come in and tell me that there is a meeting in the auditorium that I should be at now…it sucks. I’m just always confused. I want to get better at Japanese sooo bad so I can at least do my job better. The JET before me was fluent in Japanese so they aren't used to having to explain things. I somehow need to make it clear that they should be telling me everything I need to know until I get better. On the other hand, while some people aren't that patient with me, many are…especially one teacher that I work with and ride the bus with every day. She doesn't speak English, only a few words, but she always tries to have conversations with me in Japanese. She knows I’m not that great, but I think she really wants to help, and I really appreciate it. When I don’t understand what she is saying, she is very patient and always tries to rephrase things. If I really don’t understand, I apologize, and she assures me that it is ok. She can tell I’m trying. She lives near me, and wants me to come visit her sometime.

My bus stop.

My elementary school.

My juniour high school.

6.       Chanting Guy: This isn’t that important or anything, but I’d like to mention that every morning on my way to work, I ride my bike to a close by elementary school where I park it. Then from there, I ride a bus to work. There is a house by the elementary school, and every time I get off my bike to park it, I am close to the windows of this house. At the same time every morning, there an old man inside with the window open who is chanting these weird noises. I assume he’s is praying. It’s just interesting to me because I have never heard anything like it. It intrigues me.

7.       My New Friend: Now I can’t say for sure that we will be close friends or anything, but I hung out with a new Japanese friend, Ken. The weird part is that I met him when I was in downtown Osaka with Mary. Ken and his friend came up to us and started questioning us like how it usually goes when foreign men come up to you. “Where are you from? Do you speak Japanese? What are you doing now? Do you want to go…?” Naturally I was weirded out because in America, when guys come up to you like that, it only means one thing. I am beginning to give Japanese men the benefit of the doubt however because the two times I have given in to spending time with “some guy I’ve met on the streets” in Japan, it has turned out to be fun and not creepy. I still will not be completely naïve though! Anyway, after meeting Ken, he gave me his contact info, and told me to tell him when I got a phone. Once I got a phone, I friended him on facebook, and from there, we started talking. I found out that he is a college student, the same age as me, and wanted to hang out with me some time. We decided to meet on a Saturday and go to a bar. He told me that we were going to a British pub called the HUB, and he thought I would like it because there are many foreigners there. I was so nervous when I met him because I didn’t think he spoke much English (we had been texting in Japanese). It turns out he is fantastic at English which is good and bad (because I want to practice Japanese)! He turned out to be very funny, and he taught me a lot about Japanese arranged marriages and whatnot…it was so strange and interesting! I also made him teach me a lot of Japanese bad words ;) The bar was very crowded, but it was fun! He was right, there were many foreigners there. I had a great time! I caught the last train home which was exciting because now I can say I caught the last train lol! Now I just need to be able to say I missed the last train and pulled an all nighter :P

The last thing I want to say is that on my way home from the bar, I had an anticipated Japanese experience. In Japan, it is common for people to fall asleep on the trains. Also, it is common for people to fall asleep with their head resting on their unknown neighbor's shoulder. I’ve always wanted to be the person who has someone fall asleep on their shoulder, and that night, it happened!! I felt like I was part of Japanese society lol…I always thought that people would be too afraid or repulsed to fall asleep on a foreigners shoulder! :D