My recorded adventures in Japan, usually with unnecessary added emotions and/or whining. I cannot promise an interesting post, but I can at least promise it won't be so emo you'll kill yourself at the end. AND I will try to post pictures/videos so you can almost see what I am going through. yay!
Went to Mt. Fuji on the 4th of April (okay didn't go, more like "hung around the base pretty far away"), but it was fun with my parents. It was a one day trip, roughly 180 dollars, with bus, meal, cable car, boat ride, and bullet train included.
It was pretty awesome.
Well, after we had all got enough of Mt. Fuji, we went over to eat lunch (best damn chicken I've ever tasted) and than we went to take a boat across Lake Ashinoko.
After the boat ride though, we got to the REAL fun which was a cable car ride over the geysers in Hakone.
Frickin awesome.
Anyway, it was probably the best sightseeing tour I have ever been on (not that I've actually been on any...) and my dad probably got even better pictures than me. Well, just wanted to update once in awhile :)
Japanese people walk everywhere. Which I guess is why they live so long even though half their population smokes off a lung by the time they are 30. But as for me, while I don't mind the walking and the feet burning and the oh-so-great feeling of having sweaty socks, I am currently inquiring as to where the hell I can buy a bike.
But anyway.
Today was pretty interesting. Went with my parents down to Shibuya to check out the school which I will be going to (Aoyama Gakuin University). Interestingly enough, we got there JUST in time for their Women's College Graduation "after-fest" of people taking pictures of themselves (just like America).
Their graduation kimono were so pretty. Even though they looked like they had a really high-rising butt. But the colors were great so I didn't even mind.
We also went to this really cute lunch restaurant. Got a hamburger and stuff. DELICIOUS.
So after wards, mostly just went around 109 and went to Harajuku to the Daiso (100 yen shop) to buy some stuff I needed. Got the cutest bento boxes (I'll take a picture later).
ANyway, from now on, I'll just be doing entries by interesting stuff I see rather than days. Sorry I haven't updated in awhile :P Been busy (hope you can understand).
So most of Day 1 was just on the plane coming to Japan. 14 hours. Of nothing. Well, it was kind of fun seeing what an ANA flight was all about and they really don't disappoint (although comparing business class to economy is like comparing American service to Japanese service... (Note: In Japan, they are taught that the customer is God... well, I think you get the picture)). Anyway, as promised: VIDEO TIME.
ANA Flight Food <3 Yum. Rice was cooked perfectly (none of that dry crap) and the eel and beef for delicious (preferred the beef to the eel... is that cause I'm from America?) Sorry bout the sound... planes are loud. Yeah, and playing with FlipVideo so enjoy some Erasure.
So after we got off the plane, we rode the "limousine" bus all the way to Shinjuku-Nishi (a good 2 hours cause of traffic... and its NOT a limousine bus, its just a regular bus sorry to say, Lol). And that was basically Day 1 (well, there was the dinner, but that took FOREVER and my parents were driving me NUTS so I'm just going to omit that for your sake. You're welcome.)
Day#2
So today we basically walked all around Shinjuku and checked into my Oakhouse room where I will be staying for the next couple months.
I think one of the things I really learned today was just how much the American Dollar sucks. It's 88yen to $1 (this is the exchange rate at Travelex) and while that may seem like a lot of yen, compared to the 120yen to $1 years ago, its quite the fall. Ouch. But we traded in $3000 for about 266000 yen so I would be set for the next couple weeks. Or week. Haha, just kidding parents...
Visited a Japanese Convenience store. So just walked around and taped everything :)
After that, we went walking around Shinjuku, went to travelex and after checking into my room, we went to go buy a plug converter at the Odakyu HALC, bic camera place and go eat at this nice Jap-Korean place on the 8th floor. The department store was HUGE and about 4 levels of it were dedicated basically to technology crap like cameras, cellphones, computers, washer/dryers... you name it, it was there.
But I think the most interesting thing I found was these weird little earbuds... well you can just see for yourself.
...Pills... LOL.
But overall it was just one heck of an interesting day. After I got over being totally embarrassed by how much I sucked at Japanese, it was actually a lot easier to navigate and understand what people were saying to me. I did my whole house rental process in Japanese :D *pats back* That was my little moment of zen today.
More about where I live later. I'll take you guys on a tour of the route from Oakhouse Guesthouse to the Nakano-shimbashi station which is west of Shinjuku.
It's just four months. I keep telling myself that over and over again, but I don't think it's quite hit me yet. I doubt I'll really be able to know the effects of being away from everyone I know and love until I'm actually on the plane headed for Japan. Or until my parents leave. Or until I'm two weeks in, missing American food, wanting to speak English and wondering where the hell I got the idea to study abroad for a semester in the first place.
Oh well.
I guess I can honestly say I have no idea why I did this program in the first place... Sorry, Study Abroad Office, yes my entire application essay was a lie. Okay fine, not all of it. I do want to become more fluent in Japanese... but it was probably more the promise of Japanese food everyday than anything. Yum.
What will I see, what will I experience... I wonder at the differences between our two cultures (three if you count Chinese) and wonder if I could possibly find a mutual link between me and the places and people I will be seeing. It will be interesting, I think, to really understand if even in a totally completely different environment, with only a intermediate education in the language, I could somehow make connections with the people that will only see me as a foreigner (but a foreigner that looks like them... I wonder if that will be to my disadvantage there).
Self-imposed isolation? Maybe. I've lived my whole life wishing to get away for awhile. To be alone and truly, really, think about what it is I want and need and wish for to happen will be a blessing in itself. But I will miss home and my friends...
Ah... now that the time is almost near, I feel like I both want to and don't want to go. It will be bittersweet... but I will be back. I think at the end, four months will not be enough. Well, I guess we will see.
In video game terms, this is me in my hometown about to jump into a fateful encounter that will force me to leave my hometown on an EPIC JOURNEY INTO A FOREIGN LAND TO KILL THE BAD GUY. OH YEAH AND SAVE THE WORLD BY CATCHING THEM ALL.
