Monday, December 7, 2009

Days 57-71 in Summary

Strangelove of Joyful Tomoka (Day 60) 11/26/09

The first midterm of the semester began at 9am in the morning; and it was kanji. Good Greif. It was ok, as hard as I expected it, and studying till 2am the night before with Eva was very helpful. Unfortunately for us, Takehara sensei decided to put random vocabulary on the test we barely even covered in the last 5 minutes of class the week before. Other than that it went well (I ended up getting a B!). From class Eva and I went with Jesse, Riika and LuLu to AmPm, our normal place to go Thursday. We have been going so often now, that we are on first name and talking basis with the staff who work there. We go there a lot it seems… . For my globalization class we were treated to an excellent movie, “Dr. Strangelove”, which I had not seen before. It was great, and is now one more Stanley Kubreck (did I spell that right?) film that I have managed to see. It was awesome. From Dr. Strangelove and class Eva, Me and some of our friends went off to surprise one our tutors, Tomoka. Plans changed many times before during the day. It became complex, far more complex than we had planned on, but whatever, we were determined to surprise Tomoka. So when we got back to Oita station we walked a bout 20 mins or so to Joyfull, the local “Denny’s”-esque family restaurant chain. There with friends we ate food and talked and I gotta say the food was a bit sad. Having eaten there for the 3rd time by this point, the food seems to get worse over time somehow, which for me, doesn’t bode well. After Joyfull we brought Tomoka back to the Kaikan and in the lobby we surprised her with cards, gifts and a cake from Ashley. She was really happy, moved to tears even (she said it was her first surprise party). It was fun, sitting there hanging out with friends and celebrating Little Tomoka’s 19th birthday. After sitting in the lobby for awhile, playing cards and trading music with Tomoka we parted ways and some people walked Tomoka back to the station, helping her carry the numerous bags she had received.

Get Lost in the City to Find Music (Day 61) 11/27/09

After Nanri’s class Friday we all rushed off excitedly to Oita station, because we were leaving for Fukuoka for Sumo. We had planned this awhile back, and now we were finally going. We were all excited, talking about what we’d do once we got there. Eva and my friends Ryousuke and Hide were going to meet us in Fukuoka and take us clubbing so wee were excited to see them again. When we got back to the station we grabbed our money, our snacks for the bus and at 4:40 we boarded and headed off to Fukuoka, 2 and a half hours away. The bus we sat on had lots of leg room, a bathroom, T.V. screens and comfy seats. It was the cheapest and nicest way I have travelled in awhile. With us were Fabian, Marion, Quinn, Mina, Riika, Jesse, Ashley, Charlotte, Nora, Gerard and Seulgi. The others, John, Zack, Mike, and Matt were going to meet us the next day. We got into Fukuoka around 7pm that night we wandered around the bus terminal looking for where Hide and Ryosuke were. While trying to find them, we realized Ashley and Riika got off at the wrong stop so they went to the subway to go find their hotel, while Seulgi and charlotte took a taxi to their Korean hotel. Having temporarily solved those problems the rest of us not Korean or lost, headed off to our Hostel close by. It was clean and cheap (only 30$ a night) so we were happy. We dropped off our things, got ready for the evening and went to the station to wait for others. When we got there, after 45mins of waiting we finally got everyone but Gerard ( who had come on a later bus and got off at the wrong station, but decided the hour long walk from his station was do-able) and went to dinner. We had a Fukuoka specialty called Motsu-nabe*. It was really good, and we all had a lot of beer. At the end of the meal we lamented at the high cost of the meal, which Hide and Ryosuke had not mentioned, so we foreigners lamented the loss of our money. Having paid our do’s we went with a slightly drunk Ryosuke as he zigzagged us on foot around the city to the club we were going to. It took an hour of walking and by the time we got there we were a bit tired and miffed; until we got into the club. It was really cool, 2 free drinks for the guys with the entrance fee and the girls could drink as much as they wanted. The club had huge sound, lots of lights and even a fog machine that would go off based on the music. It was a great time dancing, and the DJ could really spin some good dance music. We ended up staying at the club from about 11:30pm until 5am in the morning. I drank a lot more and danced and we all danced and partied through the evening. It was awesome. Abiding a few creepy guys it was a fun time

*Motsu nabe is a hot pot with locally grown Fukuoka vegetables and meat, with noodles added the simmers over a fire in a large wok. It’s VERY, VERY good.


Rest, Recover, Party and Repeat (Day 62)

At 10am I woke up with a pounding headache. The price of partying was steep indeed. We all had to clear out of the Hostel by 11am so we showered and brushed our teeth packed and stumbled about while doing so. 4 ½ of sleep + hangover = shitty. Having cleared out, we headed to Mos Burger for some food and somewhere to sit. I sat there eating only half my food and feeling dizzy, so I asked for some water, multiple times and was kindly helped out by the people there. We sat in Mos burger till 2:30 at first waiting for friends and then just finishing the recovery from our evening. We headed off to sumo, feeling lot better and when we got there ( after waiting some time to help mike find a way in, having left his ticket back in Oita) we sat down in our seat. Our seats were toward the top of the stadium, far from the stage, but as far as we were concerned we could see everything pretty well, so the seats were just fine (if not a bit uncomfortable). So for the next 2 ½ hours we watched sumo and it was pretty cool. There was a lot of ritual between each match but the sumo itself was really cool. There were definitely some gnarly take-downs we saw. We left a little early because some people wanted to catch their bus to Nagasaki and the rest of us wanted to get back to Oita. So we split off, got some food for the bus and headed back to Oita. At 10pm we got back and went to drop off our things in the kaikan. We got ready and left for yet another night of clubbing. Eva, Jesse, Nora and myself were invited to the PEI pub for drinks and dancing. Even though we were really tired, we felt obligated to go, because Hide and Ryosuke were only in town for a short while. So we got to the club and at first Eva wasn’t feeling her best so we took some time outside to give her some fresh air. Minami, Jesse and Jun came outside to check on us and after awhile we went back in. Inside we danced and drank a little. During our time there, there was a 30 minute window for free drinks, so some people took advantage of that boon. Jun was shit-faced drunk and dancing strange and getting way to close for talking, but we all thought it was kinda funny, till he started to throw up. He passed out a bit, head sagging over a bucket. We were worried, and had to help him down the stairs. Albert, our friend from the Marshall islands, held Jun up and guided him SLOWLY down the stairs as I slowly backed down the stairs with a bucket pointed at Jun’s head. It was slow going, Jun had no strength to help out at all. It wasn’t just Jun though, thankfully, some other people were pretty sick and even Ryosuke threw up in the club. I was glad I had not drunk anywhere near as many as they had. Hide looked ok but he stumbled at the slightest touch so we knew he was gone also. We got Jun, Ryousuke, Hide, and poor Jesse who had to babysit them into a taxi and off to their apartment. Eva and I just walked home feeling relieved we hadn’t got the trashed. It had been a long, long day.

The End of the World with Dice (Day 63)

Sunday came and we slept. I slept till noon and felt great. That night after much needed grocery shopping Eva and I went off with Jesse, Minami, Albert, and Kame to go watch a movie and eat at Ethnic Bros. for some bomb ass Mexican food. They were full however so we settled on a small and hidden Izakaya where we ate random drinking snacks and beer until the movie. We ran out of the Izakaya and got to the movie. We watched 2012 with popcorn ( the movies and food were actually a bit cheaper here in Oita than back in the States). The movie was mediocre with its only saving grace the stunning CGI. After the movie we headed ot another Izakaya to continue our night. There we got delcious food for cheap and the drink as much as you want was cheap also, only 1-12$ for an hour and a half. So we enjoyed ourselves eating and drinking. By drinking I mean play an awesome drinking game involving dice. Its called 7-11 or doubles and its definitely the best drinking game I have ever played. It was amazingly fun. We cleared out of the Izakaya at midnight and went back home. We are definitely doing that again!

Christian Martyr on the Mountain (Day 67) 12/2/09

This whole week felt like it started early, every day. Today we had a field trip to Tsukumi, Kamae and Saiki. This trip started when the bus left at 8:50am in the morning, which is way too damn early but what choice did we have? The first stop was a t a memorial for the Christian martyrs at the beginning of the Edo period. The shogun had ordered all foreign Christians to leave and the citizens/ foreigners that refused to convert were slaughtered. This memorial was to honor those 30,000 some odd people that had been killed in the onslaught. A bit morbid for the morning but it did catch our attention. From there we went to Tsukumi to visit the grave of Ohtomo Sorin, and Japanese man who was Christian and supported the underground Christian movement during the Edo anti-christian period. We walked around the mountain, visiting both the real and fake graves ( yes, there’s a fake one, to throw off the former anti-Christian regime). The mountain was really pretty, full of autumn colors and grand vistas. We left Tsukumi and after an hour we arrived in Kamae for a seafood lunch. Kamae is famous in the region for its seafood so we were taken to an esteemed seafood restaurant in the area. I chose the fish sashimi and it was very savory and delicious. A lot of people had opted ofr the beef which I thought was funny considering where we were. After lunch we went to Saiki to visit the castle ruins on top of the mountain. A lot of us chose to take the scenic route up the mountain. While gorgeous and awe inspiring as the nature was, we climbed up outcropping roots, uneven patches of rock and a very wild and steep natural staircase to the top of the mountain. At the top, the tower ruins stood along with a nearly 360 degree view of the surrounding land, and even the sea. It was amazing, a very beautiful sight to behold. We took the easier root down the mountain and by the time we got to the bus, many people were pretty tired. We got back to the Kaikan at about 4:30 and we split off for a nap before dinner. At around 6, we went off together, a group of 14 of us to Ethnic Bros, and were lucky enough to get in. We had our food and fun and talked about the day, which had been, besides tiring, a lot of fun.

Teacher’s doing Karoke (Day 71) 12/6/09

A lot of people are in Okinawa now. Eva and I went to go check out the food floors of the large department store Tokiwa and had fun food shopping around all the different yummy looking things. That evening we went with the Ando’s again and we had delicious dinner, a make your own sushi meal, and talked about many things, in Japanese of course. After dinner Eva and I gave our 2nd English lesson to both Chiemi and some of her friends and family. We had doubled the class size since last time so Eva and I must have been doing well. It was a lot of fun, teaching them English for 2 hours or so, the only trouble being pronouncing certain words. Chiemi and Papa drove us back around 9:30pm and we rested a bit till 10:30. At 10:30 we met Seulgi, Nora, Koji outside with Charlotte. With Charlotte her younger sister from Korea, Alex, had come to visit her and we met her for the first time. She is very nice and speaks really good English, like her sister. We headed off together for some Karaoke on the bottom floor of Parco. We stayed there for 3 hours singing and having fun and got back around 3am. It was fun meeting Charlotte’s sister and singing, even if there were only 6 of us.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Days 42-56 in Summary

I’ve done a lot here during my stay in Japan, and it has taken me time to realize this. The significance of this realization is that I cannot possibly keep up with describing everyday with any sort of efficiency, especially considering my long hours mostly devoted to school. So the following, and from here on out will be a summary of events with the occasional recreation on those days more interesting. I’m hoping this format will be both more concise and enjoyable to read and easier for me to write.

APU Barbeque (Day 42) 11/06/2009

A number of us went to the APU ( Asian Pacific University) Barbeque. APu is a large international University in the town of Beppu, right next to Oita City. The point of the BBQ was to plant sakura trees in the morning along the coast, then enjoy BBQ and entertainment afterward. We from the Kaikan and Oita University opted for later arrival and ended up enjoying the BBQ and the finished product. We were not inclined to wake up at 7am or earlier on a Sunday to plant trees. This seemed somehow not…. Fun. But we got to the BBQ and paid our dues and ate delicious BBQ and rice balls. After we left the BBQ at 3ish we went to Beppu and wandered around a bit, ending up in the red light district with its conveniently located shrine. To quote Zack and Mike “ Go enjoy your sins on this side of the street and pray for your eternal soul on the other”. A little unsettling but we had fun. When we returned to the kaikan we watched Zombie Land, which I have got to say, is a pretty kick ass zombie film; just the right mix of scary/gore and comedy.

Field Trip to: Sapporo Forest Brewery, Mameta-Machi for lunch, The “Old Town” section of Hita and Sarayama for Ontayaki Pottery (Day 43)

The bus left at 8:55 and arrived a full ten minutes earlier than planned. Regardless the teachers acted as if it were the last chopper out of Saigon, and stressed us out with “ Were leaving soon, Hurry! We will leave without you if you don’t hurry!”. Complete Bullshit. I managed to break my skull candy ear buds on a seat as I rushed to grab a jacket. That was the shittiest start to a field trip I can remember. We left 5 minutes late. Damn Kumamoto and her lies to hell. We arrived at the brewery on time and after a short tour were allowed to drink up to 3 beers on the house ( non-alcoholic beverages were also available). So we had 25 minutes to enjoy the beer, and me along with many of the foreigners decided to utilize our time and drink a shit load. I ended up having 4 ½ because two of the girls didn’t like their beer. Their loss, and my gain. Even the teachers drank. It was hands down the coolest field trip ever by this point. So , rather liquered up, we took a short ride over to a buffet style restaurant with delicious food and drinks. We ate and were merry, slowly coming down from our beer euphoria. After lunch we headed to Old Hita for a short walk, where I got a local flavor of Ramune, Fuji Apple, which was really good. From Hita we tarveled for a half an hour or so up the near by mountain to Sarayama for pottery. This tiny village, famous for its pottery is gorgeous and absolutely pristine. The pottery was only a distraction compared to the gorgeous nature as far as I was concerned. After Sarayama we returned to the Kaikan bys bus, most people falling asleep on the way. That night while eating chicken nuggets and fries ( me and Eva cooked them ourselves) we watched my new TV. A cheap steal at 60$ and shaped like a box of French fries, complete with realistic feeling fries. I found it at the local electronics store while in pursuit of new earphones. Life is funny sometimes…


Joyfull (Day 46)

After class our Intercultural Communication Teacher, Nagaike Sensei took us to Joyfull. Joyfull is famous in Oita and is most similar to an American Denny’s except the food is higher quality, its half Japanese style of food and for 2$ you can get as many free refills as you want. Nagaike sensei treated us and paid for our dinners; all 13 or of us. It was fun and a little unusual to be on such and even level with a teacher, but we all enjoyed it as we listened to her unique perspective of Japanese behaviors over our warm plates of food.

Monkey Mountain and Sea Egg ( Day 47)

A group of us left in the late Morning for Beppu with two places in mind to see; Mt. Takasaki and Umi-tamago. The reason is because some of us had to do research for our upcoming presentations in class, so we needed pictures and info. So we got on a Bus in Beppu and arrived at Mt. Takasaki in about 15 minutes. At the entrance to the Mountain Park, you have the option to pay a dollar more to ride the monorail up the mountain to the monkeys. Assuming it would be toward the top, this seemed very cheap and a good deal indeed. What a rip off, it was only a 5 minute walk from the entrance to the “top” where the monkeys were. LAME! Anyway, the monkeys were really cute and adorable (most of the time, if they weren’t Shitting, Fighting or Fucking). We got to even see feeding time and watched the 700 some odd monkeys of the 1700 on the mountain that frequent the human visiting area feed en masse. It was really fun! After ward we walked down from the mountain and took an extra 5 minutes upon reaching the gate to reach Umi-tamago ( they are on opposite sides of the street from one another). Umi-tamago is a large, egg-shaped Aquarium in Beppu that’s right on the bay. It has a huge selection of fish and animals including; 10+ types of sharks, giant manta rays, Twilight zone fish, otters, dolphins, penguins, pelicans, sloths etc. I have only touched the surface of this very large catalog the Aquarium possesses. There also extremely well trained walruses that can blow kisses, do sit up and give you a high five among other things. It was a lot of fun to see all the fish and sea life and I plan on going back again, but with a charged camera battery and video camera. After Umi-tamago we stopped in a Department store quickly for an amazing ice cream flavor (Fuji Apple) and then went off to Meiji sushi to celebrate our friend, Nora, and her performance downtown that day.

由布院、Totoro’s Home Town ( Day 48)

We went with the Ando’s for what we thought was a day of hot springs and food. It turned out to be a bit different than we thought. We drove to the woody town of Yufuin, nestled between mountains on all sides. Its gorgeous and as me Eva and I found out, the town the inspired the setting for Tonari no Totoro. They even had a large Ghibli shop where many cool things from all the Ghibli movies were. I got a kodama key chain, after years of searching I finally found one ^_^ . For lunch we went to a nice restaurant and had amazing omu rice*. After lunch and wandering around a bit, the Ando’s brought us to a small Tea house tucked in the back of Yufuin and we enjoyed a very rare tea ceremony that is only practiced in THAT tea house; no where else. Its famous in Beppu and definitely unique. I liked it, even having to eat the tea leaves at the end with soy sauce. Eva and Chiemi found it to bitter, but I liked. After tea we got in the car and drove to Beppu. We drove up to a little onsen on one of the nearby mountains and enjoyed the hot springs. I was able to experience, an outdoor onsen, a Japanese sauna, which uses bamboo as floor boards to create a healing aroma, and the indoor natural bath, which was about 110 degrees Fahrenheit. It was a little hot at first but I felt so much better after the bath. Having finished the onsen, we drove to a Udon shop for dinner where I ate Kim-chi Udon with a side of Steak over rice. I ate it all and it was absolutely delicious. It was a little unexpected but a very fun day.

*Omu Rice is short for “Omelet Rice”. Its when you cook an omelet to the point its semi solid, throw cooked rice in the center and flip it cooking the rice and omelet together. Its simple to make and really good



Always Sunny in Japan (Day 50)

In the afternoon our friend Jesse, and one of the tutors, Erika Yamamoto came back to the Kaikan. Jesse worked on our joint Grammar and discourse presentation for awhile and then we met up again with Erika, who was hanging out with mike at the time. Erika is a really outgoing and friendly person. She is well versed in English and thrives with people from other places. Some us decided that when she came over, we would share with her an American Cultural experience not to be missed; Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It was her first time watching, and we decided we would give Erika the gift of laughter for helping us out. She really seemed to enjoy it, despite the colloquial slang (she said she could only understand half of it, but loved it anyway). For those that know the show we showed her “The Gang Gets Invincible” and then “Hundred Dollar Baby”.

SPICE (Day 54)

After class we went looking for winter clothes and found some at Uniqlo. Eva, Matt, Mike and I were hungry after though, so we went to go have food and decided on SPICE. SPICE is a restaurant the specializes in Omu Rice and Curry. So we all sat down and looked around, taking it in. The music played was Jazz (refreshing I must say) and the décor was subdued and mostly woody and dark colors. It was a very chill atmosphere. We all ordered and enjoyed the food, which only took about 15 minutes or so. I got the Mozzarella Cheese Omu Rice, Eva got the Tomato Sauce Omu Rice and Matt got the Cheese Curry. All wee excellent and only 500-800 yen for a large plate. It was Super good and Eva and I will definitely return!

Hips Don’t Lie (Day 56) 11/20/2009

After school we purchased our bus tickets for Fukuoka and the upcoming Sumo match and went home to prepare for the evening. That evening, there would be Latin dance, and I would see myself vicariously dragged into it. We all left together at 8:30 in front of the Kaikan and walked to the small club in the back of the local shopping arcade. Before we arrived Eva broke her heel walking on flat ground, right in front of a Walgreens-type of store. How strange to break your shoe right in front of a store that may have the glue to fix it. It didn’t however and luckily for Eva, Mina brought an extra pair of shoes which Eva borrowed and the night was still on. When we arrived, the DJ for the club was the salsa teacher from the Latin dance classes offered to International students. The reason for the ‘Latin Night’ made a little more sense now. So as we wee the first to arrive, we cashed in our free drink tickets and started to drink and prepare for the dancing. I stuck with coke, feeling I would need all my dexterity for this evening, Eva had that “ I REALLY wanna dance!” look in her eye. So I prepared for the coming storm. The other started to arrive by 9:30 and in a half hour the place was full. It took awhile but Eva eventually got me on the dance floor where I put all I had in trying to keep in time with the beat and move my feet. I somehow managed. I even danced with some of our other friends who seemed to have a lot of fun, despite my inexperience. It was actually pretty fun, Eva was proud, and I felt a bit strange but happy I had pushed myself to do it. Whatever, I can get my hips to move now, say the girls, so I’m happy about that. Abiding a few detours, we made it back home in one piece and went to sleep.

Bamboo Lanterns before the Ruins (Day 57)

We gather around 1:30pm and picked up snacks and drinks at the local Conbini for our trip. We were going to Takeda-Machi to view the Bamboo Lantern Festival. When we got on the train at the station it was only an hour and a half trip. During the train ride we munched on our snacks and talked, meanwhile enjoying the breath taking fall colors of the local flora. When we arrived we could see the unlit bamboo lanterns littering the streets and shops windows, in preparation for the evenings festivities. The first thing we wanted to do before the festival was head up to The Ruins of Oka Castle and take in the view. Along the way we passed a candle shop with both beer and coffee candles. I was tempted to buy either one or both but resisted the urge. We also got to participate in lighting some of the bamboo lanterns near the edge of town, part of a large display leading to the castle. We started to light them just fine when an older gentlemen toward the center of the display, winding its way up the stairs, knocked over a couple and like dominos, many fell in kind down the steps. Amid the great crescendo of hollow wood on stone we got out of the way of the deluge. After they had settled down, we offered our help and got the lanterns at least standing back up. We walked through a few tunnels and then up the mountain gradually as it got darker. We got to the castle at dusk and walked up and around through it as the lights dimmed. It was gorgeous, with large stone parapets and towers over grown with moss and standing as sentinels of a long ago past. Around and inside the castle ruins is a large and beautiful collection of Maple leaves all colors of Orange and red seemed to be represented. From the top of the ruins, you can see all of Takeda and beyond and at sunset it will take your breath away. Went it got dark we trudged back down the mountain and walked around the town, enjoying the numerous large and small lantern displays as we searched for food. We came upon a large open area crammed with shops and tables under canopies. Here we had dinner and we employed a little trick to ensure we could taste a little of everything. We each took turns going out and buying two servings of something delicious and bringing it back to share. We ended up having hot dogs on a sticks, roasted pork on a stick, rolled cabbage, karage, grilled rice balls, yakitori, yakisoba, sweet sugar bread, French fries, takoyaki and a lot of Tea. The tea was all free and I had many warm cups of Kabosu* tea. Having eaten our fill, we got out into the town on the way back to the station. Along the way, a number of us, myself included bought our own bamboo lanterns. A real authentic piece of the festival, and only 500 yen! At the train station we left for home, with half of us falling asleep on the way back. When we got back to the Kaikan we separated and slept. It had been a long and wonderful day.

*Kabosu is a locally grown lime, its bitter like lemon, but not as intense. It is renowned for its uses in tea, sweet food and as an ingredient in many local dishes. When its green it is sour and used in tea and food, but when it ripens to yellow it is used in candy and cakes and can be eaten also. Its sour but not to sour and also sweet. In other words its really delicious!

Days 36-41

Day 36

The Festival came early. We arrived at 9am and it started an hour later. Good thing to; it took about that amount of time to set up. We got the signs hanging, ingredients cut and set up and plugged in our portable cookers to await the coming customers. But as luck would have it, shortly after 10 am, it begins to rain. In the words of Charlie Brown, “UGGHH!”. It was a cold long day.

At first business was slow, so me, Jesse and some of the tutors walked around with signs and samples of food and tried to peak some interest. This had very limited success and after two twenty minute walk around, we gave up and handed off the advertisements and sample to Tomoka and the other tutors. Surely they won’t do any worse right? Well they kicked ass, and brought in a lot of business. Were not sure how, but some of us speculate its Tomoka’s small stature and big eyes that drew all the people to us. Between her and then Rie, Ryoko and Mari yelling non stop to come try American food, we actually made a little profit off of the day.

During the festival I tried a number of foods like, a BBQ meat Onigiri ( it was Amazing!), Some Gyouza from the Chinese, Some Hot Thai soup from the Thai booth, Some German potato salad and meatballs from the Germans and some Hungarian meat and noodle soup ( cant remember the name). It was all very good, but I was unable to try out the Korean food which I had planned to do earlier.

Through the festival we all had jobs to perform; I sat at the front and sold and talked to customers, Eva controlled the grilling of sandwiches with help from whoever was able, John cut all the veggies, Zack made the PB&J’s and Nozomi did a little bit of everything. Everyone else was performing random jobs as matt surveyed us all and made sure things ran smoothly. At the end, of the festival at 4pm, the rain had stopped ( oh the friggin’ irony), and we ended up making a 40$ profit. We did ok, but still had some left over materials. The Chinese and Hungarian booths sold out and made over 80$, but the Germans barely broke even. We did ok , and were happy to not have lost money.

By 4:30 we disassembled our stand and began to take all the random food leftovers back home. We were all very tired and ended up separating and napping for awhile before dinner. We ended up spending some of our profit on Pizza and we all piled into Jon’s room to eat pizza and watch Kitchen Nightmares. By 11pm or so we were exhausted and separated to sleep off the long day.

Day 37

I woke up past 1 am and studied till the afternoon. It was nice catching up on chores and homework and taking a break from the hustle and bust;le of living abroad. In the late Afternoon I went with Eva to MaruKyou and picked up some groceries. On the way back from the store, the wind and rain started and for the rest of the night it was cold, windy and rainy. Not exactly a pleasant night. It was ok however, Eva and I watched Robot Chicken and made good food. So a pretty relaxed day in all.

Day 38

Another mostly quiet day. I slept in late and continued to study. It was Culture Day in Japan, which means we have this Tuesday off, Woot!

At 4pm Matt, myself, John, Eva and Nora went off to Oita station to find Wasada Town so we could pick up much needed things at Nitori, a big store that’s kind of like the Japanese IKEA.

When we found the right bus and got there, the first thing we headed for was food. We stumbled upon a KFC and decided to try the Japanese version of and American classic. It was definitely different, but good all the same. There was even a Colonel Sanders statue outside, fully adorned with a Santa outfit. As Zack likes to say, “This country both Amuses and terrifies me”.

Having finished KFC we went off to Nitori, but got sidetracked along the way and wandered into a pet store. Inside were a wide variety of very cute puppies and kitties along with fish, rodents, birds and my favorite, a hedgehog. I really want that damn hedgehog >_<. We stood around and looked at the animals for a half hour or so and then eventually made it to Nitori.

We all walked around and got a number of essential items. I got a large pan with a lid, a carpet roller to clean my carpet, 2 big bowls and some random stuff. John got a giant stuffed dog and rug warmer, and Nora got a carpet, chair, and a whole bunch of stuff. Eva got a dish drying rack and chair, and Matt got a carpet that he really wanted.

When we finished, we called a cab and took our things back home, happy with our purchases. Later that night after separating we checked out Johns carpet warmer and agreed it was nice ( although not as warm as you would expect). We had to go to sleep though because school begins again Wednesday.

Day 39

School again, and it was long. I had Japanese 3B, Discover Oita and Japanese Cyber Culture. It was 4 and a half hours of class, but thankfully little homework.

When we finished class some of us went over to Lotteria to pick up some warm food. I got two burgers and some fries ( the burgers here are good deal smaller than American sizes). As we walked home, Eva got a call from Chiemi and Papa. Chiemi told her that she had come to the Kaikan to drop us off some food. We were a bit surprised and I felt silly too, holding fast food with the promise of homemade food waiting only minutes away. So we told her we’d get there soon and headed off for home.

When we got back, Chiemi was in her car and she handed us homemade Karage and Kontatsu. We were excited and felt just a little guilty that the Ando’s helped us so much yet it felt like we had not gave back in kind nearly enough. So we took our food with interest and headed for my room. On the way, Eva found a package from home and we opened it while eating. The package was very strange and we both giggled a bit at some of the things inside.

John came by after we realized we couldn’t eat all the food and helped us eat some. We went to his room when we were done and studied Kanji while watching more Kitchen Nightmares. Its a strange end to a long day.

Day 40

Long day again. Once more AmPm was the light at the end of the tunnel, which is our Kanji class. By the time I got home I was exhausted and took a nap. I slept for an hour and a half, and when I woke, I felt so much better about life in general.

I managed to get my homework and stuff done before 9pm and hung out with Eva for some time. Around 11:30 we ran into matt in the entrance hall and he offered to take us to Donkey, and show us how to get their by foot. We obliged and soon after we headed off to Donkey. It is open till 3am , so we were prepared for some late night shopping.

After 30 mins or so we arrived and went around its floors exploring. I got some interesting snacks and drinks, along with a kanji practice book and a pasta strainer. Matt got an iron and Eva got some water and a random bath smelly thing, the type girls seem to like.

We finished around 1:50 am and decided we were lazy and wanted to take a taxi, so matt called one up and we went home to sleep. I got to bed around 3am, but that’s ok; class doesn’t start till 1:10pm on Friday.

Day 41

Before class at 12:30 was a mandatory meeting for the foreign students. We met and discussed a few things like a University T-shirt design and the upcoming culture fair we were expected to participate at in December. The Americans got slected to make food for the event, again. I hope it goes well.

We went to class and had a test, nothing special. After class though, a large group of us got together and went to Karaoke in downtown Oita. We sung for 4 hours and had a lot of fun, Charlotte and Ashley were great again, and Jesse and Surugi were both great too, it was their first time with us and they were really impressive! We even got Lulu to do a few Chinese songs and it was a great time. For the four hours plus all we could drink ( non-alcoholic) was only 5$! How cheap right?

After Karaoke we got really hungry so we headed over to ethnic brothers and had some great food. It was Lulu, Surugi , Tomoka, Nozomi and Mina (Japanese Mina)’s first time eating Mexican food. It was exciting to watch them eat it the first time, and they all loved it.

We stayed there eating and drinking for awhile and left around 9:30 or so. We walked back to the kaikan, playing around and laughing. When we got back, Nora, Zack and Matt headed to my room with Eva and we watched some Robot Chicken. Eva fell asleep during the 2nd episode so we decided to call the night early and headed off to sleep.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Finally an Eva Post!

Hey all! finally got the chance to relax, and write in this blog! Yay....
Anyway to make a very long saga short, Living in Oita has been a roller coaster, ups and downs and learning many valuable things, making new friends from around the world, even thought this place has it's ups and downs, i'm really beginning to enjoy it here. So in the past week i've mostly been studying, doing laundry, at school, or hanging out with the kaikan gang, :) I'm just glad that we're all are kind of like Melrose place type of community without all the bullshit, and backstabbing, It's just really nice to finally live in a place where no one wants to start anything, and just wants to get along. I'm very happy for that! :)

It's odd to also think that we have been here for such a long time, the semester is almost up?! I can't believe it.... anyway this winter Jari, the Ando Family and I are going to Okinawa, I'm really exited about it although it's going to be expensive (for me) but i'm for sure it's going to really be worth it :)

My friend Rikka and I have been freezing up here lately!! it's sooooo cold!! >< I hope that we can buy a coat soon before we turn into popsicles!!

Tonight's plan seems to be Curry Night/ Always with John, John is a pretty cool guy, very quiet, but he's like the kind of person who once you get to know him, he becomes more talkative. It's kinda scary, but sometimes Jari and I giggle about how sometimes he's really similar to me. aahaa....

Hopefully i'll remember to take some videos of my life here, i'm sure you want to see it from my point of view!! wow.... I really want to go eat an ice cream now......... nam nam nam!

Tata for now!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Days 22-32: The Roller Coaster that is Drinking

Day 22

The day was calm, mostly studying, chores and errands; Before hand we were able to hang out more with the Ando’s. We went with Papa to what we were told was a “FREE MARKET”. Eva and I assumed this was some Japanese type of Japanese sale where everything would be cheap. But as we found out when we pulled into Donkey (a massive store that sells literally everything and is as colorful and wild as a pachinko parlor), it was nothing like we thought. The Japanese pronunciation of ‘Flea Market’ is apparently very close to ‘Free Market’. That was fine though, at the ‘FLEA market’ we walked around a bit and found some good things for really cheap. I even found some great gifts for friends that I am pretty sure they’ll be excited about.

When we finished shpping we went with papa and his mother, Obaa-san, and we went to a local Denny’s like restaurant called “CoCo’s”. Not to be confused with the American “CoCo’s”. This place was known for its curry and mix of Japanese and Western food. I had a quesadilla and some curry rice. Lunch was fun, and we able to talk to Papa and Obaa-san a bit. It wasn’t long before me and Eva had to return to do studying and papa had to drive to Beppu for his job.


The Night however was a completely different matter. We planned on going to celebrate our friends Peter and Mickey’s Birthday. That night was anything but dull or calm.

We all met up at about 7:30 to walk to Izakaya* because Peter had reserved a few rooms there for the occasion.

(* Izakaya is a general term for an establishment that allows patrons to reserve a room and eat and drink freely there for a specified time. You can be as loud as you want and bring a lot of people too and its always a lot of fun. Usually the drinks and food are pretty cheap but of good quality and they also provide deals. An example, drink as many alcoholic drinks you’d like all night (nomihoudai = drink all you can for a flat rate) for 30$ and a required 2 orders of food. The food was cheap between n2-10$ depending on what you order and theres no requirements as to what you order. So if you bought two 2$ orders of food plus the 30$ flat rate you can drink any and all of the alcohol you want. They have a huge selection too, so there’s nearly no limit as to what you can drink. In short it’s a cheap way to drink, party and eat with your friends for cheap. )

We grabbed other friends at the train station who live on campus and we headed over to the place. It was huge and multiple stories. The 40 or so of us in the group fit between two rooms. And after 15 mins of taking drink orders and food orders, the party started. It was amazing to watch how quickly people changed as the alcohol started to flow. I got inivited into the other room I wasn’t sitting in multiple times to down warm sake shots ( usually 2-4 at a time) by very boisterous friends. Peter, being one of the two birthday boys was most drunk and decided my participation in drinking copious amounts of alcohol was important. I did what any American would do, I kept drinking with him, all else be damned. It was a lot of fun!

Throughout the night I had beer, a number of mixed drinks, khalua and milk being the best of those, Gin and tonic ( which I now have an interest in) and a number of other things I took sips from that were offered by friends. I made sure to kept eating and had some Japanese style fried chicken, Karage, along with some spicy fried cartilage ( I know you probably just internally gagged at the thought, but it was really good, honestly).

By the end of our 4 hours we all stumbled out in a huge group and attempted to take a group picture when some Japanese pedestrians offered to take our pictures for us, and we obliged. We stumbled home afterward, filled with liquor and good times, to find our beds and fall asleep.

Day 23


The day after drinking and I felt pretty damn good. No hangover or anything. I had counted way over 15 shots the night before, but I guess living in this country has really built my tolerance for the sauce.

The day agenda was to get our Alien registration cards ( the real ones) and to help John and Zack get their wire transfers to work so they’d have money. We got it done after 2 hours or so and thank god, cause we were pretty bored and hungry by the end of it. We all decided to go get lunch immediately finishing the bank stuff and off we went to the shopping arcade. By we I mean Eva, Zack, John, Nora and Riika. We decided on Mos burger after not too long and it was an excellent choice. The burgers are delcious and much more variety of toppings than I’m used to. Plus like I’ve said before, the fries are so so much better than “In n out”. The food was heaven. I tried out the chicken pack and large fries with large melon soda. It was wonderful, and I definitely will come back more.

Afterward we returned home for naps, a quick grocery run and relaxing. I found some very nice speakers for my computer. My computer without the speakers isn’t that loud, especially on videos on-line and DVDs. These speakers have really change dthat, and they were cheap too, so I’m very happy. Me and Eva could finally watch “That 70’s Show” and hear what was going on. The day was once again very good.

Day 24

School again, we had Japanese 3A with Sakai sensei and she was genki as usual. She had us work with pictures to help describe situations and people to others. Example:

“ Who is that person with the glasses sitting in the car?, Oh, I remember him from ____ but I cant remember., Is he the one from the reunion?, Yea, is it Gorbachov?, Yea, it is!”

The exercise was silly and fun, but very important practical use for us. We always learn something practical with Sakai sensei.

After class Eva and I went looking for a kanji dictionary, being in drastic need of one, and took a little walk from campus to the second hand book, videogame, DVD, and CD shop in Shikido called “ Book Off”. The walk was only about 15 mins or so, and along the way we some some strange things along with a cute little green frog and a migratory locust. The nerd in me was excited over these small things, lol.

Along the way we stopped at a chain restaurant of greasy spoon type of establishments called Sukiya. Sukiya serves its food fresh, fast and Hot. Its delicious, cheap and there is a wide variety to choose from. I had the Niku-don, which is rice with sautéed beef and caramelized onions on top and them a hand full of cheese sprinkled on top of that. What more could a guy ask for if not meat and cheese?

When we did get to the store after lunch, we were told the jisho we were looking for wasn’t there, so, a little sad we headed off in search of it. The dictionary we had been looking for was on the DS and allowed you to practice kanji and also look up unfamiliar ones by writing them onto the DS’s touch interface. But it was an older game and therefore hard to find. Japan in its ancient and complex world of simplicity, it is hard to find traces of the past with the future and present overshadowing everything. The speed forward for Japan leaves the past out of sight and soon out of mind. This strange dichotomy would not have been around 60 years ago in Japan.

Me and Eva went back to Oita City and tried a few local game shops to find the kanji jisho but with no luck. It was a little frustrating if nothing else, but whatever. I’ll find one eventually. Me and Eva got back home and just worked on homework till dinner.

At 7:30 new got hungry and hit up a nearby udon shop for some delicious food. I got the suteiki-don. Suteiki-don was deliciously grilled steak, chopped up and placed atop a bowl of rice with caramelized onions. It is indeed a rarity in this country to not eat something delicious. After dinner, it was incredibly easy to fall asleep, full and satisfied.

Day 25

Wednesday was a lot of class, starting from 10:40 until about 4:20. It’s a long day. Afterward all Eva and I wanted to do was sleep. We were told by our friends Jesse and Surugi that we could use a free online kanji dictionary that they reccomened, so they gave us the URL and we hoped that this might be the solution to our problems; only time would tell though. As we were returning home that night after classes, we met up with an acquaintance from SFSU, Raymond. Now its not the Raymond Eva roomed with, but one in his 40’s-50’s who had already studied Abroad in Oita and was back for his masters. We talked with him awhile and he helped us out and pointed us toward both cheese shops and a Mexican restaurant. So me, Zack and Eva went over to find both.

We went to the first basement floor of Tokiwa, One of the huge local department stores. We not only found cheese ( which I bought a chunk of cheddar cheese) but a HUGE selection of alcohol. We three decided to come back again for the alcohol another day.

We went looking for the Mexican restaurant next and after some walking around found it. It was tucked in a back alley and near a pig shaped sign. It was put in a strange place so it was no wonder it was harder to find. The place is called “ Ethnic Brothers” and it had been around since 1989. Raymond had told us it serves the best Mexican food in all of Oita, but we would have to try it out and make sure. The menu on the outside said it was open 6pm-12am so we decided to come back, especially after seeing it had a selection of American and Mexican, Mexican food like burritos, chimichangas and nachos. This was another big moment in my Japanese stay, finding a Mexican restaurant. Walking back to the kaikan we found a large karaoke bar and a theatre. This too was exciting, because we could now watch the occasional film. They were playing some Japanese films, The “Astro Boy” movie and a Japanese made version of “Sideways”. “Inglorious Basterds” and “Up” were coming in November and December respectively and we decided we need to go and watch them both.

When we returned to the kaikan I tried out the online dictionary jesse recommended and it is perfect. With this we can look unfamiliar kanji pretty easily and it wont cost a single cent. I was excited that I could finally do my Japanese homework for Kanji. It wasn’t long though before we grabbed some of our friends and went off to try out the Mexican restaurant.

The restaurant is amazing. It looks and feels like a taqueria back in the states. The food is excellent and the atmosphere very laid back. I was even given a free drink because it was my birthday, and I chose a margarita. This was the final test to certify this place as a great Mexican restaurant ,and they passed. Not only was it delicious, it was served to me and a mug shaped like a woman’s mammary. The whole table found this very amusing.

When we finished we returned home, elated at our new find, and vowing to return again soon.

Day 26

The longest day is always F&%^ing Thursday! Early class at 9 and it goes till 4:20. The best part of the day is when Eva, Jesse, Riika and myself go to AmPm, the conbini, and have a mid morning lunch. Today though, we invited one our classmates, Lulu from China, to join us.

It was fun talking and eating with people, and during the conversation, Lulu said she could give us a microwave that no one was using. Me and Eva jumped on the opportunity for a free microwave. This was like the holy grail of cooking appliances, and we had been looking for one for a few weeks. It was feeling like today would be pretty damn good.

After class, and keeping her word, Lulu brought us the microwave at the station and we thanked her many times over, deciding Lulu must be our newest companion in our group on foreigners. How nice do you have to be to give away a microwave? Very nice indeed.

That night, with help from mike we humped it back to the kaikan and put it in Eva’s room. After cleaning the apparently VERY dirty thing ( eva looked traumatized from the experience). Mike and matt sought us out and we ecided to get some pizza. There wasa special for medium pizzas, 3 for 10$ a piece so we decided to have pizza that night. Matt made the call and picked them up on his bike, In 20 mins from ordering we were eating and very happy. The place we ordered from was called “ California Pizza”. Whatever, the pizza was good. We got two meat pizzas and a basal/garlic/tomato one. Oishikatta. (it was delicious). When we finished eating matt brought out his TV and we watched a Japanese movie called “Summer Wars” which is REALLY cool, and is a contemporary view of Japanese cyber culture and its influence on the world. It was a very good movie. We tried to watch it originally on the hue TV in the lobby but it has one problem; a big black box that obscures the screen. Now, we can watch TV, but any time we insert a DVD it does not work what so ever. This is incredibly lame, and we have no idea why we cant watch DVDs in the lobby we all pay 20$ a month for. Its complete Bullshit.

After the movie, despite the crappy TV, we went to bed full and happy.

Day 27

Friday is a day I have class, except not today. Nanri sensei was away for a conference of some sort so we had no class (until the following Monday at 9am). I spent the day getting all the homework I could done and then I went with Eva to MaruKyou for groceries.

At about 5:30 we went with Charlotte to Meiji Sushi fro dinner. Someone she knew from Korea had come visit her, and she wasn’t too happy about it. This guy that been hitting on her for awhile invited himself over to Oita. Charlotte only found out the day before when he surprised her with the news. In short this guy is a douche bag, and we, her friends planned to help out.

When we saw him that night, he was tiny, mousy and looked like a high schooler even though he was supposedly 25. This would be too easy. When we got to Meiji, I directed the tables and put myself, Eva, John, Zack and Charlotte at one table, with Mike, Nora , Matt and Ass-face at the other. Charlotte thanked me and seemed to relax a little bit at the distance between herself and him. The whole dinner though, he threw many sad looks her way. Dinner was good, but most of were still up for hanging out, so after we got back downtown, we decided to hit up an arcade and we left Charlotte to return home because she was ‘busy’ and ‘couldn’t hangout with Ass-face.

The rest of us went to an arcade and dicked around with the games and things for awhile. Zack and I played some Silent hill shooting game and Eva with help from matt managed to score a claw game stuffed animal. Eva couldn’t stop cooing at it, so I guess its pretty cute. We finally got to taking puri kura* and it was a lot of fun, if not confusing.

We eventually got home and went to bed though, we had spent way too much time in that arcade, but it had been fun.

(* puri-kura are pictures taken inside a small booth with various backgrounds you choose. When your done with the pictures, you can decorate them in a number of elaborate ways and them print them out and/or have them sent to your Japanese cell phone to be used as a background. The total cost is only 4$, i.e. 400 yen)

Day 28


At 6:30 I was awoke by a loud series of bangings that sounded as if someone was bouncing a basketball off my door, hard. So I stuck my head out, and the noises seemed to stop. I was pretty agitated though, and stood near the door, waiting, and sure enough I heard them again. I stomped outside, all fire and brimstone and stared at the culprits with a look akin to death incarnate. The perpetrators were tow chinses girls caring down a piece of luggage down stairs to a friend’s car. Why you ask? She was going on a trip, or so she said. But instead of caring the god damn suitcase they had decided that dropping it down each and every step through 3 flights of stairs was the way to go. I glared at the lead one and she bowed , explained herself, and apologized. Her freidn started laughing, perhaps because I was in a tank top, shorts and sandals with touseled hair, but I was in no mood for that. I glared at her with a look that said “ Bitchm what are you laughing at? Am I funny to you right now? Like am I ha-ha funny? Am I here for your amusement?”. She quickly stopped and backed away a little. I stood there for 30 secs or so staring them down, and them I went back to my room. Grumpy as…. Well a bear I suppose.

Later around 11 am I went to Eva’s room where she made breakfast and we talked, it was definitely an improvement in my morning. The eggs, sausage and bacon were great!

Around noon a number of people went to a large home necessities store called home wide and got a few things. But when we got back we had only enough time to drop off our things before we went out to another place with Charlotte called “Joyfull”. This restaurant is a cross between a Denny’s and a Diner. The food was good and the drinks had unlimited refills so we sat awhile talking and having fun.

We decided after dinner to go back and play some poker at the kaikan. Which was fun except between Hun and John, we all lost our chips. Thankfully we weren’t playing with money, lol.

Day 29

Raining and dark, That is how Sunday was. Eva and I were supposed to meet our friend Ryohei at the station at 1pm, but the weather made us feel like abdicating that plan. We went though, but with Ryohei we decided not to go to the festival we had planned. Instead we went to have lunch at a local hole in the wall. The food was excellent, I had Dango-Jiru which is big thick noodles made of rice and served with a hot broth and many diced veggies. It’s an Oita local specialty and a damn good one, one that’s incredibly filling.

We finished, and Ryohei dragged us around for awhile to a far away building where he tried to get us to join his English/Japansese conversation group. Me and Eva by this point, cold tired and wet were a bit annoyed. Especially when Ryohei didn’t exactly explain himself till we arrived at the place.

We returned to the kaikan afterward and dried off, trying to et more homework done. That night me and Eva drank with some people from the kaikan. Whisky was involved and I remember only parts of the evening. This was not a good idea, as I would find out the next day…

Day 30

Class was at 9 and I woke up at 6am still a little tipsy/ hungover. Shit!

It was this moment in time I decided to take a month off drinking to de-tox. I couldn’t manage to eat anything because I was nauseous, but at the same time I was hungry.

Getting to and sitting through class was a trial of will, but I managed. When Eva and I got home, we made some Ochazuke which is great for hangovers and not to mention delicious. Making it helped wake me up from my stupor and feel a lot better.

At 1:30pm though we had to stop and go do the mandatory fire drill orientation. This included a lecture on fire and earthquake safety procedures , use of the fire extinguisher for practice and the earthquake-mobile. We each took a trun at the extinguisher and yelled “kajida!!” which is Japanese for ‘Fire!!”. It was fun, and a little silly. The earthquake mobile was good too, we got in and bounced around and laughed. John managed to look bored through both experiences and we all thought that was incredibly entertaining.

Afterward me and eva separated for homework but connected again that night. We made pizza and watched some DVds and relaxed, this was a lot more fun than getting as drunk as we did the night before, especially me. A good end to a miserable experience.

Day 31

Class and then lunch. We started to plan for the upcoming weekends festival and the American food booth we had to run, the planning was in progress with Matt at the helm. We decided to make hotdogs, grilled cheese sandwiches and Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. Why so easy and cheap? We had to make big amounts of them and use our own money. Plus some key ingredients for American foods are unavailable, Not to mention we haven’t found a single oven we could use.

Lunch over with, Eva, Zack , Ashely and I went back to town and Got some necessary home items at Daiso. Then from Daiso we went to cheap and fashionable clothing store called Uniqlo, which is like the Japanese version of Gap, but with that unique Japanese fashion sensibility. Eva and Zack got a few things and we left. The rest of the night was used to study for Kanji and grammar because the next day I had a large Japanese test to study for.

I finished studying with a lot of confidence. So having finished early, I went on youtube and stumbled across a music video. It was beautiful, both the song and video. I was touched, and blown away by the song and replayed it several times. I couldn’t get it out of my head. The Artist name is Enomoto Kurumi and the song is “Anata ni Tsutaetai”. The song name translates out to “I want to tell you” and its gorgeous. The plan for the next day, was to definitely find this song and buy the single.


Day 32

Wednesday was busy again. The Grammar test in the morning was tough but I felt I got nearly all the questions right, and that made me really happy. During lunch we had to go to a traffic safety seminar instead of eat, oh joy.

It was like being treated like a child, all the basic common sense stuff was explained to us and the few things we didn’t know could have been summed up in a short pamphlet. It was a waste of time.

When we finished the seminar, Myself along with others had thought our next class was cancelled. We were wrong and thankfully we as a group decided to go to class and make sure of its cancellation or not. Class was boring in Discover Oita and very interesting in Japanese Cyber Culture, but that was no big surprise.

After class Eva met with her tutors and I came along with her. We mostly shared music and talked about the festival, it took awhile for us to realize how late it was and at 6:20 or so me and Eva finally left school.

On the way home, we stopped by Tower records and I found the Cd I was looking for. It was pretty exciting. I also picked up another for a band that had been relatively unknown in both Japan and the US. They toured in SF 2 year prior and now were the 7th top selling CD in Japan. I was happy to find their music again so I got that Cd too. The artist I’m referring to is called “Scandal”. When we finished with tower, we were starving and went to eat some Mos Burger.Afterward on the way home Eva was so cold, having not brought a jacket, she had to buy a warm drink to hold to keep her warmer , and it seemed to work.

When we got home, me and Eva split up and studied for our Kanji test the next day. I felt confident again and slept soundly that night.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Field Trip Videos

Days 15-21: The ebb and flow

Day 15

Sunday, usually a day celebrated as a day off of work. A time for relaxation. Bullshit.
I spent my day from 9am in the morning until 3pm in the afternoon studying Japanese and doing homework. Not what I’d call fun.

When I finished, me and Eva wandered over to the local grocery store, MaruKyou and got some much needed groceries. Things like juice, milk, bread, fruit, beer, tea, beer, miso soup, instant ramen and more beer.

You know, the essentials.

On our way back we ran into our friend Matt who told us abpout a local festival going on until about 6pm. At that time it was 4:54pm. We decided we should promptly leave (after dropping off groceries of course). So we went, Matt, John, Zack, Eva, Mike and myself.

The festival was being held at iota castle and from what we were told it was a music festival. I wasn’t really sure what kind, but what the hell right? It’s a festival. Among the many food stalls, savory smells wafted betwixt us all and tempting our hungry stomachs. Besides food though you could buy toys, enter a raffle and buy a tombstone or toilet if you so chose ( yes, you could buy toilets and grave stones there. Why? I haven’t the foggiest idea). Wandering around the food, everyone split off to go search for something that fit there pallet. I got some yaki ika ( Barbequed squid), and it was both savory and delicious. Zack , after wandering around a bit found something both familiar and delicious; fried chicken and beer. Being from North Carolina, Zack enjoys the simpler things in life and beer and chicken are some of those things. As he said “Its almost like home, all that’s missing is some guy in a cowboy hat trying to sell me NASCAR tickets”.

After eating our fill, we traveled back to the kaikan and continued to hang out. Nora, Charlotte, Matt, Mike, John , Zack Eva and myself went to Johns room and we commenced watching a hodge podge of internet videos and TV shows including “ Always Sunny in Philidelphia”. Then for internet videos, we watched a lot of random ones, I showed the DBZ abridged series and it was a huge hit.

TeamFourStar for the win.

While watching shows me, nora and eva all drank a bit and it was great fun. But at midnight john kicked us out, cause he had to wake up early the next day. After leaving, Charlotte, Eva, Nora and myself went to my room and talked until half past 3 in the morning. This day seemed so very long. So very long indeed.



Day 16

After going to bed at 3:30 the previous evening I woke up at 8am Monday bright eyed and bushy tailed. Why? I don’t really know. But I woke up , showered, ate breakfast, cleaned my apartment AND wrote for my blog all before noon. I was very productive for once in Japan.

At noon a bunch of us headed over to the festival ( it was a multi day event). When we arrived there I finally got an idea what kind of music: 1950’s-60’s Japanese songs and the old women who danced in brightly colored dresses to them. It wasn’t dancing like you would expect in America, rather, a series of fluid and slowly choreographed hand and foot moves that amounted to some sort of Disney-esque “one day my prince will come” type of dance. It was a little strange.

Here again we wanted food but there was a slight problem; nowhere to sit. The festival was packed. So we spent 40 mins hunting down open spaces till Eva finally snagged one. She had bought a hot bowl of ramen, and with nowhere to sit, a look akin to a lost puppy entered her eyes and it wasn’t long after that a nice Japanese family gave us their table. Who says playing the blonde card doesn’t work( even if its not intentional)?

I decided to follow in Zacks footsteps and I purchased myself some fried chicken, which was excellent by the way. I was still hungry though so I wandered off and bought a large piece of curry bread and some takoyaki ( fried octopus balls).

Around 3 or so we left for the kaikan and upon returning decided we should play some football. So we split off into two groups; one that would go ahead and one that needed to get ready and we headed off at different times to play football by the river. In my group ( the ones that waited) was Eva, Fabian, Matt, Quinn, and Riika. When we got to the river, ready to play some football, we saw no friends, so we went off to look. After an hour we couldn’t find them so we just ended going back. It was kind of strange.

The rest of the night was spent eating and with Eva I watched some “That 70’s Show” and talked. It was a pretty calm day.

Day 17

Class began at 10:40 and Sakai sensei, as usual was relentless. Her energy and efficiency definitely woke us up. We reviewed more Japanese but I think this time the knowledge will more or less stick., unlike the first time we went through it.

At lunch kaoru found me and gave a birthday present. I was shocked and a little moved that my tutor had not only remembered my birthday, but got me a present. She got me a bottle of C.C. Lemon ( A lemon flavored soda I love), a home made/decorated card and a very nice photo album to put my pictures. Can you say best tutor ever? I sure can.

The other interesting thing was mine and Eva’s trip to MaruKyou with John where we picked up exciting things like peanut butter and bacon. I was excited anyway.


I spent most of the night studying and hanging out with Eva. Not the most exciting of days, but whatever. Tomorrow is gonna be busier I hope.

Day 18

Nope, just more class. From 10:40 until 4:20. I went to my new class today though, and the teacher is really cool, his English is well spoken and the class interesting. Its called “Understanding Japanese Cyber-Cultures”. Based on his class introduction, it seems this class will be very helpful to understanding our fellow Japanese of the younger generation. I am excited for the class.

Upon returning home lots more studying was done and that night , me and Eva went with our friend Nora to a new place to buy snacks and food, MaruShoku (not to be confused with MaruKyou), MaruSholu is basically a mid-sized grocery store that’s open until midnight. It was here that me, Eva and Nora found cheese. I was very excited. As far as I’m concerned it was a major event in my Japanese study abroad. Now there seems to only be two kinds of cheese in Japan: cheese and a white Japanese cheese. They’re both good, but they got nothing on Sharp Cheddar. Having bought some food, we returned to the kaikan, sleep was necessary for mine and eva’s very early class.

Day 19

6:30 is a very early time. A VERY F*%$ING EARLY TIME. But when you have class at 9am, what are you gonna do? Me and Eva managed to stumble into the train station and make our train. Class was better this time, not nearly as boring. We actually learned something, plus we got assigned reading books for the next week, which I assume we will have to translate. The story seems really cool so I’ve no complaints.

After class Eva, Jesse , Riika and me hit up the AMPM on campus and got some snacks. I got my spicy fried chicken and curry bread. I found a new juice too; Austrailian Pear. Its extremely good. Its like if you took the best pear you have ever eaten, and turned it into a liquid. That’s what that juice was, Scrumptious.

After an hour of quasi studying and talking I had to run off with my tutor to add my new class and when I finished with Kaoru I went off to meet mine and Eva’s friend Yuiko for lunch. Yuiko had studied in SF for a year during mine and Eva’s freshmen year. Small world huh?

Lunch was fun and much too short, We had to run off to our next class. Eva had a different one than me, but its ok, we both seem to like our classes pretty well.

The next class after, Intercultural communications is a class I get excited to go to, its that good. Its here in this class that you learn the differences and subtleties of Japanese social conduct and interaction. Its designed to smooth the transition between your culture and Japan’s and to more easily make friends. Plus Nagaike sensei is nuts and highly entertaining.

When class finished Iw went off to wait for Zack for our club. Its starts at 6:20 and it was 4:30 or so when I finished signing up for the JASSO scholarship money. So I had some time to kill. I spent it studying and listening to music out in the quad. Unfortunately though, zack missed the 5:15 train and the next one wasn’t until 6:33 so we decided to just try the club next week. I walked back to the station and hopped on a train back home. I was a little tired and grumpy at this point, so I headed over to the Famous Mos Burger which is possibly the best Japanese Chain Burger joint ever. For those of you who haven’t eatenthere the burgers are delicious and the fries are better than In n out fries. Even the kids from San Diego agreed. They are THAT good. With food in tow, I went back home ( after a quick detour to pay my cell bill at the local conbini). I relaxed the rets of the night and went to sleep. I was so tired I forget what happened after eating the burger and fries.

Day 20

Class was at 1:10 but there was a mandatory meeting at 12:30 for the international students and their tuors. The meeting was a basic info meeting about the next days field trip. No big deal.

In class, I along with the rest of the class felt we had learned something. Finally Nanri sensei taught us something that seemed relevant and useful. That something is proper and detailed explanation on how to use particles. We only learned one group Friday, but I finally may start to understand particles. Back in the states particles are definitely the hardest thing in Japanese grammar for me right after word order. It was very exciting.

At the end of class, Jesse, Eva and I went on a walk to shikido and searched around a second hand book-Cd-Dvd-Game store called “ Book –Off”. Inside I got a Taiko Drum Master DS game ( fun as hell) and the newest Shiina Ringo Album “ Sanmon Gossip”. I was very happy, I love shiina’s music and its great she started to put out albums again.

From the store we went to the neighboring Japanese style fried chicken ( karage) place, Oita Karage. The foods is deliocus and while we were eating, the staff took our pictures and told us that they would put our pictures on the wall with our names in plaques below. ( I am NOT joking. At all.).

After our short lived stardom me and Eva went back to the kaikan and I regrettably spent the evening studying. It was a pretty cool day though, I would have to say.



Day 21

The field trip bega at 8:30 on buses. We drove up to Mankouji Temple and practiced a form of Zen meditation called “Za-zen”. We did this for about an hour or so. The meditation was both calming and a little uncomfortable on account of the position used for the meditation itself.

The temple grounds were beautiful and the one surprising feature was the number of large spiders that frequented the temple grounds. They…. they were…… everywhere. –shiver-

After the temple we went to lunch, which was in a plain looking building. Inside thoiugh the room for dinign was large and a delicious traditional Japanese lunch was prepared. It was very good.

We went to Futagoji afterward, set high in te mountains, a beautiful spot and a temple to match it. As soon as we got off the bus it rained, until we were inside the temple. A bad omen maybe?

The little ceremony was coolm and the monk who gave it also gave us some history on the temple itself and the area around. After the ceremony I bought myself a luck charm for my keitai and hope it will indeed bring me good luck.

The last place of the day was a Tangerine Farm called “Sekiguchi Kanko Noen”. Here we were allowed to pick our own tangerines. On the farm we could as many as we wanted for free, and to take them home it was 200 yen for 1 kilo. I got 6 an it was only 120 yen for it all. When we purchased our new fruit, we got on the bus and returned home.

There is no rest for the weary however, and Eva, Mike, Matt, Surugi, Charlotte and Nora went with to Jun’s house. Why were we going to his house? To party of course. Whats the occasion? The birthday party Jun had planned for me of course. We got there with beer, sake and snacks in tow. There was much drinking and carousing and much talking. Most of the time we spoke to each other in Japanese, which was a lot of fun actually. During the night a cake was brought out and happy birthday was sung. I was aglow with happiness. Never before had I had this many parties or people to celebrate with on my birthday. I was a bit sad when we left to catch the last train, but me and Eva had to wake up early the next day. So a bit drunk and happy witrh life me and Eva and the rest wandered back to the kaikan

Monday, October 12, 2009

Days 9-14

NOTE: From this point on the days will be less step-by-step what happened and more a recounting of significant events and how they happened.

Day 9: Sushi Go-Round

Today we finally accomplished the one thing that was most important and the thing that also took the longest to complete. A wire transfer.

With Zack and John me and Eva traveled to the main bank branch which had called us to complete the wire transfer. We found out only after arriving that we had to go to the OTHER branch to complete the transaction. Thankfully the walk was not so far as I had thought. At the proper branch and after 30+ mins me and Eva finally had money deposited into our account after the usual questions for security reasons:

(some engrish may be used)

Q: Whats your name?

A: Jari Pearson

Q: Where’s the money coming from?

A: California

Q: What’s the purpose of money?

A: Um, a qualitative piece of paper used to exchange goods and services?

Etc.


After withdrawing some money we took a walk in search of a sushi place. We were told it was called kaiten sushi. So we headed off in a direction and asked a few folks for directions. After 20 mins of walking we found a place called “Meijin Sushi”. Inside was a magical land of conveyor belts fish tanks and even a corner devoted to kids named “Kodomo no kuni” which translates out to “ Child’s Country”. We sat down and looked around.

A kaiten sushi as I found out is a place where you sit down and the food comes to you. On either the right or left side, there is a conveyor belt and sushi and other food is placed on the belt ( on plates of course) and the sushi circulates around the room and you grab the sushi you want and then enjoy. There is even a button to call over a waiter for drinks, desserts or to order a piece of sushi you see on the menu but hasn’t come by in a while. There’s only one rule here and that is if you pick up a plate you DO NOT put it back down. I only broke that rule once, but so did Zack so I didn’t feel quite as awkward.

( pictures are on my facebook, take a look if your curious)

The best part about the place though is that everything was only 105 yen a piece. EVERYTHING. It was so glorious and wonderful, it was as though Nirvana had finally come.

After eating we took a quick trip to Daiso where me and Eva finally picked up plates, cups bowl, and the like. It was nice to finally have some freakin’ dishes.

The rest of the day was pretty chill, spent playing cards and talking with friends.



Day 10: “She’s scary!” (but not really)


The second day of classes began to early. 8am wake up and a 10:40 class. The only thing that kept us awake was our very lively teacher, Sakai sensei. The best I describe her is like our Japanese teacher at SFSU, Asano Sensei, minus the scary. For those of you who don’t know who the hell I’m talking about, the way I’d describe Sakai sensei is this:

Energetic, animated, with patience to wait for even the slowest student to answer and an intensity that feels like a mix between happy and serious which can be quite startling in the morning to those not prepared. Within the first class we actually learned a lot. Well learned is the wrong word, review is more accurate. But for all involved it really was like learning something new, because we had collectively forgot some grammar over the summer.

After class we headed to the gakushoku, my classmates and I and we ate some more delicious and cheap Japanese food. It wasn’t long after sitting that my tuor Kaoru found me and after eating lunch, we headed to my academic advisor ( Sakai sensei) and we turned in my class sign up sheet. Finally done with that! (or so I thought).

Before parting ways I presented Kaoru with a small token of gratitude; a woinnie the pooh pen and eraser set (Winnie is her favorite Disney character). She seemed very happy if not surprised to receive the gifts. It made me happy to finally see her a little less composed and a little more silly and grinning.

That night the rain began again, and that was the first bad omen…

Day 11: The Perfect Typhoon

I awoke to the sound or hard rain and strong wind. First thought: “God-Dammit”
The walk to school was miserable. The rain soaked us and the wind nearly broke my umbrella on a number of occasions. Our poor friend Surugi had her umbrella blown away as she locked up her bike, and me and Eva had to scramble after it to prevent her from getting to soaked. By the time we got to class we were soaked, tired if not a little grumpy. Thankfully Sakai sensei’s chipper and strangely intense happiness was the right medicine. We reviewed even more and walked away feeling as though we were learning something.

That happy feeling soon soured as we entered the lunch room. It was packed to capacity and the only room left was outside under the somewhat ineffective awnings. “Oh boy, wind and rain with lunch! My Favorite!”.

It was a strange occurrence to be eating at a quasi sheltered table outside in the elements. Not the most peaceful of lunches I’ve ever had but, hey. I was really hungry.

With lunch finished we headed to our “ Discover Oita” class. It turned out the teacher, Kumamoto, speaks very slowly in English and her random population and topographical info handout were less helpful and more perplexing as to how this helped us “ Discover Oita”. After class, some of the others were talking about how some of the longer term students who had taken her class had said she started out nice, and became increasingly meaner over the semester. This on top of the boring manner of her speech does not bode well. Not well indeed.

The Typhoon ( yes, a typhoon, hence the title of today) was Category 2 of the coast of Kyushuu and had become intense enough that the faculty called for the rest of classes to be cancelled. Finally the Typhoon had provided a service instead of just pissing me off. It was a nice surprise that meant I could escape the storm faster now.

We were told it was going to get full strength by nightfall and we were advised to not leave our rooms. That was just fine by me. Eva, John and I ended up finishing our Discover Oita homework and then watched some “hell’s Kitchen” in John’s room for a little while with Nora, Matt and Zack.

The storm that night would prove to be loud, but surprisingly not the thing that was loudest. The resident cat that lives at the Kaikan was far louder and more aggravating than the typhoon could hope to be. As some of us were talking in the hallway near the entrance to the dorms, we heard the cat outside mowing and we all thought “ Shit! The cat is out in the storm!”. So, out of the kindness of our hearts we let it in out of the rain, and Matt even dried it off with an old towel. This , as we were to find out was a very poorly planned out venture. When we went to sleep not long after letting it in, for the next 3 hours or so ( it was about 12:30am at this point) the cat just traveled to each door wand would yowl, loudly, at it for about 5-10 mins depending. The first 3 of 4 floors were kept awake. It only yowled for 3 hours cause Fabian got frustrated enough with the little so and so , and threw it outside so we could get some blanking sleep.

A category 2 Typhoon with 60+ mph winds and torrential rain was beaten out by cat in the loud noise department. It kind of makes you think doesn’t it?

Day 12: The Longest Day

After little to no sleep after the night of noise waking up at 6:30 for our 9am class was easy. That, if you can’t tell was sarcasm.

The only perk of that morning was the realization that the rain was finally over.

Many of us the next day piled into a train and headed to school and by some stroke of luck made it to class. As soon as the teacher came to the class, the luck dried up. She spoke in the slowest, softest Japanese I have ever heard. It nearly put us all to sleep and to quote Jesse “Her voice was like a lullaby”. It was the most excruciating class I have taken in a long time. I’m hoping next week, a larger dose of sleep and more breakfast will cure the severe boredom or at least by proneness to drowsiness within the class.

After class Eva, Jesse and I made a beeline for a conbini and got some food and drink, then talked for and hour or so, Charlotte joining us after 15 minutes or so. I had some spicy fried chicken, a pizza filled bun, peach flavored water and 2 little cans of iced coffee. It was a glorious feast.

The feats continued on in the cafeteria. It was full again and we had to sit outside once more, sans wind and rain. I spent the time working on my kanji work and drinking my peach water. It was strangely peaceful.

From lunch I went to the next class, The Politics of Globalization. The class was surprisingly interesting and taught by a man from England. The class had strange feeling though, one half of the students (the foreigners) very amused and reacting to the professor’s jokes and jovial manner. The other half (Japanese) stared on in blank silence. It was a strange dichotomy.

The final class of the day, Intercultural Communication, was my next stop. The class was taught by Nagaike Sensei and she is the definition of energy and positivity. She speaks fluent English with a little bit of an accent but her class was greatly amusing and interesting. She has charismatic energy which is definitely absorbed by us students and it is one of the class I am excited to attend. The classes premise is to help ease the transition for foreigners into the Japanese way of thinking. Explaining the social rules of conduct and behavior as well as the methods one can more easily befriend Japanese. This is going to be one amazing class.

After class Chiemi picked me and Eva and we drove us to a store that I would equate to a Japanese Ikea called, Nitori. It was here in this wonderful place I finally got a coffee maker and a fuzzy rug to place on my cold hard floor. It was just another piece to make my apartment feel like home. After Nitori Chiemi asked a favor of us and we accepted with no complaint, for we had a giri to uphold.

A giri is an obligation. In Japanese culture if someone has helped you out, you owe them a giri or obligation to do any favor asked of them no matter how small or large in exchange. This is one of the building blocks of Japanese social construction. It was not a problem however, considering how much Chiemi and Papa had done for us.

The favor was to tell Papa’s sister “ Happy Birthday!” in loud English. We curiously agreed. After arriving at the house and yelling out our greeting Chiemi burst out into a fit of laughter while papa’s sister semi startled and very happy welcomed us into her home. Inside we found papa and we talked with Chiemi, papa and his sister for a half hour or so while we were served hot green tea and sweet red beans. It was very nice to become more a part of the Ando family with their numerous extensions of support and love. On the drive back home, Papa said they thought of us as 2 new children in the family. Me and Eva were both startled and touched by this revelation and were at a loss for words.

As they dropped us off, Chiemi handed us obento (Japanese style lunch/dinner homemade or store bought with a menagerie of food. Theyre very filling and delicious). Is there anything they the Ando’s can’t do?

That night, Eva, Zack, Jon, Mike, Matt and I went to a local Mexican restaurant. I got some nachos and Eva got the “Couple Service” Maragarita. The food was pretty accurate to Mexican food, although much less heat than I expected. The Margarita was pitiful. Although big, it amounted to plain shaved ice stacked precarious upon itself and doused with about 6 shots of Tequila. We drank it anyway but it was the strangest god damn margarita I ever drank. From the Mexican place we wandered over to a McDonalds and got some fries, which one the walk home tasted so very good..

Day 13: Linda Linda!

Today is my birthday. It was really great day even though it had an awkward start.

Class was at 1:10 pm so me and Eva woke up around 9 or so and Eva offered to cook me a birthday breakfast of bacon and eggs. I excitedly accepted, and it was delicious. Japanese bacon is about the same width but a lot shorter than its American counterpart. The eggs also taste a little different but both were delicious.

After breakfast and getting ready we headed for the train at the usual time. Whenwe got their though we missed the train by less than 2 mins. We were forced to take the 12:57 train and after much fats walking arrived at Grammar and Discourse about 15 mins late. Thankfully Nanri Sensei had a sense of Humor about our lateness.

When we finished class Eva, me and some of our classmates went to the student center to sign paper work and for me and Zack and Eva to look into some possible clubs. After some Q&A with the staff we settled on checking out the kickboxing and Judo clubs. It should be fun.

We returned back to the kaikan around 4:30 and prepared to leave at 5 with friends to kaiten sushi to celebrate the end of typhoon, and my birthday. Zack, Nora, Cheila, John, Mina, Jesse and mike came and we had a blast, trying out all kind sof new sushi and other food.

Having stuffed our selves we went back to the station to pick up our other friends, Charlotte, Ashley, Matt, Emi, Marion and John’s tutor Sayumi and her friend Aya. Together we went to a nearby department store and ascended to the B2 floor. As the doors opened, spread out in front of us was a large karaoke bar. We got a large room and a great deal ( from 9pm-2am students with ID cards could sing and drink all the non-alcoholic drinks they wanted for only 11$) it was great. As the music started I was handed birthday beer, sake, fizzy umechu (plum wine) and some other stuff. I kept ona drinking and we all kept on singing. After an hour and a half I belted out “Linda Linda” by the Blue Hearts and felt so happy. So many people had remembered and came to my quasi birthday party. It was great to have them all their.

Ashley and Charlotte have beautiful voices and both sung a mixture or Korean, Japanese and English songs. By hour 2 1/2 or so Mina took over and decided she would put 8+ songs or so into the lineup for herself. A half hour later I decided that was lame and with Eva we returned to the kaikan, full of drink.

Day 14: Ando Birthday Party

I slept in till 10 or so and then Eva wanted to make more breakfast for the two of us. It was maple sausage and bacon with eggs this time. I was blissfully content once more.

After breakfast we made a quick run to the grocery store and were picked up shortly after to go to Chiemi and papa’s house. We were served a Japanese lunch of chestnut rice, green tea, karage, sweet beans, seat potatoes and some Japanese vegetables. After lunch Chiemi presented both me and Eva with calendars for the coming year. They were really cute and Eva couldn’t stop giggling at all the cute dogs on hers. At their home we met papa and Chiemi’s mothers respectively. We learned for them how to make croquets and sushi from scratch. Eva was definitely a bit more dexterous but I picked it up quickly and we both had a lot of fun. After making the food we took the Ando family dogs, Su and Seira, out on a walk. We visited both a temple and shrine and I took many photos. When we got back, me and Eva talked awhile with the family and then Saori on skype. She thought it was strange she was calling from America and talking to us in Japan, from her own home no less. It was fun.

When Chiemi’s younger sisters Miho and Noemi arrived with their husband and daughter respectively we began a feast. Some of the items included karage ( Japanese style friend chicken), sushi, croquets, sashimi, kim-chi, sweet potatoes, bitter melon, rice, and plenty of beer. It was really delicious. We were surprised mid-way when Noemi and Miho presented me and Eva with gifts. They were a nice set of chopsticks, with a nice tea cup and bowl, all finely made and beautiful. It was quite a surprise which I deeply appreciated.

When dinner finished two cakes were brought out, a chocolate and a vanilla one topped with fruit. Candles were lit and people sang happy birthday to me and pap, in English. It was very nice ^___^

After cake and more beer me and Eva returned home. Happy, with presents in tow and our own boxes of leftovers from the nights feast. When the food and gifts were squared away, I went to hang out with some friends in Mike’s room and I continued drinking and talking with them till half past 11 or so. It was a very fun day, if not a little tiring.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Dryness, a Precious Commodity: The First 8 Days




Day 1


Getting to Oita took 16 hours.
16.
Very.
Long.
Hours….

I am not Japan size and the flight over there is more than enough of a reminder of that. My legs barely fit in the seats and the reclining function of the chair was a laughable 10 degrees at most. Aside from that though, probably some of the best in flight food and movies I have experienced during an international flight (we flew ANA, All Nippon Airways). I was finally able to watch a few movies I had been meaning to watch; Monster’s vs. Aliens, Star Trek and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. It was an unexpected pleasure to catch up on a few of my American movies as we flew farther from home.

In Narita where we landed we had to participate in what I like to call the “Cross Metro Airport Transfer”. This game can be played by anyone, all you need do is fly to Narita, book your connecting flight out of Haneda ( this was our only option at the time) and then connect to the both airports via an Airport Limousine Bus. Problem was we had to 1) get through customs, 2) get through airport security 3) get our tickets and 4) get on the damn bus to get to Haneda and repeat the process airport security and checking in our flight. We had 4 hours to do this, and the bus ride alone was 2 hours plus the hour and a half to clear security and flight check-in lines. We made it just on time. Life’s is funny sometimes though, for as we had been stressing about making this flight it was delayed about 20 mins. When we learned of it, I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry. I chose to laugh. Hell, I was delirious from being tired and sweaty anyway, why not laugh along with it?

Upon arriving at Oita Airport (friggin finally) we were met at the airport by our friend Saori’s Mother and Grandfather. They smiled and waved at us through the glass. We had thought it would be hard to find both myself and Eva in the airport. However, finding to blonde foreigners in a airport the size of a large city bus stop was quite easy.

We ended up going to a Japanese style restaurant with Saori’s Mother and Father ( whom Eva and I affectionately refer to them as ‘mama’ and ‘papa’ respectively), and ate as much food as we could. It was good, I was so famished by that point eating made me feel reborn. We learned after the fact that it was sans cost; Mama and Papa wished to treat us to a meal, and that was just fine with us.

When we got back to their home, the Ando family dogs Su the younger brother and Seira the older sister greeted us. They had their own unique ways of doing this too; Seira would yip and run around and lick us to Oblivion and back, Su decided we were evil and must die. Thanks to Ando’s however, they separated blood thirsty little Su out of the building (Another point for Mama and Papa as far as I was concerned). After a quick bath, Eva and I crashed on borrowed Futons and got some much needed rest.

Day 2

We awoke at 8 to the smell of a delicious breakfast. Chiemi (Mama) had made me and Eva some rice, salad, little grilled sausages, cinnamon apple bread and our choice of Orange juice or Tea. It was delicious. After breakfast, Mama’s sister Noemi brought her 2 year old daughter Yuka over to meet the foreigners. The young girl was adorable, however convinced her mother was a mountain she must climb with great vigor. Noemi had a sense of humor about it though, despite the accidental ( or maybe not) choking by her daughter as she climbed up her mothers back.

When we were ready Mama took us to the station by foot, which was about 15 mins away or so, as Noemi graciously offered her help in driving our big Heavy luggage to the station. The walk over was pretty, we traversed up pedestrian bridges between large intersections and through shopping arcades until we arrived at a cell phone shop by the company SoftBank. We unsuccessfully tried to get a phone but were told we needed our alien registration cards. So much for that idea, we continued on to the train station in hopes our tutors who we were about to meet would help us get this most precious of items.

When we got to the station, we met Noemi and retrieved our luggage and went into the train station to find our tutors. After a quick phone call with help from Mama we found them all decked to the nines in cute clothes and big smiles. My tutor Kaoru ended up being a girl. The name Kaoru can go either way but I just figured I’d get a guy. Her mentioning an interested in cooking and piano dancing should have tipped me off. Oh well. Kaoru is if nothing else ruthlessly efficient ( if not too much at times , lol) and concerned with my well being. I was pretty lucky to get assigned to her. After some introduction we began the 20 min walk to the Kaikan ( The international Dorm downtown) by foot, hefting our heavy luggage behind us as we went, but this time with help offered by Kaoru, Ryoko and Rie ( Those would be Eva’s tutors, she ended up with two somehow). As we walked, the rain began and it would rain for many more days. I did not know it at the time, but the moments I would be dry the next week or so would be few and far between. The rain also lent a hand in making an already humid country super-saturated with moisture. Great.

We arrived at the kaikan, dropped off our bags and went back out into the city to get our necessary items: A bank account, Health Insurance, Hanko ( stamp used for signing documents with your name in Japanese), Alien Registration card and Cell phones. This whole process took 6 hours and involved much bowing, quickly spoken Japanese and numerous blank looks on both parts, but with the help from the tutors we somehow got through it all. Eva still needed to get her phone the next day however because she wanted a different color than my phone because the only one available was Dark Blue ( my phone) and she wanted the gold color which was to arrive the next morning.

We separated at this point and joined another group of tutors with their Chinese students in tow. Eva and her tutors went off to get soap and shampoo etc. while me Kaoru and Hirano ( a tutor from the other group with a car) went off to find bed sheets.

Finding bed sheets took two hours. Why you ask? Both Kaoru and Hirano were hell bent on finding me the cheapest sheets they could. This is where the “too-efficient-for-her-own good” comes in with Kaoru. We arrived at a large K-Mart type place called Home-Wide and look here for the sheets. But they had none, so we hopped back in the car and drove to a huge mall/arcade/small theme park called Park Place. Here we finally found sheets but a back and forth argument of cheap versus what I wanted began.

I sat with Kaoru and Hirano in the bedding section arguing over the cost and effectiveness of various sheets and blankets for a good 30 mins or so. I really wish that number was inaccurate but it sadly was not. They wanted me to get a comforter but I insisted I wanted to get a big soft, fuzzy blanket and a fleece none. They suggested this was bad, the reason? It was too expensive. Apparently 30$ for a good quality blanket is highway robbery. I finally got fed up and said these are what I want, we are getting these, with as stern a face I could muster. Their response? “Ok, good choice!”. I sat their shocked. I was unsure if they were serious or not. Hirano even threw the thumbs up to top off the moment. I suddenly felt very tired and wished to sit down.

We ended up getting sheets, a thin blanket, a fleece blanket a piece, a big fuzzy soft blanket each and Japanese buckwheat seed pillows which are indescribably comfortable. We drove back with some food and drink in tow and dropped off our stuff in our apartments. As I entered my place, I was greeted by a house guest; A big, ugly cockroach. Oh boy. THAT was a treat. The look of disgust on my face was enough to send Hirano at it with a newspaper. This tactic as I would learn later was a REALLY bad move. After this point I had no interest in going near my place and would stay at Eva’s place until Saturday of the coming weekend. I also later found mosquito larvae in my toilet and numerous broken parts to two of my pieces of furniture. This was going to be a fixer-upper indeed.

After my encounter with the gokiburi (cockroach) we went up to Eva’s place and together, me, Eva Hirano, Kaoru , Rie and Ryoko ate a hodge podge of rice balls, Japanese style fried chicken and lots of tea. The dinner ended at 11 or so, and then I showered and fell asleep. Thankfully, it was gokiburi free.

Day 3

We woke up early at v8 and got ready to meet Kaoru at the station at 10pm. We arrived about 10 and headed off to the campus to get oriented with the area and then go to a party thrown for us by Mine and Eva’s friend from SF State, Jun Sasaki. So we got to Oita station after a short 15 min train ride and began to walk to the university when we unexpectedly ran into another foreigner. He was from Oregon and had lived in Japan for 30 years. His English was slow but it was nice to see someone who could speak English. After we said our goodbyes to him we met up with Jun and our friend from SF state, who lived with Jun, Jesse. Jun and our tutors had a meeting for an hour, so Eva, Jesse and Me wandered about campus. It was much bigger than SFSU and had a lot more plant and animal life also. The most common animal we saw? Cats. Lots of stray cats. It seemed strange to me, but was definitely picture worthy.

We meandered over to a conbini (conveinience store) on campus and got lunch. It wasn’t long after we met up with Jun and the tutors and went on an unofficial campus tour, courtesy of Jun. When we finished our tour, me and Eva traveled back with Kaoru to pick up her cell phone before the party and to also pick up some beer. Returning to the cell phone shop ( it was AU kddi, a different Japanese cell phone company in Japan that we learned was cooler and cheaper than Softbank). Eva was thrilled to finally have a phone, and with the new keitai ( cellphone) in hand we picked up beer at a local conbini and got on the train to visit Jun at his apartment in Shikido, a stop before the University station and with his help got to the party. At the party were a number of us international students along with some Japanese. The part was a blast, we made Okonomiyaki and had snacks. There was much beer, brandy and whisky to be had and it was pretty fun. I spent some time with Jesse and Minami outside talking to them as they smoked their cigarettes. After the party we returned home in a slightly happier mood and I fell asleep quickly, the shower having quickened my eagerness for sleep.

Day 4

We woke up at about 8am again to (surprise!) more rain! It was disheartening. Me and Eva got to the train and boarded all by ourselves for the first time and made it to campus on time, and made it to the orientation room. By this time I was soaking wet and I wasn’t sure whether it was the rain or my profuse sweating from the super-saturated air. It was unpleasant to say the least.

Entering the room it became apparent for the first time we were not the only gaijin at the university. We were assigned seats on a seating chart and once we had all arrived 2 and a half hours of introductions and information about the university later we were required to take a Japanese proficiency test. The results would be available the next day, and they would decide which level of Japanese we could take. When we finally finished that it was time for lunch. I went to the gakushoku (campus cafeteria) for the first time. I finished early and got lost trying to find my way to the gakshoku, luckily for me, a kind soul offered to help me find it, and we ended up having lunch together. His name is Ryohei and after some lunch and meeting up with Eva we planned to hang out in the future and exchanged cell numbers.

Returning from lunch we had an oral interview to finish of the Japanese proficiency test and when we finished Eva and I returned to Oita city and went to the 100 yen store, called Daiso. We ended up getting some of our basic amenities their after an hour or so inside the store. We returned afterward to the kaikan and ate random conbini food and drinks. We talked for awhile and then fell asleep early, tomorrow was gonna start much earlier than we would like.

Day 5

At 6:30 the alarm went off and I swore internally. We had to be at the school by 9:15 and travel time plus getting dressed and ready took awhile. When we finally arrived at the school the weather was surprisingly rainy with a side of way to blanking humid. We found pour tutors on the way up from the station and then proceeded to the computer lab to begin our 2 hour orientation on the proper use of the Oita computer Lab. From there I went with Eva to the gakushoku again and had lunch. We had to get back to the Kaikan quickly because we had an orientation there from 4pm till 5pm. During our orientation, we learned the ins and outs of living at thee kaikan including the complex garbage system of Japan that is tedious to say the least. It was here at this meeting also that we go bug bombs and were told to set them off to kill the cockroaches. This was good news. I finally had a way to kill the little devils.

We concluded the orientation with a short (very short) field trip to the site where garbage is to be placed and then we broke off and returned to our rooms. On my way up to Eva’s I ran into some of the other Kaikan residents and we started talking. We all agreed the cockroach problem was lame and we all planned to set off our bug bombs in unison Saturday at noon, and then go out into the city for six hours or so to hang out. We were finally gonna start meeting new people at the kaikan, and I was excited.

Having made plans me and Eva went out to complete and extremely important chore: getting futons for our beds and Eva’s hair dryer. One place had both and if you bought two futons you could get free delivery. This magical place was called Don Quixote, or that Japanese nickname ‘Donkey’. We took a cheap taxi ride to it, and arrived through the rain into a wonderous place. This store has literally everything. Usually when someone says ‘everything’ its just to emphasize its size. But I kid you not when I say EVERYTHING. Its like a safeway, k-mart, home depot, toys r us, and mall all in one store. Its loud and colorful and crazy but a lot of fun. We took a little time finding the futons, and then conveying to the store clerks our intentions to by them and have them delivered. After buying them we were told they’d arrive 10am on Saturday morning, which was perfect, we would get them the day we were to bug bomb. I was excited. After Eva got herself a hair dryer we ventured to the large food court in Donkey and there were a lot of restaurants.

They had a Baskin Robbins with Japan only special Halloween flavors, a ramen shop, a taiyaki shop ( red bean cakes), a Mos burger ( EXCELLENT burgers!!), a giant buffet style bar and a takoyaki shop. We ended up going to Takoyaki and it was delicious! We went to Baskin Robbins afterward where I got a pumpkin ice cream smoothie and Eva got a specialty Halloween flavor which tasted like a mix between apple, grape and bubblegum. Sounds strange but was friggin awesome. We headed up to the second floor after food and played around in the game arcade, making purikura and then playing some Taiko Drum Master. Having shopped eaten and played around we returned home and sorted through our trash and put the proper trash into the 1 different categories. Exciting right? We ended up dropping off the proper one for pick up at the garbage site and went back to Eva’s room and we drank some beer and fell asleep. It was a nice cozy evening despite the rain.

Day 6

Friday was the first day we could sleep in… till 9am. It wasnt much but hey, beggers can’t be choosers right?

After getting ready we headed to the school, Eva and I had our first class “ Japanese Grammar and Discourse”. The teacher is a nice man but his English was confusing, and roundabout. I hope this problem will change in the future. ><;;;

It was at this class though that we met a lot of the international students, and after class we agreed to have a long lunch together. We needed to be back at school for the international student party at 5pm anyway, so what the hell right?

During lunch we exchanged #s and stories and we met some great people. Jon and Zack from North Carolina, Mike and Matt from San Diego, Sugi and Charlotte from Korea, Nora from Hungary, and Riika from Finland to name a few. It was great, talking and eating for a few hours, we started to connect with people from all over the world. We traded stories of friends, our experiences in Japan and our hopes for the coming year. In what seemed almost no time though, we had to leave and go to the party.

This party was the first of two planned for us, and consisted mostly of eating and mingling , with an introduction game at the end. It was interesting way to introduce everyone; the premise was to state your neighbors home country and their name. Then that person would state their name, and then THEIR neighbors name and home country and so on. This would go on until the last person named everyone’s place and name in sequential order. We all then sat down in our groups of about 5-7 and each group took a turn naming of all their group members. It was definitely a way of introduction I had never experienced before.

This party was followed by another more relaxed setting involving more mingling eating, and this time, alcohol. I did not partake however a number of others did. There was many a red face about in the room. It was super easy meeting people and I made a dozen or so new friends. This had by far been the best day so far.

Us international kids though, not satisfied with two parties, went off to a Karaoke bar downtown and decided to booze and sing it up. We sung such songs as “ Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Chop Suey”, “ Linda Linda”, “ Sk8r Boi”, “ Glamorous Sky” a Korean song and a random Japanese pop song. It was really fun. I was a lil uncertain of singing at first but after 2 mugs of beer that no longer became a problem.

We finished around 1 am and on the way back to the dorm, Eva, Mike and I stopped at a Yoshinoya beef bowl and had some excellent beef bowls. Cheap and delicious, my favorite types of food. Walking back there was a cool breeze and no rain. This is a rarity here in Japan, that I enjoyed greatly.

Day 7

Saturday was the first sunny day. It was so unfamiliar after the week of rain, I wasn’t sure how to react. Joyous was an idea, but I opted to kind of stare out my window like a small child at something brand new. Our Futons arrived (victory!) at 10am on the dot. That one of the many great things about Japan is how ridiculously on-time everything is. Its superb. When we unloaded the futons, we finished dressing and met our new friends in the lobby after all the bug bombs had been set off: We had time to kill, 6 hours to be exact and our first mission was lunch.

We met up with Jesse at the train station, and after only having lost communication with him for 10 mins or so. We headed off to a curry shop where the portions were huge and the taste was large. I had shrimp spicy curry and the rest seemed to have either beef curry or chicken cutlet curry. Most couldn’t finish the meal, except me and Mike. I was rather proud of myself actually.

After paying for the meal we wandered into the local high end department store, Tokiwa, and ended up buying ice cream on the bottom floor, which entirely made up of food stalls. I had blue berry ice cream and it was SO frickin good, and I’m not usually an ice cream fan. We went out of the Tokiwa and began heading to our true goal, first the castle and eventually the river.

The castle was large and old. It had a shallow moat where a variety of fish and turtles swam. The castle was like any other Japanese castle, except for the large modern building that took up the center of it. The Castle was hosting some sort of Construction technology expo there so we diverted over to the river side of the castle and watched the many large koi and turtles fight over bits of bread a group of Japanese kids through at them.

After taking many pictures we finally decided to continue on to the river and it was breathtaking, never ending both right and left and probably a quarter mile across or more. We walked along its edge for awhile till we stopped for a spontaneous photo op. on some nearby stairs. ADD took the better of us after awhile though and we walked back to the Kaiakan to prepare to go to that evening’s moon festival.

On the way back I bought a delicious new drink, its flavor? Candied Apple. It was one of my favorite new Japanese sodas and definitely deserves another try. Returning to the walk back, after we had cleaned up a little bit we went walking around for the moon festival and found a small town gathering at a local elementary school. There we were served free tea and local foods like soy beans, sweet potatoes, local flavors of onigiri and lots of alcohol. The alcohol was unexpected especially considering the source. Not as soon as we sat down, several of the older gentlemen came over and handed us big bottles of Sake and Shochu (potato alcohol). Both were great and the older guys seemed very happy we drank our fill. After eating a bit I got to talking with these 3 Japanese kids, ages 7 and 2 of 11 years. One was the older brother of the 7 year old. They were wearing baseball outfits and seemed to play on a local pee-wee league. The friend though had no such attire on, but he did have one sport he was good at, so he told me. That sport was running. I decided it would be fun to see how fats he was so I asked him to show me, all I can say is: Damn. That kid was fast, REALLY fast. It was staggering to realize how out of shape many American kids are. >>;;

We returned a little boozed up and with Eva and Zack I watched a few episodes of “Always Sunny in Philadelphia” on Zack’s computer, courtesy of Jon. Afterward I went off to sleep in my room for the first time with my new futon and I have got to say, it was incredibly soft. I hadn’t slept so well since the first night I arrived. The bug bomb seemed to work, but, do still see the occasional baby cockroach from time to time. It didn’t matter to me at that point because I could finally use my room properly. It was a turning point in the trip.

Day 8

Sunday was the day Chiemi ( Mama) invited us to an indoor soccer game in Beppu, a local town near Oita famous for its hot springs. We had no idea what to expect and it was definitely nothing like what I thought.

After getting on a train and then na bus we arrived at the stadium. We entered after buying some souvenirs and food and sat down near a section that defiantly looked like fans of the home team.

The team around Beppu is called “Vasegey Oita” and their mascot is a monkey with a staff, colors are orange, black and white and as we were to find out, this was no friendly game of soccer. As soon as the game started the fan section near erupted and for the whole game, with drums and horns and choreographed cheers in hand cheered ther team on. It seemed their were special and appropriate cheers for every occasion and it could be hard to keep up.

Indoor soccer is brutal. 5 guys were injured during the game, and 2 with broken limbs. It was really intense. I was actually excited about soccer for once. Maybe Eva and I will come back again for another game? Anyway, Oita lost to Machida, Tokyo 4-3. The last 30 seconds of the game Machida scored a goal and it was game over at that point.

After the game concluded Eva and I went searching for the mascots and managed to nab pictures with them. They’re pretty cool, pictures I must say. It wasn’t long after the pictures that a security guard escorted us to a back room to wait for our most generous of hostesses, Mama. She concluded her work after 10 mins or so and we hopped in her car and headed off to dinner. Before the restaurant opened we went inside a bakery and bought some delicious bread (courtesy and free of cost because of Mama). I got a donut and a hotdog quesadilla wrap. Then after that me and Eva jointly bought a hot water maker. We now have the ability to make tea and ramen. It was a very exciting moment for the two of us. I digress though, for the true treat of the night was the restaurant where mama was about to take us.

At 5pm it opened and we went in and sat down. After an appetizer or salted vegetables ( delicious) and a bowl of hot Miso soup ( also great) the main course came: ten-don.
Now Ten-don is NOT tendon as you may think, in fact its very different. What Ten-don is a rice , lightly soaked in a seat and salty sauce, topped with big pieces of tempura fried veggies and the crown on top of giant tempura fried shrimp which were at least 6 inches or more in length. The rice in this bowl was THE best I have had in Japan, and that is saying something because all rice in Japan has been cooked very well. The veggies and shrimp were so good, it was a food experience close to Nirvana.

When we got back to the kaikan, more and Eva and some of our new friends took a quick journey to the local grocery store, Maru-Kyo. I was finally able to get some milk, juice, ramen, drinks and snacks. It was very exciting. After the groceries Nora, Zack, Jon Eva mike and I piled into Jon’s room and watch some more Always Sunny and even some Aqua Teen Hunger Force were much beer and snacks were had. It was a great day!