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