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!
Monday, November 23, 2009
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.
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!
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.
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.
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