kat in Japan

Total cost of Japan trip

2010-09-09T07:31:00.007+09:00

So, I'm home and life is getting back to normal -- whatever that is. I'll probably do one more photo post once I round up the lingering pictures that I've come across (things other people took, some stuff that was still on my camera, etc.).

In the meantime, I just tallied the total cost of this adventure. I put off doing it because I wasn't sure I really wanted to know, but here goes...

Tuition paid to Yamasa: 1562.07 (110600 yen + 25000 yen deposit)

Airline ticket: 1425.00

Yamasa residence fees: 1180.07

Mt. Fuji trip: 181.54

Train ticket from Tokyo to Okazaki (shinkansen): 140.19

Train ticket from Okazaki to Tokyo (non-shinkansen): 106.79

Yamasa textbook purchase: 29.34 (an optional kanji book)

Other misc. credit card purchases (clothing, CDs, gifts): 124.97

Total ATM withdrawals: 926.28 (used for all groceries, dining out, entertainment, household necessities, some gifts, clothing, and all other expenses during the trip)

Grand total: $5676.25

Yikes! Of course it was a bit easier since I didn't have to pay it all at once -- I paid tuition in June, bought plane tickets back in May, etc.

The way I figure, around $4400 of this was non-optional (the cost of tuition, flight, and transportation to and from Okazaki). So I spent a little less than $1300 on non-necessities, or something like $38/day. However, that does include food. If I allow myself $20/day for food (which seems about right, given some eating in and some dining out), I get discretionary spending of $640.

$182 of that was for the Mt. Fuji tour. I didn't save receipts, but I'm guessing I spent a couple hundred dollars on clothing (including the warm clothing I needed for Mt. Fuji) and easily another hundred on entertainment (movies, karaoke). The remainder is probably household necessities (dishes, laundry detergent, hand towel, etc.) and gifts.

It was worth every penny, of course. But now I have to be good and not spend too much for a while, 'cause my savings account is sad.

Japanese TV

2010-08-18T00:47:00.003+09:00

Japanese television is exactly as weird as you probably think it is.

Cutest. Weather. Evar.

The person in the middle here? Totally a guy.

Yes, that one.

Yes, I'm sure.

Still no lack of cute Japanese boys with their adorable shaggy haircuts.

True Stories from the Land of the Rising Sun

2010-08-16T21:44:00.003+09:00

The weather was so weird this weekend. Ridiculously hot and humid, and overcast, so overcast that it felt like the sky was sitting about ten feet above the ground. Had that oppressive pre-thunderstorm feeling but never actually stormed. Accuweather said it was 86 degrees and "feels like 111", which is just insane. I went out onto the balcony yesterday for long enough to hang up laundry and came back in covered in sweat. It was so humid that, when I went outside from an air-conditioned store, my glasses fogged up... which was new. And to think, I used to say New York was humid in the summer. o_O;; Thankfully it was nicer today (still hot and humid, but the cloud cover lifted a bit). A few days of that was really bringing me down.

Anyhow. Just some fragments that don't necessarily fit into a larger narrative.

While the Japanese accept odd-colored hair and facial piercings without blinking, tattoos attract a lot of attention here. Apparently the only people who have tattoos are Yakuza, and many onsen (public bathhouses) have rules that forbid people with tattoos from using the facilities. I think I've answered more questions about my ink in the past few weeks here than in the past few years back home.

The old man who lives across from me is rumored to be Yakuza. He has tattoos, and no teeth. One of my fellow students attempted to strike up a friendly conversation with him, but with no success. The old woman he lives with (presumably his wife) is the one who walks her cat, on a leash, every day. I've exchanged a few friendly words with her now and then (on the order of "Your cat is so cute! I have a tabby cat too!"). She is also missing most of her teeth.

The Japanese stereotype of really healthy, energetic old people is definitely true. It's pretty common to see tiny, wrinkled grandparent-types riding bikes up steep hills. Or, you know, climbing Mt. Fuji.

The police cars, fire trucks and ambulances have loudspeakers as well as sirens. They proceed down the street with someone making an unending string of announcements over the siren. I haven't been able to make sense of it yet, but I can only imagine it's something along the lines of "Thank you very much for your kind attention! We apologize profusely for the inconvenience! Please do us the favor of driving safely!"

At the mall, the cops directing traffic in and out of the parking lot shout "irasshaimase" ("welcome to our store!") and "arigatougozaimasu!" to every single car. They must get tired of doing that all day.

Did I tell you that Momo-chan and I went to the Cold Stone in Aeon mall, and tipped them, and they sang a song like Cold Stone does, but it was crazy adorable because it was Japanese? I can't remember what I blogged already anymore. :/

Oh, we did karaoke last week with a really good group of people (a good chunk of whom, unfortunately, were on their last night at Yamasa). Lyrics to the English songs were in English with katakana above, so sometimes we amused ourselves by singing the katakana version. Chance-san put in "Dragostei din tei" and I ended up trying to sing it with him, which was super fun. Also did some Bowie, some TMBG, some ridiculous 80s music, Hey Ya!, you know, my usual karaoke fare. And there was definitely some drunken "Baby Got Back". Think we're planning to go again this week as a goodbye party for myself and Momo-chan.

One of the girls who came out with us was this German girl, who, despite what you might conclude from the following story, is actually completely awesome. We were talking about Bart Simpson for some reason at dinner and she busted out with "Oh, he's really funny! What was his thing? Eat my pants?"

She also told me my accent (in English) was hard to understand (as compared to Lee-kun's), because I talk very quickly. It's happened before, but it always brings me up short when someone accuses me of having an accent. Somehow I still feel like I'm the one without the accent, of course.

OMG I have so much to do this week. I bought gifts for the last few people on my list today, and a cheap duffel bag to haul stuff home in. Still have to figure out how I'm getting to Tokyo on Thursday. And I have to decide what I'm going to say for my goodbye speech. Eek.

This was my almond packaging today. I actually LOLed when I pulled it out of the cover.

The other side was cute too.

Also, I bought this at the thrift store today. It's maybe not the most disturbing thing I've ever seen, but it's up there, my friends. And it was in the bin with, you know, the rest of the kid's toys, like cute little Pokemon figures and cell phone charms of bunnies with oversized ears. I don't even know, man. Read on at your own risk.

hanabi

2010-08-16T20:21:00.005+09:00

It was recently brought to my attention that I haven't updated this blog in over a week. Oops. Sumimasen ne! I've been pretty busy between keeping up with the more-advanced class and hanging out with folks.

I'm trying to enjoy my last week here to the fullest. It's a bittersweet feeling, having to prepare to leave just as I was starting to feel settled. And it's amazing how quickly you can start to feel attached to people when you see them for ~6 hours every day.

Last weekend was a big hanabi (fireworks) festival here. Okazaki is famous for its fireworks; people apparently come from all over Japan to see them.

One of Yamasa's pages says that "over 70 percent of Japanese fireworks are developed and produced here. The fireworks are usually new designs, and often are those used the following year throughout the rest of Japan - the show also has the flavour of a trade fair as buyers come to see the newest developments."

Due to some overly-vague directions, I failed to meet up with the group from Yamasa, so I just started walking toward Okazaki Castle. Soon enough I started to see people on the street who were dressed up for the festival (in yukata, which is to say, summer kimonos). They were super cute! Especially the boys. Yum.

Um, what was I saying? Oh, so I started to follow people who looked like they knew where they were going, and we ended up on the roof of one of the big department stores near the river (this is apparently where one watches fireworks from in Japan). We had a good view of both the fireworks going up from near the castle and the ones going up from farther off. (Apparently they have to set the bigger ones off across the river so they don't break windows. No joke.)

Now, I'm not the world's biggest fan of fireworks shows (they're pleasant enough, but I find they all have a sort of sameness to them), but I gotta say: Okazaki's fireworks put every show I've ever seen in the past to absolute shame. That includes Niagara Falls, Epcot Center, and, yes, the big Macy's Fourth of July show in New York.

Okazaki's fireworks were prettier, more impressive, and classier -- no contest on any front. My favorite were the ones that went up like cherry trees covered in golden blossoms, and then the blossoms seemed to float down off the tree. So cool!! Also, man, crazy amount of munitions. For most of the show, there was so much happening at once that it felt like the grand finale of the shows back home! And this went on for an unbelievable 3+ hours.

Pictures don't do this kind of thing justice, but naturally I'm going to post some anyway.

So much going on at once.

This is one of the cherry-tree ones. "Feel", by the way, is the name of the department store. I don't know why.

One amusing thing: Along with people shouting "sugoi!" ("amazing!") and "kirei!" (pretty!) I kept hearing shouts of "bravo!" Really? Is that what they think we say?

The kids are all dressed up. Super cute.

Little kids get to wear yukata too!

Sorry for the weird angles. I was trying to be a little circumspect about photographing people, which is a neat trick with a DSLR. >_>

A decent shot of how many people were on the roof.

Since it was pretty dark, I was experimenting with the super high speed film settings on my camera. Ended up with some strange moody shots.

After about an hour and a half, I got bored and decided to walk home. The fireworks continued the whole time, so I took some cool pictures of them reflecting in various, uh, reflect-y things. Because I'm artsy like that.

Starting to make my way home.

God I love this picture. Yes, I'm awfully fond of the mirrors that keep you from getting hit by a car. Also I am an arsty snob.

Reflections in a department store window.

Finally, on an unrelated note: This cookie wrapper has a special message for you, the readers.

Question time

2010-08-07T13:14:00.001+09:00

How do you define fluency? How do you know when you've reached it?

pictures from around Okazaki

2010-08-06T23:26:00.004+09:00

Tanuki shrine near the school:

...with some random kitsch mixed in.

Lots of houses have these cool traditional-style roofs:

I glanced at this sign as I walked past it, noticing that the final word is comprised of two kanji I know, yasumi (rest) and nichi (day). "Oh," I thought to myself, "No parking on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays."

A few steps later, I realized what I'd just done and literally stopped in my tracks. Of course, I didn't know the reading ("kyuujitsu"; I just looked it up), but hey, I got the meaning. Crazy awesome.

I've been hearing this song everywhere lately, and I just today figured out what it is. It is well and truly stuck in my head; maybe now it will be stuck in yours too. You're welcome. ^__^

On a language high

2010-08-04T19:53:00.003+09:00

I love it here.

I'll be honest, the Japanese classes at Columbia were never exactly what I'd describe as "fun". We moved fast, we didn't get much time to practice the new things we'd learned, it was so challenging and often frustrating. I usually left class feeling mentally exhausted, like I could hear my neurons sizzling from the exertion. And I always felt a little dumb, as I struggled to memorize everything.

I expected this to be so hard. I thought by the end of two weeks here, I'd miss everything from home: my friends, my cats, the food, a working cell phone, all the Stuff I didn't bring with me. When I planned to spend a month here, a part of me wondered whether it would be too long.

But today I realized that I only have two more weeks here, and it made me want to cry. The last thing I want to do is come home. I'm already trying to figure out if I'll be able to do this again next year, maybe for longer.

I thought I would have Moments here. Times when I wouldn't be able to hack it. I thought I would have social anxiety, I thought I'd be stressed out and frustrated, I thought there would be times I'd be lonesome and homesick and feel like I'd gotten myself in over my head. I thought there would be parts of this trip that would be better in retrospect than at the time. But you know, it hasn't happened yet, and everything is only getting easier.

Yesterday I found the soy milk at the grocery store, and also discovered they sell American peanut butter. Felt ridiculously accomplished. And I was thinking, everything feels so normal now. Two weeks ago, I could barely figure out how to feed myself. And now I'm buying groceries, doing laundry, going to the post office, all the normal things you do. Walking to school in the morning, eating lunch with my classmates, planning what to do over the weekend. And it all feels so totally ordinary. It's amazing. Just two weeks and things barely seem strange at all.

I just went to the convenience store for something, and asked the clerk if they had it, and she said "no, we don't but we have this other thing", and I said "oh, that's good, I'll take this as well", and then when I paid she asked if I had 3 yen and I, without even taking a second to think about it or translate it in my head or even look at the total on the register, said "hai" and handed her three of the correct coin.

And then I got out the door and partway home and realized what had just happened, and I was so delighted I actually laughed out loud. And then I noticed something that's somehow escaped my attention up until now: I'm having FUN! I'm having more fun than I've had in ages.

I love living on my own and not being all that close to anyone here. It means my time is my own and I get plenty of space, plenty of opportunity to do whatever makes me happiest without worrying about anyone else's needs. And if I'm ever lonesome there's Skype and IM to people back home, and plenty of opportunities to make plans with people here. It's the perfect balance.

Yesterday I went to the post office to get money, buy some stamps and mail postcards. Same kind of experience as the convenience store. I asked how much it was to send mail from here to the States. The clerk asked if I was sending postcards, and I said yes. She told me it's 70 yen. "Can I use these stamps?" I asked. "No, but I can sell you these here, how many do you need?" And so on.

Rocket science? God no. But here I am, talking to normal people at normal conversational speed, understanding what they're telling me and able to make myself understood in return. It sounds inane to put it in writing, but I've broken through some kind of wall. I've noticed that I'm reading and writing much faster, without having to think so much about each character, and my conversation skills have of course improved about a million percent.

Not only that, but I generally don't translate things to English in my head anymore. Which is super weird. I'm thinking in Japanese a lot and, when talking to someone back home, having a hard time remembering only to speak English. I keep saying something in Japanese and then catching myself and translating it, because that's the habit I'm in from school, attempting Japanese first and only resorting to English if I can't figure out how to say it.

Hanging out with my fellow students at lunch, we have real conversations now. Not all native English speakers. There are people from China, Taiwan, Singapore. We're not exactly debating the finer points of philosophy, and yet...

"Do you want to have lunch with us?"
"Sure, where should we go?"
"Let's just go to Domy, I have a test this afternoon so I want to eat quickly and study."
"Sounds good."

"Are you going to see the fireworks on Saturday?"
"Is it Saturday? I thought it was Sunday."
"No, it's Saturday."
"I don't know yet. I want to go but I haven't been to Okazaki Castle yet. I don't know how to get there."
"A group from Yamasa is going to meet at the school and go over."
"Oh really, what time?"

And so on!

Actual communication!

It looks kind of retarded writing this down, but seriously, this is the best thing ever. I get a rush every time I walk away from a conversation and realize just how much was said.

When I withdrew from my Columbia Japanese class last October, I felt like I'd never get anywhere close to being fluent, even if I studied the language for 5 years. (I studied French for 5 years. Do I speak French? Heck no.) But now I feel like I'm already halfway there.

I don't have my boyfriend. I don't have my cats. I don't have all my clothing, or my books, or my video games, or all the other assorted crap that lives in my house. I don't have a real kitchen or many dishes or food preparation implements. I don't have anything to do except learn Japanese, progressing as quickly (or slowly) as I like and practicing as much as I choose.

And I am totally, utterly, completely happy.

I was just sitting on my balcony, watching the last colors from the sunset slowly fade from the clouds and the stars start to come out. I want to remember this forever: the sound of the cicadas in the trees, the powerlines overhead, the funny tiny cars and scooters going by on the road below.

I'm remembering stuff about me. Stuff I'd kind of forgotten, or knew only in an intellectual sense without really believing. Things like that I'm smart, or that I enjoy being alone. I am capable of more than I'd come to think... and that is awesome.

I just hope I can succeed in bringing some of this feeling home with me.

Oh, by the way, I did well on my placement test and on our weekly test today, so it sounds like I'm moving to a harder class starting on Friday. I'm bummed to be leaving Momo-chan and the other familiar faces; it'll be hard to have to get to know a whole new group of people again. But it'll be good to be a little more challenged, too.

Hmm, sorry for the kind of woo-woo post. :P I'll take some pictures tomorrow to balance it out.

Oh, today Momo-chan, Julie-san and I went to see the new Naruto movie. The cute Japanese guy who worked at the movie theater kind of laughed when we said what we were seeing. :P Anyway, I enjoyed it, even though I don't know the backstory and couldn't follow all the nuances of what was going on. Another odd thing: the movie theaters here are assigned seating, so when you buy your ticket they show you a seating chart and ask what row and seats you want. I was glad we had Julie-san with us 'cause I would have been so confused by that!

We also went to the big CD/book/DVD/etc store in the mall and I talked myself out of buying some Gackt CDs -- CDs are way expensive here, I'm not sure why. 3000 yen seems about average.

I got a little overwhelmed by the book section; something about being illiterate in a bookstore definitely triggers some interesting panicky emotions for me. I guess it's because books are so important to me, and having them all turn to (apparent) gibberish is like some kind of weird nightmare. But I plan to go back soon and spend some more time trying to figure it out. I'd love to pick up a Murakami novel, just to give myself something to aspire to. And in a less literary vein, some manga too, of course.

The stores in the mall had some great Engrish, but I didn't bring my camera today. I saw, among other things, a shirt that said something like "You are making incorrect choices about the life". Good times.

I'll try to do a photo post tomorrow, since it looks like I have plans Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Eep.

Quick update

2010-08-02T17:34:00.005+09:00

Just a quick one. I'm taking another placement test tomorrow to see if I can move up to the next class, so I need to spend some time studying tonight.

I spent most of the weekend either sleeping (so many naps), cleaning house or watching Japanese TV. I felt a little guilty for not getting out of the house and doing something more interesting, but I think I really needed the downtime. I can't even remember the last time I had a weekend completely off. Sad but true.

I was able to follow some of the TV programs shockingly well. Also, strangely enough, there's no shortage of super-cute eye candy.

Japanese boys with their cute shaggy haircuts. Drool.

I did kind of regret not making any plans with my classmates for the weekend. Not having cellphones or even most people's emails is very strange... I need to remember to make plans well before the fact, because I can't just be sitting at my house, decide I want to go out, and text someone to ask what's up. So freaking barbaric.

Momo-chan and Julie-san invited me along to see Naruto on Wednesday, so that's a start. ^_^ And I think we're going out for beers or something on Friday (we being Momo-chan and whoever else I talk into it between now and then; Julie-san is leaving this week, which is super sad 'cause she seems awesome). I want to make a karaoke night happen at some point too. Probably I should just pick an evening and tell everyone to come.

Today we went to lunch with Bryan-san at this little noodle shop right next to the school. I got a HUGE bowl of soba for ¥350! So awesome. Even cheaper than eating at Domy. Christine (Christina?) and this kid Jamie were sitting with us, and Jamie was relating very stereotypical freshman-dorm type stories. I found myself feeling glad to not be involved, but also kind of wishing I was. ^_^;; Going clubbing in Tokyo, ending up crashing out in a love hotel because they missed the last train, that sort of thing. Sounds like a good adventure, but also I'm not convinced I really want to go barhopping with a huge group of 19-year-olds.

Random packaging comic:

Today, after class, Momo-chan and I were asked to stop by Information Services. I knew why they wanted me -- it was to pick up the kanji book I ordered last week -- but for Momo-chan it was a mystery. Turns out, they wanted to do a quick interview with her about her homestay. The homestay coordinator, Okamoto-san, doesn't speak very much English, so we had a long and occasionally confusing/awkward conversation in Japanese. I was able to follow a surprising amount of what she said. In the end, Momo-chan and I muddled through it, albeit with quite a bit of confusion, rephrasing, grammatical mistakes and one (not very helpful) reference to an electronic dictionary. But when we left, I felt elated -- it's amazing how much our Japanese has improved in just a couple of weeks.

Afterwards, I had to drop by Student Services to trade in my key for a different copy (my lock is very finicky and sometimes is pretty hard to unlock, so I was hoping that a different key might solve the problem). I conducted that entire conversation in Japanese as well and left feeling generally very accomplished.

Walking home, I thought about how amazing it is that I can actually communicate in this language now. Sure, it's awkward and halting and full of grammatical errors, miming, roundabout explanations and so forth -- but still! Actual communication! To people who don't speak any English!

Okay, it looks silly writing it out. But seriously. It's freaking awesome.

Sunset and powerlines:

Let's see, I was going to note some random stuff I've noticed about Japan.

* QR codes everywhere. Lots of stores have them on their receipts -- even the Ministop (24-hour convenience store) and the Daiso.

* When the Japanese want to indicate themselves, they point at their noses, whereas in America we point at our chests.

* The gesture for "come here" or "follow me" is also different, though I'm not sure I can explain it in words. We point our index finger and curl it towards ourselves, but the Japanese gesture is to extend an arm with the palm facing downward and make a waving motion with the hand. Again, it just goes to show we take odd things for granted.

* Apparently the Japanese police are entitled to stop anyone and ask for ID, and as a foreigner I am required to always have my passport on me. Huh.

* It's an oddly smoker-friendly culture. There are smoking cars on trains, designated smoking areas in the airport, smoking sections in restaurants, etc. Coming from the US where it's practically a social taboo, this is super weird.

Sunset from my balcony:

This last one isn't mine, it was taken by my coworker Ashlinn, who is also in Japan right now (she and some other CCNMTL folks are out here as part of a project we're doing, but sadly nowhere near me). I thought it was so funny, I couldn't resist stealing it to include here.

Why yes, trash can, yes I would.

Rainy Thursday

2010-07-29T17:28:00.002+09:00

I woke up this morning to the sound of pouring rain.

I remembered thinking to myself I should pack an umbrella, but didn't remember actually doing so. I dug around for a bit and found it at the bottom of my bag. Thanks, Kat-from-the-past!

There are these huge crows that always hang around outside my window in the morning. I think they're good luck.

Despite the fact that I got slightly wet on my way to school, I actually found the cooler weather today very pleasant. It's a big improvement over the awful heat and humidity we've had since I arrived.

Also, the birthday card from my mom finally showed up (turns out mailing time from the States to here is around 9 days), and Lee-san brought me a tiny stuffed echidna as a belated birthday present. It's super cute. ^_^

Class today was really challenging. In the morning, we had to call 104 (the Japanese equivalent of 411) to request a phone number -- and then call that number to ask their hours and what days they were closed. Mine was the Nagoya Aquarium. It was terrifying. I got through the 401 part OK, but then when I called the aquarium and asked how late they were open, the person on the other end of the phone told me two times and confused the heck out of me. (It turns out he was saying they're open until 5pm, but the last admission is at 4:30pm.) Then I asked what days they're closed and they said they're open every day because it's summer... but I really didn't understand it, and then kind of panicked and hung up and figured it out afterward. Gah, phones. (I hate phones even in English.)

Then in the afternoon, we had to make a video. I was a reporter for "Yamasa TV" and interviewed some of my classmates about the school. I hope this thing doesn't wind up on Youtube or something. >_> It was pretty awkward. Some of my classmates adlibbed though and were quite funny!

After class, I asked Miyuki-sensei for some extra materials to study kanji. I think I will try to set aside time to practice it for a bit every day, as long as I have the time after doing homework and learning new vocab for class.

What else? Oh, I've been meaning to tell you that I figured out my Japanese washing machine, with some help from the internet. (Oh, Google, I don't know what I'd do without you.)

You'd think it would be pretty straightforward, I mean, it's a washing machine, right? You put your clothes in the thing, put some detergent in, and press start? Oh no.

Here's what it looks like:

There's a big compartment, a smaller compartment, and a hose attached.

The controls are not particularly illuminating:

Nor are the dire warnings about how I'm about to lose a hand:

Turns out, you have to flip the switch on the top to channel water into the larger (left-hand) compartment, and turn on the spigot to fill it with water. Put clothing and detergent into the basin. Close the top, set the middle switch to, uh, the setting that isn't "delicates" and isn't "drain" (seriously, if anyone has a clue what that little picture is supposed to be, I'd love to hear it), and set the far left timer to whatever length you want the clothes to be washed for. It will then agitate the basin until the time is up.

When the time is up, you use the middle switch to drain that basin and move all of your (wet, soapy) clothes into the smaller, right-hand basin. There's a strange little plastic cover that goes over the top which allows you to run water into the right-hand side (after, of course, turning that switch to channel the water into the right-hand side as well). So you do that for, uh, a while. Until it seems your clothes aren't still full of soap.

Once you deem the rinse cycle complete, you can turn off the water and use the far right timer to set the length of the spin cycle. And then hang the clothes to dry, of course (similar to Europe, no one here has a dryer). It's baffling to me that this process is so different from Western machines... I had somehow thought there was only one "obvious, intuitive" way to build a clothes-washing machine, but of course that's silly.

I've had this experience with more than just the washing machine. One of the things I love about this trip is that it's showing me exactly how much I take for granted. I have all these assumptions about how things work (or "should work") that are proving to be untrue. It's kind of cool.

Anyway, I've now spent so much time on this post that it's dark out. And the wind is rattling the windows. I think I'll turn on some Japanese TV for a bit. That's like studying, right? ^_^

Jaa mata!

Random thoughts

2010-07-28T17:10:00.004+09:00

Wow, have I really been here a week? I guess I have. I haven't had a week of classes, though. I think I'm finally more or less adjusted to this time zone now... at least, I can sleep through the night now and not wake up too much before my alarm. I still get tired a little early, but I think it's getting better.

Speaking of sleeping, I have been using my Japanese even in my dreams. A few nights in a row now... either dreaming that someone is talking to me and I'm trying to understand, or dreaming that I'm speaking to someone. That seems like a good sign.

I find that I've had an easier time meeting people and getting along with them than I'm used to. I can't decide if it's because the situation makes us all more outgoing (we're all foreigners, everyone's here for a limited time so we all just invite everyone to everything, etc.) or because the sort of people who come here to study are inherently interesting people. A little bit of both, I guess.

My fellow students are a mix of English and non-English speakers. We went to dinner last night with a group of our Taiwanese classmates who don't speak very much English (if any). I find the way we all communicate fascinating... it's this pidgin of our shared (crappy) Japanese, miming, and weird roundabout explanations. But we all know enough Japanese to have the "getting to know you" conversations: "Where are you from? How long are you staying here? When did you come to Japan? Why are you studying Japanese?" and so on. It's pretty basic but it feels AWESOME to succeed at communication, as halting and confused as our conversation may be.

I noticed, even taking Japanese classes at home, that studying a language seems to have the unexpected side effect of making me more outgoing. After a few semesters of the class, I noticed that I was more likely to strike up conversations in queues, etc. Totally bizarre. I guess it just inures me to awkward conversations, and also reminds me that most people are nice, and I generally have more common ground with them than I think.

Along those lines, I wrote this on the way to Mt. Fuji: "It's easier than you thought. You laugh at yourself. You remember to smile when interacting with people. And little by little, you start to remember to walk on the left, to take off your shoes when you enter the house. Everything is strange and confusing and wonderful. You remind yourself over and over to try, to make mistakes, to go somewhere new or eat something unfamiliar every day. To step out of your comfort zone becomes a daily habit, and with practice it gets easier."

I don't know why, but I had expected this to be very difficult. The first time I visited here, I remember being very stressed out and frustrated. Of course, that was before I'd studied the language at all (or, for that matter, traveled outside of the country at all), but I don't think that's the only reason it's so much easier this time.

I think, unlike myself of nine years ago, I'm no longer terribly concerned with being "cool" or impressing anyone or even not embarrassing myself. I forgive myself for making mistakes, and just assume that things will be awkward... but, who cares? Life's too short and I'm here to learn, so I want to make the most of it. Of course, it helps that the Japanese are extraordinarily nice, at least here in Okazaki, and very tolerant of us poor confused gaijin. But really, this is probably true everywhere: you make the effort, you learn something new every day, people meet you halfway. It all works out.

There's a certain freedom in it, like being a child again. So much of the world is incomprehensible, and that is completely OK. You do what you can, and for the rest, you trust in the benevolence of strangers... or you let it go. It turns out, in most cases the world won't end if you're "doing it wrong".

On the first day in class, Miyuki-sensei said something like: If you speak and it's wrong, you make mistakes, it's totally okay; but it's not okay to not talk. Which is super true. You have to just open your mouth and try to hack it. You have to challenge yourself and continue to try to say things you don't know how to say. It sounds obvious, but it took me so long to overcome my instinct to keep my mouth closed unless I knew I wasn't going to make a mistake ("and embarrass myself").

Maybe studying this language is finally helping me get over myself in some sense. That's pretty awesome.

This whole adventure is giving me an interesting perspective on myself and, I think, boosting my self-confidence. I keep thinking, if I can do this, I could do anything. And, so far, this has been far more fun than challenging.

I expected to be lonesome and terribly homesick, but so far, I haven't missed New York at all. I love traveling outside of the States, and being here is reminding me that I need to do it more. (Also, yesterday was my second birthday in a row in a foreign country! Definitely a good trend.)

I really like traveling alone. I am not lonesome at all... I love the freedom of not being accountable to anyone or having to negotiate with anyone. And it makes it easier to make new friends and talk to strangers.

What else? Oh, learning to read is super fun. There's this incredible thrill to laboriously sounding out katakana and then realizing it's a word I know. I can vaguely remember doing this with English -- being able to switch from seeing a meaningless jumble of lines to seeing meaning. It's like a magic trick.

Oh, I was going to write something about the placement test. I got placed a little bit back from where I should be (if I'd really learned everything we were taught in my Columbia class), but I'm actually fine with that. Even though I know a lot of the vocab and grammar already, I really need the conversation practice, especially since the Columbia class was so intensive that I didn't really feel like I got to take the time to master what we'd learned before moving on to the next thing.

I'm already getting a lot less rusty, and I have the option of re-taking the placement test in order to maybe move up a level in another week, but I don't know yet whether I'll do it. I also want to spend some time on kanji, which is optional in this particular course (SILAC focuses more on conversation), but they provide us with materials if we want to study it on our own time. I guess I'll see how I feel about it next week.

The way they run the classes is interesting... it's a continuous cycle of (I think) four weeks. Myself, Laura-san and Yolanda-san joined a class that was already in progress. For SILAC, the classes run continuously and you can take it for any amount of time you like, in two-week chunks. So there are some people in our class who are finishing a four-week course, or are here for six weeks or longer. (Though most people in SILAC seem to be doing on the order of 4-8 weeks; I think some of the other programs are a better fit for longer courses of study.) I've met fellow gakusei who are only here for a few weeks and others who are in the midst of a nine-month course, or have been living in Japan for years.

Anyhow, I should stop writing and do some studying.

Being able to just focus on this one thing is so great. I love being a full-time student again. It's astounding how much smarter I feel when I'm not having to divide my attention between eighteen different things.

I feel alive, awake. Having to really engage all my mental faculties every day is amazing. Every day is a series of puzzles to be solved. I can't be as mentally lazy as I normally am, and that feels great. As of right now, I think this may be the best thing I've ever done.

Mata ne! ^_^

A note on shopping

2010-07-28T16:27:00.002+09:00

Gomen ne! I have been too busy to write anything for a few days.

Shopping in Japan is quite fun. There's a lot of random Engrish on everything. But as much as it makes me laugh, I appreciate it too, because sometimes it provides a useful hint as to what I'm actually looking at.

Also, when I'm trying to decide which brand to buy, sometimes I can't resist buying the one with the hilarious (or super cute) Engrish on it. So I guess it's effective for them in more ways than one...

Every day you can enjoy delicious yogurt.

Kasugai Peas & You. Is it just me, or does this sound like a good title for a daytime soap?

In an effort to eat a little bit more healthily, I broke down and bought some cereal and milk. (I've looked for soy milk, but it doesn't seem to exist here, at least not in the big grocery stores.)

This milk has a super-charming backstory. Could you resist it? 'Cause I sure couldn't.

My katakana has also improved immensely since I've been here, and I think it's mostly from just trying to read the packaging on things.

Suddenly I like brands a LOT more. I'm buying stuff I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole back home, like Kraft cheese. Even if I don't buy the name brand, seeing a brand I recognize can help me identify what a whole group of products is -- e.g. Nivea (hand lotion), Pantene (shampoo and conditioner), Kraft (cheese), Kelloggs (cereal). So I always feel this sense of relief when I see brands I know.

Happy Time lotion. Familiar brand, not so familiar product...

Nivea also helped me out with the sunscreen. Er, sun protect water milk. Whatever, it gets the job done.

Also, I've developed a new respect for packaging that has pictures that clearly depict what a product is. It's amazing how many packages don't, when you take the text away.

Give me the brain... the pineapple is looking at me.

I've been eating a lot of Japanese junk food and bento from the grocery store. I like to play the game of buy-some-random-thing-and-see-what-it's-like! I've already found a couple of things I really love. Like these little chocolate cookie things. They are SO good.

And these, too. Mmmm.

It's not just the grocery store, either. Here's a little something from the Daiso:

Five-Finger Socks. That totally made sense to me for a second, and then I was like "...wait, what?" Bonus: "A fluffy and puffy nice feeling!"

I'll have to include the large size of this next one so you can read it. Instructions for a flashlight. "Don't drop it hard things. It causes damage and the breakdown."

We know you wanted leg warmers with a cool border, but unfortunately this is all we've got.

And finally, I leave you with this:

I know you were going to smork, but you can't, OK? You just can't. It says not to right there.

Climbing Mt. Fuji

2010-07-25T11:48:00.006+09:00

So, wow. That was an experience. It was pretty brutal but I did make it all the way to the top (and, more to the point, back down again). Total climbing time was 8 hours to get to the peak, and 6 to get back down.

I didn't take a picture of this before leaving, since I ended up packing in a hurry, but here's what I took:

* food: onigiri w/mysterious filling (turned out to be some sort of meat), squid jerky, chocolate covered almonds, dried pineapple chunks, an apple, almonds, wasabi peas

* 2 litre bottle of water

* sunblock

* dollar store rain poncho

* dollar store LED flashlight

* camera

* winter clothes: wool hat, scarf, fleece, long-sleeved thermal shirt, leg warmers, extra socks, gloves

I thought, when we started out, that I was bringing too much food and possibly too much warm clothing. Turns out I needed (and was grateful for!) all of both.

Class ends early on Fridays, so at noon I had a few hours to pay for the trip, eat lunch and run to the store for a few last-minute essentials (primarily batteries for the dollar-store flashlight). When I got to the school, Yolanda-san was walking up to Aoi Hall, so we went in together and chatted while we waited for everything to get organized. She told me about altitude sickness, which I found fairly creepy, especially since it can apparently happen to anyone, even people who climb mountains fairly regularly.

On the bus, we met Colin-san, the Yamasa employee who would be serving as our tour guide for the trip. Welcoming us all to the trip, he said something like "Climbing Mt. Fuji is not fun. It's a death march through a barren lunar landscape of rocks and ash." Which we kind of laughed off (fools that we were). Then he told Yolanda-san and myself about last year's Yamasa trip, where they didn't make it to the peak because it was bucketing rain for the entire time. It sounded like a completely miserable experience. I kind of wondered to myself whether I was going to enjoy it, but shrugged and decided it was too late to back out. ^_^;;

During the drive up, Colin-san regaled me and Yolanda-san with this fascinating summary of local history that sounded like it could've been a movie plot -- full of samurai intrigue and heroics. Super interesting stuff.

I tried to nap a little on the bus but wasn't feeling tired enough. So I just listened to some music, ate carbs (yay onigiri) and tried not to worry about what I'd gotten myself into.

There's this thing where you can buy a walking stick at the bottom of the mountain and get it stamped with a different insignia at all the mountain huts along the way, and at the peak. After waffling a bit about whether I wanted one, I bought my own stick at the final rest stop before Shin-5-gome. Some of the people in our group asserted that it wouldn't be that useful, or would only be useful for the downward part of the climb, and I wondered whether I really wanted to carry it all the way up the mountain and back. Finally I decided I may as well spend the ¥1050 and get the full experience. This turned out to be possibly my best decision of the trip.

I have no pictures of Fuji-san from far away or from the outset of our hike, because it was too hazy to see it from the bus and dark by the time we arrived at Shin-5-gome. So here's a very pretty picture from Wikipedia.

We got to Shin-5-gome after dark, at around 7:30pm, and were immediately delayed by some confusion as our group got separated (an ambulance showed up for a man who was injured on the steps from the parking lot to the toilets/shop area, and the EMTs were not allowing people up those steps, so part of our group had to find another way around). We had a group of 21 people, which, as we would find again and again during the trip, is slightly too large a number to easily be able to keep everyone together.

Eventually we all found each other, did a head-count and got sorted out. We started up the mountain at about ten after 8.

There aren't a lot of pictures from the ascent, because it was, you know, dark. Here's the view from our starting point (or a little above it). I'm guessing that is Gotemba city.

The climb is punctuated by a series of stations, or "mountain huts", little mini rest areas where there is a lit seating area and some number of the following: toilets, a place to get your stick stamped, a little shop, a vending machine. I say "some number of" because our experience was that these amenities were not always present, open, and functional at every stop.

We started, as most do, at the fifth station, not at the very base of the mountain. According to Wikipedia, the fifth station is at about 2300 meters (7500 feet) above sea level and Fuji-san's peak is 3776 meters (12,388 feet). There are nine stations over the course of the climb, with the tenth being the summit itself. Apparently a very athletic person can make this climb in about four and a half hours. (It took us eight, which is apparently pretty typical.)

We agreed to go at our own paces for each stretch, and wait at each hut for everyone to regroup. Despite the fact that I felt I was going a bit slowly, I found that I was solidly in the middle of the pack, which worked out well. It meant I got to wait at each rest stop for a decent amount of time without being there long enough to get really cold. I probably consistently got breaks of about 20-30 minutes.

The first stretch seemed crazy long and I had some doubts about my ability to complete the climb. My pack felt super heavy and was hurting my back. (Of course, it was still warm enough that I was still carrying rather than wearing all the winter clothing.) I reminded myself that my pack was the heaviest it would be and just pushed on. After that I found a rhythm and it got a little easier for the next few hours. All the climbing actually wasn't so bad -- my legs and knees hurt a little, but I guess moving into my apartment last month was pretty good training for Fuji-san. (For those of you who don't know, I live in a fifth-floor walkup. And my commute through Morningside Park every day also involves a lot of climbing. The point being, I'm pretty used to climbing a lot of stairs every single day.) I paced myself, stopped to rest when I needed to, and felt pretty OK -- actually better than I'd expected to. I didn't know if I'd be able to keep it up for eight hours, but I was game to find out.

Even from the beginning, it was much steeper than I'd expected -- I had been imagining the early stretches would be more along the lines of a gentle uphill climb, with the steep (more like stair-climbing) bits coming later. But even from the beginning, it was quite steep, usually as steep as stairs and often steeper. Even with many switchbacks, it was quite taxing, and the loosely-packed gravel of the path made it even harder. We had to pick our way carefully, often slipping backward with every step forward, sometimes losing our footing and having to catch ourselves. I was already immensely grateful for my walking stick, which I affectionately christened "Stick-san". It saved me from countless falls, allowed me to use my upper arm muscles as well as my legs to climb, and helped me feel for stable places to put my feet as I progressed.

At the second stop, I put on the long-sleeved shirt and hat while we waited, but took them off again once we got going and walking warmed me back up. At the third stop, I put them on and kept them on, though I think I may have rolled up my sleeves toward the end of that stretch. After that, I only added clothing. At first, I had the unpleasant feeling of being sweaty but my extremities still being cold, but soon enough I was comfortable in all the winter gear.

Some of my companions were playing a game where they tried to name as many countries as possible, alphabetically, which I joined in for a little while. Then they started on world capitals. Turns out I don't know very many. I got separated from them eventually but I assume this game didn't last into the higher altitudes, where we needed all our breath for climbing.

I have to admit I don't remember a lot about the middle stations -- I remember the first few stretches and after the eighth station, but the bit from about 10pm to midnight or 2am is kind of a blur. At some point I did start noticing the thinness of the air, which replaced muscle soreness as the limiting factor while we climbed. It's such a weird feeling -- I'd find myself panting for breath even though I didn't feel like I'd been exerting myself that strenuously. I'd start to feel dizzy and occasionally a little nauseous, and when I stopped to catch my breath my heart would be pounding. The other weird thing is that it seemed to make my muscles weaker, too -- I'd be struggling to climb, stop to catch my breath (or, as felt more accurate, to let my breath catch up to me), and then the first few steps would be surprisingly easy. I just paid attention to it and took deep, exaggerated breaths when I started to feel oxygen-deprived.

I don't know if I can explain just how surreal this climb was. Up until the 8th station, the sky was pretty clear and the nearly-full moon provided plenty of light. Many had flashlights and headlamps, but though I'd packed a flashlight I found it was easier to leave it off and let my night vision adjust. Between the moonlight and the lights others were carrying, I never had trouble finding my way. Stick-san also helped immeasurably.

Somewhere in there, I started to feel like I was dreaming. This week has already been so strange, and I know I was already a bit loopy from culture shock and jetlag; and there I was, climbing a mountain in the middle of the night with hundreds of other people. The moonlight, my own tiredness, the oxygen deprivation -- it all combined to create a serious sense of unreality. For hours and hours, I just put one foot in front of the other. Stopped to breathe. Kept going. At every hut, I drank water, ate the snacks I'd brought with me, and huddled with my companions for warmth.

Some moments stand out: Watching the Big Dipper set behind the mountain. Looking up to see vast amounts of stars, more stars than I've seen since the last time I was out in the middle of the desert. Looking back to see all the people wending their way up the mountain behind me, which also looked like a sky full of stars. Indescribably beautiful.

Blurry picture of the Big Dipper:

At one of the huts, I kept myself distracted from the cold by pulling out my tripod and taking some long exposures of the people climbing up the mountain behind us:

I took advantage of the restroom facilities at one of the higher huts, maybe the 7th. You had to put in ¥200 to unlock the door.

At the 8th station we rested for longer, because we didn't want to get to the top too much before sunrise (and thus have to wait longer on the peak, which was colder and less sheltered).

Fog set in as we left the 8th station, and I had a little bit more trouble navigating without using my flashlight, but still decided not to. It was getting more crowded by this time, so there were plenty of people with lights. Put one foot in front of the other for a while longer.

Moon, clouds, fog. Extra pretty when you're sleep-deprived and climbing a mountain.

Another long wait at the 9th and final station. 2:30am? 3am? Watched people making their way up the last stretch to the top, which looked short and very steep.

There were totally people smoking cigarettes at every hut on the way up the mountain. I couldn't believe it. More evidence of Japan's strangely cigarette-tolerant culture.

There was a vending machine all the way up here. It even had hot drinks.

The people with cell phones had service, too. I know at least one member of our group posted to Facebook along the way. Not that I blame him -- I sure would've been Twittering from up there if I'd had a working cell phone. ^_^

A couple members of our group were sick by this time, but all decided to push on to the summit. The fog cleared while we waited and we saw that the sky was starting to get light.

The final stretch was crowded, as most people were also trying to get to the top for sunrise. I didn't have to stop for any breaks because we were all just going up slowly, single file. There was no room to pass anyone even if I'd had the breath. Looking back behind us, endless string of lights moving slowly up the mountain. It felt somehow sacred.

Made it to the top at about 4am, tremendous sense of accomplishment. Couldn't find anyone else from my group, eventually gave up and decided I'd just find them when it got light. Started looking for a good vantage point to watch the sunrise, and ran into one of my fellow students, James-san, coming back in search of the rest of the group. We found a good spot on a little slope and were soon joined by Colin-san. Excellent conversation and cloudspotting while we waited for the big event.

Fantastic cloud formations.

An astounding variety of clouds, all different shapes and species. Cloudspotters' heaven.

Dragon-san is smoking a pipe.

(There are more pictures of clouds in the full Flickr set. So many more.)

Finally, the sun rose above the clouds. It was gorgeous. This picture doesn't at all do it justice.

Everyone ooh-ed and ahh-ed and took pictures.

Afterward, I stood in line to get the 10th station stamp for Stick-san. Then there were adventures as Colin-san tried to gather everyone up to leave. This one girl, Christine (or Christina?) was very sick, I felt awful for her. Finally everyone was in one place. Colin-san opened a celebratory bottle of sake and passed it around -- it was the most delicious thing ever. Apparently this was the first time in ten years of doing this tour that the entire Yamasa group made it up to the top! So that's super exciting.

Here I am at the top, albeit slightly out of focus:

Post office at the top. As you can imagine, there was quite a line to mail a postcard from the summit.

Anyhow. So that was all a lot of fun. But then we had to get OFF the mountain again. Which, contrary to my expectations, turned out to be the really hard part.

Since everyone made it up to the top, we were able to go down by a different route than the one we came up by (obviously if people had bailed, we would've had to pick them up on the way down). We decided to take the Gotemba trail, which was supposedly quicker and easier because it was for descent only, and so was a straight shot down with no switchbacks.

The first part, before we split off to the Gotemba trail, was OK. We were still so high up that the views were amazing, and there was a lot of "wow, so this is what the mountain looks like in daylight!"

Everyone preparing to head down.

Descending the rocky, slippery scree was possibly even more difficult than climbing it had been -- I had to be very careful of my footing and even so I landed on my butt more than once.

So pretty. And you can see the people walking down.

The downward trail. So many switchbacks.

Close-up of what we had to contend with.

Looking back up toward the peak.

We got to the first hut and found it was an abandoned, derelict shell. Apparently since this is a lesser-used trail, the facilities aren't as well-maintained.

View down the trail from the 8th Station. Scree city.

I amused myself by taking more pictures of clouds.

We waited quite some time but the latter half of our group still hadn't caught up, and at this point myself and one of the other girls decided we needed to move on to the next hut in search of a functional bathroom. So we did that, and then watched what appeared to be a storm cloud moving in on the mountain while we waited for the rest of the group.

There was some interpersonal friction of the sort that usually happens when a group of people is traveling together for any length of time. The gist was that the tail end of the group was moving very slowly, mostly due to the fact that there were some people still not feeling well (and of course it only got worse as people got more tired and footsore). There was a faction that found this very frustrating and wanted to push on and get to the bus before it started to rain, so when Colin caught up to us, we asked permission to just meet at the bottom. (I didn't care deeply either way, but all else being equal I definitely wanted to just get off the mountain as quickly as possible, since I wasn't getting any less tired and only had a finite amount of food and water.)

My camera was not tilted to take this photo. This is how steep the mountainside was.

Sign at one of the huts.

So we took off down the Gotemba trail. I ended up in a small group with three girls (Bridget, and two others whose names I don't now remember) and a guy named Chris. Yolanda and James were ahead of us but I think everyone else was behind.

The Gotemba trail was just flat-out creepy. I can't even adequately describe how eerie it was. It was basically a featureless field of volcanic ash and scree, tilted at a constant downhill slope. With each step, you'd sink up past your ankles in the stuff and slide down a little ways. It meant it was fairly easy to move quickly, with a sort of running/hopping/skiing motion; in fact, we were passed now and then by someone who was really running down the slope. I was too intimidated to go that fast, but I could manage a bit of a jog/hop that wasn't too bad. I found it hard on my thighs so I couldn't keep it up for more than a minute or two at a time though.

Have I mentioned that I hate volcanic scree? This stuff was just awful. And the ash got everywhere. I had it in my mouth, under my nails, in my eyes. With every step, my shoes filled with rocks. It was too foggy to see very far ahead of us or behind. And, of course, I was already exhausted and sore beyond belief. So it was a real chore to drag myself onward down this ashy horrible trail, with no stops or amenities and no end in sight. But of course, there was no alternative, so on we walked.

I didn't take many pictures, since I didn't want to get my camera all full of volcanic dust, but these last few should give you the basic idea. Just try to imagine seeing nothing but this for about four hours.

That white rope there delineates the road.

We had one last glimpse of the peak for a second, but by the time I had pulled out my camera, the fog had rolled back in and hidden it again. Bah.

It just went on and on for what felt like years. It was so weird. We started to feel like the last living humans on the planet. We made jokes about how we'd emerge from the fog in feudal Japan, or how we were the last survivors of the nuclear holocaust. It felt like being on another planet. And trudging through this completely unchanging landscape for hours, sleep-deprived and exhausted as I was, did something very strange to my brain. I felt like we were just walking over the same few feet of ground over and over again. Like it literally would never end, maybe I'd died and this was Hell or something. Barren lunar wasteland with no living creatures.

Oh, except bees. Did I mention the bees? There were bees. The only living thing we saw from the peak to nearly the bottom of the mountain. WTF? What could they possibly even find to eat?

Seriously, what the heck. This looks like the setting for a post-apocalyptic zombie movie.

So yeah, anyhow. I thought I was as miserable as I could possibly get, and I seriously entertained the thought that we might be completely lost and never make it off the mountain. It sounds melodramatic to write it down, but honestly, that's how awful it was. My feet and leg muscles were so sore that every step hurt. I thought it was only my Leo stubbornness that got me up the final stretch to the peak, but that was a cakewalk compared to this. If I'd still been thinking, I would have just wanted to sit down in the ash and never get up again, but my brain was completely turned off; I was like a robot that was only programmed to walk down this hill.

Finally, something changed. We saw a plant, and it was ridiculously exciting. It was a tiny, scraggly little thing, but it was green, and at that moment it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Then there were more plants, and we found a sign that claimed we'd get to Gotemba in 45 minutes.

"Finally," I thought, "It's almost over." And then, in a superb dose of dramatic irony, it started to rain.

It started with bizarrely big, fat raindrops, the size of marbles, and quickly turned into a real downpour. Everyone scrambled for rain gear and I pulled out my ¥100 rain poncho, which I put on over my backpack to keep my camera safe. It kept my torso more or less dry, but the rest of me, of course, got soaked. My jeans, already covered in volcanic dust, immediately became covered in volcanic mud. And the dusty, rocky trail, so soft and forgiving a moment ago, hardened in the rain, making my feet and knees hurt even more.

There was nothing to do; no shelter to make for, no nothing. So I kept walking, and after about fifteen minutes arrived at the souvenir store above the Gotemba parking lot. I stood there and dripped for a little while, and then when more of our party arrived and the rain let up a little, we headed for the parking lot to see if the bus was there.

That last five minutes of walking was somehow the absolute worst, I don't know why. Except that I was stupid tired. Somehow I staggered down the path and onto the bus, where I sat down in my sodden clothing and just passed out.

I had thought the four-hour bus trip back would be miserable, sitting on an air-conditioned bus in clothing that was wet through. But I was so tired that I slept right through it, only waking up enough to stumble off the bus at one of the rest stops and buy some food and water.

When we got back to Yamasa, Colin-san opened the bar and bought us all a round. He made me an Okazaki, which was delicious, and I was surprised to learn that it is made with Captain Morgan's and ginger ale, both of which I dislike by themselves. How is it possible to combine two things I dislike and get something tasty? It is a mystery. We talked about some stuff, which I don't really remember now because I was only barely hanging on to consciousness. Somehow it was more than an hour later, well into evening, so I left and got myself home in a daze.

Then I slept like the dead. And woke up for a few hours this morning, and then slept again for most of the day.

I still feel mildly shell-shocked. I'm glad I did this crazy thing, but man, I would not do it again.

Also, there is volcanic dust everywhere. >_> In my bag and all. Blech.

OK, this took forever to write, and now I have to go to bed. I will write later (or tomorrow) about the first day of classes on Friday and some other random stuff.

Jaa mata!

Daijoubu desu.

2010-07-22T18:18:00.003+09:00

All is well.

I crashed out at 9pm last night and woke up around 6 this morning. Had some serious first-day-of-school jitters ("What if I can't find my classroom? What if I don't make any friends?") but got myself out of the house on time after spending a little while half-heartedly flipping through the textbook to refresh my memory before the placement test.

One of the first things I found out was that I didn't, in fact, miss orientation. It was this afternoon. So that's a relief!

The placement test was fairly brutal, especially the oral part. OMG. It was so stressful and I don't think I did that well. But that's okay, I knew I was rusty and even if I get placed a bit back from where I was last semester, it will be good practice and mean that the classes are less stressful.

Then there was a break for lunch, and I met a few other English-speaking gaijin in the courtyard. Yay! So I don't forget, they are: Lee-san, an Australian who has been living in Japan teaching English to elementary school kids for a few years (not for JET, but for some similar program) and is commuting to Yamasa from the city next-door. Bryan-san, a fellow American (from St. Louis) who has also been living in Japan for a while; he teaches English (to high schoolers?) for JET just north of Tokyo and is staying in the dorms here. He's also doing a 4-week course. And Laura-san, a Canadian whose only previous study of the language is from books and anime. She's at a homestay. Laura-san also just arrived in Japan a couple of days ago. She's 22 and the two guys are both in their late 20s (I think they said 27 or 28).

The four of us had lunch together at the grocery store next to the school, commiserated about the placement test and got to know each other a little. After lunch we had a lot of time left, so we wandered up the street to a park and a different store, where I co-opted them into helping me find sunblock (because I was already getting a little burnt). Felt absurdly accomplished about that successful mission. All three seem very nice and fun, so I'm hoping to run into them more (I expect I won't end up in the same class as Lee-san or Bryan-san, but maybe Laura-san).

After lunch was orientation -- in English! Thank goodness for that. I finally got to meet Flavio-san, who works at the admissions office and was super helpful to me over e-mail during the process of applying to the school. I learned all about the complicated trash/recycling rules and a bunch of other useful things, so I have some notion of what I'm in for over the course of the next four weeks!

Surprisingly, Flavio-san mentioned that there was an earthquake yesterday morning at around 6am! He asked if any of us noticed it and no one had. But he said it was strong enough to wake him up. Damn! My very first earthquake and I slept through it! Very disappointing. :( (Not that I'm going to hope there will be others, because that's... kind of terrifying.)

One of the other people in the class was a friendly middle-aged woman named Yolanda-san, who is apparently Belgian, currently living in Switzerland, and speaks something like six languages. Crazy cool! She and I laughed about our grocery store misadventures (hers involved attempting to buy sugar). There was also a German woman, from Berlin, who lives in my same residence hall, but I didn't catch her name. :/

Yolanda-san asked about the trip to Fuji-san this weekend, which she was apparently already signed up for. This led Flavio-san to mention it and say there were still vacancies if anyone else wanted to climb Fuji-san tomorrow.............. yeah, you see where this is going. :P

So I spent the remainder of my day shopping for super-warm clothing in 100-degree heat. So. Surreal. (It's apparently going to be right around freezing at the top of the mountain.) On a tip from Bryan-san, I found a huge thrift store just up the street. Those of you who know me know that I looooove thrifting. And there were so many shirts with amazing Engrish on them! It was so good. I did manage to find an ugly fleece pullover and an equally-ugly-but-very-warm hat for the climb, and also bought a couple of shirts (for me, and for gifts). On the way back I found another store full of cheap things (called, appropriately enough, Garage Sale) where I acquired a scarf and a pair of gloves, total cost 152 Yen. And then I stopped by the 100 Yen store, where I added a flashlight, a rain poncho, a thick pair of socks and some leg warmers to the day's take. Hopefully I won't freeze. Trying to envision temperatures that cold is nigh unto impossible when you're sweltering in brutal summer heat. (This is the reverse problem of trying to pack for a trip to the beach during Christmas break.)

So, yeah, tomorrow I'm apparently climbing Mt. Fuji. Eep. We're getting on a bus right after class and, according to the info sheet: "We start with a break at the vast lagoon of Hamanako, before heading into Shizuoka. When we reach Mt. Fuji, we climb from Shin-5-gome, climbing during the night (with safety guide etc) from mountain hut to mountain hut and hopefully seeing the sunrise. ... After we descend Fuji, we head across the mountain face to the beautiful Shiraito-no-taki waterfalls before returning to Okazaki."

Let's see. I better go to the grocery store before it closes and get some supplies for tomorrow. Need to bring so much food. OMG. And while I'm there I'll see if I can't figure out laundry detergent (thanks so much for the advice, cdinwood!). And I need batteries for the flashlight too.

I would worry about this overnight hike thing totally destroying my sleep schedule, but let's be honest here... what sleep schedule? I'm so out of sync anyway that spending all night climbing a mountain isn't going to make it any worse. Well. Maybe it will, come to think of it, since I'm sleeping at more or less the right times right now. But. I will have Sunday to recover! :P

No pictures today, I didn't bring my camera with me. Gomen ne. :) There will be plenty from Fuji-san to make up for it.

Jaa mata!

Feeling down tonight

2010-07-21T19:09:00.002+09:00

I'm feeling very down tonight. I got very, very tired around 3pm today and procrastinated on the internet for a couple of hours before going to the store, ostensibly because I felt sleepy but in actuality, I think, because I didn't want to deal with it.

Around 5:30 I thought back to a conversation from earlier and realized that I probably screwed up and missed orientation this afternoon. When I checked in at Student Services earlier, she told me to go to Aoi Hall for my placement test tomorrow morning, and said there was an orientation in the afternoon. At the time, I thought she meant *tomorrow* afternoon, but in hindsight I now think (or fear) she must've meant today. Of course by the time I remembered this it was too late to do anything about it.

It shouldn't be a big deal, but I'm feeling very unclear about how things are going to work at the school, and of course the fact that they've only been communicating with me in Japanese just increases my anxiety. I wanted to get clarification about the recycling (apparently we have to sort it ourselves, it's complicated, and there are dire consequences if it gets done wrong) and find out useful stuff like where to find breakfast. Not to mention have the chance to meet people.

Anyway, I'm annoyed with myself for misunderstanding and annoyed with Yamasa for not really telling me anything since I got here. I've been left completely to my own devices since I was picked up at the airport (by someone who also only spoke Japanese). Which isn't a terrible thing, they gave me a map and all, but I feel a little concerned without any sort of guidance at all. (For example, my key came with a letter that I clearly needed to sign and drop off at Student Services, but there were no instructions that said to do so.)

Anyway. So I made a mistake (I think). It happens. I'm sure it will get sorted out, but on top of already feeling tired this afternoon that just made me feel even less capable of dealing with stuff.

Food is already a pretty serious challenge. Normally I pay very close attention to what I eat -- I always read the labels and try to choose things without added sugars, etc. And I avoid certain foods. But here, I can't read the ingredients, and sometimes I can't even tell what something is. Between that and the traveling, I haven't been able to maintain my practice of avoiding sugary and simple-carby foods, so my blood sugar levels have been all over the place, which also doesn't help anything.

It's very distressing to me to be functionally illiterate. Even if labels are written in hiragana instead of kanji, I often don't know the meaning of the word. So buying anything has been kind of a gamble, and forget all my normally healthy choices, like yogurt without added sugar. I'm lucky if I can tell the yogurt from the pudding.

The grocery store was insanely overwhelming. I find myself thankful for global brands and for products that have representative pictures on their labeling. Even so, I wasn't able to find everything I need, the worst being laundry detergent -- of all the stupid things to be stymied by.

I knew going into it that I probably wouldn't be able to find a Japanese version of my American detergent, which is the fragrance-free sort since my skin can sometimes react to weird stuff. But standing in the aisle examining packages, I couldn't even figure out what was detergent and what was, say, liquid fabric softener. And then I wasn't sure if there were different sorts and I needed a specific one for my washer. I eventually gave up and came home... tonight I will rinse a couple of things out just in water, and try the detergent again tomorrow. Maybe if I Google it I can find a photo of a product that will work. :/

I also got a little sunburnt today, which made me realize I need to buy sunblock, but I couldn't figure that one out, either. Too many other products look similar (lotions, facial cleansers, etc.) and if Japan uses the same SPF rating that we do, I couldn't find any bottles that had it on them.

So. That's frustrating. I *did* succeed in buying some fruits, miso mix, prepackaged sushi for dinner, some juice and a big bottle of iced tea. And yogurt. (At least, I'm pretty sure it's yogurt.)

One more lesson of the illiterate: watching other people is incredibly useful. I find that in situations where I can't read the signs or don't know what's expected of me, my first instinct is to imitate / blend in.

I reminded myself over and over that it was just a grocery store, that they work the same everywhere and it is not that complicated. It was still so stressful though. The layout wasn't what I expected, and there were a lot of things that I couldn't figure out what they were at all. They have weird checkout rituals that I haven't entirely comprehended yet -- for instance, instead of bagging anything for you, they put it in a basket, which you then carry to a counter beyond the registers to bag things yourself. And there's this little tray that maybe you're supposed to put your money in, instead of just handing it over?

For the woman in front of me, the cashier put a plastic bag into the basket for her to use, but for reasons unknown, he didn't give me one. (Maybe I needed to ask for one? Maybe they cost extra?) Luckily I had brought a fabric shopping bag I acquired earlier at the 100 Yen store, but it wasn't quite big enough and I still had to carry a few things in the other hand. Again, not a big deal, but it made me feel more incompetent and like I don't understand what's going on.

I feel mentally and physically exhausted. My brain is in overdrive trying to figure out how to say the simplest things; just passing someone on the street is anxiety-inducing as I worry that they'll say something to me and I won't understand it. Skyping and IMing with a couple people earlier notwithstanding, I feel desperately lonesome to talk to someone in English. I feel very aware that everyone I know is on the other side of the world right now, and asleep.

Wow. I can barely keep my eyes open long enough to finish this post. I guess I spoke too soon about not being jetlagged. Shower and bed now... tomorrow will be better. (I have to say this is kind of how I expected to feel yesterday... I know the first few days will be the worst.)

Jaa mata...

Okazaki

2010-07-21T13:07:00.002+09:00

I woke up before 7 this morning and couldn't sleep any longer. I don't feel too jetlagged though -- I guess it'll be worse coming home. It probably also helps that it's hot and sunny today and I walked around a lot this morning.

tenki wa (as for the weather), it's hot and humid, but doesn't actually feel any worse than NYC. I think it may be slightly more humid and not quite as hot, but really, at some point hot and sticky is just hot and sticky.

I walked to the school today and located a couple of other useful places, like the 24-hour convenience store, the Denny's (:P), and the 100 Yen store. Then I got lost for awhile in the aforementioned store, but did manage to buy an assortment of cute and useful items (sometimes both).

Okay, some pictures, then I gotta venture out again and attempt to find (and comprehend) the grocery store.

Some Yen. Why is everyone's money prettier than ours?

The view from my balcony.

The building I'm living in. It's pretty ugly. :D

A real live Japanese schoolgirl.

There are lots of people on bikes. I think I've seen almost as many cyclists as cars. I keep having to remind myself to walk on the LEFT. Even so, it's always startling to get passed on the right.

I found a little shrine just down the street.

It has two statues... of foxes, I think. They are wearing what looks like little aprons that someone made for them.

There are cute anime-looking characters on a lot of signs. Like this fax machine.

And the strange signage is not just English... here's some French.

The 24-hour convenience store. And more tiny, tiny cars.

Right next door is the Laundream.

A busy Okazaki street. Okazaki is a decent-sized city, around 350,000 people apparently. (Sorry for the over-exposed photo. I will remember to check my shutter speed next time no really.)

Hermitcrab! Why? Why not?

Bunch of good stuff from the 100 Yen store. Spicy love girl. Aww yeah.

More interesting socks.

So. Cute. I refrained from buying it though, too big to bring home in my luggage.

We produce for your enjoyable amenity life. (To be fair, I bet most of the stuff we get in the US with kanji printed on it is equally nonsensical.)

A lucky item. Just what I need!

I thank them too.

My new glass.

After extricating myself from the 100 Yen store, I hit up the Mini Stop for some lunch. Figuring out to eat was a gamble, since I couldn't read the packaging for anything. I ended up with a rice ball with some kind of sweet/spicy sauce in it. It was tasty.

SMAP!

Hentai in the convenience store? :D

Okay, time for grocery store adventure. Jaa mata!

Okazaki kara konnichiwa!

2010-07-20T22:02:00.003+09:00

Which is to say, hello from Okazaki! The trip was looooong, but not nearly as eventful as I'd feared.

I just spent 24 hours traveling, almost exactly. I left my New York apartment at 8am yesterday (Monday), and arrived in Okazaki at 9pm Tuesday in local time -- which is 8am Tuesday back home. That is insane.

The flight was a codeshare with ANA (All Nippon Airlines) so even though I had booked through United I had to check in at the ANA counter. There were lots of Nihonjin and the check-in agents were greeting everyone in Japanese. Then when I was in the gate area, all the announcements were also in Japanese, though sometimes repeated afterwards in English. I understood a lot more than I was expecting to (e.g., "now boarding rows 30 to 40"). I was pleased to find some things coming back to me as I listened to the conversations going on around me. It helped assuage some of my worry about how much I've forgotten since I last studied in the Fall.

The flight was just shy of 14 hours. Guys, that is a really, really long time to spend on a plane, especially when that plane has no power outlets and you managed to brilliantly pick the seat way in the back that doesn't recline. :/ I did get a little sleep, though.

I always find international flights weird, because you do all the things you would normally do on a plane -- eat something, read for a bit, listen to some music, fall asleep for awhile -- and then, instead of the flight being over, there's still hours to go. Super weird. I've also decided that, as enamored as I am of my smartphone and as excited as I was that I can now pack just one device instead of also bringing an mp3 player when I travel -- I need to go back to traveling with my mp3 player. My phone's battery life just doesn't cut it. I was a little sad knowing that my little MuVo TX could easily have provided me with music for all 14 hours of that flight on a single AAA battery. That would have made it go a lot faster. Well, lesson learned.

As for my laptop, I used up its ~3h of battery life playing Leather Goddesses of Phobos, which is my favorite old Infocom game. I recently unearthed it again after it came up in conversation. It's awesome. You should play it. I was pleased to find I don't really remember how to solve most of the puzzles.

They fed us two meals on the plane. One thing I love about ordering vegetarian meals on planes is that you always get served first... not that I want VIP treatment or anything, but I like getting served earlier so I don't have to stay awake lest I sleep through the food being served. The "dinner" was way mediocre lasagna and sad bruised salad, but had a tasty roll and fruit. The "breakfast" was much better, some kind of fat noodles with tofu in soy sauce.

Luckily, the plane did provide free movies, so I watched the new Alice in Wonderland (Don't know why you guys didn't like it! I thought it was a great combination of pretty and dark. Also, Johnny Depp as the Hatter is adorable). Then, a while later, I watched A Beautiful Mind, which was certainly a better movie, but probably one I'll never watch again. (I enjoyed it. But it's not only more serious than my usual fare, I think it was way better for my going into it without knowing what to expect.)

Anyway! You are not here to read movie reviews.

Once I got to Narita airport, Customs and Immigration were a breeze. I accidentally got in some peoples' way until I remembered to stand on the left, not right, on escalators. I wandered around the airport until I found the "travel center" I'd looked up online that would sell me train tickets for my entire route and let me pay with a credit card. Their staff also spoke English, which was a bonus since I still don't always trust my listening comprehension, especially when it comes to things like times and numbers.

I had expected to have more trouble navigating the train system, especially with two transfers to make along the way. I had to take the "Narita Express" into Tokyo, then switch to a Shinkansen from Tokyo to Toyohashi, then get on a local train to Okazaki. But it turns out I have enough general knowledge of how train systems work to mostly figure it out (though I did keep feeding the wrong ticket to the machine and having to hand it to the JR employee to sort out, and I'm still not sure I understand what was going on there, but they were very friendly about it).

Luckily, I'd read online that the express trains had reserved seating, so I knew to look for that on my ticket and line up by the correct car. Between reading hiragana, pattern-matching kanji with what was on my ticket, listening to the announcements and occasionally asking someone for directions (a task for which, thankfully, advanced Japanese is not really required), I made all my transfers without a hitch.

I took a lot of kind of pointless photos from train windows, many of which are blurry, but maybe it will give you a feel for how things look. I saw lots of pretty rivers and bridges. Japan is pretty adorable -- everything is at what seems to my eyes to be 3/4 scale. The roads are tiny, the cars are tiny, the houses are tiny. It's super cute. I was sitting on the left-hand side of the shinkansen, so I got to see the ocean here and there. Then it got dark, and I fell asleep for awhile.

I made it to Okazaki around 8:30pm and someone from Yamasa was waiting to drive me over to campus and give me the keys to my adorable dorm/apartment. In the way of dorm rooms, it is small and a bit ugly and the kitchen smells odd, but I love it already. It has a little balcony and air conditioning and internet. I cannot take good pictures of it, because it is tiny and I only have a 50mm lens with me, but I took some pictures just the same.

I can't believe I was scared of this -- the Japanese are so nice and it's so beautiful here. And in just 24 hours my Nihongo has already improved so much. It's so much fun to talk to native speakers and have actual communication happen. I can make small talk about the weather. It's pretty great. ^__^

I don't know why I had this weird feeling that Japan was going to be super intimidating. Of course, the last time I visited I didn't know the language at all, I didn't live in a big city with a complicated train system, and I wasn't prepared for some things that this time, I knew to expect (like Japanese-style toilets). So it's easier in a lot of ways. But also I think I'm just more confident now about admitting that I don't know things, interacting with people even if I don't know the right words, etc.

I'm going to try to think more about that when I'm better-rested.

Now, a much-needed shower and bed. Tomorrow is for exploring the area, buying some supplies, recovering from jetlag and hopefully even doing some studying; I'm scheduled to take a placement test at 9am on Thursday.

(full Flickr set)

Jaa mata!

konnichiwa, world

2010-07-01T06:36:00.000+09:00

i'm spending a month in Japan this summer, studying at The Yamasa Institute. this blog will chronicle my adventures overseas! please stay tuned.