BTW

Japanese beer makes you burp .. a lot.

Takoyaki and Okinomiyaki

I think I spelled the second one right, Lol.

Today I went to school to get my schedule and the gang walked over to Midori, the super store a little ways away. Andra helped me get an electronic dictionary, so I have one. A casio XD A4800we. The only problem is.... it's all in Japanese, the menu is in Japanese, and the instructions are in Japanese. I had to have Haruka, my seminar house's RA teach me how to set it to English. ... WEELLLL It can't. So I asked her if she can show me how to use it. So now I know how to do basic functions and I'll learn the rest along the way. It was a bit expensive but I know it's a good investment to have. I just have to be careful with my finances now.

I meet my homestay family tomorrow bright and early. Don't expect an update for a few until I figure out the internet situation there. It won't be a problem if they don't have it, I just don't know yet.

ALSO: Monday is the first day I travel by myself to campus. By train. Wish me luck and hope I don't get lost!

Tonight the gang went to get takoyaki, octopus balls. They were delic. We also ate Okinomiyaki which is yummy diced cabbage with sauce mashed together with a breading-like substance. The Japanese people next to us were really friendly, and with our broken knowledge of each other's language we managed a nice conversation. They bought us some beers and to be nice I drank it. It wasn't the best tasting thing in the world but it would have been rude to refuse. Good night of food though! Definitely not going to go hungry in Japan!

Byodoin Temple

Kyoto Tour

Today after I got my class schedule I met up with my group and we headed off to Kyoto with some Kansai Gaidai students. It was me, Emily, Andra, John, and Jimmy, with four Japanese girls, Miko, Chiyaki, another Chiyaki, and I can't for the life of me remember the 4th girl's name. They brought us via train and bus to Kyoto and we went to the Byodoin temple, which was a Buddhist temple, BUT there was a Shinto shrine right next door we went to. We got to go in the temple, but we weren't allowed to take pictures. We also went to the temple museum, and we were also not allowed to take pictures there. However, outside we took TONS of pictures that can't be expressed in words. Just look out for them on facebook in a little while.

After the temple visit the girls took us out for Sushi for dinner. We got to experience the weirdest sushi I've ever heard of. Apparently things in the US we think would be odd make the best sushi here. For example: tuna salad sushi, corn sushi, and meatball sushi. Those were the weirder things that I've tried. Then I ate a ton of shrimp and crab sushi. Mmmm then I got a single scoop of vanilla ice cream, which is a lot more vanilla-y in Japan.

All in all a great trip to Kyoto and a very interesting introduction to the Japanese train system. It's confusing and it's making me worried about getting to school every morning. Haha oh well, I'll learn.

Observations from the Foreigner

You will notice that in the next couple uploads of pictures on facebook that Hirakata City is a very weird mix of things. It is both traditional and modern. It is both suburbs and city. Just walking to campus I pass a lot of traditional style houses with the garden in the front and the main gates and things, but then their neighbor might have a Western style house. And then THEIR neighbor might have a Spanish/Mexican style house. It is a little weird, but I guess that is a representation of this area as a whole. Hirakata is between Osaka, a modern business hub slightly smaller than Tokyo, and Nara and Kyoto which are more suburb and traditional. The area where the seminar houses are is suburbs, but when you walk past the school over the bridge I pictured in the last post it all becomes city. It's very cool.

Second observation: walking anywhere in Japan is dangerous. On the off chance that there is a sidewalk.. walk on it and you may find yourself subject to the crazy school aged kids on bikes that don't ring their bell to tell you to move over for them xD... If there isn't a sidewalk you must keep to the side of the road and a one lane road in the US is a two lane road here WITH a dotted white line on it for people to walk on. Very dangerous if the drivers are not paying attention. I'm walking with caution but there isn't much that a pedestrian can do... >_>

People are very friendly in this area of Japan. Even if they don't speak English they are try their best to understand you and say hello. Andra, me and our friend Andrew were in Hirakata city and wa trying to figure out the bus system and this ..maybe middle school girl came over and tried to help us. We didn't end up getting on the bus anyway but it was still nice. On the way to school we all walk by the Komatsu plant, which is like a factory for tractors and construction equipment, and the gate guards always say good morning and good night.

Sometimes we come across these random Buddhist or Shinto shrines and statues across the city.. and they are usually next to very modern things.. look out for my pictures and you'll see what I mean.

Fun Times in Osaka

Ok lots to update you on but I've been rushing around so this morning I had some free time to blog.
January 27th:Wednesday
The schedule wasn't conducive to good sleep today so I skipped the 9:30am general meeting which I found out later nothing important was discussed and it was basically a repeat of Tuesday's meeting. So I didn't feel bad sleeping in. Got to campus around lunch time and had some pork and rice dish. Mmmm didn't take a pic but I'm sure food pics will just make you all hungry anyway. I met the Faculty at the next meeting and they gave course descriptions. I decided to go change my classes. Problem is, is that the classes aren't first come first serve like in the US, it is a rolling admittance. Which is how I didn't end up getting the Sumi-e class T__T I've put myself on the waitlist for my top five classes so I will wait and see but I doubt I'll get into the art class.

Wednesday night after we all were back at the seminar houses we decided to go to the city and have dinner. Hirakata city is about a 20 min walk from campus. And Campus is about 30 mins from the seminar houses.... it was a long walk to say the least. Walking into Hirakata city is such a blend of things, I will talk about this in another post.

We saw the famous MOS Burger, KFC, and kiddy land. Although I was not allowed to take pictures in Kiddy land I took other pics. Kiddy land is a store representing the stereotypical Japan, bright lights happy songs and hello kitty everywhere. It caters to the middle school crowd and weird people like us. I went with my "group." We have formed this amazing group of people, ironically most of them were on my plane coming over Lol. (Andra in the front and Emily hiding in the back are becoming cool friends)

We ate at this noodle shop.. because that is one thing that all of us are in LOVE with. I of course got Udon again, with a cool looking bottle of coke. The walk back was more down hill and then flat again so going back was ok. January 28th: Thursday
Had a full day of orientation things. Went to the Academic and Immigration orientation. Learned about how to register as a foreigner in whichever ward we will be living in. I went to my homestay meeting which I will go into detail later. Emily and I went to the really funny Health panel, which turned out to be a panel on STD's and safe sex talks, and then we went to the orientation for women, of which I pretty much knew everything already.

Basically a long day of meetings then I went home and watched TV in the seminar house. Japanese games shows are hilarious!

MISC:
I don't remember which day this was Lol, monday maybe? I don't remember if I wrote about it but I met one of my speaking partners, Kaori. Shuuei is still taking his final exams so we will meet later.

I found out about my homestay family yesterday at the meeting. They would be a perfect couple.. if they had a kid I could hang out with xD. But I got my second best choice. I asked that if I didn't get a young kid that my couple be older. So I got this really nice old couple who live on the outskirts of Hirakata City. They have one dog. They don't smoke (thank goodness!) and the drink. They don't speak any English.. and I'm not sure how I feel about that yet- I'll let you know when I meet them on Sunday. They have hosted students before so I'm gonna guess they already know what to teach us and that they won't be shy about telling me what I'm doing wrong... at least I hope. They are non-strict Buddhists. The mom is a housewife, I get a 6 tatami mat room all to myself. A rather large room, similar to the one I'm in now. And I will have to commute to campus, all in all a 40 min commute. By foot and by train. They live a 2 minute walk from Hoshigaoka station. I take the train from that one to the Hirakata station and then walk to campus. Lol that walk is not safe.. but again I'll talk about that in another post. Today I have my trip to Kyoto so more good pictures to come!

Pain

So I brought new shoes with me to Japan, thought I'd break em in.. in the one country that walks EVERYWHERE. Lets just say that my feet have been hurting a bit. So this morning I had a brillant idea to where my boots, because they atleast wouldn't dig into my ankle. Weeeell, a 20-25 min walk in high heal boots isn't exactly the smartest thing in the world to do. My feet are jelly right now and when I walk on them pain shoots up my lower leg ( I'm doing more walking and using muscles that haven't been worked this hard in awhile xD haha)

EDIT: a 20-25 min walk to campus and from campus

I took my Japanese language placement test this morning. *whistle*~~~~*EXPLOSION* I totally bombed it. The only thing I really studied thisbreak was katakana and kanji which are my two weakest parts. Katakana wasn't even on the exam, and the kanji that showed up on the exam I have never even seen before!! xD UGH There are only two parts I think I did OK in, and OK meaning I did the work up to my level.

I had lunch in the cafeteria today again. I got udon again.. at least I know if I don't like anything my host family feeds me there is a delicious bowl of soup waiting for me at campus for 200 yen. I also had this sandwich. Now I have to explain this a little bit because this is something I learned recently. 1: Japanese usually don't have crust on their sandwiches, 2: They usually don't put condements on sandwiches, 3: They don't put a lot of anything on a sandwich (the one I had the ther day had a single slice of ham, a thinly sliced piece of ham) and 4: They think Egg salad, tomatoes, ham and cucumbers go together. Ick. I took off the cucumbers and ate it anyway but it tasted weiiirrd.

Raining in Hirakata

I did everything I needed to do today. The language software they use here is AMAZINGLY hightech. I found my mailbox, learned that Japanese atms on campus take my debit card. I had lunch in the larger cafeteria on campus. I got this huge bowl of udon, pan..or 'sweet bread' and a coke and it was only 380 yen, a little over 4$, I was stuffed to the brink and the taste of udon was in my mouth all day. Mmmmm

It started raining after lunch so I met my speaking partner in the CIE lounge. (Center for International Education- I will be spendin much time here). Here English was as good as I thought it was from her emails. I tried to speak Japanese but I'm rusty andwe both had an awkward few minutes where we each had no idea what the other was saying. But she was really nice and kind. When we left to go home it was already dark outside... she walked me to the East gate and when I said that it was OK she didn't have to she said 'I worry about you'... it was the sweetest thing ever xD.. I had told her earlier that I got lost with some friends exploring the city.

All in all a great day but I realized just how much I'm going to have to learn to be able to communicate with people. Scaaary.

Good Morning

One of the roommates moved in last night as I was laying down to go to bed (at 9:30! I know crazy!) She is from Australia and her name is Cassie, short for Cassandra. I had to explain to her that she only had to put with me for this week of orientation, we hit it off right away and at first she got the impression that we were the two roommates xD I set her straight and she went off to meet up with another friend of hers, I went to bed.

Today I have to find an atm machine and I have a full day of activities to do. When I feel up to walking to campus today I have to go to the Language Lab Orientation where they teach you how to use this way comlicated software. Then I have a banking session at 2pm where I have to open up a Japanese bank account. I must do this in order to get my Scholarship money. Then when I finish with those I'll find that atm and I have to look for my mailbox. Aparently the school puts important info in their daily as new things come up. Back at Towson if I got one letter a semester that would be a shocker, here they do it daily! Which means when I do something, they confirm in right away.

Later tonight I made plans to meet up with one of my speaking partners, Kaori. Hopefully we can have dinner together.

Shopping

I went on my first adventure today. I woke up early and did my other post this morning and then went out on the town to explore. I was by myself and had no clue where I was going. I walked into several dead ends and roads to nowhere. Then I ran into some newbies that I met on the bus last night, Benny from Germany and Dillan from Washington, the state. We decided to go find the campus and look for food. Our bus missed the food tour last night and there wasn't another one until tomorrow so we were hungry. We got lost. The map Gaidai (shortened term the locals use) gave us was not very detailed and we ended up walking into a gated warehouse. The security guards were nice enough to point us in the right direction. We kept going and we figured we'd take a shortcut to the right through this residential area. We got lost. But it wasn't my fault. I was following the guys and they wouldn't stop and ask for directions. After finding the main road an hour later we found the 99 yen shop, which is like a dollar store and the grocery. The campus was within eyesight, but we had been walking so long that I was hungry and tired. So Benny went on ahead to the campus and Dillan and I went shopping for food. It was the kind of food within my budget so I bought some and we headed back to the seminar house. The actual walk was abou 15 minutes, but it took us over an hour to get there. It was good food to. Again, I will upload pictures when I get my laptop on their network.

I HAVE ARRIVED

Ok this post will be a little weird because I wrote down stuff about my trip literally right after it happened or during it so I'm typing what I wrote word for word, hope you can keep up! ;D

I got frisked! I know how that sounds but BWI TSA workers and I got reeeeal friendly this morning when they thought I was trying to hide a travel pouch under my scarf ( one of those that wrap multiple times around your neck in a circle) They tld me I had to pass it through security. I was like "um no.. *whispers* I have over 3k in this money pouch and I don't trust anyone" So thinking I'm suspicious or whatever they had t check it by hand.. needless to say I didn't let it out of my sight. Then because because I was wearing so many layers they frisked me even after I passed through the line. I mean, I was only wearing a shirt, a button up over it, a scarf and I had taken my winter coat off already. But I guess wearing flanel made me look like a bum. [EW I was touched.... @_@ ]
~~

Are you serious ...really?!? United Airlines workers are idiots! The screen says my gate is D11 and the bagage check said gate D15. So when I got through security I went potty andsat down at D11, and waited until someone came to the gate's counter. When she finally arrived this rude b.i.t.c.h. said "No questions." before she even allowed me to say anything!!! I said " you can't just answer a single question?" and she replied a simple " NO".. She didn't even let me ask anything! RUDE! *said in the obligatory Bon Qui Qui voice* Meanwhile my flight was boarding over at gate D15!!So far this trip is pissing me off. -___-

[The flight ended up being horrible. There were only 50 people on the plane so I had plenty of room but waking up that early andnot eating made me nauseous. The fact that the plane was freakin HOT and I was over heating didn't help either. OH AND the fact that they made you PAY for drinks and a snack.. like really? Totally didn't waste my money]
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The gate for the second flight was on the other half of the terminal, but I didn't have a problem finding it. I got a whopper from BK on my way because I was starving. I came accross a money exchange place and figured it would just be easier if I did it here. [WELL that was a mistake. -_- They didn't charge me but they gave me a horrible exchange rate and I came out with not enough money for my homestay and let alone food for this week. ] I met a bunch of other Kansai Gaidai students at the gate and we all came together and chilled/talked before we boarded.
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The seat on the flight to Japan is roomy enough. All the Kansai kids are spread about. There's a nice man sitting next to me. Also, I didn't have to pay for food!! Good! Ate a diner of chicken, rice, peas, roll, and brownie. Ate while watching Finding Nemo :D

2 meals on the plane!?! Heaven! Strange noodle dish, rasbury shortbread cokies and strawberry yogurt.
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On the bus to Kansai Gaidai. The pick up was easy to find, us Kansai kids were all going together and the pick up was literally right outside the gate. I'm having fun and making friends. This is so surreal. Totally forgot they drive on the left side of the road. Mom: Japanese people drive WAY better than Italians. But I people who drive scooters and motorcycles do the same weaving in and out of traffic. Lol. I'm enjoying the view during the 1 hour and 30 min drive to the seminar houses.
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OK here is today's post:
I'm staying in seminar house 1 for this week. It is SO cool. It is a 6 or 8 tatami mat room.. I can't remember xD and the Japanese futons are WAY comfy. The view from the roof is amazing. The shower room is seperate from the toilet room, a little interesting. The two other girls that stay in the room haven't arrived yet, but they are staying there while I'm movig in with a host family. I got my orientation packet and I have a lot to do. Including trying to fix my money problem. But I haven't freaked out yet, all's good. I think I'll meet up with some other international students ad explore the town. I will only be in this part of town for a week so I got to live it up Lol. We passed a Sega store on the drive last night and I'm sure that will be a stop on our exploration.

PS:I can't upload any pictures until I get my laptop set up but they will get there eventually.

Question of the day: Why are there so many ferris wheels in Osaka? o.O

Can't Sleep

I wish I was like Yostuba in the picture but too many things are running through my head.

Ok this is my edited 'final message' before I get to Japan.

Packing

I'm finishing up my packing hours before my flight because I didn't want to get up this morning. I'm about to pack my laptop so I'm gonna write my final message until I get there:

I'm nervous, tired, and the flight there will only make it worse. I don't really know who's reading my blog but I'll be sure to write anything fun I do and any interesting experiences.

Love ya! <3

Nervs

I woke up nervous today. I don't know whether it's anticipation jitters or complete panic over whether I'll forget something but I'm so nervous that I feel kind of sick x__x

Today I'm cleaning my room and doing laundry, packing and getting together last minute things. I have a lot to do. I have 16 hours left and counting.

Alcohol, my new friend.

Weekend

Haha yeah yeah yeah the weekend was three days ago. But this past weekend I had a great time going to CT and seeing everyone. I saw my friend Cassandra who I haven't seen in YEARS!! She has two little girls who are adorable. I also got to see my grandma who is in the hosptial, my dad and stepmom and stepsister, my brother and sister in law and my BFF Melissa! We went to Foxwoods casino, won a little money, drank, ate crabs, .. I basically celebrated my 21st bday for 4 days Lol.

Tonight I am going over my aunt and uncle's house for a goodbye dinner, I'm excited to see them. I have to get all of my goodbyes in before I go, all the mashed potatoes in, all my favorite foods and TV shows.. cause I know I won't get them in Japan. :]

I've been talking with my speaking partners through email and they seem like really nice people. Shuhei's English isn't perfect but I can understand him well enough and Kaori's English is amazing.. well their writing is good, don't know how well they speak, but if their writing is any judge then I think we'll be able to communicate in English really well. I warned them both about how bad my Japanese is but I think I can learn with them.

I got two days left, so much to do, nothing started, and I probably won't believe it until I'm on the plane. Getting nervous but trying to keep it together.

My Japanese speaking partners

Yes, I am really up at 4 am. I'm leaving for my weekend birthday celebration to CT early tomorrow and I just can't seem to get to sleep. But because I stayed up I got to see my email from Kansai Gaidai giving me the information for my speaking partners. Yep, I got two! The first is a guy named Motoyama Shuhei aged 20, and the second is a girl named Teratani Kaori aged 20 also. I figured since I only got the information an hour ago I shouldn't send them an email too quickly. I don't want them to think I'm a crazy person that doesn't sleep haha!

The big day is less than a week away and I'm getting more an more nervous everyday. I'm overthinking everything because I'm paranoid that I'm going to not pack something important, or that I forget to even think of something that I need and end up freaking out that I don't have it. I'm also worried that I'm going to overpack because I'm going to be there for over four months so I need everything but then again I don't need everything.

I'm also totally not looking forward to that 14 hour plane trip. (T_T) waah!~.. [yes I'm 21 and crying on the inside over stupid things that are out of my control]

Speaking Partner

I've been waiting for a few days now on my speaking partner information. The speaking partners program facilitates international students with Kansai Gaidai students depending on what kind of relationship they are looking for. I signed up for a"study and friend activities" kind of partner. ... That sounded a little odd, hmm I guess I'll word it this way: I put on my application that I would like to make friends with the speaking partner and do normal friend activities with them. I listed things like eating lunch together, shopping, studying, going out, etc. I figure I don't want to just hang out with international students the whole time and this will help me speak Japanese better. Anyway I got this email today saying that there are still 40 Kansai students waiting for international students to apply and that international students can apply for a second partner if they wished. I thought it would be great to have more than one in case one partner doesn't work out or something so I applied a second time and now will have to wait a few more days to find out about who my partners will be.

8 more days!!

My Birthday

Today is my 21st birthday and my trip to Japan is right around the corner! 8 more days and then I'm on a flight to Osaka! Ahhh I'm so excited.

Happy New Year!

:D..4 days later.. Lol