365ish Days of Japan

I know this is very belated, and I owe many pictures and many stories, but honestly, Japanese education is on such a different level that it may be the end of the semester before I get back into this regularly. 

Some of this is pretty blunt, so if you’re not ready for that, wait til the next episode when I return to cute pictures and adventure times from the past few months. This is honestly more for the people back home in the US than it is anyone else, because it’s a frustrated rant.

I’ve realized a few things on this trip. A) I value education and being a part of that community is what makes me happy, even if I’m frustrated and want to flip a table. B) Not many people get that, at least as far as I know.

Japanese education is very different from what I’m used to back in the states. We have Japanese class daily, with it taking up 6 class periods per week. That means I’m in Japanese-spoken only classes for 9 hours a week, which can be exhausting. I’ve learned a ton of Japanese in this time, but holy cow, it is intense. On top of culture classes, it can be a bit hectic to get through the week.

My culture classes consist of three classes: Japanese Women’s Lit, Pre-Modern History, and Classical Dance. The Lit class is about 50% Lit, 50% contemporary social issues because that’s just what we feel like talking about. It’s actually been a really great insight into culture and how similar Japan is to the things I find scary about America. I hope to take a class with the teacher again next semester, because she’s an amazingly smart person and funny. She’s very outspokenly anti-Chinese politics after leaving behind her Chinese citizenship, which leads to some great discussions.

Pre-Modern History has really affirmed my enjoyment of non-Western history. Though it’s promarily a self-taught class, it’s really been interesting to get more of a perspective of history than ‘Heian’ and ‘Edo’ which is all that I had really gotten any form of lecture on before this semester. I have a lecture tomorrow on Edo Period and the differences between samurai in real life and in fictional stories. I’m pretty excited to give it, even though I was told I shouldn’t make it 20 minutes (the length asked for by the teacher) and that I should not go on about it. I know it wasn’t meant to be harsh in context, but I can’t really help but walk away from that conversation feeling like I’m somehow an inconvenience to class getting out 45 minutes early.

This is sort of where I find myself being the odd person out, which is fine to me, but it’s made me miss a lot of things from back home. I miss the friendship bonds that are so close that you consider each other family and send love and cakes and break-falls on your birthdays. I wanted to make at least one of those bonds here, but that’s just not happening. Friendship here even among the international students seems to be treated as something fleeting and temporary, even if you have similar interests and get along well. 

I decided to just do a post for this week, since it was altogether just more orientation and bumming around within Fuchinobe and the areas around it. Not much was hugely memorable enough to deserve its own post, so have a mega blog leading up to day 1 of classes.

Monday we had medical checkups, which was required for Japanese Health Insurance, which is mandatory if you are living here for any amount of time. It was.... awkward. Everything was pretty normal, until we all had to get x-rayed and were given no privacy to put on the medical gowns, which led to fun trying to get re-dressed. There was much readjusting in the bathroom after that. We ended up going to Hashimoto that afternoon, where there’s a big mall for normal shopping. It includes quality shopping stores such as Swanky Market.

Also, there was a section of ‘discounted’ section of samurai helms and Edo/Heian era dolls.

The normal mall itself was pretty cheap, plus bought a Stormtrooper jacket that will get pictured next time I wear it. It is so warm. Instead, have a picture of the sakura from 8th floor of Meimeikan, where half my classes are this semester.

To quote Jordan, ‘There’s nothing special about sakura, it’s just the fact that Japan has planted 10,000,000 of them on every single street.’

I would be inclined to agree, but on Wednesday when I had the free time, I went to the park and took pictures of all the sakura since it was sunny. This is before all the petals started falling, and pollen-pocalypse set in. Things were still pretty and beautiful on Wednesday, and it was really nice to have a park within walking distance that gave me the sakura experience I didn’t get as well on the cloudy day of the Machida Hanami.

Thursday I had to get up at the worst possible hour to be downstairs for Registration. No part of this was an enjoyable experience. We met at 7:45, and got on the road at 8, walking down to Fuchinobe station to get to Sagamihara City Hall. Contrary to popular (read: Leader’s) belief, City Hall is no closer to Sagamihara station than it is Yabe station, the stop before it. We went farther, and spent more money by extension, to have the same stupid walk because no one decided to look at a map and figure out which station was closer. After getting to the station, 30 minutes of walking later we got to City hall to....Sit. The Hall itself ran pretty smoothly, getting all 60+ of us processed with stamps in about an hour. After that, it was another hour trek home because having never been to Sagamihara before, the only route I knew was the one they took us on. I don’t like having to rely on other people for transport unless they know what they’re doing....and I really don’t think they did this time.

Friday was an ordeal in patience at its finest. It was the last real day of Orientation, which meant leaving all the awfulness for last. From 1-2:30 we had anti-crime and drug orientation, which was held in a building with wifi (relevant later promise.) We were all split up into strange groups to discuss case studies of ‘what might happen illegally in Japan.’ Aka it was like D.A.R.E. all over again, except not in a language I could easily read. We got the case of what to do if your friend gives you weed, which was only really funny because the Chinese students in our group didn’t understand the katakana for marajuana until us two  ‘Muricans said it out loud. 

Now, as for why I mentioned wifi, as far as data goes in Japan, most of us have almost none, so we rely on wifi to communicate in a data-only app called Line, which is used by almost everyone here. Since we were in a wifi accessible building, those of us scattered about the room decided to browse Line to broadcast our groaning through 6 presentations of ‘what to do if’ which were all entirely in Japanese. Experiences were shared of Chinese students asking someone if they every shot up or smoked weed before, and the rest of us groaning and wanting to be free. It would have been less bad if they had allowed more English, but Obirin rolls in all Japanese all the time, and you damn foreigners better get used to it and follow along. It works in classes just fine, but for ‘important’ information that we may need to know, it doesn’t work well.

After that, there was a presentation from the Tokyo Fire Department about the special hazards of living on an island that’s also conveniently an earthquake hub. Tsunamis are an extra kind of horrible, caused by earthquakes and can be pretty damn terrible on many levels. This part of the presentation was subbed in English, so you knew they meant business then. Once they were done, we could go outside and try the fire extinguishers, as well as ride in a truck that simulates earthquakes. This was pretty cool all in all, though it shows how serious business Japan is about safety.

I don’t have a lot to say about this weekend, but I do have a little bit of commentary for you to enjoy. This was our first day of unscheduled free time, so the group of us decided to go to Yokohama. We got a bit delayed in leaving, so some of us bummed around Fuchinobe station while waiting to head on over to Machida. I found the school vending machines and actually took a picture of them, because I’m amused by the bright pink and the logo. It took me far too long to realize it was a logo of the crown of thorns with three nails, rather than just a pretty design. Good thing I’m not Catholic or I think that would be the end of my stay on that train.

We got to Yokohama around 11:30, just in time to take some pictures and get some lunch. I had been there before, to Sakuragicho where the actual fun things are, but it was still a fun trip to take some pictures of. On a good day it will be fun to go back to Cosmo World. Most of the day was spent shopping at various themed places, from Disney to Ghibli and Pokemon, and it ended with us admiring the pigeons at Yokohama station before spending two hours in Animate. I spent far too much money there, and apparently the Machida branch is even bigger. I can’t wait to go explore. Here’s some pictures from yesterday.

So after that, and some drama amid the group, the five of us that remained and were friendly together went and had ramen and beer for under 10 bucks, which felt like a steal. It was really good beer too, and a really nice way to wrap up a long week of orientations and a day that was partly filled by kill joys.

Today I went on the school trip to the smaller Machida Sakura Festival. It was a big road with cherry blossom trees in rows on both sides and looked like something out of a Ghibli movie. It was pretty fantastic to just walk around for a few hours and take pictures, I don’t have much to say on it either, as that was most of what I did, mixed with going to food stands and talking to Ryoujo-san and his dog Nino, who was super adorable. 

I decided to be lazy (read: hit full force with the jetlag that can only be attained by doing a 180 with your sleep schedule,) and left the work from yesterday me for today me. At least today me got to shower and have a hot cocoa from downstairs.

There’s not a whole lot to say about yesterday to be honest. We had surprise! More orientation, about stuff that was actually really important to have some hand holding for. Filling out forms in English is scary enough, but when everything on the page is Kanji, that’s a whole other story entirely. Thankfully, Nakamura-san and the students all helped walk the gaijin through it.

I thought we would have time for lunch, but we quickly got whisked off to the optional Machida tour, which ended up just being an excursion as Jordan called it. We got on the train with our new Suica train cards and were quickly in Machida two stops later. 

Our group decided to head off to a sushi and sashimi place, which was really fantastic. The outside of the building was really neat too, and apparently it’s a 24 hour place. The staff all dress in ‘traditional’ style clothing, which I thought was really cool.

I know I’m going to say this about everything, but the food was amazing. I ordered donburi with tuna and miso soup, both of which went fantastically with this magical fruit beer thing I ordered. No ID needed for any of us, because apparently it’s like St Louis here- no one really cards you unless you’re a baby faced teen.

After that, we mostly ended up at the game center where all of us collectively spent way too much money. The things I enjoyed most were DDR and the taiko drum game. They were both really hard but amazingly fun, especially competing against someone else. We wandered the city a bit more until we were all tired and demanded to go home, so I think we were all feeling the pressure of tests and the pain of jet lag at that point.

Today was test day part 2! Anyone who tells you Japanese tests are easy is a liar. Today was just an oral exam though, which I feel I did awful at. It was a ten minute informal interview, but my brain just would not keep up with my mouth. I think a lot of people felt the same way, but I’m not sure what it means for us. I just hope to enjoy my Japanese language classes at this point really.

After endless orientations with more tech errors than a Q2Q where none of the opening transition light cues are written, we were free elves. Jordan had seen a Neko cafe on her bus route so we all decided to celebrate surviving the day by petting cats. In all honesty it made me miss my cats a lot more, but I’ll live. I can Skype with my cats, but I do miss hugging them.

We got to enjoy about an hour and 15 minutes for pretty cheap there, and we got to talk with one of the owners who was the sweetest woman I’ve met so far. She got talking with us and ended up taking some of us home when the shop closed because we had spent so much time with her. It was a nice exercise in listening and trying to respond in Japanese. I felt better about that than I did in any of my exams honestly. Ah well. Ryuu was my favorite cat, quickly followed by Sato the tabby munchkin. They were really fun to pet and play with, and only one cat was really shy, but I don’t blame it after getting 6 loud people in one tiny room.

As an added bonus, here’s Alisa and Dustin doing the original Fusion Dance before Garnet existed.

Day 2! Testing forever begins!

Today was a stupidly early day. We had to be on campus by 8:30, which meant getting up and making sure I was on the 8:00 bus because I still don’t quite know the bus schedule. It’s at least every half hour, but maybe every 10 minutes? There’s like 4 buses that are just for J.F. Oberlin commuters. Either way, I’ll figure it out.

Why be there so early? Japanese Language Placement of course! We all got shuffled into a room based on our nation and sat down at computers that we didn’t even touch until 11. We got given many tests today, from writing a small essay, to multi-layered grammar tests, to vocabulary and reading comprehension. Most of these tests had multiple parts that got harder as you worked your way through. You could stop at any time and end your test, which was nice, but it also gives a sense of failure every time. I know it’s okay not to know things, but I am slowly realizing just how much I don’t know now. 

Freedom came at lunch time, where the group of gaijin ran across the street to the New Saffron Cafe. It was a small place filled with bread of all sorts, from savory to sweet. I got a cream puff and an apple pie, but I really wish I had gotten some curry bread. It looked amazing, so I’ll have to try it again next time I have a free ten minutes. 

After lunch, there was more testing. I cant believe we survived that. The only moment of amusement during the whole thing was when someone remotely turned on all the computers in the lab at once and got us all open to the site we needed. I know it’s silly but it was really cool to me. We got to go free at 2:30, which is about when we decided to walk back to Fuchinobe station, which is the general meeting point for our group. I live in the dorms next to the station, and they all use it to go to their host families since many lines of trains and buses connect there. It’s also where Dustin, our new friend and unofficial tour guide sent us off to get ramen. 

The ramen shop was small, as to be expected, so all eight of us sat at the bar after ordering. We all ordered via ticket machine, which was pretty cool. I knew they existed and were common, but the novelty of using one is still pretty new to me. Dustin even helped us figure out what we were doing when the chef asked us how spicy/flavorful we wanted it. When it came out, i was so happy. It’s been a huge hurdle for me to overcome being a picky eater in the past year, and I think today finally proved I was up for more than I ever have been in my life. It had egg, pork I think, I don’t know what the mystery meat was, nori and lots of noodles. It looked and tasted delicious.

Something I’m quickly learning is that Japan gives you a very skewed sense of what is expensive and what isn’t when it comes to food. My meal all together was about 1100円 which isn’t any more than 9 dollars, but it felt like I was spending an arm and a leg compared to the 400円 I spent on lunch yesterday which was several onigiri and mochi. I know neiher of these is expensive, but it feels like it when all you’ve done so far is buy cheap convenience store food.

After eating, we all ran off to do some shopping, and quickly discovered the honya behind the station, which had so many kinds of books and manga. Jordan and I found Cardcaptor Sakura, which for both of us was a childhood favorite, and she found a book of cards from the series which I think we both wanted but she’s definitely the bigger fan so I hope she goes back for it. Jon spent like 40 bucks on 10 or so books, so he got away with a nice haul. I decided not to buy anything since I’m here for a year, which means a year of figuring out what to do with souvenirs that will pile up.

This certainly wasn’t my first day in Japan, but it was certainly my first day where I felt like I could do things, so it counts.

Who am I? I’m Emily, a post-undergrad student studying in Japan for the next year. I hope to entertain or at least keep in touch with people through this blog, and maybe gain some people to follow me just for fun.

The actual day one I was far too tired to care about making a blog post, but I’ll tell you about it anyway. Myself and a group of others got picked up late in the afternoon at the airport after mutually stumbling our ways through Customs and Immigration. Once we were dropped off and sent on to our rooms, we were kindly provided dinner by the hotel which was amazing. It was a buffet style setting where you could pick and choose what you wanted to eat, along with various drinks. I had come in alone, but I saw the group from the bus so I immediately ran over against my own intuition and sat down with them, something I don’t regret doing. I got to meet Jon, Jordan, Elizabeth, and later Elisa who are all pretty cool to be around. I feel like I am the dork among them, but then someone opens their mouth and says otaku things and I instantly feel better.

After we ate, we wandered around the hotel and despaired a little about the lack of wifi, but enjoyed the outdoors a lot after following our newly crowned fearless leader. We also soon found out about his coffee and vending machine love, something which comes up fairly often considering the sheer amount of them even just in the little section of Machida we walked through. We also went through the gift shop like absolute tourists and some of us remembered to buy umbrellas for the next day. After that we were all too jetlagged to care about anything, so most of us went to bed.

Actual day two we got shuttled from the airport to campus, which in total was about 2 1/2 hours by bus, which led us through Tokyo and Yokohama over to Machida. We got deposited at campus where we got a nice lunch and were then sent off to orientation which ate up the rest of the afternoon. The most joyous part was learning that wifi isn’t enabled until the 1st, and that for the next two weeks we would be shipped around from orientation to orientation. I can’t say I’m much looking forward to it, but I’ll manage. The campus on the other hand is pretty stunning, and sakura season is right around the corner.

For the rest of actual day one, I got to enjoy Dorm Orientation, which took far too long in my opinion with quite a long list of rules. However, actually being in the room and relaxing is one of the best things I could think of. While I’m sure I would have enjoyed a host family, both the duration of my stay and the fact that  I like being independent certainly swayed my decision. The other perk of the dorms that I found out was the Free Market. This is an event they have where you can get things people left behind from last semester for free. The room was full of everything you could think of from shelves, to soap and hangers, to pots and pans and things to eat out of. I got a laundry hamper full of goodies and I am fairly proud of myself for it.

My actual room is fairly large, and it’s basically like a studio apartment. It is traditional style with a raised floor beyond the door, so it’s intended that you don’t wear shoes inside. I have a fridge and a stove to cook on, so later in the week when I have time I may visit the Ooseki down the road. I’ve also got a nice sized desk and a twin bed that desperately needs a cover on it, but that’s an errand for tomorrow. There is a shower and toilet attached to my room, and beyond it is a balcony where clothes can be hung to dry. I’m fairly excited to settle into this room and really start living here.

Today we got ‘survival’ and academic orientation, which covered how to function like a polite person as well as what would be happening with our classes today. Since we got to walk around and everything today, I got pictures of that. The same group of us from the hotel walked around during lunch break (at the konbini which is what any convenience store other than 7/11 is called) and thus goofed around on the campus tour.