#ipejapan

If you're reading this, I suspect you're a prospective student to IPE Study Abroads in general or interested in the NUSIP program. My tl;dr for you is to apply as earnestly as you can. The experience is one-of-a-kind and I'm certain it'll be something you'll fondly look at for the rest of your life, just like I will. Because tumblr is weird, you'll have to go to the last page to see my first post.

This is my last blog post, T-minus 0. I meant to post yesterday, but my flight was so chaotic it wasn't fair; my landing was delayed by 6 hours. As of writing this, I haven't slept properly in almost 40 hours, but I'll persevere. First I'll talk about how classes went and then give my overall thoughts on my journey and its end.

The classes taken were beginners Japanese language and a 300-level automotive engineering class which should count towards tech elective credit. Both classes were fun and unique in their own way; it is perhaps better to compare classes to high school rather than college: daily homework, people you see everyday, projects you work on together, etc. Japanese language class was pretty standard, it was the Automotive lectures that were the meat of work. 

Automotive lectures required a short report per presentation, your own presentation at the end of the program, and a final report due in August. The topics were interesting and things that I wouldn't have thought about on my own. As an aerospace major, I also feel like I could apply what I've learned here to what I could end up doing as a job. The final presentations were really fun. Coming from someone who hates giving presentations, I felt that mine went well and enjoyed everyone else's as well. You shouldn't think of these presentations as something very formal, definitely not like ENGR100 presentations; you're in a room of people you've gotten to know over five weeks, you're all friends and that brings the presentations to a more personal level. 

I didn't cover the factory visits of the program very much. Mostly due to the request of no photos, I felt that just talking about them would've been boring every week. It was cool to see the inside of factories and visit the museums that cover the history of companies. Seeing the progression of where a company started to where they are now brings the realization that the future truly is limitless; you can't tell what'll happen next. And although some factories are loud, I also believe that seeing the different processes of manufacturing will aide in engineering in the future. 

With that out of the way, I can talk about the journey's end. The farewell party was really nice. It terms of format, it was very similar to our welcome party with spreads of foods and speeches. 

However, the feel of it was vastly different. I didn't convey it well in the previous post about the welcome party, but I barely talked to anyone; a shy boy with not only anxiety but an ankle in pain which made me leave early. This farewell party truly showed how far forward I've moved: I could name everyone, could make conversation with anyone, and my ankle felt great. And as unsentimental as I am, I must admit it was sad to see this time end. 

Although this journey is ending, it doesn't mean it is the end. I'm sure I'll have opportunities to see everyone again. The friends made, the experiences gained, and this journey traveled has made this an experience to treasure. I wrote in my application about wanting something to take my first step forward and with this program I’m sure I’ve done more than just one. I thank IPE for making this possible and strongly encourage any prospective students that have read this far to apply. Japan is a fantastic country to visit and I'm sure you'll learn and experience even more than me. 

My name is Jesse Yang and this marks the end of my Japan experience.

Lajlim Jesse Yang

Aerospace Engineering

T-minus one day and second-to-last post.

I purposely waited until now because the last post will be a kind of wrap-up post summarizing the times in Japan and reviewing the bingo score. Since the previous post, quite a bit has happened actually. I didn't mean to jumble all the events at the end, it just sort of ended up that way. I mostly blame bad internet and tumblr. Kept on getting upload errors. 

To finish off Tokyo, we went to a limestone cave and ate at yet another buffet, specializing in meats. The cave was quite something to behold.

Even though one wouldn't think much of it initially, I certainly wasn't, it turned out to be a better experience that I thought. There weren't many tourists, so I could look around for a while. I'm not exactly tall, so the cave height didn't bother me (if you're taller than 5' 10", I'm so sorry). It was a pleasant experience. The name of this cave is Ryugashido Cavern.

As for the buffet, I've noticed quite a contrast between the ones here and back home in the US. The range of selection is generally smaller than buffets in America, but the food looks very appetizing. Get hungry. Location is known as Jaws Kitchen in S-Pulse Dream Plaza.

The different cuts of beef, pork, karaage, and other was oishii desu (very good). There was even a spot to make your own ramen. It seems like rather than quantity, they focus on quality which came through because even I with a palette that's easy to satisfy could tell a difference. Would recommend 10/10; good food, good view, good atmosphere.

Then we headed straight home for Nagoya. So, really only one afternoon in Tokyo which is definitely not enough time. Not sure why I thought I'd have more content concerning it, but aw well. I have plenty more to talk about before the wrap up post.

I'll briefly touch on the highlights these past couple of days. First of all, MAID CAFE HYPE. Blurred her face though because of privacy reasons. She is of college age though, no worries there. Everyone else consented.

It was a very casual and pleasant experience, much more so than I was expecting. A bit too casual actually. I wanted the full on weeb experience with “goshujin-sama's” and everything, but me and the group I was with just made light conversation. I wanted my moe fix. But, it still counts. The food was food, nothing super incredible; honestly, you go to a maid cafe for the experience, not for great food. 

I just wanted to briefly brag about Yakiniku (grilling food in front of you or korean barbeque). 

It was really good. All-you-can-eat unlimited orders for 90 minutes for only 2000 yen (barely $18) per person. The quality of meat was pretty good and very satisfying. Moving on...

A couple days after that, was the Nagoya Port Festival. Gotta say, it was really something. Everyone should experience something like that at least once to learn to not go again. It was SO crowded it was unbelievable. Like, if you think Festifall is crowded, it's NOTHING compared to Japan festivals. I don't have a good picture of the walking crowd, but even for those sitting to view fireworks, there is no walking space.

Speaking of fireworks, it was really pretty. I find them more impressive than the fireworks I see in America. If you go to a festival, go for the fireworks, at least once. It's done in a show fashion with themed fireworks one after another. When I'd go view fireworks on the 4th of July, it's maybe a firework every 10 seconds except the finale. Here, it's fireworks every second with spectacular effects.  

I wasn't there for the finale, I tried to run away before the trains got crowded but failed miserably. Hopefully, it won't rain for you when you go.

That's enough of that. These events were truly the last of the 'fun trips' before the conclusion of the program. As of the time of writing this, I am actually done with all the work required of me and will give my final thoughts in a post hopefully tomorrow as well as how our final presentations went.

And with that said, here is the final bingo card.

Gotta say, I'm really proud of myself. I gave myself the chopstick one because I feel very comfortable using them now; not awkward = pro to me. I didn't think I'd get a bingo or even achieve half the board. So according to my rule in the first post, I can say that I achieved the experience I set out to get times 3. 

T-minus one day.

Lajlim Jesse Yang

Aerospace Engineering

Seeing that I'll probably run out of content if I make this a single post, I'll split Tokyo into two parts. This will really be the last long distance excursion I'll have in the remainder of my time here. So many places I still wanted to go to too. 

At the time of writing this, I'm still in the bus, not even at the hotel yet. On the route we're taking, it's about a 3-4 hour bus ride with a couple stops. A little while back before lunch, we stopped at a Suzuki Museum, the automobile company. Apparently, they're more active in areas like India than the US, so seeing a design slightly different than what I'm used to was interesting. 

Oddly enough, they had a small flight simulator too, but it's like the ones you'd find in arcades, nothing super special. What was really nice were the cars and motorbikes on the first floor. We were allowed to climb in these to feel what it was like on the inside. I don't have pictures of the minivan or jeep, but I have a picture of some goons riding the motorcycles.

And I never really understood what was up with minivans and why they'd be popular, but after getting inside one, I could understand. Even with the seats still up, the amount of legroom was unbelievable; you could lay down on the floor and still have space to move around. The amount of headspace was enough for a 6ft+ person to still have room leftover. So in terms of comfort, I'd rank it pretty high.

We didn't stay there long though, we were soon on our way and stopped at a rest stop, which I will talk about. Why? 

That's right, from here, Mount Fuji could be seen. I'm a little disappointed that it was so foggy and cloudy, but I guess that's just the rainy season here. Usually, I'd voice my thoughts and opinions here, but it's pretty difficult to when all I got to see was this. Actually, I guess I do have one thought in mind... BINGO. 

But yeah, in all seriousness, it's doubtful that I'll get close to its base, so even though I'll cross it off the board, it'll still be a goal for next time. 

This is actually the next day now. I had written everything before this a while back, but only until now do I have the chance to upload it. Between then and now, a couple more things have happened. We’ve been in Tokyo for one day and will be heading back to Nagoya tomorrow. But, for all afternoon and evening, we were able to explore whatever parts of Tokyo we wanted to. In this case, me and a group went to Akihabara, the center of anime and otaku culture. To say right off the bat, no I didn’t go to a maid cafe; too much to do and too little time. There is still a possibility of going to one back in Nagoya, but I guess we’ll see. In Akihabara, we went to various otaku weeb stores which is another tile off the board. As one of them, I very much enjoyed it. The weather, temperature, and humidity could’ve been better, but there was so much merch, I wasn’t sure what to buy; in the end, I just got a single T-shirt for my brother, but I guess it’ll be enough to remember the trip.

The schedule for the next few days is actually pretty free. We'll be required to go to an Environmental Safety Laboratory (which actually looks cooler than it sounds) and the limestone caves which is another thing I wanted to do anyways. 

And with bingo updates, I got a bingo! To be honest, it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but as I said in the very first post, now I can say that I’ve had a fulfilling Japan experience that I’ve set out to achieve. Good times. 

T- minus 7 days. 

Lajlim Jesse Yang 

Aerospace Engineering

Time has been going fast. Looking back, almost five weeks have passed. It doesn't feel like that much time has passed at all, it's really difficult to believe. But it was made apparent that this journey is ending as my Japanese class finished its last day. 

We all knew from the beginning when it would end, but if I'm being honest, it still surprised me. On Friday, we had a written grammar test and then a speaking interview test on Tuesday. Neither of which was very difficult for me, but there were some who struggled more. I can thank my anime experience for the prior knowledge of the language. If you decide you want to learn a foreign language, taking a class abroad is a good idea that I'd recommend. In these few weeks, I've learned about the equivalent of nearly a whole semester at Michigan, but in this case, writing in Japanese (hiragana, katakana, kanji) was not required. If you want my advice on learning a new language, try not to relate it to English often and have fun with it, don't make it a chore to learn. Easier said than done, sure, but it's been done. 

Anyways, on Wednesday, we had our final presentations. We had the choice of either doing a standard "tell us about something" speech solo or perform a skit with a partner; I chose the latter. Very few chose to do the speech solo, but they were still good. However, the skits were more enjoyable to watch. Overall, they were energetic and simply fun to watch. I'll always be more critical of my own performance, but according to my classmates, they found it enjoyable and easy to follow. 

Then, as sudden as we started, the clock hit 11:30 and Japanese language class ended. As a farewell, our sensei, teacher, prepared a small sweets party for everyone in the NUSIP program. 

We tried new and unique snacks, socialized with the other classes about how their final presentations were, and drank tea. It was a nice way to say goodbye and just a little sad. I'm not very sentimental, but thinking about how I'll likely not see my teachers again... yeah, a little sad.

And so, with one class down, just one more to go: the Automotive class. No bingo updates today, but I will be traveling to Tokyo as part of the program entails. As such, I won't have my computer. The last few updates will probably be back-to-back unfortunately. I do smell a bingo coming though, like a mountain in plain sight.

T-minus 8 days. 

Lajlim Jesse Yang 

Aerospace Engineering 

Weekends are always a good opportunity to do stuff. And with the program ending in a couple weeks, I wanted to do a couple of things in Kyoto that I didn't get the chance to do the last time I was there. Namely, visit the Fushimi-Inari Shrine (Shrine with 1000 gates) and Arashiyama Park. To my delight, I was joined by three friends. What a Saturday that was. 

We planned the day's activities a few days in advance to make sure we were gonna see what we wanted to. Although I say "we", the shrine and park were what I wanted to do and they just went along. And to make the plan work for one day, everyone got up at 5am. Fortunately, everyone did wake up on time; unfortunately, everyone went to bed at about 2am. Needless to say, energy was at an all time low. We took normal trains all the way to Kyoto, the most economical choice: cheaper than Shinkansen and faster than a bus (~$20 and 2 hours for one-way). 

Upon arrival in Kyoto, we headed almost immediately for Fushimi-Inari Taisha (shrine). It was quite the sight to behold, all those tourists. Oh yeah, the gates too. 

As expected of a popular tourist spot, there was lots of tourists. Although, as we hiked the path, their numbers seemed to thin out. Compared to Taga Taisha from my Hikone trip, the air didn't feel as fresh. Although it's a shrine on a mountain, it's still practically in the middle of Kyoto city.

The hike up was really cool. Not only were there hundreds of arches to walk through, there was also several hundred smaller shrines that branch out. Below are a few pics of them, but they were on alternate paths were ungodly steep. I haven't mentioned it explicitly, but I am recovering from an unstable ankle fracture (2 months post-op). Due to that, I was only able to hike a quarter of the way up before I had to turn around because of how steep the steps were getting. That was unfortunate, but of course, no reason to risk further injury. On the bright side of things, I bought a cool fox mask as a souvenir and ate mochi again. Yum. If I could go again, I'd want to hike the whole way up and maybe closer to sunset. Lanterns light up the path at night which I believe would make the experience quite different. 

Worth mentioning, for lunch I ate chicken udon. Even though the tile for new foods is complete, Japanese udon was something I haven't eaten yet. Compared to ramen, the taste doesn't come on quite as strong, but it still tastes amazing yet soothing. Like a better chicken noodle soup. 

After Inari Shrine, we went to Arashiyama. For those who don't know, Arashiyama is a mountain in Kyoto well known for two things: its monkey park and bamboo forests; we did both. The view from the bridge was really nice: it captured the mountains, the river, and a bit of bamboo thickets. 

But for all the eye candy from afar, it was torturous for me to hike to the monkeys. It's not like Inari Shrine's steep path so I made it to the top, but it was loooong. I would've been wiped out with normal legs, imagine hiking in a walking boot. I'm honestly surprised I didn't pass out. If I wasn't so focused on not falling through the hike, I would've noticed what a nice path it actually was. There wasn't many tourists, the view would've been nice, the air felt fresh, and lots of soft moss. Next time, I'll take it slower and with a better leg; really take in the surroundings. Because, if you can't tell here, I was wiped out. 

To note, there were no monkeys on the way up, only at the top. For all the complaining in the previous paragraph, the top was actually a pretty rewarding experience. First of all, there was a rest stop with a small shop and mist fans. Secondly, you get a vast view of Kyoto which you can see in the pic below. Try to match the map markers with the view, I could only clearly see the pagoda. 

And of course, the monkeys. I'll admit though, it fell short of my expectations. Honestly, I was expecting something like Nara's deer park with a ton of monkeys monkey-ing around. Only saw about 10 monkeys or so. Understandably, no interaction was allowed, but still slightly disappointed. There was strange rule to not take pictures of them directly, so the best pic I have is of them not being the focus.

I suppose I should be grateful I wasn't robbed by monkeys though. By the time we headed back down, the clouds cleared too. For the past week, it's been raining so much; some parts of Japan had to be evacuated. So seeing sunlight for the first time in the past week felt nice. 

Our last destination was the bamboo forest. You know what that means... another bingo tile marked off. You'd think it wouldn't be interesting, but it surprisingly is. At least for me, since I live in a suburban area where trees surround my house, I thought it's just another plant. However, a bamboo forest has a different feel to it. Vision isn't as obscured, you can see the sky just fine, the ground isn't littered in weeds, and because it's different, it has an appealing aesthetic. 

Also, I had a fun anime fan moment. I won't post the anime pic, but this is the spot where the trio from Oregairu has their school trip in season two where the fake confession happened. Truly, what an exciting place to be in. 

And with that, that will likely be my last time in Kyoto for this travel abroad. I completely forgot to visit the Kyoto Animation anime studio, so that'll have to be for next time. Let's update the bingo card: 

Clearly, the "Bamboo Forest" tile is complete and I have decided to change one tile. "Fireflies" has now become "Pic of Anime location." This is due to the fact that fireflies were out-of-season upon my arrival and I didn't know that. Naturally, that makes that impossible. And while it may be too easy to change it to something I just did, I find it to be just as fulfilling. 

As mentioned before, this is likely the last personally planned trip for my travel abroad. The program does have Tokyo to do still, but after that are final presentations. The end is nigh. T-minus 11 days. 

Lajlim Jesse Yang

Aerospace Engineering

This past week has been for the most part uneventful. No opportunities to cross off bingo tiles and lots of classes and writing reports. So I’m taking up the challenge of making the mundane seem more interesting. Much like one of my previous posts, I’ll talk about school for a bit.

I haven’t really said much about the schoolwork because I thought it wasn’t interesting. I’m sure my post, “A Day in the Life” made it seem like grunt work. But let’s disconnect and not think about it as work but as a collective; that grunt work is only part of this journey. It’s not very often that I take in my surroundings and just look. Sometimes, I stumble across peculiar things like this building and its design.

I’m not sure how it looks to you, but if you can see strange ripples running diagonal and stuff, that’s not what the building looks like. This is a normal building with a bunch of horizontal beams; it even looks fine by human eye. But with my camera, depending on the distance, ripples appear. And, if you look at it through leaves, it’s like your vision is glitched. I don’t have a picture because it’s something to see in motion, but it’s not something I’ve noticed until now. Peculiar stuff. 

That was a strange rant huh. But trust me, this applies. I thought, “huh, I just noticed this. Anything else I’m not looking at clearly?” I thought of classes and the presentations and in my previous post found them repetitive, but actually there are interesting differences and ways that they apply. In the recent presentations, I’ve found them to be much more personal in the sense of being able to apply my knowledge from my classes. I was pleasantly surprised to hear about fluid flows and local coordinate systems, things that I learned from my classes. Maybe it was always there. Looking out for these things have made classes more interesting to say the least. 

Aside from the Automotive presentations and noticing my environment, Japanese class has an upcoming presentation of its own with myself as an actor. Basically using class lessons to make a skit to present to the class. I am working with a friend to replicate a shrine visit based on the one I had in Hikone. I’ll probably end up as a priest to guide him around and make conversation; it’s a time to be creative in the lessons we’ve learned. 

And lastly, I did want to cross off a tile on my bingo board, “Night Life.” This happened not even an hour ago. I didn’t have a vision in mind when I put this on here. I thought, “maybe clubbing at a bar or dancing on a disco floor,” but I hate doing either of those. I knew I wasn’t going to do it, so what was I looking for? 

Tonight, was just a standard night doing homework; everyone in my dorm was somewhere else and I was honestly feeling pretty lonely. Then I get an invite from some friends to visit their room and play some games. Although I didn’t realize it then, I was elated. Being alone makes you think of the past and I thought, “I’ve never had an experience of just doing a late night hang out with friends.” There were many personal reasons why, but not worth getting into. So I broke my standard and went over; a far cry from my usual reserved self, but not like I became some party monster. Nothing crazy, no disco lights, no drunkards, just a fun time playing games and socializing among friends. I thought then, “this is good.” Feeling fulfilled, here I am now.

I feel bad for the lack of pictures this post, but no good opportunities. This is probably the most unorthodox post and a bit personal for my liking, but I believe moments like these are what makes study/travel abroad so interesting; it’s more than the content, it’s immersion in a new environment. I’ll turn up the ‘genki’ next post about the weekend. 

Lajlim Jesse Yang

Aerospace Engineering

This weekend can best be described as relaxing and/or serene. Unlike the past couple weekends full of festivals and heavy tourism, this weekend took quite a 180. The group that I usually hang out with actually went to Osaka, but I could never get into the club and partying life which is what many people seem to do. Instead, I stayed behind and visited a friend of my Aunt Mary who lives in Hikone, a more-so suburban area. Buckle in because this could get lengthy. 

A bit of backstory would be okay I guess, it's actually relevant. My Aunt Mary also did a study abroad to Japan when she was 20 years old just like me! It was a part of a program that Michigan State has (and I think UM has too) called JCMU (Japan Center for Michigan Universities) where she paired up with a Japanese student to study and explore culture together. The friend I visited was that same person, so although I may not have many memories of her, she is someone that I can trust completely. So, I visited her and her family. And rather than referring to her as 'my friend' or 'my aunt's friend,' I'll just use her name Yuko. I also traveled with a friend I made from University of Kentucky, Seth (he was in one of the owl pics) because we both wanted to get out of the city for a bit, so he'll be occurring in the pictures. 

Let's not get ahead of myself though, that's not where the trip starts. It would officially have started back in the train station at Nagoya because... I rode a Shinkansen baby, woohoo! Can finally cross that off the bingo card. It was actually a pretty surreal experience. I'm the type to not show emotion very often, but this was exciting. Seth had an app that measured speed and it topped out at 170 mph. It traveled a distance of about 47 miles in about 20 minutes. The pictures I took blurred as you can see, but the sights further in the distance look nice. Might post a video, but they're kind of big and tumblr doesn't like videos. 

After some local train navigation, we arrived and I caught up with Yuko and her son. I'll be honest, I barely remember her, she's only visited the US twice I think. But she was really nice and spoke English very well, I could see why she was great friends with my Aunt. 

But this wasn't going to be a teary-eyed reunion, we had places to see! I know earlier I said we wanted to get away from tourist sights and the city, but hear me out. First we went to Hikone Castle, well, sort of. We went to the base and took pictures of Hiko-nyan, Hikone's mascot character and went in the museum. 

The museum was awesome. Not sure if you could tell in my previous posts, but Nagoya Castle had a ton of tourists; when we were touring that expensive house, the halls were SO crowded. But here, at Hikone Castle, I probably saw less than a dozen people in the museum total. Like I said earlier, really relaxing.

What's that? Don't believe me? Maybe this relaxation garden will convince you. Not sure how my picture sells it, but it was really pretty. Even though it was raining outside, it didn't matter. One look out that door and you could feel the calm. 

Unfortunately, we didn't go to the actual castle because of the rain (it started pouring) and I have a recovering ankle if it wasn't shown before (look back, maybe you'll find me in a cast). According to the map guide, the museum was only 15% of the complex; will have to return sometime. 

As always, have to show off my meals. Yuko took us to a Japanese restaurant where I had eel and... mochi! Yes, indeed, they do sell mochi, so expect that tile's text to be changed back. The eel was delicious; had the texture of fish, but its own unique taste, like it wasn't as 'fishy' if that makes sense. You could also pour tea from that kettle into the pot and eat it like that. It changed the taste quite a bit actually: sorta sweet without tea broth and sorta sour/bitter with the tea broth. I suppose it depends on one's tastes, but I liked it without the tea. 

Our next stop was actually Yuko's house. For obvious reasons, no pictures here, so I'll instead paint your mind. We didn't go inside her real house, more like her studio which is right next to it. She calls it "Salon Grace" and she teaches English to the neighborhood kids if she has time. We actually met with one, a middle school kid, who was super shy and probably didn't want to talk to us. Anyways, you walk in and take off your shoes like Japanese have you do and there are two tables, about the size of a standard picnic table there. Add about 1-3 yards to the length and width and that's about the dimensions of the room. We played Uno, watched a Roomba (never saw one before), and had some snacks. Good time. 

We made a brief stop at Lake Biwa, which I guess I'll put a picture below, but it doesn't look very nice. It was still raining and the winds were rough, so it looks very grey. If you look though, mountains can be seen in the background; and if you look reeeally hard, you might even spot Hikone Castle (it’s not that block on the right). Good luck. 

Probably the highlight of this trip was Taga Taisha or Taga Shrine. The most Shrine shrine I've been to so far. Like, I've been to shrines in Kyoto, but those are full of tourists and hundreds of people. As the picture shows, very few people, the air was so fresh, and we followed shrine traditions as instructed by Yuko. Did you know? At shrines, the path is very wide, but the middle path is reserved for Gods, so you have to walk on the sides. We prayed at the shrine: two bows, two claps, one bow. And I had my fortune told: Super Great Luck supposedly, but I couldn't read it. Apparently it was along the lines of “study well, do well.”

Outside of the Shrine

Inside of the Shrine, taking a picture with God

That's basically the end of that day with some details omitted. We rode back to Nagoya that same day on another Shinkansen, still very cool. I'll briefly go over the bingo card update. I'm impressed you read this far, this got long. 

Of course, shinkansen bullet train is crossed off. A memorable experience that I recommend heavily. New Foods 1-5: Sashimi, Taiyaki, Takoyaki, mochi, and eel. And Conversing in Japanese; this is probably the most I've used Japanese to communicate, so I'm fulfilled with crossing this off. That being said...

Not sure what next post will be about. It'll be a surprise. Till then!

Lajlim Jesse Yang

Aerospace Engineering

Good morning. As mentioned previously, this will delve into the weekdays of my study abroad and what a typical day is like. Japan is 13 hours ahead of EST so the time of this post is around 9AM EST, but it's 10PM for me. It wasn't anything crazy to get adjusted; just a few days to get used to the new cycle. 

I usually wake up around 6 or 7 AM. Even though I set my alarm for 8, I'm always awake earlier which irritates me. Nevertheless, once I've awoken, it's near impossible to fall back asleep so a quick walk outside helps to wake up a bit more. Doing the usual routine after the walk: wash up, brush teeth, get dressed, and make sure I'm ready for school. By then, it's maybe 7:30 and I'd head out. 

Roads in general are smaller here. The car lanes are less wide, the middle divider (if there is one) is usually just a fence, and the sidewalks are more used in cars. They aren't as bare though; there's always greenery to sight that makes a simple road oddly appealing. 

Even in this part of the city between two college campuses and a couple of high/middle/elementary schools, cars are barely seen. People instead opt for walking, biking, and the subway. And in Japan, a lot of people bike. A lot. And even though I don't have any pictures of the subway, I'd say even more people take the subway than bike. 

I'm sort of off topic. After I arrive at the school, the first class of the day is Japanese. I may have briefly mentioned it before, but this class focuses only on speaking; specifically survival and general use speech. I've been trying to learn hiragana on my own, but it's slow going especially between classes, reports, and blogs. Class is really fun though; it's basically a small classroom like middle school, but everyone's in college. The teachers are funny and nice and overall the Japanese language experience is fun. A bit of romaji, some lessons, and some roleplay. Today, our teacher made us go into Starbucks and ask some questions. Was a fun time, the staff were nice about it and spoke good English.

Japanese class ends at noon and the next class starts in one and a half hours. A perfect time for lunch. The picture shown below isn’t one of the large cafeterias, but the content is about the same. As opposed to the buffets UM students may be used to, $3-5 gets a single meal that lasts until dinner. As someone who's tried many dining halls at Michigan, this food is better; especially the rice. Please UM, use better rice; every restaurant uses the same brand except you. 

After lunch is an automotive lecture which is closer to a seminar. Three hours of listening to a seminar that usually goes 30 minutes over. You can feel the irritation in the room when speakers go past the time limit. To be honest, many of the presentations repeat themselves. They're all by different speakers, but the background content is the same like safety, aging society, safety, autonomous vehicles, and safety. That being said, the non-repeat content is interesting when it's not super technical. Like driver feedback and behavior analysis isn't something normally thought about and that bad behavior (aggressive driving) contributes to most accidents. Below are pictures of more test autonomous vehicles by a different group in the University: the one in the background has a LiDAR, while the car in the foreground has a bunch of cameras and scanners to collect data on driver behavior.

After this class, I walk home and buy a bento (boxed lunch, < $5) along the way for dinner. Most people are tired and poor so we don't eat out often. Waste some time on the computer, do homework, get ready to sleep, and then sleep. 

Read that and think, "that doesn't sound very special." Well you're right, it's just going to class and doing homework. Making a comparison to UM may not be fair because it's 6 credits here vs 16 credits there, but Japan generally feels more relaxed and free. If I wanted to go to Tokyo, I totally could without a car; it'd cost about $200 round-trip, but the option is always there. Could go to one of the surrounding cities too like real Nagoya city. The same cannot be said for UM though; in Ann Arbor, stay in Ann Arbor. In Japan, we have AC in our rooms, apartments are spacious, and the per class work load isn't too heavy; even if I took 16 credits here, it wouldn't be as stressful as 16 credits at UM. That's just me though.

Next post will probably be tomorrow or Monday, going to Hikone to visit a friend. Ja, mata! 

Lajlim Jesse Yang

Aerospace Engineering