Last weekend, I visited the most beautiful city in the world.
But I forgot my camera. =)
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Actually, I don't mind that I forgot my camera, because I'm sure that the memories were made stronger with the knowledge that I may never see Bungotakada City ever again. The landscape was incredible - it had a little bit of everything. In this tiny farm city on the western coast of Kyushuu, where the tectonic plates molded the mountains into a unique range of vertical pillars, the ocean salt corroded the rock beach into a dreamscape of crystal-clear water and misshapen earth, and the tropical rain coated every sunbathed surface in a lush layer of green, reality seems to border a dream world.
I wonder if the rest of Japan I haven't seen yet is all this beautiful, too.
This past weekend, our class was split into groups of 3 or 4, and we traveled to farm country to stay in real Japanese homes with real Japanese families. The university life is a little bit deluding - APU's student body is probably only about 70% native Japanese. Yes, this weekend was the real deal.
With three other friends, I arrived at a house which was everything you would expect in a traditional Japanese residence - Tatami floors, a low-sitting dinner table, a shrine area, the works. We exchanged greetings with Itai-san and his wife. They were in their mid 50s, and already grandparents. The first event of the day was a hearty lunch of homemade shitake mushroom curry. When I say homemade, I mean, Itai san and his wife grew the rice, picked the mushrooms, and made the curry sauce from scratch themselves. Impressive as it sounds, it was the best curry I've every had. And with the amount of curry I've eaten since arriving in Japan, that's a respectable title.
Curry is probably my favourite food in Japan. One would think that a residence in Japan would come with a diet of sushi for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but to be honest, I've only had sushi a handful of times so far. Curry is my gig here. It comes anywhere from sweet to spicy, it comes over rice with beef, fried pork, or baked into loaves of bread, mirroring the composition of a Paczki. It comes in soup, thickening up the broth of udon or soba noodles, or sometimes just on its own as a hot, bubbling brown bowl of goodness. It's one that will be sorely, sorely missed when I'm back in the States.
Anyway.
After lunch, we went on a tour of all the most beautiful spots in the city. The first spot was a long strip of land that barricaded a reservoir of water, which was opened little by little during the dry season to keep the crops nice and genki. The reservoir itself was very large, and the surface still. It backed up against a huge mountain, which stuck on one side vertically out of the earth. This side of the mountain was all stone grey, and was framed by the green vegetation covering the rest of the land around it. On the other side of this long bunker was a clear view of the residential area of the city. The view was wonderful in every direction.
Next stop was a campground on a peninsula, which overlooked the ocean between Kyushuu and Honshuu. The water, unsullied by factories or pollutants of any kind, was so clear, you could see through all the way to the bottom. There was nothing cloudy at all in the water, it was really amazing. We hopped down the rocky cliffs, through a series of tidal pockets crawling with tiny crabs and small hordes of little, fast-moving crustaceans, to the edge of the water, where there were several jellyfish hanging out near the rocks. The most amazing part of this area was the work the sea salt did on corroding the cliffs. There were a few huge caves on the inner side, as well as a tall island just offshore that looked a little like a mushroom atop a turtle shell. You could see the lines in the rock of where the high tide picks away at the rock. On top of the mushroom island were several fully grown trees - it was really surreal. Some of the things I've seen in Bungotakada, and Beppu, too, are works of nature that I never even considered possible.
Growing up in Michigan - flat, foresty, same from east to west Michigan - has made me appreciate nature a lot each time I leave home. Last year on the way to the International Trumpet Guild conference in Pennsylvania was the first time I ever really saw mountains. Then when I went to New York City for the Le Poisson Rouge concert, I passed through the same route of mountains, this time red and orange from the season change, and they were still as fascinating as the first time. The mountains here, however, are on a completely different level. Even though I forgot my camera, pictures couldn't do the landscape any more justice than words. All platitudes aside, you had to be there.
Dinner that night was plate after plate after plate of some of the best food I've ever tasted. A bowl of udon noodles, topped with freshly picked vegetables with names I cannot recall, tenpura everything - eggplant, green peppers, more nameless vegetables, white fish caught by the cooks themselves, clusters of [whole] shrimp, America-reminiscent fried chicken, iced noodles served with iced Tsuyu... and all the tea and vegetable juice I could wash it down with. I love food, and Japan is a good place for food.
After we all finished gorging ourselves, and spacing for about 10 minutes to let the food settle, we took a trip to the onsen for some naked time. Onsen are one of my favourite things about Japan - it's a bath house filled by a natural hot spring, will several pools of varying temperatures, usually one cold and a few hot. This particular onsen also had an outdoor segment, with a small garden and a music-playing speaker, and steam room, that ran on a gradual cycle between "hot" and "the sun".
Japanese cultural lecture time!
日本の文化話時！(Takes up less space and is therefore the superior language) (just kidding)
Onsen are a particular specialty of Beppu and the surrounding areas. They are common because of the Pacific ring of fire, the rim of a large tectonic plate covering the pacific ocean, is responsible for the creation of Japan, and its volcanic activity still has a lot of say in what goes on over here.
Anyway.
Japanese people like to take baths in these hot spring waters, as they bubble up with plenty of beneficial minerals that soften the skin and leave you looking about 75% your age. My host parents said they went to this onsen literally every day. So here's a rundown of the typical onsen itinerary:
- Men and women are separated into locker rooms. Onsen are always sex-segregated because you have to get all the way naked to enter the waters. Swimsuits are not allowed (but there are co-ed onsens, usually outdoors, that allow swimsuits).
- Strip to your birthday suit, and go into the main room, which contains some shower "booths" before getting to the pools. You have to shower and clean yourself all the way, shampoo and soap and all, before you get in. They're serious about keeping the water clean. This is pretty strange for Americans I think, since in America, naked is "bad".
-When you're clean, you can enter the baths. I like to chill in a medium-hot pool for a little bit, and just relax, let my body temperature rise like I'm in a hot tub. Then, after a while, I like to hit up the hottest bath, and stay in until I can't take it. When your body temperature is up over its usual limit, the cold bath feels amazing. Apparently, the hot water and steam makes your pores open and sweat out all the obstructions. When you enter the cold water, your pores, now clean and clear, close back up. The steam bath helps this even more.
So when you leave an onsen, your entire body's skin feels like a baby's bottom. Even my big nose with its dirt-magnet pores were completely smooth. I will sincerely miss this when returning to America. The naked thing is no big deal, either. Everybody has a naked body, so once you're in, that's that. Unlike in America, there is no constant worry of appearing "gay" here. Guys can get naked and take a bath together, buy pink shirts and pink phone cases, adults can watch cartoons, it's all done with no homo strings attached, it feels like there is a whole level of unnecessary social apprehension gone because of it. I like this.
We slept soundly in traditional Japanese beds that night, and were awakened to the smell of a breakfast that was almost as huge as the previous night's dinner. Then we prepared for a pretty exciting performance, which will be covered...
In my next entry. I need to give Becky a chance to write about the past week's elementary school visit, which I regrettably missed after arriving at the bus stop at the wrong time. She has a lot to say about the kiddies, and will also cover the new Hayao Miyazaki movie that we just saw at the theatre today. Stay tuned, and LEAVE COMMENTS!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
皆さん！ごめんね！
Hey everyone, sorry I've been MIA lately, but we're just so busy! I apologize for my not updating in a while :(
So, I'm gonna give a rundown of everything that's happened in the last couple of weeks, or Adam is going to be upset with me :/
As I say, things have been really busy with school and stuff. We've got about 24 hours of Japanese class per week (saying it like that, as in a full DAY of class each week, 1/7th of our life, kind of hurts. That classroom is getting old), I have two other classes, neither of which have anything to do with my major, along with events, trips, cubs, and studying, we're working as if it's winter semester at Grand Valley! By the time we think about blogging, we sometimes laugh. Sitting in front of a computer after a long day of classes is not always the most appealing activity :P
WORLD FESTIVAL
Let's rewind, shall we, to a couple weeks ago and the World Festival. For those who are Facebook friends with me and have looked through my Japan album, this is a recap. I know Robinson-sensei gave this blog address to other Japanese language students, so if you want to see the album (and it's so cool I can't imagine you wouldn't...) then friend me! And message me if you have questions!
APU's AP House throws what they call "World Festival" every summer so that its residents can be exposed to other cultures. APU has TONS of international students, so why not use that? Starting at around 9AM when I was still sleeping, the AP system went off (as it usually does) to remind us of the event. When AP House has an announcement, the first message is always in Japanese, then the second is the message translated into English. Waking up to "Minnasan, Oyahou gozaimasu!" over the system was not my favorite way to wake up, but after falling out of my futon in a panic I gathered myself in time to hear the English half. "The World Festival is starting. Let's all have fun learning cultures together!" Yay. So I wolfed down some cereal and went to find Adam. We headed to the AP House 2 lobby to watch the opening ceremony, which was a guy and a girl, again using Japanese then English to explain the day.
If anyone has watched a Japanese TV show, you know that when the Japanese, especially girls, when introducing something, get EVEN HARDER to understand. Yeah, I didn't quite understand what all was going to be going on that day, but I understood "food" and "eat", and that was really all I needed. I headed outside to where the food stands were. I tried this rice cake thing from the Myanmar stand that was SUPER spicy and had tiny dried fish on top (I avoided the fish XD) and got a bubble tea! Bubble tea is yummy, but too many tapioca bubbles made my tummy bubbly as well...
Adam and I had signed up for the koto, a traditional Japanese instrument, demonstration. It's like a piano and guitar hybrid instrument. It was really cool. The obaachans played for us, then we got to try it. The lady who was helping me didn't speak ANY english, but we together figured out how to get me to play it correctly. I quickly got the hang of it, and she was really impressed. I explained that I was a Music Major in America and she thought that was pretty much the sweetest thing she'd ever heard.
FUN JAPANESE FACT: Something that's really funny about Japanese is that when you have a conversation, the listener constantly has to say things like "oh", "sou desuka" (is that so), "honto ni?" (really?), to show that they're engaged in what the other person is saying. We actually take class time sometimes to review our listening phrases. The American custom of course, is to listen silently to show that you are paying attention, and be polite to let them finish so as not to interrupt. It's the complete opposite here! I can't tell you how weird it is to have people talking WHILE I'm talking! And I seem rude for listening silently! I accidentally offend people sometimes! lol.
So, she was really excited and nodded vigorously and "honto ni"-ed through my telling her of my musical experience. Adam's experience with his obaachan was similar. Our tutors called over the others to have them listen to us. Adam took the oppotunity to show off even more! So embarrassing! lol.
After the koto, I went to the Nippon Buyo lesson. Traditional fan dancing. There's not a whole lot to say about his except that it's A LOT harder than it looks. We all looked really clumsy compared to the teacher. The coolest part was wearing the yukata. They brought yukata (summer kimono) fr us to wear while we danced. When the lesson was over, they said that if we wanted, we could perform for everyone. So, we headed to the main stage and performed our dance. I was right in front, which was a little anxiety-inducing, but also really fun.
NAGASAKI
The next weekend, our program went on a trip to Nagasaki. The thing that's pretty cool about how APU does this Gateway program is how they plan things that are beyond the abilities of regular students. The school recognizes that we aren't regular students, more like tourists, and want to see things. Most students are here for a long time and have more time and opportunities to travel. Our time is so short that we can only do so much, and certainly not plan let alone afford a trip to Nagasaki if planned independently. Obviously, anyone studying on Kyushu would want to go to Nagasaki, and the school brings down the price for us by making everyone go. So 40 Americans left Saturday morning for Nagasaki, stayed in a hotel Saturday evening, and returned to school Sunday afternoon.
We took a tour bus, with a tour guide named Mrs. Sato. Sato-san was Japanese but spoke very good English. She said she does lots of tours for Americans, though they're usually retired rich people who don't speak any Japanese at all. She was glad that we could at least read signs. She talked for a while about cities we were passing, fun facts about Japan, etc, until everyone's travel comas were induced and people stopped responding and started snoring. It wasn't that she was boring at all- we were just tired from the week and it was early on a Saturday morning. AND it was a thre hour trip. We stopped at a hotel in Nagasaki for lunch, which was comprised of fried rice (which I couldn't eat) and a funny chow mein-looking dish (which I also couldn't eat). The meal was planned by the university, so they had called ahead to let them know that I didn't eat pork, chicken, or beef. Instead they cooked me a beautiful piece of salmon which I ravenously inhaled. I've discovered that my pescatarian diet doesn't offend any Japanese cooks as long as I let them know that what they generously prepared for me instead was absolutely delicious. They'd rather that than not eat the assigned dish. There were a few Americans who hardly touched their meal because of how it looked.
After the meal, we got back on the bus for a tour of Nagasaki. Sato-san was incredibly knowledgable, never letting us get bored. We went to Dejima Island first. Dejima Island was the first international port in Japan, trading with the Portuguese, Dutch, and some British. The island has been restored to look somewhat like the original, with the addition of creepy guys walking around in wigs and yukata. There were lots of informational, touristy signs to read, but we only had 45 minutes, so we mostly just looked around.
After Dejima Island, we headed to the Atomic Bomb Museum. There's not a ton to say about this; I think the name pretty much explains it and hopefully everyone's taken enough history to know that the US bombed Japan twice during WWII, Hiroshima, then Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of people. The museum held pictures and testomonies, along with some artifacts that were recovered afterward. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the exhibits, and honestly, I think you'd have to be there to feel the full effect of the experience. Let's just say that most of us entered the exhibits smiling and a little curious, and I left the exhibits feeling as though I was going to cry. It was the most horrific thing I've ever seen, but I'm glad I saw it. I believe it was really good for me.
After the Atomic Bomb Museum, Sato-san took us to the hypocentre: the place where the bomb exploded. According to her, the bomb never actually made it to the ground. It wasn't the impact that activated it, so there was no crater or anything. The site surprised me, because looking at the surrounding buildings, you'd never know that 50 years ago the area had been flattened. The buildings had vines all over them, and the cement of the sidewalks had cracks throughout. The thing that made it clear the area had been rebuilt was that there were no ancient-looking trees. Japan doesn't cut down a lot of trees for construction or landscaping, so most areas have really gnarly-looking trees. The trees in this area looked younger-they'd been planted after the bombing.
In the middle of the hypocentre was a monument, containing the names of those who have died as a result of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb. Even today, people still suffer from complications as a result of the radiation and die because of it. Every time such a person dies, their name is added to the others inside the monument, and the side of the structure bears the number of names that are inside. Really sad.
Next to the hypocentre was the Peace Park, which contained a lot of statues donated by countries from around the world. Nagasaki has quite a few sister cities arouns the world, including one in Minnesota, and they along with other cities, moved by the effort Nagasaki is putting forth to eradicate nuclear warfare and bring about peace, donate statues to the Peace Park for people from around the world to see. Here are a couple of my favorites:
The first is "Constellation Earth", donated by St. Paul, Minnisota, Nagasaki's US sister city.
The second is my favorite, 
"Maiden of Peace", donated by China.
At the end of the Peace Park was the "The Peace Statue". The right hand pointing skyward warns about the threat of the atomic bomb. The left hand stretching out horizontally symbolizes world peace. The crossed right leg represents the meditation on the past, while the left leg represents the world readiness to prevent similar events from occurring in the future. The slightly closed eyes represent the prayers made for those who have died as a result of the bomb.
After we had had a chance to stand around and take a bajillion pictures in front of this huge statue and eat some shaved ice from a nearby street vendor, we went to Golver Garden.
As I said before, Nagasaki is not just "The second city to suffer a nuclear bomb". It has an extensive history aside from the bomb aspect. There's a lot of trade history as Japan's first international port, and a lot of European influence. Glover Garden was once the estate of Thomas Glover, a scottish merchant, who is responsible for much of Nagasaki's trade reputation. His estate was beautiful, atop a steep hill with beautiful views of the city below. The "garden" reminded me of my trips to Disney World were the park goes above and beyond to make it look authentic by planting flowers everywhere, but this place was for real, and was absolutely gorgeous, including sculptures, fountains, and a koi pond.
By this point, we were all beat from all the walking (although Glover Garden provided outdoor escalators to take us up the hill! XD), so we headed to our hotel. Our hotel was (surprise!) Portuguese in structure, with porcelain tile and European elevators. At least it was European until you went in the bathroom and were greeted by the fancy state-of-the-art, will-squirt-you-in-a-surprising-place toilet. Yep, still in Japan. We dumped our stuff and met up again to be taken to dinner.
Dinner was traditional Japanese, on the second floor of a very traditional Japanese establishment. It was a tatami room, which meant no shoes and no chairs. We lounged on the floor in barefeet, eating a funny assortment of dishes. The food is a little hard to explain to those who have never eaten Jpanese food, but there was soup, an eggy yogurt-type thing, vegetables that I can't name, rice (of course), and the meat. Everyone else got beef, but because I don't eat land animals, I got whale. Yes, whale. That was the strangest texture I have ever ingested, and don't really wish to do it again. It was kind of like spongy chicken, a little spongy, and made me feel like I was chewing on a flipper. But, whale is a delicacy of the area, and I wasn't going to leave it on my plate untouched, I shared with some people around me with the same reaction. Cool to have tried, but let's not do it again.
A small group of us headed out to find a landmark from , known as "Spectacals Bridge" because of how the reflection on the water makes it look. We wondered around, getting lost a couple times and asking directions. Finally, after quite a while, we found the bridge in the dark. We did some exploring, watched the koi in the water below, and then found a playground and played on it. An old Japanese couple walked by and gave us a "stupid gaijin" look, but whatever, it was super fun and we've been deprived of playgrounds.
The next morning we got a Japanese breakfast, complete with rice, cold udon noodles, miso soup, and tons of fruit. super yummy. We headed out around 9AM to do some sightseeing, even though is was raining pretty bad. Adam, Evan, and I took the cable car north a little way to an art museum which had a culture museum in the basement. It was small and low-key, but interesting, then we took the cable car back to central Nagasaki. We still had some time to kill before we had to meet the rest of the group, so we trecked up a hill to see a monument in remembrance of the 26 Christian Martyrs. In 1597, while Christianity was banned in Japan, the emperor discovered a small group of Christians in Kyoto. The group, including six foreign missionaries and three children, were marched from Kyoto to Nagasaki, 800km, for two days in the snow, and crucified on a hill in Nagasaki on Feb.5. The monument, which is on that hill, is very small, but very sad, depicting each of those martyrs.
We then headed back to the central station and met up with everyone to board the bus. We were all pretty wet from the rain, and fell asleep almost instantly. Sightseeing is hard work!
So that's Nagasaki in a nutshell. As I said, there are way more pictures on my Facebook. Go see them! Sorry again for taking forever to put this up. I'm not lazy, I promise. Feel free to send me FRIENDLY reminders to update when it's been a while... じゃあね！
So, I'm gonna give a rundown of everything that's happened in the last couple of weeks, or Adam is going to be upset with me :/
As I say, things have been really busy with school and stuff. We've got about 24 hours of Japanese class per week (saying it like that, as in a full DAY of class each week, 1/7th of our life, kind of hurts. That classroom is getting old), I have two other classes, neither of which have anything to do with my major, along with events, trips, cubs, and studying, we're working as if it's winter semester at Grand Valley! By the time we think about blogging, we sometimes laugh. Sitting in front of a computer after a long day of classes is not always the most appealing activity :P
WORLD FESTIVAL
Let's rewind, shall we, to a couple weeks ago and the World Festival. For those who are Facebook friends with me and have looked through my Japan album, this is a recap. I know Robinson-sensei gave this blog address to other Japanese language students, so if you want to see the album (and it's so cool I can't imagine you wouldn't...) then friend me! And message me if you have questions!
APU's AP House throws what they call "World Festival" every summer so that its residents can be exposed to other cultures. APU has TONS of international students, so why not use that? Starting at around 9AM when I was still sleeping, the AP system went off (as it usually does) to remind us of the event. When AP House has an announcement, the first message is always in Japanese, then the second is the message translated into English. Waking up to "Minnasan, Oyahou gozaimasu!" over the system was not my favorite way to wake up, but after falling out of my futon in a panic I gathered myself in time to hear the English half. "The World Festival is starting. Let's all have fun learning cultures together!" Yay. So I wolfed down some cereal and went to find Adam. We headed to the AP House 2 lobby to watch the opening ceremony, which was a guy and a girl, again using Japanese then English to explain the day.
If anyone has watched a Japanese TV show, you know that when the Japanese, especially girls, when introducing something, get EVEN HARDER to understand. Yeah, I didn't quite understand what all was going to be going on that day, but I understood "food" and "eat", and that was really all I needed. I headed outside to where the food stands were. I tried this rice cake thing from the Myanmar stand that was SUPER spicy and had tiny dried fish on top (I avoided the fish XD) and got a bubble tea! Bubble tea is yummy, but too many tapioca bubbles made my tummy bubbly as well...
Adam and I had signed up for the koto, a traditional Japanese instrument, demonstration. It's like a piano and guitar hybrid instrument. It was really cool. The obaachans played for us, then we got to try it. The lady who was helping me didn't speak ANY english, but we together figured out how to get me to play it correctly. I quickly got the hang of it, and she was really impressed. I explained that I was a Music Major in America and she thought that was pretty much the sweetest thing she'd ever heard.FUN JAPANESE FACT: Something that's really funny about Japanese is that when you have a conversation, the listener constantly has to say things like "oh", "sou desuka" (is that so), "honto ni?" (really?), to show that they're engaged in what the other person is saying. We actually take class time sometimes to review our listening phrases. The American custom of course, is to listen silently to show that you are paying attention, and be polite to let them finish so as not to interrupt. It's the complete opposite here! I can't tell you how weird it is to have people talking WHILE I'm talking! And I seem rude for listening silently! I accidentally offend people sometimes! lol.
So, she was really excited and nodded vigorously and "honto ni"-ed through my telling her of my musical experience. Adam's experience with his obaachan was similar. Our tutors called over the others to have them listen to us. Adam took the oppotunity to show off even more! So embarrassing! lol.
After the koto, I went to the Nippon Buyo lesson. Traditional fan dancing. There's not a whole lot to say about his except that it's A LOT harder than it looks. We all looked really clumsy compared to the teacher. The coolest part was wearing the yukata. They brought yukata (summer kimono) fr us to wear while we danced. When the lesson was over, they said that if we wanted, we could perform for everyone. So, we headed to the main stage and performed our dance. I was right in front, which was a little anxiety-inducing, but also really fun.NAGASAKI
The next weekend, our program went on a trip to Nagasaki. The thing that's pretty cool about how APU does this Gateway program is how they plan things that are beyond the abilities of regular students. The school recognizes that we aren't regular students, more like tourists, and want to see things. Most students are here for a long time and have more time and opportunities to travel. Our time is so short that we can only do so much, and certainly not plan let alone afford a trip to Nagasaki if planned independently. Obviously, anyone studying on Kyushu would want to go to Nagasaki, and the school brings down the price for us by making everyone go. So 40 Americans left Saturday morning for Nagasaki, stayed in a hotel Saturday evening, and returned to school Sunday afternoon.
We took a tour bus, with a tour guide named Mrs. Sato. Sato-san was Japanese but spoke very good English. She said she does lots of tours for Americans, though they're usually retired rich people who don't speak any Japanese at all. She was glad that we could at least read signs. She talked for a while about cities we were passing, fun facts about Japan, etc, until everyone's travel comas were induced and people stopped responding and started snoring. It wasn't that she was boring at all- we were just tired from the week and it was early on a Saturday morning. AND it was a thre hour trip. We stopped at a hotel in Nagasaki for lunch, which was comprised of fried rice (which I couldn't eat) and a funny chow mein-looking dish (which I also couldn't eat). The meal was planned by the university, so they had called ahead to let them know that I didn't eat pork, chicken, or beef. Instead they cooked me a beautiful piece of salmon which I ravenously inhaled. I've discovered that my pescatarian diet doesn't offend any Japanese cooks as long as I let them know that what they generously prepared for me instead was absolutely delicious. They'd rather that than not eat the assigned dish. There were a few Americans who hardly touched their meal because of how it looked.
After the meal, we got back on the bus for a tour of Nagasaki. Sato-san was incredibly knowledgable, never letting us get bored. We went to Dejima Island first. Dejima Island was the first international port in Japan, trading with the Portuguese, Dutch, and some British. The island has been restored to look somewhat like the original, with the addition of creepy guys walking around in wigs and yukata. There were lots of informational, touristy signs to read, but we only had 45 minutes, so we mostly just looked around.After Dejima Island, we headed to the Atomic Bomb Museum. There's not a ton to say about this; I think the name pretty much explains it and hopefully everyone's taken enough history to know that the US bombed Japan twice during WWII, Hiroshima, then Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of people. The museum held pictures and testomonies, along with some artifacts that were recovered afterward. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the exhibits, and honestly, I think you'd have to be there to feel the full effect of the experience. Let's just say that most of us entered the exhibits smiling and a little curious, and I left the exhibits feeling as though I was going to cry. It was the most horrific thing I've ever seen, but I'm glad I saw it. I believe it was really good for me.
After the Atomic Bomb Museum, Sato-san took us to the hypocentre: the place where the bomb exploded. According to her, the bomb never actually made it to the ground. It wasn't the impact that activated it, so there was no crater or anything. The site surprised me, because looking at the surrounding buildings, you'd never know that 50 years ago the area had been flattened. The buildings had vines all over them, and the cement of the sidewalks had cracks throughout. The thing that made it clear the area had been rebuilt was that there were no ancient-looking trees. Japan doesn't cut down a lot of trees for construction or landscaping, so most areas have really gnarly-looking trees. The trees in this area looked younger-they'd been planted after the bombing.
In the middle of the hypocentre was a monument, containing the names of those who have died as a result of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb. Even today, people still suffer from complications as a result of the radiation and die because of it. Every time such a person dies, their name is added to the others inside the monument, and the side of the structure bears the number of names that are inside. Really sad.
Next to the hypocentre was the Peace Park, which contained a lot of statues donated by countries from around the world. Nagasaki has quite a few sister cities arouns the world, including one in Minnesota, and they along with other cities, moved by the effort Nagasaki is putting forth to eradicate nuclear warfare and bring about peace, donate statues to the Peace Park for people from around the world to see. Here are a couple of my favorites:The first is "Constellation Earth", donated by St. Paul, Minnisota, Nagasaki's US sister city.
The second is my favorite, 
"Maiden of Peace", donated by China.
At the end of the Peace Park was the "The Peace Statue". The right hand pointing skyward warns about the threat of the atomic bomb. The left hand stretching out horizontally symbolizes world peace. The crossed right leg represents the meditation on the past, while the left leg represents the world readiness to prevent similar events from occurring in the future. The slightly closed eyes represent the prayers made for those who have died as a result of the bomb.
After we had had a chance to stand around and take a bajillion pictures in front of this huge statue and eat some shaved ice from a nearby street vendor, we went to Golver Garden.
As I said before, Nagasaki is not just "The second city to suffer a nuclear bomb". It has an extensive history aside from the bomb aspect. There's a lot of trade history as Japan's first international port, and a lot of European influence. Glover Garden was once the estate of Thomas Glover, a scottish merchant, who is responsible for much of Nagasaki's trade reputation. His estate was beautiful, atop a steep hill with beautiful views of the city below. The "garden" reminded me of my trips to Disney World were the park goes above and beyond to make it look authentic by planting flowers everywhere, but this place was for real, and was absolutely gorgeous, including sculptures, fountains, and a koi pond.
By this point, we were all beat from all the walking (although Glover Garden provided outdoor escalators to take us up the hill! XD), so we headed to our hotel. Our hotel was (surprise!) Portuguese in structure, with porcelain tile and European elevators. At least it was European until you went in the bathroom and were greeted by the fancy state-of-the-art, will-squirt-you-in-a-surprising-place toilet. Yep, still in Japan. We dumped our stuff and met up again to be taken to dinner.
Dinner was traditional Japanese, on the second floor of a very traditional Japanese establishment. It was a tatami room, which meant no shoes and no chairs. We lounged on the floor in barefeet, eating a funny assortment of dishes. The food is a little hard to explain to those who have never eaten Jpanese food, but there was soup, an eggy yogurt-type thing, vegetables that I can't name, rice (of course), and the meat. Everyone else got beef, but because I don't eat land animals, I got whale. Yes, whale. That was the strangest texture I have ever ingested, and don't really wish to do it again. It was kind of like spongy chicken, a little spongy, and made me feel like I was chewing on a flipper. But, whale is a delicacy of the area, and I wasn't going to leave it on my plate untouched, I shared with some people around me with the same reaction. Cool to have tried, but let's not do it again.
A small group of us headed out to find a landmark from , known as "Spectacals Bridge" because of how the reflection on the water makes it look. We wondered around, getting lost a couple times and asking directions. Finally, after quite a while, we found the bridge in the dark. We did some exploring, watched the koi in the water below, and then found a playground and played on it. An old Japanese couple walked by and gave us a "stupid gaijin" look, but whatever, it was super fun and we've been deprived of playgrounds.
The next morning we got a Japanese breakfast, complete with rice, cold udon noodles, miso soup, and tons of fruit. super yummy. We headed out around 9AM to do some sightseeing, even though is was raining pretty bad. Adam, Evan, and I took the cable car north a little way to an art museum which had a culture museum in the basement. It was small and low-key, but interesting, then we took the cable car back to central Nagasaki. We still had some time to kill before we had to meet the rest of the group, so we trecked up a hill to see a monument in remembrance of the 26 Christian Martyrs. In 1597, while Christianity was banned in Japan, the emperor discovered a small group of Christians in Kyoto. The group, including six foreign missionaries and three children, were marched from Kyoto to Nagasaki, 800km, for two days in the snow, and crucified on a hill in Nagasaki on Feb.5. The monument, which is on that hill, is very small, but very sad, depicting each of those martyrs.We then headed back to the central station and met up with everyone to board the bus. We were all pretty wet from the rain, and fell asleep almost instantly. Sightseeing is hard work!
So that's Nagasaki in a nutshell. As I said, there are way more pictures on my Facebook. Go see them! Sorry again for taking forever to put this up. I'm not lazy, I promise. Feel free to send me FRIENDLY reminders to update when it's been a while... じゃあね！
Friday, June 25, 2010
All about Nihongo Class
My sincerest apologies to everyone who has waited more than a week to see an update on here. After a busy and eventful weekend in Nagasaki, we returned Sunday afternoon to a mound of homework and a week with 4 tests looming before us. Needless to say, the tests and homework mounds too precedence over blog updating. Sorry!
But we're back now, and should definitely have more pictures and adventures soon. Becky's got her heart set on writing about the Nagasaki trip, so I will leave that to her. She is sleeping right now, and may update later tonight about Nagasaki with a bit of persuasion.
Anyway, first I'll talk about class life, which, after this week, is the most pertinent topic. As some of you know, we are using a textbook series called Genki. It's issued by the Japan Times, and comes in two main volumes, spanning 23 chapters. Last year in class with Grand Valley's newest 日本人 on staff, Sayaka Abe sensei, I covered the first book in it's entirety, which brought me through all of chapters 1 through 12. Thanks to Abe sensei's thorough, comprehensive, and highly enjoyable class (yes she might read this eventually ^_^ ), I had a pretty solid footing on the basics as I went into the placement test 3 weeks ago. Becky, however, had a bit of a rough beginning to her Japanese learning career, with a new sensei every semester and a very slow pacing before Jeremy Robinson sensei, the GVSU Japanese program's current "buchou", took the reigns of the program two years ago. Becky's first year in Japanese only covered the first 8 chapters of Genki, and Robinson sensei had no choice to to pick up the pace to catch the class up to where they should have been. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for a teacher to make a lesson plan for a foreign language class, muchless for a language as complicated as Japanese. To avoid digression, we'll end it here: Abe sensei, Robinson sensei, I am very grateful for the curriculum you've put together at GVSU. Thank you for everything!
Anyway. There are plenty of readers (hi, family!) that haven't the slightest clue about Japanese anything. The alphabet, the food, the culture, the cartoons, it's almost like a foreign country on the other side of the world! Since the topic of the moment is class, I thought it might be of interest to explain in a highly abridged form how the intimidating character system works. Senseis and classmates, feel free to skip this next part.
***
Let's begin with Hiragana.
Hiragana is the "main" alphabet, which allows for the creation of all the "sounds" that can be made in Japanese. They all have their own pronunciations (based on syllables, unlike the western languages who are based on phonics), and are derived from Chinese characters a long, long time ago. They look like this:
まいにちにほんごのじゅぎょうにたくさんかんじとぶんぽうをならいますから、まいばんしゅくだいがよじいじょうあります。
(Because we learn a lot of kanji and grammar every day in Japanese class, we have at least 4 hours of homework every night).
They're loopy, rounded, and for the most part, pretty simple. At least, no more complicated than western characters. This is the first alphabet that is learned. There are 39 hiragana characters, and some of them, like english (hello, X, Q and Z) are rarely used. It would be easy if we left it at that, right? Well, there's been talk around here that Kanji is slowly being phased out, and the eventual evolutionary step of the language will be for kanji to disappear. But that won't happen any time soon, especially not in my lifetime.
"Adam, what is this "Kanji" crap you keep talking about! I don't understand it at all!"
So glad you asked! Well you see, kanji is the reason why everybody gripes about Japanese. It's the reason why, after 16 chapters of basics, I still can't even read street signs all the way, and it's the reason why the novels I picked up are going to take several years to read. Kanji are borrowed chinese characters, all with a conceptual meaning, and sometimes as many as 5 different pronunciations depending on context. What!? Yeah, it's not easy. Oh, and there are also over 5000 kanji.
The same sentence again, but with kanji incorporated:
毎日日本語の授業にたくさん漢字と文法を習いますから、毎晩宿題が四時以上あります。
Well, at least it takes up less space, right? This is pronounced the exact same way as the all-hiragana sentence, and it means exactly the same thing. It may look more complicated at first glance, but imagine if you knew every character at the blink of an eye after growing up in a country where you have been exposed to it for several decades. If that were the case, you'd say this way of writing it actually faster to read and comprehend, right? I'm getting to the point where sentences with no Kanji at all are more difficult to read (there are no spaces between words in japanese, if you have noticed), and all-hiragana sentences look like a melisma of curly lines.
So in a nut shell, each kanji has its own concept. Let's take the first few in the sentence:
毎＝まい＝mai = every
日＝にち＝nichi = day (or more specifically, sun, or sun cycle)
hence, 毎日＝まいにち＝every day. Kanji is the concept, and hiragana is the pronunciation system. But not everything has kanji versions. Many grammatical structures, including but not limited to verb conjugations, and particles, and many nouns, are always written in hiragana.
For instance, a verb, "to go" (iku):
行く＝to go
行った＝went
行かない＝didn't go
行こう＝let's go
行ったことがない＝have never gone
Some are long, and some are short, but the kanji （行）is always the same in whatever contextual conjugation you care to give it. But I'm beginning to digress.
Last up is Katakana, an alphabet of hiragana doppelgangers used for "imported" words. As with any language in this highly global world, words from other languages are adopted as society needs them. Sometimes it's because there isn't a similar word in the original language, and another language already has a perfectly accessible one (in English, see words such as "coup d'etat", "perfume", "crescendo", and "hamburger"). Let's see if you can spot the Katakana by its rigid, linear style:
コンピューターを使ってインタネットを見て、ブローグにしゃしんをアップしました。
"I used my computer to view the internet, and uploaded photos to my blog."
As you could maybe guess, "computer", "internet", "blog", and "upload" are english words with japanese pronunciation. This is rather difficult to read at first, since katakana has the same amount of characters (with a few extra variations) as the hiragana alphabet, and it's sometimes inconvenient to remember two characters for the same sound, on top of kanji. But then, I remembered learning upper and lower case english letters, and later cursive, and wondering how in God's name "G" and "g" were the same letter. "R" and "r"? Get out of town. "O" and "o"? Okay, I can live with that. But as you're reading now, it probably doesn't even phase you anymore that those two letters are different looking, since they trigger the same response in your brain. In other words, it's not all that different as any other language. It's just got a different shaped learning curve.
***
I hope this has been relatively interesting for those of you who don't know much about the writing system that I've been slaving over learning for the past 3 weeks. I find it absolutely fascinating, and have fallen in love with the process of learning a foreign language. I've always been a big fan of how words work together, and my lengthy resume (another french-borrowed word) of english courses taken and langage books read can be a testament to that. On a related note, the process of learning a foreign language is paralleled verbatim with the process of learning and mastering a musical instrument, and simultaneously studying all the ideosynchrasies and applications of music, and eventually developing your own style withing the macrochosm. Notation is the written language, Ear Training is the pronunciation factor, music theory is the grammar, performing is applied speaking via conversation, and developing a writing style is just like developing a compositional style. They are literally the same process. Pretty cool.
I'll also go on record as saying that extensive listening of music of all forms and weirdness, the music school ear training curriculum, and hours upon hours of passing a single note down the line with the intention of perfect matching in trumpet ensemble has boosted my dialect/pronunciation perception to strong proportions. While I'm not the best at vocab retention, pretty slow at grammatical construction, and can't draw parallel lines in kanji to save my life, my pronunciation of Japanese words is, if I may say so, probably the best in the class.
So as for the class, we have covered 4 full chapters of Genki so far (13-16). Each chapter contains about 60 new words, 16-20 Kanji (which allow for the construction of more words, sometimes words we already know, but usually not), 3 to 7 new grammar points, which can range from new verb conjugations, to types of sentence clauses, to ideosynchrasies between the different words for "to give". Also, there is a supplementary section in each chapter that covers a bit of culture, and about 30 extra words. Every night, we get homework from the designated Genki tear-out workbook, Kanji practice sheets, that drill handwriting and contextualize new kanji, word association maps, essays (and i mean 5th grade-size essays for the most part) and whatever else the 5 different senseis decide to bestow upon us. Usually, it amounts to about 10 pages a night. The effect of this of course, is that I catch up on sleep during the afternoon instead of updating the blog.
So after a total of 8 tests, one kanji/vocab and one grammar per chapter, I'm holding my own. Becky and I have a similar grade at the moment; I think she may have a few more cumulative points than me, but we're both doing just what we need to be doing. But upper-mid-90's on tests is not even in the same realm as speaking conversationally to Japanese friends. And the people in class that speak as if they're an authority on a subject after learning it once, and sporting a high-browed attitude while barking out in-class answers with excessive volume fail to see through their own conceited delusion that regardless of who shouts out the kanji's meaning first, everyone in class still SUCKS at Japanese compared to native speakers. It's just a fact that MUST be accepted if you expect to keep all your learning doors open. Now I'll get off my soapbox.
I was also going to write about the Tea Ceremony today, but I've exhausted my will to type any more. Expect to see soon:
Becky's update on Nagasaki
Adam's update on the customs of rehearsing Japanese classical music
Someone's update on Tea Ceremony
Watashitachi no update on "Top 10 cool things in Japan". (I look forward to writing this one)
Until next time~
But we're back now, and should definitely have more pictures and adventures soon. Becky's got her heart set on writing about the Nagasaki trip, so I will leave that to her. She is sleeping right now, and may update later tonight about Nagasaki with a bit of persuasion.
Anyway, first I'll talk about class life, which, after this week, is the most pertinent topic. As some of you know, we are using a textbook series called Genki. It's issued by the Japan Times, and comes in two main volumes, spanning 23 chapters. Last year in class with Grand Valley's newest 日本人 on staff, Sayaka Abe sensei, I covered the first book in it's entirety, which brought me through all of chapters 1 through 12. Thanks to Abe sensei's thorough, comprehensive, and highly enjoyable class (yes she might read this eventually ^_^ ), I had a pretty solid footing on the basics as I went into the placement test 3 weeks ago. Becky, however, had a bit of a rough beginning to her Japanese learning career, with a new sensei every semester and a very slow pacing before Jeremy Robinson sensei, the GVSU Japanese program's current "buchou", took the reigns of the program two years ago. Becky's first year in Japanese only covered the first 8 chapters of Genki, and Robinson sensei had no choice to to pick up the pace to catch the class up to where they should have been. I can only imagine how difficult it must be for a teacher to make a lesson plan for a foreign language class, muchless for a language as complicated as Japanese. To avoid digression, we'll end it here: Abe sensei, Robinson sensei, I am very grateful for the curriculum you've put together at GVSU. Thank you for everything!
Anyway. There are plenty of readers (hi, family!) that haven't the slightest clue about Japanese anything. The alphabet, the food, the culture, the cartoons, it's almost like a foreign country on the other side of the world! Since the topic of the moment is class, I thought it might be of interest to explain in a highly abridged form how the intimidating character system works. Senseis and classmates, feel free to skip this next part.
***
Let's begin with Hiragana.
Hiragana is the "main" alphabet, which allows for the creation of all the "sounds" that can be made in Japanese. They all have their own pronunciations (based on syllables, unlike the western languages who are based on phonics), and are derived from Chinese characters a long, long time ago. They look like this:
まいにちにほんごのじゅぎょうにたくさんかんじとぶんぽうをならいますから、まいばんしゅくだいがよじいじょうあります。
(Because we learn a lot of kanji and grammar every day in Japanese class, we have at least 4 hours of homework every night).
They're loopy, rounded, and for the most part, pretty simple. At least, no more complicated than western characters. This is the first alphabet that is learned. There are 39 hiragana characters, and some of them, like english (hello, X, Q and Z) are rarely used. It would be easy if we left it at that, right? Well, there's been talk around here that Kanji is slowly being phased out, and the eventual evolutionary step of the language will be for kanji to disappear. But that won't happen any time soon, especially not in my lifetime.
"Adam, what is this "Kanji" crap you keep talking about! I don't understand it at all!"
So glad you asked! Well you see, kanji is the reason why everybody gripes about Japanese. It's the reason why, after 16 chapters of basics, I still can't even read street signs all the way, and it's the reason why the novels I picked up are going to take several years to read. Kanji are borrowed chinese characters, all with a conceptual meaning, and sometimes as many as 5 different pronunciations depending on context. What!? Yeah, it's not easy. Oh, and there are also over 5000 kanji.
The same sentence again, but with kanji incorporated:
毎日日本語の授業にたくさん漢字と文法を習いますから、毎晩宿題が四時以上あります。
Well, at least it takes up less space, right? This is pronounced the exact same way as the all-hiragana sentence, and it means exactly the same thing. It may look more complicated at first glance, but imagine if you knew every character at the blink of an eye after growing up in a country where you have been exposed to it for several decades. If that were the case, you'd say this way of writing it actually faster to read and comprehend, right? I'm getting to the point where sentences with no Kanji at all are more difficult to read (there are no spaces between words in japanese, if you have noticed), and all-hiragana sentences look like a melisma of curly lines.
So in a nut shell, each kanji has its own concept. Let's take the first few in the sentence:
毎＝まい＝mai = every
日＝にち＝nichi = day (or more specifically, sun, or sun cycle)
hence, 毎日＝まいにち＝every day. Kanji is the concept, and hiragana is the pronunciation system. But not everything has kanji versions. Many grammatical structures, including but not limited to verb conjugations, and particles, and many nouns, are always written in hiragana.
For instance, a verb, "to go" (iku):
行く＝to go
行った＝went
行かない＝didn't go
行こう＝let's go
行ったことがない＝have never gone
Some are long, and some are short, but the kanji （行）is always the same in whatever contextual conjugation you care to give it. But I'm beginning to digress.
Last up is Katakana, an alphabet of hiragana doppelgangers used for "imported" words. As with any language in this highly global world, words from other languages are adopted as society needs them. Sometimes it's because there isn't a similar word in the original language, and another language already has a perfectly accessible one (in English, see words such as "coup d'etat", "perfume", "crescendo", and "hamburger"). Let's see if you can spot the Katakana by its rigid, linear style:
コンピューターを使ってインタネットを見て、ブローグにしゃしんをアップしました。
"I used my computer to view the internet, and uploaded photos to my blog."
As you could maybe guess, "computer", "internet", "blog", and "upload" are english words with japanese pronunciation. This is rather difficult to read at first, since katakana has the same amount of characters (with a few extra variations) as the hiragana alphabet, and it's sometimes inconvenient to remember two characters for the same sound, on top of kanji. But then, I remembered learning upper and lower case english letters, and later cursive, and wondering how in God's name "G" and "g" were the same letter. "R" and "r"? Get out of town. "O" and "o"? Okay, I can live with that. But as you're reading now, it probably doesn't even phase you anymore that those two letters are different looking, since they trigger the same response in your brain. In other words, it's not all that different as any other language. It's just got a different shaped learning curve.
***
I hope this has been relatively interesting for those of you who don't know much about the writing system that I've been slaving over learning for the past 3 weeks. I find it absolutely fascinating, and have fallen in love with the process of learning a foreign language. I've always been a big fan of how words work together, and my lengthy resume (another french-borrowed word) of english courses taken and langage books read can be a testament to that. On a related note, the process of learning a foreign language is paralleled verbatim with the process of learning and mastering a musical instrument, and simultaneously studying all the ideosynchrasies and applications of music, and eventually developing your own style withing the macrochosm. Notation is the written language, Ear Training is the pronunciation factor, music theory is the grammar, performing is applied speaking via conversation, and developing a writing style is just like developing a compositional style. They are literally the same process. Pretty cool.
I'll also go on record as saying that extensive listening of music of all forms and weirdness, the music school ear training curriculum, and hours upon hours of passing a single note down the line with the intention of perfect matching in trumpet ensemble has boosted my dialect/pronunciation perception to strong proportions. While I'm not the best at vocab retention, pretty slow at grammatical construction, and can't draw parallel lines in kanji to save my life, my pronunciation of Japanese words is, if I may say so, probably the best in the class.
So as for the class, we have covered 4 full chapters of Genki so far (13-16). Each chapter contains about 60 new words, 16-20 Kanji (which allow for the construction of more words, sometimes words we already know, but usually not), 3 to 7 new grammar points, which can range from new verb conjugations, to types of sentence clauses, to ideosynchrasies between the different words for "to give". Also, there is a supplementary section in each chapter that covers a bit of culture, and about 30 extra words. Every night, we get homework from the designated Genki tear-out workbook, Kanji practice sheets, that drill handwriting and contextualize new kanji, word association maps, essays (and i mean 5th grade-size essays for the most part) and whatever else the 5 different senseis decide to bestow upon us. Usually, it amounts to about 10 pages a night. The effect of this of course, is that I catch up on sleep during the afternoon instead of updating the blog.
So after a total of 8 tests, one kanji/vocab and one grammar per chapter, I'm holding my own. Becky and I have a similar grade at the moment; I think she may have a few more cumulative points than me, but we're both doing just what we need to be doing. But upper-mid-90's on tests is not even in the same realm as speaking conversationally to Japanese friends. And the people in class that speak as if they're an authority on a subject after learning it once, and sporting a high-browed attitude while barking out in-class answers with excessive volume fail to see through their own conceited delusion that regardless of who shouts out the kanji's meaning first, everyone in class still SUCKS at Japanese compared to native speakers. It's just a fact that MUST be accepted if you expect to keep all your learning doors open. Now I'll get off my soapbox.
I was also going to write about the Tea Ceremony today, but I've exhausted my will to type any more. Expect to see soon:
Becky's update on Nagasaki
Adam's update on the customs of rehearsing Japanese classical music
Someone's update on Tea Ceremony
Watashitachi no update on "Top 10 cool things in Japan". (I look forward to writing this one)
Until next time~
Monday, June 14, 2010
Engrish DOES exist, and it IS Hilarious.
While this is the most potent example I've seen, finding broken English around the city is always rewarding.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Just Quite Not the Same
Daily life in Japan is, in many ways, a distant cry from American culture. But there are some things that are stunningly similar: things that make it almost unfair in a traveling American's favour. The language, the food, the crazy antics and fetishes with an infamously endearing reputation, the starkly different things mostly speak for themselves, and a typical American most likely has at least a general idea of their existence.
The strangest things I've found are the things that are the same.
Becky and I went on a deito last night, and ate out at Warawara. It was a cozy restaurant that had utterly fantastic sashimi. We removed our shoes immediately after entering and placed them in a locker. Shoes at the door help make the floors of Japanese restaurants sparkly clean. We were seated in a booth far secluded from anyone else - the whole restaurant was set up so the booths had a great deal of privacy. We could barely see anyone else's table from where we were seated. A recurring motif in Japanese restaurants seems to be the service bell. Instead of a waiter or waitress coming over and interrupting conversation from time to time, each booth has a service button, which you press to ring a bell when you would like the aid of the wait staff. Also, since tips are not part of the Japanese culture, you can expect a different face every time you ring the bell. Furthermore, after you ring the bell the first time, you will be asked about both drinks AND food. Drinks only come out first if you opt not to order the food with the drinks. Also, whether or not you order drinks and food together, or just drinks first, the drinks will come out first accompanied by a surprise appetizer. Last night, ours was a cup of macaroni and tuna that tasted dangerously reminiscent of my mother's signature casserole. Surprise, mom! I found a Japanese dish even you would eat.
All the previously mentioned aspects are hardly a far-cry from American culture, but are mostly an easily adaptable changes. Differences like should be expected in a country on the other side of the world. Things would be more strange if there weren't differences like these, right?
Well, let's talk about some of the selections we heard on the radio during dinner. All Star by Smash Mouth... If You Had My Love by Jennifer Lopez...
Washed up 90's pop? Seriously!? I was really excited when I heard the Hana Yori Dango first season theme song on the radio my first day in Japan, and later, the latest Fullmetal Alchemist theme song in a conveyour belt sushi restaurant... but now I get to eat Kelp Salad and Sashimi to Breakfast at Tiffany's? After spending an entire day, from 9 to 9, in downtown Beppu, this was definitely the thing with which I was the least comfortable. Japan is very westernized in some respects. Let the drink I ordered be another testament to this: グレープフルッツジュースgureepufurutsu juusu (read: grapefruit juice）
The Katakana alphabet, used specifically for foreign words (and also colloquially for emphasis), spells out english words very often. Juice, beer, wine, most drinks have english derivatives. On the alchoholic front, the best new drink, which surpasses everything in america but Khalua and Milk, is Chuuhai. Chuuhai comes in many fruity flavours, and grapefruit is my top-tier choice.
Coming soon will be "Adam and Becky's Top 10 'things' in Japan". As for tomorrow, we intend to have a day full of studying for our first two tests: kanji and vocab on monday, bunpou (grammar) on tuesday.
Until next time, please comment, and expand your breadth of knowledge by clicking my links~
The strangest things I've found are the things that are the same.
Becky and I went on a deito last night, and ate out at Warawara. It was a cozy restaurant that had utterly fantastic sashimi. We removed our shoes immediately after entering and placed them in a locker. Shoes at the door help make the floors of Japanese restaurants sparkly clean. We were seated in a booth far secluded from anyone else - the whole restaurant was set up so the booths had a great deal of privacy. We could barely see anyone else's table from where we were seated. A recurring motif in Japanese restaurants seems to be the service bell. Instead of a waiter or waitress coming over and interrupting conversation from time to time, each booth has a service button, which you press to ring a bell when you would like the aid of the wait staff. Also, since tips are not part of the Japanese culture, you can expect a different face every time you ring the bell. Furthermore, after you ring the bell the first time, you will be asked about both drinks AND food. Drinks only come out first if you opt not to order the food with the drinks. Also, whether or not you order drinks and food together, or just drinks first, the drinks will come out first accompanied by a surprise appetizer. Last night, ours was a cup of macaroni and tuna that tasted dangerously reminiscent of my mother's signature casserole. Surprise, mom! I found a Japanese dish even you would eat.
All the previously mentioned aspects are hardly a far-cry from American culture, but are mostly an easily adaptable changes. Differences like should be expected in a country on the other side of the world. Things would be more strange if there weren't differences like these, right?
Well, let's talk about some of the selections we heard on the radio during dinner. All Star by Smash Mouth... If You Had My Love by Jennifer Lopez...
Washed up 90's pop? Seriously!? I was really excited when I heard the Hana Yori Dango first season theme song on the radio my first day in Japan, and later, the latest Fullmetal Alchemist theme song in a conveyour belt sushi restaurant... but now I get to eat Kelp Salad and Sashimi to Breakfast at Tiffany's? After spending an entire day, from 9 to 9, in downtown Beppu, this was definitely the thing with which I was the least comfortable. Japan is very westernized in some respects. Let the drink I ordered be another testament to this: グレープフルッツジュースgureepufurutsu juusu (read: grapefruit juice）
The Katakana alphabet, used specifically for foreign words (and also colloquially for emphasis), spells out english words very often. Juice, beer, wine, most drinks have english derivatives. On the alchoholic front, the best new drink, which surpasses everything in america but Khalua and Milk, is Chuuhai. Chuuhai comes in many fruity flavours, and grapefruit is my top-tier choice.
Coming soon will be "Adam and Becky's Top 10 'things' in Japan". As for tomorrow, we intend to have a day full of studying for our first two tests: kanji and vocab on monday, bunpou (grammar) on tuesday.
Until next time, please comment, and expand your breadth of knowledge by clicking my links~
Thursday, June 10, 2010
So I'm Definitely American
So Japan's really different from the US, and I don't mean just the fact that the cars drive on the wrong side of the road and everyone speaks Japanese. I mean, things that are totally normal in the US (like waiting in an ORGANIZED LINE), are as foreign as I am. Here's a short list of some things that have struck me as different:
The line thing- the cafeteria is frightening. There's no such thing as a line. There are stations, like any other cafeteria where you go to get a certain kind of food, but instead of waiting in line for your turn, if you want food, you must push or be pushed. I'll have an almost full tray in my hands, be waiting patiently behind someone at the counter, and someone else will just push right in front of me without so much as a "sumimasen" (excuse me). I have to be just as aggressive, but I can't help but say excuse me as I fight for my food. I don't know if this is a Japan thing or just APU, but it's bringing out my survival instincts.
Yelling in the stores- store clerks scare me. I've been shopping a few times in the mall and some other shops, and every time without fail, a clerk will catch me off guard and startle me with a "IRRASSHAIMASE SHITSURESHIMASU!" which is like "welcome, honored customer". It's not that they say it, It's that they yell it at me. I'm just shopping! And it's not only when I enter, but anytime a clerk sees me. I feel like I'm in a war zone dodging explosives! I just want to shop in peace! lol.
And the shoes come off- in the weirdest places. Like when you enter a changing room, you have to take off your shoes! I kind of like to wear my shoes so I know what the clothes look like with shoes. and the other weird place is the dentist.
Story time: I went on an adventure today! I'm really proud of myself: I made it all the way downtown on the bus to the dentist's office on my own and they didn't speak English. I've had sores in my mouth (which happens from time to time due to diet change, sleep irregularity, and stress- all of which is going on right now- sorry mouth sores are really gross and most probably don't want to hear about it XD), and was told my the school heath clinic (where no one speaks English) to go find this dentist downtown. They gave me a general location and the hours. I got on the bus, got off and Kanagawa station, and tried to find a sign written in kanji (hooray for reading kanji!). It took me about 15 minutes to realize that it was right in front of me because the buildings all look like houses! So I went inside and was greeted by PLASTIC SLIPPERS. I had to take my shoes off in the dentist's office! So I put on some purple plastic slippers and proceeded to the info desk. The sign "Information" was the only sign in English in the whole place. Sigh. So, the dentist came up, and I handed him a paper the school had given me in order to explain my predicament. My Japanese is good enough to understand his questions, explain that my Japanese isn't very good, ask him if he spoke any English (which he didn't, but he said my Japanese was good!) and follow instruction. I explained what the problem was, and I was directed to the chair. I got a blanket at my seat! That was nice. The rest of the appointment continued as it would in the US, but with a lot more hand motions. My charades skills are gonna be awesome by the time I get home. He prescibed a gel and told me to apply it three times a day for one week and I should be cured. He handed me a card, written in Japanese with more information. I told him I understood the information on the card, he was impressed, and I was satisfied. I paid my 2,930円 (about $32US) an traded my slippers for my shoes again. Long story short: I survived the trip relying completely on my sorry language ability, was complimented by the dentist, and had to take my shoes off.
Drinking anywhere is OK- like Adam said in the last post, drinking in public is acceptable. The drinking age is 20 which is pretty strictly enforced. BUT most places don't check IDs of foreigners. Apparently we age faster than Asians, so we just look older. I might look 26 to a cashier here and haven't been carded once. Some Americans in our group are taking advantage of this fact and walking down the street with drinks in their hands. Some got drunk, hung out in front of the mall, ran into one of our Japanese professors, and it was totally cool. That doesn't happen in the US.
So that's all I can think of. I'm pretty wiped from my hypertension-inducing adventure to the dentist's office.
Class is going great. We have 4 different senseis (teachers) for Adam's and my level. The punk-rocker Iwamoto sensei Adam mentioned, a nice but spastic young female Muroi sensei who is way too genki (energetic) for 8:45AM, Sudo sensei who makes us all feel stupid when she talks too fast, and Ueda sensei is is more like a nice grandmother. She speaks quietly with a very smooth rhythm and I can't help but fall asleep. Pretty good mix of teacher types.
Fashion in Japan is baffling me. People wear the weirdest stuff, and it's cool! I consider myself a pretty regular dresser, but here, I stick out as AMERICAN because of how I dress (and my skin, eyes, and language...). I went shopping for hours yesterday trying to figure it out, but I'm still not sure what's cool. That's one of my goals: figure out this fashion thing and master it.
ALSO: There's a fabric store in the mall. Legit. I want to buy some of their cool Asian printed cottons...if only I can figure out how to ask for a fabric amount in meters...weird.
I ended up buying two skirts, a shirt, and some thigh-high stockings. I already feel like i'm blending...
Last night I went on an American-food hunt. I found Italian bread, strawberry preserves, and peanutcream. It's not peanut butter, but it's awesome. Kind of like peanut butter jelly- it has a jellified texture. I made a PP&J, found some chocolate chip cookies and milk, and did my homework. Today there was a stand outside of our dorm selling vegetable pizza. I of course bought one because I haven't tasted cheese in over a week. ALSO, I haven't use a fork in a week! They handed me a fork when I moved in, and it hasn't moved from the place I put it when I got here. Chopsticks all the time. I'm getting really skilled in the way of the chopstick.
I miss my friends, family, coworkers, etc, and American TV shows (Secret Life od the American Teenager isn't licensed in Japan, so I haven't been able to access the new season yet...boo). If anyone has any questions or anything, please comment on our posts. I'm starting to wonder if people are reading this...
XOXO Becky
The line thing- the cafeteria is frightening. There's no such thing as a line. There are stations, like any other cafeteria where you go to get a certain kind of food, but instead of waiting in line for your turn, if you want food, you must push or be pushed. I'll have an almost full tray in my hands, be waiting patiently behind someone at the counter, and someone else will just push right in front of me without so much as a "sumimasen" (excuse me). I have to be just as aggressive, but I can't help but say excuse me as I fight for my food. I don't know if this is a Japan thing or just APU, but it's bringing out my survival instincts.
Yelling in the stores- store clerks scare me. I've been shopping a few times in the mall and some other shops, and every time without fail, a clerk will catch me off guard and startle me with a "IRRASSHAIMASE SHITSURESHIMASU!" which is like "welcome, honored customer". It's not that they say it, It's that they yell it at me. I'm just shopping! And it's not only when I enter, but anytime a clerk sees me. I feel like I'm in a war zone dodging explosives! I just want to shop in peace! lol.
And the shoes come off- in the weirdest places. Like when you enter a changing room, you have to take off your shoes! I kind of like to wear my shoes so I know what the clothes look like with shoes. and the other weird place is the dentist.
Story time: I went on an adventure today! I'm really proud of myself: I made it all the way downtown on the bus to the dentist's office on my own and they didn't speak English. I've had sores in my mouth (which happens from time to time due to diet change, sleep irregularity, and stress- all of which is going on right now- sorry mouth sores are really gross and most probably don't want to hear about it XD), and was told my the school heath clinic (where no one speaks English) to go find this dentist downtown. They gave me a general location and the hours. I got on the bus, got off and Kanagawa station, and tried to find a sign written in kanji (hooray for reading kanji!). It took me about 15 minutes to realize that it was right in front of me because the buildings all look like houses! So I went inside and was greeted by PLASTIC SLIPPERS. I had to take my shoes off in the dentist's office! So I put on some purple plastic slippers and proceeded to the info desk. The sign "Information" was the only sign in English in the whole place. Sigh. So, the dentist came up, and I handed him a paper the school had given me in order to explain my predicament. My Japanese is good enough to understand his questions, explain that my Japanese isn't very good, ask him if he spoke any English (which he didn't, but he said my Japanese was good!) and follow instruction. I explained what the problem was, and I was directed to the chair. I got a blanket at my seat! That was nice. The rest of the appointment continued as it would in the US, but with a lot more hand motions. My charades skills are gonna be awesome by the time I get home. He prescibed a gel and told me to apply it three times a day for one week and I should be cured. He handed me a card, written in Japanese with more information. I told him I understood the information on the card, he was impressed, and I was satisfied. I paid my 2,930円 (about $32US) an traded my slippers for my shoes again. Long story short: I survived the trip relying completely on my sorry language ability, was complimented by the dentist, and had to take my shoes off.
Drinking anywhere is OK- like Adam said in the last post, drinking in public is acceptable. The drinking age is 20 which is pretty strictly enforced. BUT most places don't check IDs of foreigners. Apparently we age faster than Asians, so we just look older. I might look 26 to a cashier here and haven't been carded once. Some Americans in our group are taking advantage of this fact and walking down the street with drinks in their hands. Some got drunk, hung out in front of the mall, ran into one of our Japanese professors, and it was totally cool. That doesn't happen in the US.
So that's all I can think of. I'm pretty wiped from my hypertension-inducing adventure to the dentist's office.
Class is going great. We have 4 different senseis (teachers) for Adam's and my level. The punk-rocker Iwamoto sensei Adam mentioned, a nice but spastic young female Muroi sensei who is way too genki (energetic) for 8:45AM, Sudo sensei who makes us all feel stupid when she talks too fast, and Ueda sensei is is more like a nice grandmother. She speaks quietly with a very smooth rhythm and I can't help but fall asleep. Pretty good mix of teacher types.
Fashion in Japan is baffling me. People wear the weirdest stuff, and it's cool! I consider myself a pretty regular dresser, but here, I stick out as AMERICAN because of how I dress (and my skin, eyes, and language...). I went shopping for hours yesterday trying to figure it out, but I'm still not sure what's cool. That's one of my goals: figure out this fashion thing and master it.
ALSO: There's a fabric store in the mall. Legit. I want to buy some of their cool Asian printed cottons...if only I can figure out how to ask for a fabric amount in meters...weird.
I ended up buying two skirts, a shirt, and some thigh-high stockings. I already feel like i'm blending...
Last night I went on an American-food hunt. I found Italian bread, strawberry preserves, and peanutcream. It's not peanut butter, but it's awesome. Kind of like peanut butter jelly- it has a jellified texture. I made a PP&J, found some chocolate chip cookies and milk, and did my homework. Today there was a stand outside of our dorm selling vegetable pizza. I of course bought one because I haven't tasted cheese in over a week. ALSO, I haven't use a fork in a week! They handed me a fork when I moved in, and it hasn't moved from the place I put it when I got here. Chopsticks all the time. I'm getting really skilled in the way of the chopstick.
I miss my friends, family, coworkers, etc, and American TV shows (Secret Life od the American Teenager isn't licensed in Japan, so I haven't been able to access the new season yet...boo). If anyone has any questions or anything, please comment on our posts. I'm starting to wonder if people are reading this...
XOXO Becky
Monday, June 7, 2010
First Weekend, First Day of Class
We're past the break-in period, and there's so much to talk about. I'll try to recount the particularly cool parts.
Let's start with Friday: the B-level placement test, which was NOT as easy as I was expecting, didn't cover just Genki 1 material, and also included a speaking interview, so I was caught off guard. It wasn't of any consequence though, because I still placed into the B level class. Becky also elected to enter the B level class to solidify her basics. I like this, because it means we are in the same class! Anyway, after the placement test, we met our APU "buddies", APU students who speak English and Japanese that have elected to help out us newcomers on a 1 on 1 basis. My buddy Kotaro is a pretty sweet dude. Someone was turning 20, so we all went out to downtown Beppu to have some fun. He hit a few bars, and I bought a supremely delicious drink called Chuuhai. It's a rice alcohol with tonic soda, flavoured with various fruits. I got the grapefruit flavour, and hot damn, it was one of the best drinks I've ever tasted. Kotaro and a few others decided that the bar was a little too expensive, so they brought a small group of us to a little park next to a beach. Across the street was a 7-Eleven, which sold remarkably cheap, pre-mixed cocktails in tall cans. He bought me a highball (among other things) and we hung out at the beach, while slowly being joined by more and more APU students.
Fun fact about Japan: you can drink alcohol anywhere outside. It's not a problem at all.
APU has been really fascinating so far partly because of how many different countries are represented. I've met and made friends with students from Thailand, India, Korea, the Phillipines, China, Japan, Norway, and other U.S. states, and I've only been here for three days. Everyone's got a story, and it's great to listen to them.
The rest of the weekend was spent with preliminary studying, and a shopping trip through Beppu, where we stopped at a 100yen store (like a 1dollar store), and, among other places, the You Me Town shopping center, which was an odd hybrid of a mall and a department store. Very cool - check out the pics on Facebook.
Today, we had nearly 5 hours of Japanese class. It was all a high-speed crash-course that covered review from Genki chapters 6 through 10. We had three of the four teachers we will be having this semester, and one of them is a Japanese emo-punk-rock band singer, and taught a review of short form vs. polite form using a chibi character from Hetalia Axis Powers Total badass. The review was thoroughly appreciated, and it looks like we'll be beginning truly new material on Wednesday.
After class, I pulled out the horn to flex my lips out of entropy with Bitsch and Ravel. Luck would have it, after a little bit, I was approached by a few brass musicians in the APU wind ensemble. They were impressed, and wanted me to come play with them in their rehearsal tonight. They didn't speak English, so I got to flex my developing translation muscles, which while only 3 days old, are getting some serious workouts. I ended up playing a sectional with the trumpet section, where we played two Japanese wind ensemble pieces, and was then recruited to be their principal trumpeter.
Wait, what!?
Yeah. So now I am principal trumpet of the APU Wind Orchestra. They rehearse a ton, but I convinced them it was okay for me to just show up twice a week, since I need to be studying Japanese as often as possible. As for the group - the music wasn't particularly difficult (it had it's moments), but over all the compositions were beautiful, and I've never played in a more in-tune band. When the conductor had sections play by themselves, it always sounded like one instrument playing out of many bells. I was seriously impressed. The band isn't very big, but it definitely sounds good. I'm going to play a concert with them in Oita in July, where they will be judged in what sounds like a College Solo and Ensemble event. Through a sectional and an ensemble rehearsal conducted in Japanese, and with a few new buddies to help me out, I learned a lot of new Japanese, as well as the added embarrassment of introducing myself in Japanese to a room full of 40 Nihonjin students. For those of you who don't know, a Japanese introduction tends to provide a little bit of background information on a person, usually that which is pertinent to the meeting, as well as several formalities. Mine went a little like this:
"Hajimemashite. Watakushi wa Adam to moshimasu."
"This is our first time meeting. Respectfully, my name is Adam."
"Shusshin wa Michigan desu. Ima, Grand Valley Daigaku ni itteimasu."
"My home region is Michigan. Right now, I attend Grand Valley State University."
"Ryuugakusei no yonensei desu. Kodomo no toki kara Trumpet of fuiteimasu."
"I am a foreign exchange student in my fourth year of college. I have been playing the trumpet since I was a kid".
"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."
"Nice to meet you; please be kind to me."
All in all the wind ensemble was really fun, and I'm beat. It's time for bed before I get up giga-early again to make some studying happen. I'm going to check out the Taiko (Japanese traditional drumming ensemble) club on Saturday, and eventually also check out the Traditional instruments club, while definitely bringing my recorder. I'm not leaving Japan without some serious audio samples of local sounds!
Until next time~
Let's start with Friday: the B-level placement test, which was NOT as easy as I was expecting, didn't cover just Genki 1 material, and also included a speaking interview, so I was caught off guard. It wasn't of any consequence though, because I still placed into the B level class. Becky also elected to enter the B level class to solidify her basics. I like this, because it means we are in the same class! Anyway, after the placement test, we met our APU "buddies", APU students who speak English and Japanese that have elected to help out us newcomers on a 1 on 1 basis. My buddy Kotaro is a pretty sweet dude. Someone was turning 20, so we all went out to downtown Beppu to have some fun. He hit a few bars, and I bought a supremely delicious drink called Chuuhai. It's a rice alcohol with tonic soda, flavoured with various fruits. I got the grapefruit flavour, and hot damn, it was one of the best drinks I've ever tasted. Kotaro and a few others decided that the bar was a little too expensive, so they brought a small group of us to a little park next to a beach. Across the street was a 7-Eleven, which sold remarkably cheap, pre-mixed cocktails in tall cans. He bought me a highball (among other things) and we hung out at the beach, while slowly being joined by more and more APU students.
Fun fact about Japan: you can drink alcohol anywhere outside. It's not a problem at all.
APU has been really fascinating so far partly because of how many different countries are represented. I've met and made friends with students from Thailand, India, Korea, the Phillipines, China, Japan, Norway, and other U.S. states, and I've only been here for three days. Everyone's got a story, and it's great to listen to them.
The rest of the weekend was spent with preliminary studying, and a shopping trip through Beppu, where we stopped at a 100yen store (like a 1dollar store), and, among other places, the You Me Town shopping center, which was an odd hybrid of a mall and a department store. Very cool - check out the pics on Facebook.
Today, we had nearly 5 hours of Japanese class. It was all a high-speed crash-course that covered review from Genki chapters 6 through 10. We had three of the four teachers we will be having this semester, and one of them is a Japanese emo-punk-rock band singer, and taught a review of short form vs. polite form using a chibi character from Hetalia Axis Powers Total badass. The review was thoroughly appreciated, and it looks like we'll be beginning truly new material on Wednesday.
After class, I pulled out the horn to flex my lips out of entropy with Bitsch and Ravel. Luck would have it, after a little bit, I was approached by a few brass musicians in the APU wind ensemble. They were impressed, and wanted me to come play with them in their rehearsal tonight. They didn't speak English, so I got to flex my developing translation muscles, which while only 3 days old, are getting some serious workouts. I ended up playing a sectional with the trumpet section, where we played two Japanese wind ensemble pieces, and was then recruited to be their principal trumpeter.
Wait, what!?
Yeah. So now I am principal trumpet of the APU Wind Orchestra. They rehearse a ton, but I convinced them it was okay for me to just show up twice a week, since I need to be studying Japanese as often as possible. As for the group - the music wasn't particularly difficult (it had it's moments), but over all the compositions were beautiful, and I've never played in a more in-tune band. When the conductor had sections play by themselves, it always sounded like one instrument playing out of many bells. I was seriously impressed. The band isn't very big, but it definitely sounds good. I'm going to play a concert with them in Oita in July, where they will be judged in what sounds like a College Solo and Ensemble event. Through a sectional and an ensemble rehearsal conducted in Japanese, and with a few new buddies to help me out, I learned a lot of new Japanese, as well as the added embarrassment of introducing myself in Japanese to a room full of 40 Nihonjin students. For those of you who don't know, a Japanese introduction tends to provide a little bit of background information on a person, usually that which is pertinent to the meeting, as well as several formalities. Mine went a little like this:
"Hajimemashite. Watakushi wa Adam to moshimasu."
"This is our first time meeting. Respectfully, my name is Adam."
"Shusshin wa Michigan desu. Ima, Grand Valley Daigaku ni itteimasu."
"My home region is Michigan. Right now, I attend Grand Valley State University."
"Ryuugakusei no yonensei desu. Kodomo no toki kara Trumpet of fuiteimasu."
"I am a foreign exchange student in my fourth year of college. I have been playing the trumpet since I was a kid".
"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."
"Nice to meet you; please be kind to me."
All in all the wind ensemble was really fun, and I'm beat. It's time for bed before I get up giga-early again to make some studying happen. I'm going to check out the Taiko (Japanese traditional drumming ensemble) club on Saturday, and eventually also check out the Traditional instruments club, while definitely bringing my recorder. I'm not leaving Japan without some serious audio samples of local sounds!
Until next time~
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