Big Update #2

Today marks one month of being in Japan. It has been the fastest month of my entire life! I’ve realized that through this month I’ve been waiting for something, waiting to settle in, for “normal life” to start, when really, I was living my life. This is my life. This is real. I love it here.

Most of my posts, including this one, are going to jump around a bit because there is so much to say, so forgive the sporadic subjects of my paragraphs.

Our classes are very different from American classes. Except for Japanese (more on that in a bit), we have each class only once a week, so we don’t have very much actual class time, but it makes keeping track of homework and projects tricky. Our classes are Japanese, Japan and the International Community, Japanese Business, Japanese Literature and Performing Arts, Social Development in Japan, Shinto and Buddhism, Life in Japan, and Dave’s Study Abroad Seminar. The professors mostly just lecture—which is difficult to deal with at times. Additionally, while they have good English, the cadence of their voices is different and less engaging. (But don’t worry, Mom and Dad, I’m being a good student!)

Right now I’m working on a project for my International Community class. We have to pick any sort of topic we’ve discussed and do a short presentation and a 2-3 page essay on it. I chose to research the 17 Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 80s. It interests me, which makes writing about it much more enjoyable.

As far as Japanese class goes, it’s both a good and bad thing that we have it every day (except Mondays—no class at all on Mondays). The grammar is very challenging, and I realized one day that, unlike Spanish (the only other language I’ve learned some of), Japanese is not a romance language. Its origins are completely different from English, so you can’t easily say “this word here means this.” But learning it has been very rewarding. Here are some phrases I know!

Kinoo, nani o tabemashita ka? What did you eat yesterday?

America no Minnesota kara kimashita. I am from Minnesota, in America.

Tanjobi wa? Jyuuichigatsu tsuitachi desu. When is your birthday? My birthday is November 1.

Sushi o tabe ni ikimasenka? Why don’t we go out for sushi?

Yoku koohi e nomimasuka? Do you drink coffee often?

Shyumi wa nan desuka? Hon o yomu koto desu. What are your hobbies? Reading.

And the most important phrase, said with a contrite expression: Sumimasen, wakarimasen. I'm sorry, I don't/can't understand. (This has yet to fail me, as long as you don't consider being laughed at a little a failure.)

But wait—it’s not enough to know the romaji (writing Japanese with the English alphabet). You have to write all that in hiragana (the “alphabet” of Japanese characters, each representing a syllable):

But wait—you can’t write foreign words that have been adopted into Japanese (like my name) with the hiragana “alphabet.” You have to use the katakana alphabet:

BUT WAIT—you can’t always use hiragana. Sometimes you need kanji, the complicated-looking characters borrowed from Chinese:

I don’t think we learn kanji, though. There are thousands of kanji and even native Japanese speakers struggle with kanji. Young people especially are not as apt at reading/writing kanji because of computers and cell phones. They can type the hiragana characters and the device will provide the kanji. (Doesn’t that social issue sound familiar?)

Today we went to a Buddhist temple for our Shinto/Buddhism class. The head priest lived in the U.S. for several years, so he was able to speak to us in English about Buddhism. He then performed a short prayer ritual. I thought it was a perfect snapshot of Japanese life—because as he was chanting and ringing a bell, jackhammers and power drills could also be heard from construction across the street. Once in a while you’d hear a siren, too. The juxtaposition of old and new, futuristic and traditional is what sparked my interest in Japan in the first place. On the subway, an elderly woman in a kimono can be sitting next to a fashionably dressed girl typing on her cell phone. There is never a shortage of things to see. Also, at least in our neighborhood, there are lots of trees and plants/gardens, which makes me very happy!

A few weekends ago we went on an organized trip to Karuizawa, which is about four hours outside of Tokyo.

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We stayed in a “seminar house” owned by our university. A bunch of Japanese students came with us, too. It was great to hang out with them, relax, and have free meals! The drive up was beautiful, and I couldn’t believe we drove for almost an hour without getting out of Tokyo itself! It’s so hard to comprehend how big this place is! Plus, even though the air is Tokyo is just fine, I loved the fresh mountain air! We drove through beautiful green mountains, and all of us were ooh-ing and ahh-ing and hopping from window to window to get pictures. It was foggy on the drive up…

 

…but clear on the way back! I've never seen landscapes anything like this before.

We also went to a volcanic park while we were there, which made me miss Hawaii.

And we also went to an ancient castle/park, a little zoo, and some neat waterfalls.

I was totally in love with this wall.

View from a lookout in the park.

Cheesin'.

I’ve experienced two earthquakes so far! The first was during Japanese class and wasn’t very strong. I’m sure the teacher thought we all looked pretty funny, staring up at her, speechless, like “Should we do something?” It only lasted 5-10 seconds, but it was unlike anything I’d felt before. The whole room was shaking. The earth itself was shaking. You take a solid earth for granted! The second earthquake woke me up around 2:30 a.m. Some people slept through it. It was quite frightening to wake up to. For one, it was stronger than the first one and lasted longer. The things on my bedside table and the lights were rattling and my bed was shaking. It took a few terrified seconds of “What? What? What’s happening?” before I realized what was going on.

Our “Life in Japan” class is taught by a woman named Sandra, who was born in America and married a Japanese man. She now lives here and teaches at Bunkyo. She is very loud and bubbly (very “un-Japanese,” you could say). For the final essay in her class, I have to write about whether or not I could live in Japan for the rest of my life. When she told us this prompt, it really intrigued me, and I think about it often. So far my answer is no, because of the food prices, missing my family and friends, city life, small houses, and the language. But I will definitely miss the subway, the food itself, and the general cultural atmosphere (the architecture, the people, the stores)…

Some other quick places I’ve gone:

• A cat café, where you pay ~$12 to play with cats for an hour!
• The Tokyo National Museum, to see tons of art.
• A sushi-go-round restaurant (kaitenzushi) where little plates of sushi go around on a conveyer belt and you grab the plates you want (usually 2 pieces on each plate). Each plate is only 100 yen! I go there a lot.
• 100 yen stores—just like dollar stores in America! They are great for buying things like hangers, Tupperware, storage containers…
• Shinjuku, Roppongi, and Harajuku, the busy/shopping districts that have the classic “Tokyo look,” with skyscrapers and huge, busy intersections.
• A preschool, where we play with the kids and feel awkward when we can’t talk to them. I make sandcastles with them.

In short, I’m having a blast. Don’t worry about me!

Big Update #1

I should probably start this post with an apology because that’s the Japanese way. I’m sorry I haven’t made an extensive update yet. I have been very busy, and when I’m not busy, I’m probably tired, and when I’m not busy or tired, the internet probably isn’t working. For such a modern and futuristic country, there is very little wifi in Japan, not to mention the bandwidth at our dorm is not sufficient for 20 college students all trying to stream video, Skype, update Facebook, and blog.

I have been in Japan for three weeks today. The only word that comes close to describing how it feels is surreal. At least once every day this strange shock hits me that I am not going home anytime soon. That this is my home. That I am really truly here. That for miles and miles around me is Tokyo, and these people around me are the only people I know. Lots of things can set this off, but most commonly airplanes do. I see them flying overhead at night, amidst only a handful of stars, and I realize one of those magic metal tubes brought me here. Just like they brought me to Hawaii or Florida, but this time it’s not bringing me back in a few days.

And I already know that when it’s time to leave, it will hurt even more than coming. Unless I do so through my own efforts and means, I will never come back to this place—and that makes me immeasurably sad. I think it’s good that I remember this every day. I can’t take anything for granted. And I won’t forget that when I go back to the U.S. either. Wherever and whenever you are—you can never return to that moment when it’s over. Now is all you get.

Since I’m on the topic of deeper lessons, I’ll share the other one I’ve learned. While I wouldn’t call myself timid, I usually get anxious when jumping into new situations where I don’t know what to do. Being in Tokyo has forced me into these situations every day, and every time you just figure it out. Like the subway, for instance (though it may be a bad example because it’s so logical and helpful and has lots of English). Or doing laundry. I carried my clothes into the laundry room and read the little English guide to the buttons, dumped my clothes in with some soap, and pressed start. Ordering at a restaurant, buying groceries, going for a run… I’ve stopped worrying so much about whether I know how to do something and just go do it. And if I can do that here, where I can’t even read the language, how easy will it be to that in the U.S.? Cake.

I love the food here, and my body seems to like it, too, which is a big relief. (I have rice cooking as I write this actually.) I eat lots of rice, curry, ramen, apples, eggs, toast… I cooked a “real meal” a few nights ago with sautéed carrots, mushrooms, and crab, served over rice. Yum! Fruits and vegetables are expensive here, so I have to remind myself to buy them, knowing it’s worth it. There are lots of cheap places to eat out, too, but it’s still not as cheap as eating at home. I also enjoy buying cheap bottles of wine and sake at the Seven Eleven down the street! They are really into Seven Elevens here. There are two less than a mile apart on our street. You can buy snacks, meals, all kinds of things there.

I am missing a few things I wish I would have brought: my prismacolor colored pencils, my external harddrive, my baby blanket, more hearty snacks (like cliff bars), pajama pants, an iHome, and a Thermos. Other than that I packed pretty well. I think compared to the other girls I brought a lot of clothes. Plus, I’ve already bought two dresses, 3 pairs of socks (knee socks!), and a white faux leather jacket. In the busier districts, like Harajuku, Shinjuku, Shibuya, where there’s lots of stores and things to do, the girls (and the guys!) dress so well. It’s intimidating and depressing. I love buying clothes! They make me feel happy. But I’ve told myself no more buying clothes this month. There are just so many things I want to do and experience, but a lot of them cost money. Especially “going out” things, like bars and restaurants.

Our study abroad trip is unique in that we interact with the Japanese students so much. They take classes with us and come over almost every day. They love to help us (re: laugh at us struggling) with our homework and take us to cool places. Not only that, also living in the dorm are six other international students: Petya and Chris are from Bulgaria, Şule is from Turkey, Ambika is from Nepal, and Nas and Ajam are from Malaysia. We get to know and become friends with not only the CSB/SJU students in our group, but all these other students as well. I think that’s pretty neat.