Day 6

Kazu-san and Serina-san took us to Nara, Serina-san’s home town, and a once-capital of Japan (for a short period). Of the Americans, only Myra-tachi, Robert, Ben, Dwight, and Chen were up to the trip. We also met a friend of Serina-san’s, Tai(?)-san. She was nice, she didn’t speak any English, but she talked to us, and she brought candy. We met at Fujidera at 10am, and just remember this is group travel (+ a 1hr train ride) and from there I can skip to 1:30 when we actually started hiking Katsuragi-san. 

Dwight and Serina-san took the tram up, but the rest of us hiked a grueling 2.3 hours to reach the top. It was pretty steep, we stopped a lot, which meant lots of pictures. 

Steep. Think the first 5 min of the Mt. Olympus hike, but the WHOLE WAY.

It was a gorgeous place, I loved it. Here we are against a background of awesome big (possibly cedar) trees.

Here is a giant wasp-thing (Asian Giant Hornet -- scary) I closely observed because it is giant and orange. (see it fly - upload video)

I have been much into bugs lately, possibly spurred by my fascinating 1923 insect study book on my e-reader which advises children to do things such as squish firefly’s heads and observe how long the light stays on. And did you know aphids only have 1 set of true parents a year? Those females lay eggs. All their female kids until the next cycle give birth to live young. There are no male aphids in the summer. ...If that’s still true. 

See cool gold bug (video link).

Finally, we made it to the top where we rejoiced and ate snacks. Here is Nara, from far away.

People posed on top of the victory stand. Kazu and Mia the only ones to stand only on the top one — with 1 leg no less!!!

Myra-tachi, Kazu, and Robert were the only ones with the energy enough to go back down the mountain, the rest took the tram. We practically ran down and made it in roughly 45 minutes (WOW), though we had to slow halfway because Ani’s hip hurt. 

We left the mountain at around 6:00, and went to walk around an old part of Nara. Very cool houses and gardens.

And a sake storage place. Note decorative jars in foreground.

We saw ducks. See movie :) (upload video)

After that we went to pick up ingredients for yakisoba (fried noodles) at a store, costing an immense 2-300¥ a person, then went to Serina-san’s house to make it. Nice of her to invite us! Her sister is training to be an opera singer, we heard her practicing when we got there. Her mother was very hospitable, and helped get everything set up. She made the gyouza. Later she made onigiri (rice balls) and okonomiyaki.

Here’s the yakisoba, made right in front of us (and stirred by us):

Everybody very happy around a real kotatasu (heated blanket-table):

(From left to right: Tai, Serina, Ben, Myra, Ani, Mia, Dwight, Robert, Chen, Kazu)

Onigiri (without nori yet):

Okonomiyaki:

Then we walked back to the train station and went home, it was around 11 so no bus going to near the dorms, we walked back. Exhausted! But it was a really fun day.

Accomplished: Went to Nara, climbed a Japanese mountain, said/heard ‘konnichiwa’ to/from about 50 people (nice people on trail), ate a bento, saw tanuki statues, learned that the (non-nazi) Hindu/Buddhist symbol is called ‘manji’ (卍), saw a genuine Japanese home (and kotatsu), learned some genuine Osaka-ben (say ‘honma omorogatta ya wa!’ instead of ‘honto ni tanoshikatta da yo!’), ate authentic-home-made yakisoba/okonomiyaki/onigiri, and had an awesome time. Thank you Serina-san (and Serina-san no okaasan) and Kazu-san (and everyone else for coming)!

Here is a picture for Duncan and Terra (one only they will get, anyway — tho Ari might):

Day 5

Here is an example of a standard breakfast for Mia and I. Jam + bread + fruit + drink (maybe + yummy sweet bread). And vitamins.

Ani has been carefully documenting all the flowers of Japan.... She has a flower art journal where she’s been drawing flowers when she can, and when she can’t she snaps pictures for later reference. There are some beautiful flowers around here.

Here is the koi pond on campus, and the koi (video, upload). 

Ooh, we found the traditional toilets. While most of the toilets are quite nice, and they have bidet most everywhere, a few more rural areas don’t offer those conveniences....

OK, really Day 5 now. Day 5 was lots of study and homework and all that, but then there was some excitement — we went to karaoke!!! For the first time ever. Kazu-san, Serina-san, and Nana-san took most of the U students. We were also joined by one Japanese and one American friend of the IBU students. 

Japanese love karaoke, and it’s easy to see why. Before 7, it’s 100¥ a half hour per person, and you get free drinks (soda, ice tea, ice coffee), a nice area, and fancy karaoke equipment. 

Let me explain the process.

First, you find the song with this device, and enter it into the cue.

Then you sit back and wait until your song comes up, or keep entering songs to the cue, at which point you sing.

We sang. Needless to say we were wonderful. .. .. .. 

It was a lot of fun to sing songs in Japanese. They also had a host of American music, which most of the American student group went for. Kazu-san sang a couple American songs, he was awesome, and Serina-san has a beautiful voice. Everyone seemed to have fun. We did, immensely, even if half the time we found ourselves forgetting the tune :)

 (see what we really sounded like... or rather me uhoh - upload video)

After 4 hours, we were getting a little tired, so Mia, Ani, and I decided to go walk around Fujidera station. Skye came with us, and we hung out for the rest of the evening. First we went to the giant Aeon mall, where we’d gone before, and explored it from floor 5 down. Except that there didn’t seem to be a floor 4 (4, pronounced shi, is considered unlucky because shi is also how the kanji for death 死 is read). 

Most of the food places everywhere display models of their food. Say yum.

We found a place with kimono. Expensive kimono. Pretty kimono.

I love looking at signs and ads. They smile at you.

Say eew.

The mall had a lot of food and clothing. But different food and clothing. After exploring, we left, and passed by a food stand (we keep passing it by and watching it go by), where we finally decided to try tacoyaki! Taco does not mean corn thing. Taco means octopus. Osaka is famous for its tacoyaki, which is a batter with a piece of octopus and some sauce inside. See.

Ani didn’t like it AT ALL, Skye liked it pretty well, and I thought it was ok. Mia, of course, didn’t bother to try any.

Then we went to try Coco Curry, which Tin (who went on this program last year) said was really good. It was good. You eat it with a spoon.

After that we decided to walk home instead of take the bus, and it was a great walk. We passed by some sort of local shrine:

So we did karaoke, tried melon soda, tacoyaki, and curry, and made it home on foot from Fujidera-eki, all in one day. WOW!

Day 4

Myra work up about an hour before the alarm went off, so we got up around 5:30. We were planning to walk over to the park near Ani’s dorms and wait for Ani to show up, but she arrived while we were still eating breakfast. We headed over to the WiFi hotspot on campus and called home. We talked with Mom and Ari for a bit, then switched over to video chat and Ari showed us ‘the most awesome souvenir ever’ a mug shaped like the leaning tower of Pisa. Except that it was leaning the wrong direction, it is not made for the consumption of food, and it was made in China. I told her about my new favorite bread - half chocolate bread filled with chocolate cream and half white bread filled with custard cream. So far, my favorite part of Japan is trying all the new foods, specifically, the bread. 

After talking with Mom and Ari, we called Dad and talked with him for a bit. Then we went back to our dorm and studied Kanji, then we went to class. Apparently, we get a different sensei (teacher) every other day, and today’s teacher (for Myra and I), is our favorite so far. 楽しし，元気し，面白しし、好きです。

After class, we went back to our apartment and ate lunch, practiced Kanji, and read. We tried a new bread, a white roll with mango cream and jam filling. It was pretty good, but not as good as others we’ve tried.

I’ll not bore you with the rest of the day, suffice to say that we are doing lots of studying and eating. 

じゃ、またね！Jaa, mata ne!

Campus tour:

This is a view of our campus from right after we enter the gate. Before the gate are the 5 car parking lots, 2 motor scooter/motorcycle parking lot, 3 bike parking lot, tennis courts, an archery range, and an empty field. But Myra forgot to get pictures of them.

Here are some random pictures of the campus inside the gates:

This picture of Myra is taken on top of a roof. There are two mini hedge gardens on a 3 story building.

We were too lazy to get photos of the rest. There are at least 8 buildings, and two very large fields whose purpose we have yet to determine. The cafeteria here has good food for low prices - the other day Myra and I split a curry rice (curry + rice) for 270 yen. It was yummy, though the curry was mostly sauce. I really like the way the cafeteria works - outside of the dinning area are 4 vending-like machine where you pay for your meal and get a little ticket that you take to the kitchen counter and receive your food. It seems very convenient and efficient.

That's all for now :)
-Mia (tachi)

Day 3

Ohayo! Mia desu. Minna genki? 

I accidentally put my iPod on mute, so we didn’t hear the alarm go off. Never the less, I got up 7 minutes after it went off. Jet lag can be awesome if used correctly. I still am not mentally adjusted to being awake so early. I walk around and wonder where all the people are and why the shops are all closed. But it is so hot here that the only time to be outside is in the early morning and late evening. 

We finally got wireless internet on campus this morning. the information they gave us was all in Japanese so it took me a while to figure out that the info they gave us was for a proxy site. Once we figured that out we were once again connected to the world! But nobody answered when we called home :( 

Class was pretty fun and Ani decided to move down to class B, because she is taking this for a grade. Fortunately, the class is moving quickly and should start being challenging sometime next week. I am staying in class A because I think that it is a good level for me. It will be challenging, but I haven’t ever had a challenging Japanese class so I think it will be good for me. And of course, grades mean nothing to me :)

After class, Myra and I went back to our apartment and studied for a few hours, then we relaxed for a bit before walking down to Mandai for dinner and stuff. We bought gyoza and made our first cooking attempt. It was super easy and yummy. Then we walked down to Mandai again, because they put stuff on sale after 8. 

We tried to run a load of laundry, but no matter what button combination we tried, it wouldn’t work. The next morning we found it was because the water pipe was closed off. (Ani no okage de.)

Ani’s dorm

Ani shares this tiny room with Andrea. It is lucky that they are both tiny, ‘cause this room is very small. Their kitchen is about the size of a small closet. 

The bathroom is a little bigger. The faucet in the sink turns to fill up the bath.

The first time Ani took a shower, she didn’t know that you had to turn on the hot water, so the water was very cold. To get any hot water, in the bath or the sink, you have to turn on the hot water heater thingy and set the temperature. Our controls are new and therefor nicer than theirs. Not that it really matters, because all we know how to do with it is turn it on and off and maybe change the temperature. 

They get a small balcony, mainly to be used for drying laundry.

Here is the main area:

The beds (bunk bed), are to the left, the kitchen is where the photographer is standing and the bathroom is to the left of the kitchen.

Here are the type of closets that each person has:

And here is what Japanese money looks like:

Mia out.

Day 2

Mia and I spent from 6:30-8:30 wandering around trying to find the train station — we made it to one, just not the right one. It was fun to explore, but we got back already exhausted — time to go to class.

A total of 5 students, me included, placed high enough on the placement test for the A class. About halfway through class today though, Ani and Mia joined us. We’ll see how they do! It’s challenging. I’ve heard more Japanese (live) in the last couple days than I have ever. I’m looking forward to learning!

After class we got a break, then met back up to make our way to Shittenouji, the temple itself, led by 5 students kind enough to guide us; Ayaka, Koyo, Nana, and I can’t remember the names of the other 2, I’m sad. 

Doggies in city. Yes.

The temple was nice, sadly we dawdled at the beginning for some reason then had to rush through the rest (as it was closing soon by the time we got there). 

We got to do the ritual purifying water thing! Yeah! (But I washed my hands over the water instead of to the side until Cory pointed that out... I felt stupid.)

I got Mia on film. Maybe you’ll get to see that.

We saw turtles! Lots of them. And koi. Koi are big.

We went through a really pretty garden.

Then went to a tea ceremony. Kind of. I think it was because they were closing soon, but we didn’t actually get to see the ceremony. They brought us tea and manju (an cakes). I ate Mia’s.

(Price 400円)

Then we entered a special part of the temple (entry fee unknown, perhaps not charged?) and climbed this:

There were many beautiful displays inside... I didn’t get many pictures (we weren’t supposed to...). 

Ayaka later told us that as part of the entrance process to the university she had to sit in seiza (traditional sitting position, where you sit on your ankles) for 2 hours. Ow.

After that, which was way too short, we milled around then decided on Okonomiyaki. Mia and I paid 10,800円 for ぶた玉とねぎとキムチ pork with green onions and kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage). A large one, the one nearest us:

Here is Mia, Andrea, and Ayaka. Yes, they make the okonomiyaki right at the table.

Around 7 we left, and while most went to get waffles a few of us went home. Although I claimed I knew which bus to take, I lied. I knew the stop though :0 (sorry guys). 

Now it is after 10, meaning after bedtime, really, I’m beat. We’ll try to upload this tomorrow at school, where there is apparently a wireless hotspot (which we may or may not be able to connect to). 

So far it’s been really busy, but fun. Lots of nice people. Lots of Japanese. Lots of experiences. 6 weeks is a long time.

Hope you are having happy thoughts wherever you are :)

~Myra

(and Mia and Ani)

Day 1

Day 1 - Welcome

Mia and I woke up around 5, ate some yummy bread and jam, then went on a walk to see if we could find the dorms. We did, we were very proud of ourselves. It’s about a 5 minute walk. We are closer to the school, but they are closer to the train station and stores. Tradeoffs. The neighborhood is pretty, we need pictures for you.

At about 8:30 we all were collected by Yamanaka-san and shown to the school, taken to a classroom for our placement test. We didn’t start until 9 at least, maybe 9:20, and we finished around 12:30. It was a 4-part test, vocab, listening, reading, and a short interview. 楽しかった！(It was fun.) Very well prepared, but all multiple choice (except the interview). 

The grounds are pretty.

Eventually, once everyone was finished, we went to a different location where our welcome party was! Money from the department’s own budget, I think, for sushi and other platters. Lots of sushi, some fried chicken, egg-things, and oranges. Fruit! Fruit is expensive. Bananas are actually good, grapefruit is decent, but apples are expensive. 

There were at least 2 IBU students per U of U student, who all wanted to practice their English. (I had 4 focused on just me. I don’t do well socializing in my own language you know! First I accidentally called one of the girls the wrong name, and later I said I was 12 (juu-ni) instead of 20 (ni-juu — though I should be saying ‘hatachi’ anyway...). はずかしかった！(Embarrassing yo.)

At that time it started to rain nicely, thank goodness, so when a few of the students guided us to Fujidera station (the closest train station for if we want to go anywhere else at all) the air was bearable. The bus to get to the station is 240円, and we haven’t made it there yet but it might be a 30-40 min. walk. The train from there to the major one in Osaka is about 290円. The students showed us around Aeon shopping center near the station, which was gigantic. 

We visited 2 百円 stores, like dollar stores, a food area, where we bought curry, an (red bean paste, right), and melon pan (bread) (left):

Then an arcade where we spent way too long, but it was kind of cute.

Ok. After that we finally went back. We were all exhausted. Even so, some people wanted to go to the store, so Mia, Ani, Andrea and I joined them. Walking to Mandai takes about 12 minutes, but it’s an easy route. We were dead tired by the time we got back though. Mia and I didn’t eat much of anything (a trend). Ani took up Cory’s offer of curry, he’d bought rice the first day and wondered if anyone wanted to split meals. She paid 250円 for lots of curry made by genuine Japanese students (as it turned out Cory had little idea how to make curry!). 

End day 1 also fully 疲れた tired。

Day 0

Day 0 - Travel

From SLC to SFO to Kansai International Airport we successfully traveled, hampered only by the completely wrong seats for the 12-hour flight (booking seats through Orbitz doesn’t work?). 

I miss my kitty. She wanted to come.

Once in Osaka, we managed to collect our luggage and go through customs pretty fast. We even found the JR office outside the airport, got our JR passes with little difficulty, and went back to meet with the group. We bought our Kansai Through Passes, for 50,000 yen, about $50. It was either 2-days for 38,000 or 3 days for 50,000, and it doesn’t matter the days you use them (they don’t have to be consecutive). Considering some of the trips we’re planning cost about $20 both ways by train, it’s worth it. The passes are good for most Kansai trains, busses, and subways, and they come with coupons that get us a small discount at big attractions. 

We waited around a bit with the group, something that would soon become familiar, and then we were off — in Japan!

The shuttles took about 30-40 min., and we rode mostly by the ocean. Our first glimpses of Japan were not impressive, but thankfully it got better. It’s kind of weird to see newer buildings right next to old buildings right next to small rice fields right next to major streets. 

First stop was a supermarket, Mandai, where we bought necessary provisions such as breakfast, lunch, toilet paper, and garbage bags. In Japan garbage is taken very seriously and we must be sure to separate combustable garbage from cans/bottles from plastic bottles. I don’t know the benefits of such trouble, but on our side it’s actually been really easy — all combustable.

Next stop, the wakou-ryou, or dorms, where Ani would stay with her roommate, Andrea, plus the other 10 students: Maria, Tin, Michelle, Skye, Dwight, Harrison, Chen, Ben, Troy, and Cory. Yes! Mission ‘remember names of classmates’ = せいこう success!

We had a short meeting where we met Hashimoto-san and Yamanaka-san, senior staff at IBU (International Buddhist University, what Shitennouji Daigaku is also called). Yamanaka-san we would see a lot more of as he helped us get places and arrange IBU students to guide us places. They’ve really put a lot of work into this program, which is really nice.

After that, Hashimoto-san gave Mia and I a ride to where we would be staying, an apartment-like complex right in front of the university. It’s really nice, I can’t believe we have it to ourselves. If the other students knew, they’d surely wish to move!

Here is the kitchen, that’s right, look how large it is!

Bathroom — again, note the size. Especially of the sink. Washer and dryer also there.

Here is the shower and bath. Japanese style is to rinse off, or shower really, then soak in the bath which is then also used by everyone else in the household. We used the bath the first time today, it was nice.

Here is the entry way, note the lowered entry level where shoes are left.

Here is one of the two extra bedrooms.

By the way, so far it’s been really hot during the day, except when it rained, but the house stays pretty cool. Though we have new air conditioning units, put in especially for us (how nice!), which we’ll probably use as it gets even hotter.

Here is our room, nice closet space to the left, and the traditional tatami mats. We sleep on futons with nice big comforters. The pillows are weird, Mia first called them the ‘vitamin pillows’, but it’s more like little beans. They are really hard, but a great size and great support. My head hurts after a few hours so I put a softer pillow on top, but they work well. 

We have a sitting area, and a TV. We’ve turned it on once to see what was there, and, at least at around 7 in the morning, it’s mostly cooking shows.

So that is our beautiful accommodations. No pictures from Ani’s camera yet, and I haven’t taken pictures of her dorm, I should remember to do that. Andrea and Ani’s room is about the size of our living room + bedroom. Maybe. Very small. But they are with everyone, which can have its perks.

Anything else on big day 0? 

No way. *zzzzzzzz*