I decided not to finish day 4, particularly because I'm exhausted and there was not very much to say (to sum it up, we went to this kickass fried-fondue-esque buffet for lunch, visited the old site of Osaka University, visited Osaka Castle, and went home). Just check out the pictures.
As for today, it was a day of firsts. I ate the first fish I've eaten since I was old enough to know that though there are starving kids in Africa, chances are we wouldn't be inviting them to dinner anyways. I also went into the lab for the first time, met Kuboi-Sensei for the first time, and rode a bike for the first time in a long time.
Kuboi-Sensei:
We all met Kuboi-Sensei this morning when he walked into the lab and basically said "hi, I am Ryoki Kuboi, I have meeting, bye." A bit later, Kuboi-Sensei came back into the lab to speak to Joey and I, where he proceeded to turn a 5 minute speech about what we'd be doing into a 30 minute philosophical soliloquy about fusion, and researching yourself. He also says "ne" at the end of every english sentence, which is a bit difficult to explain, but from my understanding it is the Japanese particle used when you ask a question but fully expect someone to agree with you. I like to think of it as the rhetorical question marker. It's kind of like saying "right?" at the end of your sentence. Most of what I gathered from the conversation was that we'd be doing a lot of work, and that fusion is good.
I also met some of the masters students in the lab, which was nice because they're pretty much the first Japanese people I've met that are around our age. It was a plus that they spoke very good english, and I wasted no time informing them that I like to drink. It's quite amazing how organized the entire lab is, and how much they utilize their space. No space is wasted, and even among all the chaos of the experiments and instruments in the lab, the entire place is very functional.
Not long after getting to the lab we went over to the international student office where we met Tanaka-Sensei, the head of the office. We chatted and hung out for a bit, scheduled our Japanese lessons, and then went to lunch.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Later on we got our bikes and one of the guys in the lab took us to dinner and showed us the route home. Dinner was uneventful, except I happened to look up at the TV and saw this contest where this one guy held a balloon to his mouth and the other guy had to blow the balloon up through the first guy's nose. It was pretty weird in an awesome kind of way.
The bike ride home was exhausting since for the most part it was uphill. Luckily it was pretty uneventful, aside from Joey running me off the sidewalk. I don't really know where the hell the phrase "it's just like riding a bike" came from, because either I never really knew how to ride one to begin with, or all the jackasses who say that haven't taken an 8 year hiatus from bike riding.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
Day 4 - Osaka Castle
I'm fucking exhausted.
I've been walking for the last 3 days and it's been pretty draining, though pretty awesome as well. Today was a Japanese holiday, and we met up with Hiro-Sensei (Kuboi-Sensei's assistant), Dr. Williams, and two people from the lab and went to eat, to see the old Osaka University, and to see Osaka Castle. I'll try to finish this update later though. It's now day 5 (the I'm fucking exhausted was all I wrote yesterday) and I need to get ready to go to the lab for the first time...much of the funnies shall ensue. Here's a picture of me being large to placate you.
I've been walking for the last 3 days and it's been pretty draining, though pretty awesome as well. Today was a Japanese holiday, and we met up with Hiro-Sensei (Kuboi-Sensei's assistant), Dr. Williams, and two people from the lab and went to eat, to see the old Osaka University, and to see Osaka Castle. I'll try to finish this update later though. It's now day 5 (the I'm fucking exhausted was all I wrote yesterday) and I need to get ready to go to the lab for the first time...much of the funnies shall ensue. Here's a picture of me being large to placate you.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Day 3 - Umeda
The highlight of my trip thus far has definitely been Umeda. It's kind of like a much more polite and organized Times Square, and definitely more of what I envisioned Japan to be.
Day 3 began at about 6AM when I woke up after passing out a bit earlier. I went through my normal routine of checking e-mail and getting in touch with the real world, and watched a bit of football online using Korean Matt's college gameplan account (unfortunately the UF vs. Tennessee game wasn't showing). I took a shower and got dressed, and at about 10AM we went to a local convenience store and picked up some sushi. I'm not too adventurous at 10 in the morning so I got what turned out to be rice balls and rice dumplings. The dumplings were basically rice in this slimy sweet eggy batter that certainly did not receive Dane's seal of approval. The trip was worth it though, as we found our first bit of Engrish of the day on the ashtray outside the convenience mart
After eating we made our way back to the dorm where Tim and I watched an episode of The Office and waited for Clare and Dr. Williams to meet us at the dorm. At about 11:30 they came by and for some reason they were shoved out by Papa-San, the dorm father whose name we don't really know (we learned later that we shouldn't call the dorm mother Mama-San, which is apparently the name given to the female supervisor of a brothel).
We made our way to the train station and took the train over to Ishibashi to eat. We went to this place that served these omelette kind of things which were basically egg, lettuce, and some miscellaneous other things. Apparently the Japanese, much like the Koreans, love their pig. When I mentioned to Dr. Williams that I didn't eat pig he asked "oh, so you can't eat bacon then?" Sorry Dr. Williams, I can't eat ham or pork either in case you were wondering. I'm used to not having things to eat, and really I think other people make more of a fuss about it than I do.
We settled on the squid omelette (you know there's nothing else when squid is my best option) and it was alright, not entirely worth all the praise but a good value for the money. It was also my first seafood since being in Japan.
After lunch it started to rain a bit so we went to an umbrella store near the train station. On the way this old lady began speaking to us in fluent english telling us she was going to a buddhist temple nearby. We chatted for a couple minutes and she wished me good karma and left. We spent a couple of minutes deciding what umbrella to get (I was torn between pink and blue polka dotted). Tim decided to get dinosaur and i settled on the blue polka-dots. By the time we went to the train station it had stopped raining (I never really got to use the umbrella because Tim convinced me to open it when it was really windy and it flipped inside out and broke). We made our way over to Umeda which is like one of the downtown shopping districts, where the rest of the day's fun would continue.
The train ride was about 20 minutes or so. After walking around for a few minutes and admiring the area we decided to make our way over to the Umeda Sky Building and, against our better judgement, let Joey lead the way. After about 10 minutes of walking we came to the conclusion that the building we were going to wasn't the building we wanted to be going to, and decided to try asking for directions--apparently the Sky Building was in the opposite direction.
We kept walking and decided to make our way to the huge ferris wheel on top of one of the buildings with hopes of being able to see the USB from up top. We walked a bit longer before stopping to ask for directions, and impeding traffic along the way. Dr. Williams is a pretty big man, and so when we stopped to get some more directions it was as if we'd created a moat in the middle of the sidewalk. A few seconds later the pedestrian light turned green and people started rushing by, only to stop once they reached us. They didn't say excuse me, didn't push, didn't even make contact. They simply stopped and waited for a few seconds till we moved out of the way a bit. What a polite people. Next time I'll get some pictures of the four of us towering above the crowd.
We made our way to the building with the ferris wheel and headed to the top. The view from the top was pretty spectacular
Dead center is a store called Loft that Ashley talks about a lot, which is on my list of things to do. I also want to come back either on a sunny day, at sunset, or at night. We spotted the Umeda Sky Building as well.
After the ferris wheel we made our way downstairs where I saw perhaps my favorite Engrish thus far. We passed by a music store, and right in front was the rap section, or as the Japanese like to call it, the "Black and Dance" section. Man that's why i love these people. The Japanese really tell it like it is. After passing by some of the scariest looking hairdos I'd ever seen we left the building and made our way over to the Umeda Sky Building.
On the way to the USB we caught a glimpse of the west side
and after later research I realized I was reading it incorrectly. The shirt isn't "Straight out of Compton, Dando" but rather "Straight out of 'Compton Dando,'" which is in Southwest England rather than Western California. Ok it makes a bit more sense, but it's still the wrong Compton. We continued walking and got stopped at an intersection where I was standing next to this tiny little woman
and decided to take a picture.
We got to the Umeda Sky Building and decided to rest a bit.
This was where Tim told me to open my umbrella and, consequently, where I needed a new umbrella.
The Sky Bulding is a pretty cool looking building. It's basically these two towers
connected at the top by some walkway.
We made our way to the top of the tower which was a lot larger than we thought (it looked really small when we were on the ferris wheel). It's a pity the weather was so poor, it's definitely another place I'd like to come to at night. After the skytower we all headed back to the train station and decided to go to this conveyor belt sushi place for dinner. By the time we got off the train it was night time, and probably my first time really out in Japan at night. The country seems to take on a whole new persona at night when all the lights come up.
The conveyor belt sushi is really cool, there are basically 5 different plates ranging from about 1-5 dollars and carrying various interesting, delicious, and disgusting looking sushi. I went ahead and got some cucumber rolls to start, followed by some yellow pickled stuff (it wasn't too good) and then decided to split one of these
with Clare. It was pretty good, though to be honest I don't get what's so great about shrimp. After dinner we all parted ways and the guys made our way back to the dorms. It's now Monday, which is some holiday here, and we're all about to go meet Hiro at Ishibashi to possibly go see Osaka Castle. Peace.
Day 3 began at about 6AM when I woke up after passing out a bit earlier. I went through my normal routine of checking e-mail and getting in touch with the real world, and watched a bit of football online using Korean Matt's college gameplan account (unfortunately the UF vs. Tennessee game wasn't showing). I took a shower and got dressed, and at about 10AM we went to a local convenience store and picked up some sushi. I'm not too adventurous at 10 in the morning so I got what turned out to be rice balls and rice dumplings. The dumplings were basically rice in this slimy sweet eggy batter that certainly did not receive Dane's seal of approval. The trip was worth it though, as we found our first bit of Engrish of the day on the ashtray outside the convenience mart
After eating we made our way back to the dorm where Tim and I watched an episode of The Office and waited for Clare and Dr. Williams to meet us at the dorm. At about 11:30 they came by and for some reason they were shoved out by Papa-San, the dorm father whose name we don't really know (we learned later that we shouldn't call the dorm mother Mama-San, which is apparently the name given to the female supervisor of a brothel).
We made our way to the train station and took the train over to Ishibashi to eat. We went to this place that served these omelette kind of things which were basically egg, lettuce, and some miscellaneous other things. Apparently the Japanese, much like the Koreans, love their pig. When I mentioned to Dr. Williams that I didn't eat pig he asked "oh, so you can't eat bacon then?" Sorry Dr. Williams, I can't eat ham or pork either in case you were wondering. I'm used to not having things to eat, and really I think other people make more of a fuss about it than I do.
We settled on the squid omelette (you know there's nothing else when squid is my best option) and it was alright, not entirely worth all the praise but a good value for the money. It was also my first seafood since being in Japan.
After lunch it started to rain a bit so we went to an umbrella store near the train station. On the way this old lady began speaking to us in fluent english telling us she was going to a buddhist temple nearby. We chatted for a couple minutes and she wished me good karma and left. We spent a couple of minutes deciding what umbrella to get (I was torn between pink and blue polka dotted). Tim decided to get dinosaur and i settled on the blue polka-dots. By the time we went to the train station it had stopped raining (I never really got to use the umbrella because Tim convinced me to open it when it was really windy and it flipped inside out and broke). We made our way over to Umeda which is like one of the downtown shopping districts, where the rest of the day's fun would continue.
The train ride was about 20 minutes or so. After walking around for a few minutes and admiring the area we decided to make our way over to the Umeda Sky Building and, against our better judgement, let Joey lead the way. After about 10 minutes of walking we came to the conclusion that the building we were going to wasn't the building we wanted to be going to, and decided to try asking for directions--apparently the Sky Building was in the opposite direction.
We kept walking and decided to make our way to the huge ferris wheel on top of one of the buildings with hopes of being able to see the USB from up top. We walked a bit longer before stopping to ask for directions, and impeding traffic along the way. Dr. Williams is a pretty big man, and so when we stopped to get some more directions it was as if we'd created a moat in the middle of the sidewalk. A few seconds later the pedestrian light turned green and people started rushing by, only to stop once they reached us. They didn't say excuse me, didn't push, didn't even make contact. They simply stopped and waited for a few seconds till we moved out of the way a bit. What a polite people. Next time I'll get some pictures of the four of us towering above the crowd.
We made our way to the building with the ferris wheel and headed to the top. The view from the top was pretty spectacular
Dead center is a store called Loft that Ashley talks about a lot, which is on my list of things to do. I also want to come back either on a sunny day, at sunset, or at night. We spotted the Umeda Sky Building as well.
After the ferris wheel we made our way downstairs where I saw perhaps my favorite Engrish thus far. We passed by a music store, and right in front was the rap section, or as the Japanese like to call it, the "Black and Dance" section. Man that's why i love these people. The Japanese really tell it like it is. After passing by some of the scariest looking hairdos I'd ever seen we left the building and made our way over to the Umeda Sky Building.
On the way to the USB we caught a glimpse of the west side
and after later research I realized I was reading it incorrectly. The shirt isn't "Straight out of Compton, Dando" but rather "Straight out of 'Compton Dando,'" which is in Southwest England rather than Western California. Ok it makes a bit more sense, but it's still the wrong Compton. We continued walking and got stopped at an intersection where I was standing next to this tiny little woman
and decided to take a picture.
We got to the Umeda Sky Building and decided to rest a bit.
This was where Tim told me to open my umbrella and, consequently, where I needed a new umbrella.
The Sky Bulding is a pretty cool looking building. It's basically these two towers
connected at the top by some walkway.We made our way to the top of the tower which was a lot larger than we thought (it looked really small when we were on the ferris wheel). It's a pity the weather was so poor, it's definitely another place I'd like to come to at night. After the skytower we all headed back to the train station and decided to go to this conveyor belt sushi place for dinner. By the time we got off the train it was night time, and probably my first time really out in Japan at night. The country seems to take on a whole new persona at night when all the lights come up.
The conveyor belt sushi is really cool, there are basically 5 different plates ranging from about 1-5 dollars and carrying various interesting, delicious, and disgusting looking sushi. I went ahead and got some cucumber rolls to start, followed by some yellow pickled stuff (it wasn't too good) and then decided to split one of these
with Clare. It was pretty good, though to be honest I don't get what's so great about shrimp. After dinner we all parted ways and the guys made our way back to the dorms. It's now Monday, which is some holiday here, and we're all about to go meet Hiro at Ishibashi to possibly go see Osaka Castle. Peace.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Just So That Ryan Doesn't Steal The Funny
Ryan: What's the time diff round there?
Dane: 13 hours ahead
Ryan: wow, ur on like a dif planet
Dane: yea, i'm in the future
Ryan: HAHAHAHahah
Dane: be careful ryan...in the future...everyone is asian
Dane: 13 hours ahead
Ryan: wow, ur on like a dif planet
Dane: yea, i'm in the future
Ryan: HAHAHAHahah
Dane: be careful ryan...in the future...everyone is asian
Day 2 - Walking Around...
...and getting lost.
What would a trip to Japan be without the occasional wrong turn?
The morning started off kind of slow, particularly because not many Japanese people wake up at 3AM (I would find out later that the other Americans pretty much did). I spoke to people, wrote a blog, watched as the peeping Toms walked by my window, and eventually Tim woke up and we went down for breakfast.
Breakfast was solid. The bread here is cut in huge slices (interesting note, the bread is "Pan" in both Japanese and Spanish), kind of like Texas Toast. We had 2 slices of that with butter and jam (I had some Ichigo jam), along with potato salad, green tea, sausage, and something else I can't remember. After breakfast we went back to our rooms for a bit and I finished unpacking my things and speaking to people online.
At about 11AM Claire and Mr. Tuon came by the dorm to get us, so I slipped on my Ogre shoes and we went to go find the train station that would take us to the University. Apparently Claire and Mr. Tuon had gotten lost on the way to our dorm and had to have a taxi bring them, which wasn't too comforting, but we got to the station successfully.
Once at Ikeda Station we bought our train cards and made our way towards Ishibashi Station, the station nearest Osaka University. The campus is very similar to any college campus, except that there are a bunch of really cool bonsai trees all over the place. Mr. Tuon took us to the Chemical Engineering building and showed us where our labs would be, and then we went over to the cafeteria for lunch. I washed my hands and threw the paper towel into the correct trash can
While deciding what food to get for lunch this old guy came by us and started speaking in Japanese. "Nihongo Ga Wakarimasen, America-Jin desu" (I dont understand Japanese, I'm American) we kept telling him but he just kept talking. Eventually we figured out that he was from Kobe, and he hated Osaka and apparently "Kobe wa ichiban!" (Kobe Numba Ooooone!). Tim and I walked away to go get our food, and while waiting in line he walks over to us, looks at our trays, laughs, and then walks away. A bit later after we finished eating, probably because he felt he hadn't adequately expressed the point, he stopped by our table to inform us that Osaka is hands crossed in X formation and Kobe is thumbs up. "Kobe Ichiban!" I said excitedly and he laughed and walked away. Whatever creepy old man...
After lunch we walked over to a big grocery store near school, the 100 yen store, and the electronics store upstairs. I got a shower caddy and a 3 -> 2 prong plug adapter and looked around the electronics store for a bit. Once everyone was done browsing we made our way back to the train station, where we stopped by another grocery store that was a lot cheaper than the big one.
We didn't really need anything, but decided to scan through the alcohol aisle. Surprisingly, some things were even cheaper than they are in America, so we bought a bottle of smirnoff and I took some obligatory sake pictures. For relaxing times,
make it Suntory time.
After the grocery store we went to the train station and Claire and Mr. Tuon parted ways. We hopped on the train back to Ikeda, which was uneventful aside from the Japanese man staring us down out of the corner of his eye after hearing Joey's cacophonous laugh. We got off the train and decided we could either a) try to find our way home or b) explore and hope we find our way home.
Naturally we chose the latter, and we began wandering around the city. One thing that I like a lot about Japan is that even though there are a ton of appartment buildings, there are also a lot of quaint little houses all over the place, many of which have very beautiful little gardens. We saw a really cool looking building that I decided couldn't be a house, so we walked into it. Joey started getting cold feet about wandering around some random establishment, partly because we kept telling him we were going to ring the huge bell
but seriously, I know it's Japan and all but houses generally don't have bells. We left after wandering around for a couple minutes and continued wandering around till we stumbled on Ikeda Castle.
You know you're in a pretty cool place when you can stumble upon a castle (though in all fairness it was just a recreation of it). The view from the top of the tower
was pretty cool so we took some pictures and tried to see if we could spot the Shell Station, our landmark for the dorm. We couldn't so we decided to keep walking.
We passed by what I thought was an arboreum, but turned out to just be a gym, and then made our way up a hill and stumbled upon an elementary school. I wanted to explore the area a bit but everyone else was a bit hesitant. We decided it was probably for the best. Though Japan has no open container laws (and in all fairness our container wasn't yet open) it's still probably a bit creepy to see four gargantuan westerners carrying a bottle of spirits and wandering around an elementary school playground.
We wandered a bit more before realizing that nothing looked even vaguely familiar, even though it looked nice and chill
so we made our best guess as to where we should go and proceded with hopes that something would. Joey had taken a stroll earlier on in the morning, and after walking for a bit he informed us that he saw something that he "vaguely thought was marginally familiar." We decided to have a sort of group meeting where we somewhat decided to maybe follow the possibly correct pseudodirections that would perhaps lead us on a pathlike trail to what might be our dormitoryesque place of residence.
In an unusual turn of events the directions were actually correct, and totally unworthy of my biting sarcasm, and 3 minutes later I spotted the shell station and we were home. When we got back everyone pretty much passed out until dinner, at which point I think Joey took a train somewhere and I passed out until around now when once again, I woke up in the wee hours of the morning and updated my blog. I'm gonna go to sleep now, hope you're all enjoying the blog. After all
"It is a one of daily necessaries for your life"
What would a trip to Japan be without the occasional wrong turn?
The morning started off kind of slow, particularly because not many Japanese people wake up at 3AM (I would find out later that the other Americans pretty much did). I spoke to people, wrote a blog, watched as the peeping Toms walked by my window, and eventually Tim woke up and we went down for breakfast.
Breakfast was solid. The bread here is cut in huge slices (interesting note, the bread is "Pan" in both Japanese and Spanish), kind of like Texas Toast. We had 2 slices of that with butter and jam (I had some Ichigo jam), along with potato salad, green tea, sausage, and something else I can't remember. After breakfast we went back to our rooms for a bit and I finished unpacking my things and speaking to people online.
At about 11AM Claire and Mr. Tuon came by the dorm to get us, so I slipped on my Ogre shoes and we went to go find the train station that would take us to the University. Apparently Claire and Mr. Tuon had gotten lost on the way to our dorm and had to have a taxi bring them, which wasn't too comforting, but we got to the station successfully.
Once at Ikeda Station we bought our train cards and made our way towards Ishibashi Station, the station nearest Osaka University. The campus is very similar to any college campus, except that there are a bunch of really cool bonsai trees all over the place. Mr. Tuon took us to the Chemical Engineering building and showed us where our labs would be, and then we went over to the cafeteria for lunch. I washed my hands and threw the paper towel into the correct trash can
While deciding what food to get for lunch this old guy came by us and started speaking in Japanese. "Nihongo Ga Wakarimasen, America-Jin desu" (I dont understand Japanese, I'm American) we kept telling him but he just kept talking. Eventually we figured out that he was from Kobe, and he hated Osaka and apparently "Kobe wa ichiban!" (Kobe Numba Ooooone!). Tim and I walked away to go get our food, and while waiting in line he walks over to us, looks at our trays, laughs, and then walks away. A bit later after we finished eating, probably because he felt he hadn't adequately expressed the point, he stopped by our table to inform us that Osaka is hands crossed in X formation and Kobe is thumbs up. "Kobe Ichiban!" I said excitedly and he laughed and walked away. Whatever creepy old man...
After lunch we walked over to a big grocery store near school, the 100 yen store, and the electronics store upstairs. I got a shower caddy and a 3 -> 2 prong plug adapter and looked around the electronics store for a bit. Once everyone was done browsing we made our way back to the train station, where we stopped by another grocery store that was a lot cheaper than the big one.
We didn't really need anything, but decided to scan through the alcohol aisle. Surprisingly, some things were even cheaper than they are in America, so we bought a bottle of smirnoff and I took some obligatory sake pictures. For relaxing times,
make it Suntory time.
After the grocery store we went to the train station and Claire and Mr. Tuon parted ways. We hopped on the train back to Ikeda, which was uneventful aside from the Japanese man staring us down out of the corner of his eye after hearing Joey's cacophonous laugh. We got off the train and decided we could either a) try to find our way home or b) explore and hope we find our way home.
Naturally we chose the latter, and we began wandering around the city. One thing that I like a lot about Japan is that even though there are a ton of appartment buildings, there are also a lot of quaint little houses all over the place, many of which have very beautiful little gardens. We saw a really cool looking building that I decided couldn't be a house, so we walked into it. Joey started getting cold feet about wandering around some random establishment, partly because we kept telling him we were going to ring the huge bell
but seriously, I know it's Japan and all but houses generally don't have bells. We left after wandering around for a couple minutes and continued wandering around till we stumbled on Ikeda Castle.
You know you're in a pretty cool place when you can stumble upon a castle (though in all fairness it was just a recreation of it). The view from the top of the tower
was pretty cool so we took some pictures and tried to see if we could spot the Shell Station, our landmark for the dorm. We couldn't so we decided to keep walking.
We passed by what I thought was an arboreum, but turned out to just be a gym, and then made our way up a hill and stumbled upon an elementary school. I wanted to explore the area a bit but everyone else was a bit hesitant. We decided it was probably for the best. Though Japan has no open container laws (and in all fairness our container wasn't yet open) it's still probably a bit creepy to see four gargantuan westerners carrying a bottle of spirits and wandering around an elementary school playground.
We wandered a bit more before realizing that nothing looked even vaguely familiar, even though it looked nice and chill
so we made our best guess as to where we should go and proceded with hopes that something would. Joey had taken a stroll earlier on in the morning, and after walking for a bit he informed us that he saw something that he "vaguely thought was marginally familiar." We decided to have a sort of group meeting where we somewhat decided to maybe follow the possibly correct pseudodirections that would perhaps lead us on a pathlike trail to what might be our dormitoryesque place of residence.
In an unusual turn of events the directions were actually correct, and totally unworthy of my biting sarcasm, and 3 minutes later I spotted the shell station and we were home. When we got back everyone pretty much passed out until dinner, at which point I think Joey took a train somewhere and I passed out until around now when once again, I woke up in the wee hours of the morning and updated my blog. I'm gonna go to sleep now, hope you're all enjoying the blog. After all
"It is a one of daily necessaries for your life"
Friday, September 15, 2006
Day 1 - Konichiwa Osaka!
Konichiwa Osaka!
The plane ride from Dallas to Osaka wasn't too bad for a 14 hour flight. I was able to sleep a fair bit and watch a few episodes of house, and I got the window seat which is always awesome. We practiced a bit of our Japanese with the hostesses (all we could really ask for was "Orangy Juicu" so I moved over to English when I felt like changing it up) and other than that it was pretty uneventful. There was a Japanese guy a few seats down from us who would sniff all the food we got on the plane like a little rat which I thought was pretty funny. After every meal he'd play his DS Lite for a few hours which for some reason I thought was kinda cool.
After landing we went through customs, where the helpful customs mascot Customs-San informed us not to "Pet the drug dog on face." We got our luggage, exchanged some moneys, and went to go meet Mr. Tuoc who would take us to the dorms. After about an hour bus ride we arrived at the train station and met up with some of the students from the labs. Not too much was said because their English was about as bad as our Japanese, but eventually someone managed to let us know we were going to drive to the Dorms. One of the cars only had room for 1 so I volunteered and naturally tried getting into the driver's seat, just another thing I'll need to get used to.
On the way to the dorms the opening theme song for Bleach was playing on the radio. I started humming it and the guy in the car was very surprised that I knew it. I believe his words were "oooooh you know?!" The ride to the dorm wasn't too long, which was good because we were all pretty exhausted.
We got to our dorm, Satsuki-ga-oka, where we met the dorm parents. They're basically these two old people who live in the dorm and, in a surprising plot twist, speak no english. The dorm dad started calling out our names to give us the keys, which took a bit since no one was used to hearing their name in Japanese, and then we all went to our rooms to put our stuff down.
After putting our stuff down the dorm parents (I really should find out their names) gave us a tour of the dormitory. At some point very early on in the tour I became the unofficial translater, partly because of my Japanese prowess, but also due to the two months of nonverbal communications training I got in Korea. They serve dinner and breakfast downstairs, and the showers are open from 6:30-midnight. We were a bit worried at first when they showed us the communal shower, but thankfully there were a couple private ones across the hall--we can save our destruction of the Japanese Ego for another time.
I think the dorm dad took a liking to me on our tour. On our tour of the showers I said "ii desu ne," which basically means "this is good!" I can't really tell if it's because I said something funny, I said something I didn't mean to say, or the atmosphere was simply conducive to it, but the dorm dad gave me a strong slap on the ass and started laughing. Either I did something right, or said something horribly wrong, and given the circumstances I hope it was the former.
After the walkthrough we went downstairs for dinner: rice, beef stew, salad, grapes, and green tea. Dinner was pretty good, we saw some of the other people that live in the dorm. Gonna take a bit of time to get used to the tea though.
After dinner we decided to walk around the area nearby the dorm. There's a convenience store just across the street where I was reunited with my good friend Crunky
considered buying some Sake
but settled on Mama's Happy Choice
We went a bit further, passed some vending machines that sold beer (yes, it's as awesome as it sounds), and saw a few restaurants and stores before turning back.
There's a locker at the front of the dorm where you put your shoes since you're not supposed to wear them inside (they give you slippers that are too small instead). Unfortunately my shoes were a bit big
I'm A107 if you couldn't tell.
After our walk around the neighborhood I was pretty exhausted so at about 8PM I passed out, which is why I woke up at 3AM to write this blog. Day 1 complete.
The plane ride from Dallas to Osaka wasn't too bad for a 14 hour flight. I was able to sleep a fair bit and watch a few episodes of house, and I got the window seat which is always awesome. We practiced a bit of our Japanese with the hostesses (all we could really ask for was "Orangy Juicu" so I moved over to English when I felt like changing it up) and other than that it was pretty uneventful. There was a Japanese guy a few seats down from us who would sniff all the food we got on the plane like a little rat which I thought was pretty funny. After every meal he'd play his DS Lite for a few hours which for some reason I thought was kinda cool.
After landing we went through customs, where the helpful customs mascot Customs-San informed us not to "Pet the drug dog on face." We got our luggage, exchanged some moneys, and went to go meet Mr. Tuoc who would take us to the dorms. After about an hour bus ride we arrived at the train station and met up with some of the students from the labs. Not too much was said because their English was about as bad as our Japanese, but eventually someone managed to let us know we were going to drive to the Dorms. One of the cars only had room for 1 so I volunteered and naturally tried getting into the driver's seat, just another thing I'll need to get used to.
On the way to the dorms the opening theme song for Bleach was playing on the radio. I started humming it and the guy in the car was very surprised that I knew it. I believe his words were "oooooh you know?!" The ride to the dorm wasn't too long, which was good because we were all pretty exhausted.
We got to our dorm, Satsuki-ga-oka, where we met the dorm parents. They're basically these two old people who live in the dorm and, in a surprising plot twist, speak no english. The dorm dad started calling out our names to give us the keys, which took a bit since no one was used to hearing their name in Japanese, and then we all went to our rooms to put our stuff down.
After putting our stuff down the dorm parents (I really should find out their names) gave us a tour of the dormitory. At some point very early on in the tour I became the unofficial translater, partly because of my Japanese prowess, but also due to the two months of nonverbal communications training I got in Korea. They serve dinner and breakfast downstairs, and the showers are open from 6:30-midnight. We were a bit worried at first when they showed us the communal shower, but thankfully there were a couple private ones across the hall--we can save our destruction of the Japanese Ego for another time.
I think the dorm dad took a liking to me on our tour. On our tour of the showers I said "ii desu ne," which basically means "this is good!" I can't really tell if it's because I said something funny, I said something I didn't mean to say, or the atmosphere was simply conducive to it, but the dorm dad gave me a strong slap on the ass and started laughing. Either I did something right, or said something horribly wrong, and given the circumstances I hope it was the former.
After the walkthrough we went downstairs for dinner: rice, beef stew, salad, grapes, and green tea. Dinner was pretty good, we saw some of the other people that live in the dorm. Gonna take a bit of time to get used to the tea though.
After dinner we decided to walk around the area nearby the dorm. There's a convenience store just across the street where I was reunited with my good friend Crunky
considered buying some Sake
but settled on Mama's Happy Choice
We went a bit further, passed some vending machines that sold beer (yes, it's as awesome as it sounds), and saw a few restaurants and stores before turning back.
There's a locker at the front of the dorm where you put your shoes since you're not supposed to wear them inside (they give you slippers that are too small instead). Unfortunately my shoes were a bit big
I'm A107 if you couldn't tell.
After our walk around the neighborhood I was pretty exhausted so at about 8PM I passed out, which is why I woke up at 3AM to write this blog. Day 1 complete.
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