Goodbye Japan, Hello America

 Saturday, June 19, 2010 2:40p.m.

At the moment I am sitting in the Airport at Salt Lake City, waiting during my five hour layover for my last flight to take me back to KC where Gary is going to pick me up a little after 8:30p.m. In Japan right now it is 5:40a.m. on Sunday morning, and I haven’t slept since Friday night. After saying goodbye to my host family early on Saturday morning, my host sister drove me to the airport in Nagoya. After an extensive check-in process, I flew from Nagoya to Tokyo. At the airport in Tokyo, I went through another hardcore security/baggage check. I walked around the Tokyo airport and waited for about two hours until my flight boarded for Salt Lake City. The Tokyo airport was really nice, lots of comfy seating areas, and an incredible origami store. Here are some pictures that I took.

My flight from Tokyo to Salt Lake City lasted 10 hours. When I was standing in line waiting for the plane to board, I talked some to a guy who was heading home to New Jersey. He offered to help me carry my carry-on bags, which are now significantly heavier than when I came to Japan; and I should have let him. The plane was nicer than the one I had ridden on to come to Japan from Detroit 33 days ago. There were individual television sets in the back of each chair, and movies, television shows, and games that one could watch/play during the flight. I wasn’t able to sleep hardly at all, because the flight was during the middle of the day (Japan time), and I wasn’t tired. 

I sat next to a Japanese woman, but we didn’t speak much until the end of the flight. About thirty minutes away from the Salt Lake City Airport, I started to talk to her in Japanese, and we chatted until the plane reached the gate. Our talk went really well; I was able to understand at least 85% of the things that she was saying. This is what I learned: She is twenty-six years old, she’s going to Las Vegas to visit a friend who attends the University of Michigan, they are going to go to the Grand Canyon, she works at a bank in Tokyo and is on vacation, and will return to Japan in a week. Her older sister and her sister’s husband live near Okazaki where I was studying…There was more, but I’m having a hard time remembering anything at the moment. But she was very nice, and being able to have even a basic conversation like the one we had is something that I never could have do so adequately a month ago. When we arrived in Salt Lake City, it was about 2:00a.m. in Japan and I was starting to feel exhausted. I didn’t get to dwell on this though, because I had to claim my baggage once again and take it all through security for the third time today. It’s interesting, going to Japan I only had to go through security once, but coming back the security checks are not only more frequent, but more intimidating as well.

I called Gary and then my parents, ate some Chinese food, and found a place to sit down and use my laptop for my five hour layover. I hadn’t been sitting here for long when the friend that I had made while standing in line in Tokyo pulled out his laptop and took a seat near me. We spent the last hour or so talking. He lives in New Hampshire and works as a consultant and a part-time police officer, but his degree was in archeology. His parents are fully Japanese, and he grew up in Japan and Hawaii until high school went he came to New York to go to an all boys Jesuit high school. His grandmother died last week, which is why he made a last minute trip to Japan. He just left to get lunch and brought me back a bottle of water. It’s remarkable how many interesting and kind people I’ve met while traveling alone.

A couple things that have happened in the past few days:

Thursday was my last day of classes, which seemed completely crazy. Four weeks went by faster than I can explain. After classes, there was a short presentation where I and the three other students who were finishing their time at Yamasa this week, received certificates and had to make little speeches (in Japanese, of course). My mini speech went fine, expect for the fact that I accidentally said I had studied at Yamasa for 4 hours, instead of 4 weeks. The audience looked pretty confused. Lots of pictures were taken and I said goodbye to everyone. 

After leaving the school, I went to the train station with my friend from Bulgaria, Norway, and Utah. Okazaki is pretty close to the sea, but I hadn’t gone to the beach at all yet. We took a ten minute train ride to Gamagori, a nearby town, and toured the sea. There was a shrine island not too far off of the shore, and we walked out to it. I waded in the water up to my knees and collected seashells. It was beautiful (and also very hot that day).

Friday (my last day in Japan), I took the train into Nagoya by myself in the morning, and Frank met me there after he got done with class. It poured the entire afternoon. I navigated the subway system by myself, with the help of several Japanese men when I got confused, and did a little bit of shopping. Once Frank arrived, we spent a couple more hours wandering around, though, mainly inside the station (which is bigger than any mall I have ever been to in America) and nearby buildings because it was raining so much. Around 6:00p.m. we took the train back to Okazaki and biked home in pouring rain. My host mother had made a delicious dinner, and bought a bunch of amazing sushi for my last night. I had a really nice last dinner with my host family, and then undertook the hideous chore that is packing. And now, after twenty-two hours of traveling, here I am, waiting for my final flight to take me home.

All, thanks for following along on my journey. I hope that at times I was able to adequately express how much I adored Japan and how I was captivated by so many of my experiences. If there’s anything at all that you want to know about my time in Japan- ask! Please ask! I think I could talk about it all day and never get tired. Again, truly, thanks for reading. J

Final Week in Okazaki

Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 11:00p.m.

Nothing new that’s too astounding to post, however, I know there are a million little things that I have failed to mention in this blog, so I thought I would try to post a few pictures and mention a couple more memories before heading to bed.

There are new fresh flowers in the bath room at school every couple days. They are always different, and always pretty. I feel like leaving a thank you note for whoever keeps supplying them.

But first, let’s chat about the test that I took this afternoon. I’m not sure if I mentioned this before or not, but this week I moved up into a higher level class. Alex and I both should have been in our old class for one more week schedule-plan wise, but since we knew it would slow down a lot as soon as the new students entered, and we felt pretty confident with the material, the teacher gave each of us an additional test (speaking and writing) over the material that we would miss, and since we both received scores over 80%, we both moved into the higher level this week. I knew that this would be intense and crazy fast, but I really had no clue how overwhelming it would feel. There are nine people in my class now, there had been seven the last two weeks, but the number of people has been just fine. It’s so ridiculously overwhelming, because the teacher talks so quickly and uses so much vocabulary that I haven’t seen before. Everyone talks about how hard the first week in this class is, and I believe them when they say that it gets better as you learn more of the vocabulary that she uses, but it would be nice to be able to stay until I actually felt comfortable with her teaching. Her favorite word is “hayaku,” which means “faster,” and she snaps her fingers at you when you are trying to conjugate verbs or remember words. Still, I think she is a good teacher at times, and I like her, I also simply spend half of the class time wishing I could crawl under the desk. Anyway, back to today’s test. I studied a lot for it this week, because, well, because that’s what I do, I study all of the time. And the written portion of the test went really well. I’ll be surprised if I missed very much at all. Our main teacher (the “hayaku” one) wasn’t at school for some reason, which meant that we had a different teacher giving our speaking tests, a male teacher that I had never had teach me before. When I walked into the small room to have my oral interview, the first thing that caught my attention was the tape recorder sitting on the desk. As if the individual interviews weren’t intimidating enough, let’s throw in a recording device. The most challenging thing about the oral interview though, was that his questions were all in the informal form, which is an entirely different tense that I had never seen before this past week. It’s not only challenging to remember, but it also feels completely inappropriate to answer a teacher’s questions using the informal form (that’s something you would never actually do in Japan; it would seem really disrespectful). Anyway, the oral test was a nightmare, but I got through it. I’m still glad that I decided to move into the higher class, even though it’s frustrating and overwhelming at times. I know that I am learning a lot more than I would have if I would have stayed where I was more comfortable and had come to grasp most of the material.

But tomorrow is my last day of classes, which seems absolutely crazy. I’ve been in Japan for four weeks as of yesterday. It feels like it went by in four days. There are a lot of things that I will miss about Japan when I have to go home on Saturday (maybe I’ll take the time to make a list and post it here), but I am really looking forward to getting to see everyone at home. I received a letter from my mom in the mail today (the only mail that I have received besides when I begged Kathleen to send me her camera charger cord), and it was a really nice surprise. Almost made me wish that I was home already, almost…

A few things that I have failed to mention:

One day last week, Lee and Frank and I went to a rotator sushi place. There are rotator belts that wind in between the tables in the restaurant with sushi on them. If you see something that you want, you take the plate as it passes. When you are finished eating, you server counts your plates to figure out the cost. It’s one of the cheapest places to get sushi, and although the quality might not be the greatest, I still thought it was really good. Lee and Frank were not really as excited about this dining experience as me (there are lots of similar sushi places in Singapore and Twain evidently). However, they still seemed happy to humor my amusement at the restaurant. If such restaurants exist in America, and I have just been completely unaware, someone should let me know, and also send me directions to the closest one to Springfield.  

The infamous Mochya. 

I still am not sure how to explain Japan’s mochya craze. It’s a type of green tea that is grown in Japan, and used to flavor just about everything. The other day when Frank and I were studying at the Mall in Okazaki, I tried a mochya float.  Mochya has a very distinct taste… I really don’t know how to explain it. It’s definitely growing on me though.

I think I have mentioned before how challenging I find it to order at restaurants in Japan, well, even fast food restaurants where you just point at the item that you want, can still create problems if you can’t read the title. We stopped at a doughnut shop to study after school on Monday, and I ordered a cup of coffee and pointed at a small doughnut that appeared to have some type of chocolate filling. However, a few minutes later when I took a bite of it, I realized that the filling, in fact, was not chocolate, but curry sauce. Even if you love curry (and I do), it’s a rather unpleasant surprise to get a mouthful of curry when you are expecting chocolate. And I’m not sure how I feel about the doughnut and curry combination in the first place… it might be one food option that I don’t mind leaving in Japan.

I’ll close with a couple more pictures.

My new host brother, Frank.

Isn’t my host brother adorable? He actually reminds me a little bit of Neil sometimes… well, he reminds me of what I think Neil would be like if he actually enjoyed talking to me. I don’t think my little brother (can I still call him little even though he’s sixteen now?) knows just how much I adore and respect him. If only he could read my blog and find out…

This is inside the Mall in Okazaki. There are amusement places inside almost every supermarket that I've been to as well. It's like the city houses 20 mini Chucky Cheeses (sp?). 

Most super markets house movie theaters as well. Behind Frank is the entrance to one. 

I'm standing beside the floor guide for the Mall. In person, it seems even more massive than the floor plan suggests.

Also, I think I should mention to my mom that almost every night (expect maybe once or twice) since coming to Japan I have remembered to wear my retainers when I sleep. I feel pretty good about this.

 I think the whole braces fad must have caughtt on later in Japan, or maybe there is some other explanation, (but whatever the reason), it seems that I see more people with pretty serious looking dental problems here than in environments I am exposed to in America. Of course, I think that it should not matter the slightest bit what someone’s teeth look like, but I am very thankful that my parents made sure that I had all of the dental work that I needed when I was younger, and I hopefully will not have to worry about painful tooth problems in the future (hence, the nightly wearing of my retainers, even if they fall out every time while I sleep.)

I apologize for the nature of this blog post. Glancing back, it seems that I babbled about things that are not precisely related to Japan/my trip more than usual. But I had no idea how I was going to follow up my last blog post, which had a lot of thrilling things to tell about, anyway.

Once again, thanks for reading!

Sore and Slightly Sun-burnt, But So Much Fun

Monday, June 14, 2010, 11:30p.m.


Opening Disclaimer: I took very few of the photos that I'm about to post.  Helen held onto my camera and captured our memories all weekend. If there are any neat/skillful looking photos, you can be sure that she was the one that took them, not me.

This weekend was an absolute blast, and we visited some of the most breathtaking places I’ve ever been.

There were seven of us that went on this mountain adventure: six students and our guide, Declan. The only other student that I had met before was Helen, a girl from Twain who is in my class. There were two other Twainese girls, a girl from Bulgaria, and a boy from Utah, who has been in Japan for almost a year now. We left Yamasa a couple hours after classes finished on Friday, and drove to Hakuba, Nagano. We stopped for dinner along the way, and ended up arriving at the Youth Hostel around 10:30p.m. I shared a room with the four other girls, and fell asleep pretty quickly.

The next morning we had breakfast at 7:30a.m. The caretaker at the hostel had set out seven breakfast settings for us. It seemed like we were the only people in the hostel. It was nice though. When we loaded back into the van to drive a couple miles down the road to our stating destination for our mountain hike, I could see how beautiful the area was in the day light. It was mainly greenery, trees and flowers. But in the distance, you could see snow covered mountains. As we drove through the small town, it seemed like the area had been completely deserted, a ghost town almost. In the windows of almost all of the shops were signs that read “Ski and Snowboard Rental.” Hakuba is a big ski destination in Japan during the winter, but not quite so lively in June when the snow is melting.

We arrived at the entrance for the gondola/rope lift and Declan bought tickets. It took two separate gondola rides to reach the part of the mountain that we were going to. The view from the lift was absolutely incredible. I almost don’t want to post my pictures here because I know that there is no way that they can actually convey how perfect this sight was. (Really, that statement goes for most of my pictures from this weekend). 

Once we were off the gondola, there was snow everywhere. But it wasn’t too cold. I was comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt walking around all afternoon. We hiked further into the mountains on top of snow for about an hour before finding a bridge to sit down at and eat our sack lunches. After lunch we headed back the way that we had come, and hiked further down the mountain. The entire day, weather couldn’t have been more perfect.

This sign says watch out for bears.

 By the time we finished hiking and the gondolas brought us back to the little village, it was almost 3:00p.m. and we immediately headed out to see the Kurobe Dam, Japan’s largest damn, not too far away.

Once we arrived at the dam, we rode a bus through some dark tunnels, and walked up about a million stairs (which I found to be infinitely more tiring than mountain hiking, to tell the truth). But it was definitely worth it. The dam was shockingly big and the area that housed it was beautiful. We learned a bit of history about the dam: it was built in the 1960s and about 200 workers lost their lives during its creation.

After the dam we headed to Matsumoto, but first to dinner. We ate at another nice little restaurant, where the menu is entirely in Japanese, but thankfully there are quite a few pictures. I don’t think that I have ever appreciated the plight of illiterate people the way that I do when I am trying to order something to eat in Japan. I’ve eaten curry almost every time I’ve eaten anywhere that’s not my host family’s house, mainly because it’s one of the only things that I can recognize. However, I also happen to love curry, so this hasn’t been frustrating in the least.

After dinner we drove to our hotel in Matsumoto for the night. It was around 8:30p.m. when we checked in. At this hotel everyone had their own room, the smallest (yet incredibly comfy) hotel rooms that I have ever seen.

We unloaded our things quickly, and walked into the downtown area of the city to see the castle while it was still illuminated for the night. In a lot of ways it looked really similar to the Okazaki castle that I had visited with Collin. However, it was surrounded by a gigantic moat that was still completely intact. There were lights illuminating the castle, causing it to glow in the night. It turns out that my camera is not very good at taking night time photos, but I’ll try to find a picture from someone else to post here.

(Sylvia, my new friend from Bulgaria, took these pictures of the Matsumoto castle early on Sunday morning)

Our tour guide, Declan, had been feeling sick all weekend, and as soon as we finished viewing the castle, he headed back to the hotel. But the rest of us wandered around Matsumoto, which is a fairly large city, and has a lively downtown area, for a while longer. We were all pretty tired though, and before too late, we headed back to the hotel. I watched a little bit of Japanese television, took a very long shower, and fell asleep on my tiny pillow.

The next morning, Declan didn’t show up to eat breakfast at the hotel with the group, so after waiting awhile, we headed to eat alone and let him assumedly sleep in. The hotel dining area was quite full and we all had to split up to find places to sit. The hotel breakfast was delicious, just like every other time I’ve eaten anywhere since coming to Japan. The night before I had talked briefly to a Japanese man in the lobby of the hotel. He had explained that he actually lives in New York with his family at the moment, but was a member of a band that was on a short town in Japan. I spent almost an hour eating breakfast with him and one of his bandmates, who didn’t speak any English at all. It was so great to get to practice my Japanese in a legitimate situation for more than just a few seconds. And both of the men were very very nice. The one from New York was probably about my dad’s age, and the other was maybe in his mid-twenties? We talked about his family in Japanese, which means I’m only about 85% sure that this is what he said, but I think he explained that his wife and his one year old son live in Tokyo right now, and after the band plays there next show in Niko, he is going home to them. Anyway, it was a really fun breakfast.

After finally waking Declan up around 9:30a.m., we left Matsumoto for the rest of our adventure and our journey home. We made our way slowly back to Okazaki, stopping to eat unpasteurized milk icecream, see a view mountain and lake views, eat lunch at a cute little café, and to visit an onsen for my second time since coming to Japan. The server at the café was incredibly sweet, and the food was, of course, excellent. And the onsen was more fun the second time, when I wasn’t alone and wasn’t entirely clueless as to how it worked. The bathroom at the Youth hostel that we stayed at Friday night had public bathing rooms as the only showers too. I think I’m getting a lot more used to being unclothed in front of other people, although, I’m pretty sure that I won’t miss it when I head back to Okazaki.

After lunch and the onsen, and many more miles through the beautiful windy Japanese hills, we stopped at a famous Japanese temple. It was more secluded in the woods than any of the other temples that I had been too. The trees were indescribably tall and huge, and the entire temples, with all of its shrines and fountains, seemed to almost fade into the nature surrounding it.

After exploring the temple and finding some bathrooms, we headed back to Okazaki with no more stops. It was around 7:30p.m. when we arrived back at the school, and I biked home to my homestay just in time to eat dinner with Frank and Hibiki, and my host mother, who of course, didn’t actually eat with us, but stood in front of the stove cooking additional delicious food. 

So much more to say, but I'm exhausted from the two hours I just spent fighting with blogspot.com to upload all of my pictures. I'll try to post more soon.

Thanks for reading :-)