STUDY ABROAD: WEEK 11

NOVEMBER 10

Nana contacted me a few days ago and invited me to her school’s festival. I had met her two years ago when she was a high school student in Toyohashi. Now, she’s going to a college in Nagoya.

This morning, Jason and I headed out to her school. He wanted to see what another school’s festival was like. It was inarguably much larger than AIDAI’s, and that was because there was an actual school grounds. Along with the large sports field, the buildings were also used for things like a haunted house. By the way, this was an All-Girls school, but it was amazing! They even had a nice stage set up on the field and several acts, including dance and ensembles.

It was really nice to see Nana and hang out, but since it had rained that morning the field was muddy. It was still kind of raining when we were there, so we didn’t do much, just wandered around and looked at all the different attractions. Nana’s club was miniature pizzas made on top of gyoza (dumplings) by using the dough sheets as crust. I think a few of the flavors were quite good; maybe I’ll try it out on my own one day.

Speaking of pizza, one of the past exchange students left a small toaster oven in Totoro’s care. I received said oven a few days ago in preparation for a possible pizza party. When I came from from the school festival, I bought a microwaveable pizza from MaxValu and tested it out. The heat setting was a little uneven, but that was because I only turned one side on. Overall, the oven worked out great! There is definitely going to be a pizza party~

NOVEMBER 11

Today was relatively slow, and even though I didn’t have anything dire at hand I woke up early enough before I need to go to school to clean my room. I wanted to thank Shin for giving us a discount on Friday, so I bought him a couple onigiri (rice balls) for lunch.

During 3rd period, our grammar class, we found out that next week we are going to have a test worth 40% of our final!! How did this come up all of a sudden? We don’t even have finals until January! I guess it’s supposed to cover the first five chapters or so that we studied so there is less material on the final. 40% is a bit daunting though, looks like I’ll be studying this weekend.

Also, some of you may know that 11/11 is referred to by some people as Pocky day. Pocky, and Pretz, are two snack brands in Japan that are basically thin, flavored snack sticks. A couple of us went to the convenient store to buy some Pocky in honor of such a day but it was all sold out at the Mini Stop on campus. Like I said, this is a real thing. We had to go to another convenient store down the block to find a couple boxes.

We enjoyed our special Pocky flavors, Strawberry and Almond Crunch in the discussion room. I’m fairly sure we’re not allowed to eat in there, but every once in a while people with bring snacks in and eat them out of sight of the library attendants. It wasn’t until about 6pm or so that we left school and headed out for dinner. Today was my first visit to the ramen place, even though it’s 3 minutes from our apartment. The ramen servings are a good size for the price, but today I ordered the beef strips and rice because I REALLY just wanted some red meat. It was only a handful, so I ate it slow and savored every bite. Next time I would like to go back and try the ramen though— it looked really good!

NOVEMBER 12

Today, as usual, I and other exchange students went to the library after class. This morning I thought I was going to have time to work on my manga in the afternoon, but things took a small turn. On our way to our morning class a friend of one of the Chinese students passed out surveys to us. The surveys were about onomatopoeia, especially those in Japanese. Well, Joy and I could make heads or tails of the survey, so we met the guy in the library after class was over. He, Ryo, was a senior and he was researching onomatopoeia for his senior thesis. Eventually, the group that he had passed out surveys to surrounded him at the table and with some small explanations we were able to complete the survey. Afterwards, he agreed to join us for dinner at the Naan Curry House.

Ryo and I talked a lot about his research, along with other English and Japanese oddities, and since Ryo himself was studying Chinese, so that also came up the conversation. He’s very open-minded and curious, and I think that his opinion of many topics outweighs my knowledge of them. When I walked him back to the station he asked me how I came to study Japanese. I had the hardest time finding a simple answer, and in the end, I confused myself even more. How I came to study, and why I am studying Japanese are two different things, but I couldn’t explain one without the other.

I told him that during middle school and high school I liked watching anime and drawing manga, and that, even though I started my own manga series, I wasn’t really interested in Japan itself. Then, my senior year in high school I studied Chinese. It was really interesting and different from the other languages I had studied before (Arabic, French). I continued to study Chinese through my first year in university; at the time, I was unable to enter the Japanese language courses because they were full. Why was I even interested in the language? Well, yes, maybe part of me wanted to learn more because of what I learned from reading manga, but I can’t say for sure. I was able to take the Japanese culture class however. It was during that time that I met the head of the Japanese Department, and he suggested that if I ever wanted to work for a manga company in Japan that I should study Japanese.

In any case, there were no upper level Chinese courses at the time, so the following year I had to stop studying Chinese, and that’s when I made the full switch over to Japanese. Immediately, I fell in love with the language. It was challenging, but fun, and the respect I had for my teacher made we want to be good at the language. I guess at some point, it just clicked and was decided like that. I was studying Japanese because I enjoyed it, the idea of working, or majoring in the subject was unthinkable at the time.

That’s how it started out. I wish I had the time to explain it slowly to Ryo, but it came out more like, “Uh, I like anime and stuff before I started studying. Then when I started studying, I really enjoyed it, so I thought, “Okay, I’ll go study abroad.” I wonder if it was even that coherent. Maybe we don’t always need a clear cut reason why we do things… Ever since I came to Japan I’ve trusted my gut instinct a lot more. In some way or another I’ve been guided to this path. That’s even how I ended up walking him to the station; I couldn’t just let him walk through an unknown neighborhood that we brought him to.

In the end, he made it to the station in time for his train home. I made the return trip home thinking over what I said to him. There’s just no simple way to say everything after all.

When I came back to the apartment, I forgot my worries for a while and played UNO with the girls. I couldn’t get down to one card to save my life, and at one point my hand was full of over twenty cards. Then we played a little Black Jack, and that’s when my luck came out. I won enough Kit Kats to build a small fortress… which I let fall because I don’t care too much for their flavor.

NOVEMBER 13

Remember when I mentioned planning for a pizza party? That was for today! It is Kentaro’s birthday, and he mentioned he wanted pizza~

Between 4th and 5th period I went home, thinking that I could fix my bike tire with a patch kit from the hyaku-en store. It took me forever to get under the tire and find the hole, in which case I proceeded to put the patch on…the tire. Not the inner tube. I didn’t realize this was a problem until I had it back together and the air didn’t stay in the tube. I know I should have taken off the inner tube and put it in a bucket of water to find the whole, then patched THAT hole. I know now, but I was in a rush. In the end, I just walked back to school and carried the microwave oven in a large yellow plastic bag.

From school we walked to MaxValu to grab the pizza and other ingredients for nabe. Then we had to walk to his apartment, which was at least 15 minutes away. Thankfully, Shin and Yohei met us along the way to help carry the groceries. I didn’t know what to expect at the party because Kentaro did most of the inviting; I just started the idea with the toaster oven. Over the next few hours many of the upperclassmen that helped around Nagoya showed up, and so did a couple of the exchange students. They drank various liquors, I had cola. We tried to play some games, but everyone was too energetic for cards. Eventually, we ended up going to karaoke for the rest of the night.

NOVEMBER 14

Karaoke until morning once again! This time I didn’t chance going home to take a nap first, especially not with the first class being Mrs. Yamamoto’s. I just went home, cleaned up, grabbed a few bites to eat and went back to school.

I made it through class with no problems, but then 2nd period rolled around and it was the first day of English Cafe. If I wasn’t talking to someone that whole period, and drinking coffee, I would have fallen asleep. Also, it was Thursday, so I hoped to go to dance practice later. I even went to school prepared, and in my dance clothes. However, once lunch rolled around, and we were sitting at Mos Burger again, I was like ‘Yup, I need to sleep.’

That’s what I did. Now, here we are, writing about another night’s escapade. Back in the States, I was never out past 11pm unless I had work. I knew about the night life, but I never really experienced it. Now, I guess I am seeing first-hand what the night life is like in Japan. It’s a regular thing to go to karaoke until morning, especially for those who miss the last train. Even just hanging out with everyone while their drinking is a new experience— I don’t feel any pressure from them, which is nice, and I get the chance to see a side of them when they are not so careful about their actions or words. I can understand why Japan is a drinking society: it has to be hard to fit in with societal standards every day. They need to loosen up. And though I can’t forgive them for over-drinking, if they enjoy singing their hearts out in a dim room with close friends and colleagues, then by all means, drink and be merry.

Side note: Our landlord put up a Christmas Tree in the lobby this morning! It made me happy for no reason at all~

It’s a bit soon for Christmas, but there is no Thanksgiving holiday in Japan (for obvious reasons). There are also illuminations appearing all over the city already.

NOVEMBER 15

All beef hamburgers do exist!!

Once again, it’s Friday, so we made plans to eat lunch with Yoshimi at a place called Saizeriya. Unfortunately, she made a mistake in her schedule and couldn’t join us, but we went anyway. Now, first, let me tell you that Saizeriya is a little place known for its cheap pasta dishes, and because of that you either have people who love it or hate it. I am now a member of the former group. Why? Because they also have 100% beef hamburger steak. That means it’s not mixed with pork, and since Saizeriya is all-around a cheaper place, it’s not expensive.

When we received our food I was confused for a moment however. First, I wanted chopsticks to eat my salad… but there was none. No chopsticks? I thought. How am I going to eat this? The answer was with a fork. I’m not going to lie, it was a little weird having metal in my mouth again. I do have a few spoons and forks in my apartment, but I think I have used the spoons twice in the last two months. It’s only been a short time, but I am already accustomed to eating with chopsticks.

Then, there was one more occurrence that gave me pause. The hamburger steak I ordered came with delicious gravy that I hoped to indulge in as well. However, as I looked for an appropriate side to eat with the gravy I was stuck between bread and rice. Had I been back home the answer would have been undoubtedly bread, but today I went with the rice.

What does this mean? Am I simply adapting to the culture? Or is the influence going much deeper~?

NOVEMBER 16

We picked the wrong day to hang out at Elephant’s Nest, haha. All of “cool kids” finally had a chance to hang out together, and we ended up at the bar on a game night. I’ve never seen the place so crowded. A tons of businessmen gathered to watch the soccer match, Japan versus Orlando. This also meant that the owner of the place was out and about, which meant no chance at getting a discount tonight.

While we were there, there was a couple sitting at the table next to us. The girl came up to me and started talking to me… well, complimenting me. She said she thought foreigners were so cool. So, I did the best thing I could think of and gestured over to the guys: two guys from Hawaii, one from China, and let’s throw in the two Japanese guys as well. Neither side took the bait. Within a couple minutes, she was back talking to me. Apparently, “white” foreigners with high noses and big eyes are cool. It was getting a little awkward, but whenever I looked to the guys for help they just watched the game and talked amongst themselves. Thanks. I’ll let them enjoy this one, I guess.

As soon as the game was over we escaped to Long’s apartment and watched a few videos before Mark had a great idea. “Light art”. It was a photo project he had interest in and we wanted to test it out on his camera. We all headed to a small parking lot a couple blocks down the street. It was dark enough there that we could take a long-exposure picture and draw with the light from a cell phone to create a picture. The pictures turned out quite interesting, and I think Mark wants to try it again with a stronger light source and his real-deal camera. We couldn’t stay out long though because it was freezing! It’s getting colder and colder these days. Hopefully, tomorrow when I go shopping I can find something good for winter.