Day 5

First Sunday here, I felt like actually having some breakfast for once.  But, that didn't happen.  I instead lazed around for a bit, thought about what to do, and went to McDonald's for lunch.  I ordered something relatively safe (and received something very safe) (namely, a double cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke), and was able to order effectively in Japanese.  Cool.  But, I did see a few things that I didn't feel were particularly applicable to a McDonald's, such as a shrimp burger, teriyaki burger, and things like that.

I attempted to go to the school to do some studying, but all of the buildings were closed.  Obviously, because it's a Sunday.  But where to go, what to do.  I had just eaten, so I wanted to walk around a bit and allow my food to digest.  So, I walked over to the bentou shop and bought massive amounts of food for a pretty good price, and some beverages for later.  That food should even last me for the rest of the week; that is, if I don't have people over to eat, then I may end up with a peanut butter sandwich, which really doesn't seem all that unappetizing right now.

I attempted to get some studying done, but my brain just started taking on that general fried feeling when I looked at too many kanji.  Realizing that I have only retained about half of the past two hears (in terms of reading and writing kanji), I decided that I'll just take it slowly.  I do, after all, have 10 weeks.  I just hope that I can remember enough and that it will be useful.  There's little else that's worse than studying something with such effort, only to find out that you don't need it.

At 7:30 p.m., I was feeling restless, so I decided to go out for a short walk.  My trip took me past Seiyu, in the western direction for about 10 minutes, and then back to Seiyu (so I could get some bread and milk, which I have recently taken a disliking to - will hopefully get the right stuff next time).

Oh well, I'm tired and have class tomorrow.  Here's your picture and caption.

(Note - this may look corrupted, but on the left, that's just a mirror).  These are some of the items on the menu at a McDonald's in Japan.  Note the MegaMac, which seems about twice as large as a Big Mac.  Not visible in this picture, most unfortunately, is the shrimp sandwich, but you can see the teriyaki and other sandwiches to the left of the MegaMac.

Day 4

I forgot to set my alarm.  Oops.  At least there aren't classes today.  On a related note, did you know that if you're studying in Japan (possibly other countries) that your attendance is counted towards whether or not you're allowed to enter into the country again within a predetermined amount of time?  They take their stuff seriously, I see.  So, I decided to eat at Denny's today, because it was close and looked "enticing".  What I found was that the only similarities between this Denny's and say, one in the U.S., was the spelling of the name and design of the interior.  On the menu were such items as "chicken jambalaya" (which I actually ordered and enjoyed), and even native Japanese dishes.  It's a good thing I didn't go looking specifically for American cuisine, because really, the only American thing I found was a club sandwich (which would probably be a safe bet the next time I go there).

Afterwards, I headed off to the campus with the intent of studying, carrying along my Japanese textbook from first year, my new copies of みんなの日本語　（みんなのにほご）"everybody's Japanese".  However, I ended up spending more time on the internet, trying to find a good kanji translation site (I'll be needing my dictionary with me more often than I had thought).  However, I did learn a few things about restaurant etiquette (things which I will be practicing the next time I eat at a restaurant) and some useful phrases/words.

It started raining (very lightly, mind you), and since I didn't want to get my books ruined, I went to the Daiso (surprise surprise) to get an umbrella, and also a pillow that I've been needing for the past few days.  I managed to ask for help in finding an umbrella (because I actually didn't know where they were) in almost perfect (informal) Japanese, which made me feel good about using the language and asking for help.

On a final note, at least facebook's photo uploading process is working well again.  Everything worked on its first attempt this time, without frustration or anything.  Here's to hoping that it works that well again.  But now, off to cook dinner (beef [American beef], with some seasonings, and rice).

As always, however, a picture to leave you with, accompanied by a description.

Many Japanese houses that I've seen so far have the family name prominently displayed on the outside of the house on either the door or a stone pillar on the side of the driveway/edge of the lawn.  This particular one was on the way to the Yamasa II building; I can read the first character 岩（いわ）(iwa), but I can't make out the second one.

Day 3

First day of classes!  Up bright and early in the morning, off to class (starting at 9:00 a.m.), and in a room full of students with roughly the same proficiency in the language.  Here we must obey the "日本語だけルール” (nihongo-dakeh ru-ru, or Japanese only rule), but here only, as conversations happen in everyone's native languages both during break time, and in the hallways.  My teacher for this set of courses is named 本多章義（ほんだあきよし）（read Honda Akiyoshi).  We began with a review of "て形” or "te-form", which is useful in almost any conversation, ranging from asking for permission to granting disapproval.  There were 3 sessions of class, all on the same topic, and then we were done for the day.  That's a Friday - 9-11:50, with two 10 minute breaks at 10 before the hour.

I proceeded to walk around with a friend I made in the class whose name is Vojtech (pronounced Bota) Loksa, from the Czech republic.  During my introduction in the class, I mentioned that I enjoy DDR (more than most things), and he told me afterwards that he does also.  It was here that we made a plan to play at least once or twice during our time here.  We got lunch at the local supermarket, ate it over by the school on the benches, and got drinks from ZigZag.  Vojtech got a beer, following the tradition of Czechs being the biggest beer drinkers in the world, and I got a coke, both because it was cheaper and also because I'm just not a huge drinker.

Following our short travail to the supermarket, we decided to visit Okazaki Castle (I'm in the middle of uploading pictures to my facebook account, as soon as the connection works), which was a good choice on only the second full day here.  The thing is, Vojtech tells me that apparently, the castle that is there is not the original castle, nor is it even in its original place.  That's somewhat surprising, as it fits so well where it is, but maybe the Japanese were just good at finding a place to put it.

Our main purpose was of course to find DDR, but we really just ended up in downtown Okazaki.  There were plenty of walkers, but it would be good to call it a mix between New York City and a racetrack - as Toyota city is nearby, Okazaki city and the surrounding area actually has the highest incidence of car ownership in Japan, but of course there are a lot of walkers, especially on a Friday afternoon around 5 p.m.  We had taken the train, but by the time we reached downtown, we were so far from the train that we decided that walking back would be a much better idea, affording us the chance of seeing more sights.

Vojtech had to be home early (his host family was having dinner), so we parted ways outside of Seiyu dept. store.  I stopped inside and picked up a game cartridge for my DS, that's essentially a kanji teaching machine, and also some steak to grill up/olive oil.  That necessitated going to the Daiso and getting a pan, spatula, plates, seasoning, and tupperware.

However, I was far too tired to do a whole lot of anything.  During my failed attempts to upload pictures to my facebook account, I fell asleep from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. without noticing it.  Realizing that it was too late to eat any real food, I just sat around for a bit and went to sleep, forgetting to set 

my alarm.

Here's a picture to leave you with from Friday, with a short explanation as always:

Yep, that's a drink available at the vending machines at the Okazaki castle site.  It doesn't really taste like anything that I could place, but it left me constantly wanting more.  In case you're wondering, the text on the bottle is appropriately in Engrish.

Day 2: getting around, orientation and such

Getting up at 7:30 was surprisingly easy (even with my jet lag), but probably because my sleep schedule is so messed up anyways, I really didn't even notice that I had slept only 6 hours in the past 42.  I called home using Skype in the morning, and it works very well (as an alternative to a cell phone).  Breakfast was difficult, so all I had was a bit of milk and a granola bar.

The morning was the placement test, which mostly consisted of a short written exam and oral interview.  It went about as well as I thought it would, with a few mistakes here and there, but I'll just have to wait and see what my results are in the morning.  It's only then that we'll know which texts we'll be using, who's in our class (module), and what our level of speaking and reading are (even though not too much emphasis is placed on kanji here, I'll still be purchasing the optional workbook).

In the afternoon, after a lunch I had at this one restaurant that I can't quite remember the name of, though was so tasty that I'm sure I'll be back more than once, we had our official or

ientation and tour of the campus given (in English) by one of the administrative heads of Yamasa, Declan Murphy.  He provided plenty of dry, witty humor, and a thick Irish accent to top it off.

Then what?  I had a monetary issue to work out, which really proved to be nothing at all, and paid for part of housing.  Then, everybody sat around, talked in their native languages for about 1-2 hours, and then we went our respective ways, back to our dorms or homestays.  I, afterwards, thought I'd make it down to Seiyu and get that program for my DS (that kanji dictionary), but they didn't have it.  Instead, I just got a few more things from the Daiso.  Surprise, surprise.

More tomorrow afternoon, I'm either going to have something to eat or just go to sleep to get some rest before the first day of classes.

Again, a picture with which to leave and amuse you: this is the sign for the "びっくりドンキー”, which I mentioned in my other post (so I'm not going to talk too much about it here) (just refer you to the first one).

Day 1: Plane Rides and Japan

Awakening at 2:30 a.m. is never good, especially if you've only been asleep for 2 hours before that.  But, as can be expected, that was my situation on Tuesday, June 24, 2008.  A quick shower, realization that I had no a-shirt for the day, and managing to get to Detroit Metro Airport an hour or two early followed, as did several plane rides, one of them the longest I've ever been on, clocking in at just over 10 hours.  Instead of flying directly from San Francisco to Nagoya, we took a "great circle" route, and pretty much just flew north along the coast of North America, and then down the coast, southwardly, of Asia.

After landing and getting through customs, even using a bit of Japanese there, I came to the realization that I had to get to the bus and carry around 1) a backpack that was stuffed full of flashcards and electronic entertainment devices, 2) a computer bag full of computer and power cords for the previously mentioned electronic devices, 3) a 42 pound garment bag stuffed to the brim with clothing and shoes, and a lighter (but not appreciably), smaller, blue bag with food, towels, and a rice cooker.  I must have been around the same places of the airport 2 or 3 times looking for the "access plaza" to get to the buses, which weren't even numbered how I was informed that they would be (i.e. I was told to take the #5 bus, but correctly picked the #4, which got me to where I needed to be).  Also, on the bus I met another person from UC who is doing the same program I am.  Cool.

So, my camera battery wasn't that full for the bus ride, and as a result my pictures in Japan so far are sparse and sort of boring.  I'll get more tomorrow though, as I now have more than one memory card and some time to walk around the area.  Also, I'll hopefully be going up to a department store to get this electronic kanji dictionary program for my DS.

Dinner tonight was tasty, economical, and took place at a restaurant called びっくりドンキー (if the letter "i" has the long "e" sound, and if you read a double consonant as a slight pause followed by that consonant, that would be read as "bi-kku-ri donkey", or in English, "the amazed/surprised donkey") (I'm ready and willing to find plenty of that around here), but the cheeseburger steak for $6.50 can't be beat.  Also, "The Daiso"/百円（ひゃくえん) (pronounced hya-ku en, meaning 100 yen, or more colloquially, the dollar store) is close and full of great products, though I'm putting the food off limits from me, at least for now.

There's not really a whole lot more I can elaborate about, but there are a few small points of interest: we drove through Toyota city (which, by the way, is one of Detroit's "sister cities") on the way to the train station) and I got a few pictures there; I saw at least one karaoke bar, though would like to try out one around here; my Japanese has been probably "passable" for a foreigner never having been here, but that's why I'm here (to improve it) (and make cultural learnings).

So, I'll leave you with a picture and a short bit about it.

This is "Hello Kitty", fairly well known to anybody in the U.S. who looks at toy magazines, but is apparently a huge cultural icon over here (heck, you can find anything (I'm not joking, ask me about it) with her visage smeared across it over here).  Less than 20 minutes from being in the airport, I came across this sign, and just had to take a picture of it.  I'll attempt for a better picture and blurb next time though.