Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Trip to Nara
こんにちは!

It's been six days since my last post and a lot has happen. To recap briefly there was another trip to Umeda but this time there was a bigger group of people. We met Fuka (the volunteer student who picked me up at the airport) at HEP in Umeda before splitting into groups to explore. I ended up being with Julie, Carisa, Maria and Fuka. We spent the day looking through HEP again, seeing the views and going on the ferris wheel again but this time at night with the full moon. It was absolutely beautiful. After the ride we all went to a ramen shop and let me tell you, this ramen is nothing like the cheap stuff back home. I don't know if I can ever eat the quick ramen home anymore after eating at the ramen shop.

The next few days after that was just focusing around school stuff such as registering for classes and getting certifications at Suita City Hall. But on Sunday was a last minute trip to Nara with Carisa, Julie, Amanda, Sammy, and Ellie. Nara is roughly two hours away from where I live in Suita with a few train hopping but was worth the long trip.

We arrived in Nara about two in the afternoon and instantly we went to where Nara is quite famous for the wild deer that roam around. A few of us bought some deer food to feed them; they were flat biscuits that were circular with a light brown color. It wasn't long until we found the deer and they were everywhere. Literally. Instantly they came up to our group, sniffing around for the food that we had. Many of them walked away from me since I didn't have any biscuits to give them and all hoarded around Amanda, Carisa, and Sammy. But because they are use to human contact they allowed us to touch them, not usually anywhere near the head, but on the back was fine. There was tons of people that were there too, there were a lot of families with children. The children were adorable though, they all cautious went up to the animals to feed them but there were some that screamed when they came close and were scared of the animals.

The feeding went on for about an hour before the group decided to split. A group to go back home and one to stay and go to the Kasuga Grand Shrine. Amanda, Sammy, and Ellie decided to head back because there was karaoke that night. I decided not to go because I spent a lot of money on coming to Nara; I wanted to get the most out of being here.

The Kasuga Grand Shrine wasn't to far away. The walk there though was absolutely gorgeous, you just know that the area has seen many years. The path starts going through the forest with stone lanterns lining the walkway, moss covered the trees and the bottom of the stone lanterns with deer wandering around. Water pathways lined the side of the main path so that water would drain there and not flood the path.
(picture stolen from Carisa)
Eventually Carisa, Julie and I made it to the main gate of the shrine. Before we could discuss on who to ask to take our picture in front of the shrine though, a woman came up and asked us if we could take a picture of her in front of the shrine. She quickly did her pose in front of the gate before she inquired if we wanted our picture to be taken since Julie and Carisa had their cameras out (I on the other hand had forgotten my memory card, I was so angry at myself) which we graciously accepted.
(Again, picture stolen from Carisa)
After our pictures were taken she disappeared quickly in the crowd of people but the three of us agreed that it was pleasant that the woman came up to us assuming that we spoke Japanese and didn't try to speak in any Japanese. All though I don't understand Japanese as much Julie and Carisa, I still thought it was nice that she approached us without fear since many people stare at us and conversate how to approach us. Walking up the stairs and through the gate there was a large male deer statue with water coming out of it's mouth into a small fountain. There were wooden cups with handles to use to get water and wash your hands from to purify yourself with. Before approaching we watched other people to make sure we knew what we were doing and not make fools out of ourselves.

Continuing on there were hundreds more of stone lanterns lining the pathway but we arrived at the shrine after a few minutes. There was so many people coming in and out of the courtyard area which we entered and didn't go any further. To enter the actual shrine cost money, we just wanted to visit the shrine not exactly enter it (for this shrine anyway). But Carisa and I bought ourselves a fortune for 200 yen (roughly $2), my fortune wasn't quite fortunate. I got limited good fortune which says;
"At first, you will undergo many trials. As one who seeks to cross a rapid stream between steep cliffs, and you will know the pains of disappointment, indecision, and anxiety. In time, however, all of this will pass away, and many joys will come to your way. If you face everything with a humble heart and are prepared to meet all situations bravely, your fortunes will prosper."
Despite my disappointment, I was still glad I bought the fortune. It's all part of the experience.

We didn't linger to long in the courtyard and step out back on the path. Instead of heading back right away we decided to explore on another path for a bit and I'm so happy we did. It was a side rode that not many people were walking on, we were actually basically the only ones on the road except for an older couple a head of us. There were so many old trees, and everything was just peaceful. You couldn't hear the noise from the main road, just silence. I now understand why people would come to the mountain and forest to meditate or seek enlightenment; even I felt at complete peace strolling down the path.

On our walk we passed many smaller shrines where you can offer a prey toward the kami (Shinto deities). At the last one on the straight forward we tried making a prey. I don't think we did the prey properly, like what to do exactly, but we gave it a try.

"I wonder if the kami understand English?" Carisa thought out loud which made us pause and wonder.

Eventually we made it to the end, walked back and headed back home. Getting lost on at the stations too, but we eventually found our way to Umeda, a place we are familiar with now, and were able to get back home. It was such an exhausting day, I'm just very thankful that we didn't have school the next day since it was a holiday. Respect the Aged Day.

But this coming Tuesday is the first day of school.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Umeda. 1st Visit
こにちは!

On Monday a group of us went to Umeda for the day. Three of the people who were with us (Amanda, Sammy, and Carisa) had actually gone the day before and were more than happy to show us (Julie, Ellie and I) how to get to Umeda.
(Carisa, Ellie, Amanda, Sammy)
The train ride was roughly a half and hour but it felt so much quicker than it was. But when we got off I was quickly reminded that this is a city, not the small town of Flagstaff I'm use to. There are people everywhere going about their business. Getting back up onto street level we went ahead to our first destination; the ferris wheel on top of HEP (a mall that holds major brand name stores).

The ferris wheel ride was amazing and really cheap to get a ride on for such a huge ferris wheel. I remember the London Eye being a big pricey but here it was cheap and just as wonderful. The sights were grand, seeing how far the city stretched out and all the different types of buildings. In the "container" I was in, Julie and Sammy were with me and we discovered a wonderful device. There was a mp3 player hook up to play music which Sammy thankfully had to see if it would work. And it did. The theme song for the ride (which was roughly 20 minutes long) was A Whole New World from Disney's Aladdin; the perfect song for the situation.

After the ferris wheel ride we ended up stumbling on the food floor of HEP, and who could resist a bit of ice cream? We sat down and ate at this waffle ice cream shop that was set up beautifully. There were colors everywhere and the food was absolutely delicious. One of the best ice cream order I have ever had; "Maple."

Ellie and Carisa had ordered quite a sight too though. They had ordered Cinderella something and when it came out everything was in a glass slipper. An actual glass shoe filled with ice cream and other sweets. It was so surprising that all of us were muttering "Sugoi..." (Amazing; cool).

After filling up our stomachs our journey continued. We lingered in the mall for a small time since everything was expensive and made it outside after five floors. Eventually we wandered into an arcade which was absolutely addicting. The arcade had three levels; first floor was the crane machines that were filled with cute stuff animals and other goods such as anime figures, accessories and etc. Second floor had various types of games but we spotted something that everyone in Japan loves to do. Purikura!

Honestly Purikura is so addicting. It's like the photo booths in America but so much more fun. The space is bigger to allow more people to join and you take up to six different photos. After the photos are finished the fun begins. You step into a side booth after your photos and decorate the pictures with writing, drawings, and stamps covering the photos with whatever you want. The booth also makes your eyes slightly bigger and skin clearer in the photos.

Once Purikura was done we just ended up wandering around the arcade for the rest of the day, eventually moving to another arcade before deciding it would be best to return back home and get ready for registering at city hall the next day along with a campus tour. Back tracking was easy enough and return onto the train.

To make things interesting Julie suggested playing a game in the mean time. It was a simple enough game using your thumbs. Basically you count how many thumbs of the people playing so if there was two people there would be four thumbs. The idea of the game is you call out a number from 1- to how many are playing, and when you call out the number you choose to stick your thumbs up or not. If the number of thumbs up is the number you called then you get to take a hand away. The goal is to get both of your hands out of the game.

We only played one round and catch the attention of some of the occupants on the train. The ones I notice the most (because they were in the direction I was facing) was an older woman who looked around forty and a younger male, possibly a college student, who were rather amused with our game. I think the woman was more amused while the young man looked like he couldn't believe we were playing this, he even shook his head slightly when Ellie accidently messed up by calling a number that wasn't being used.

All in all it was an awesome day. And there's a plan for another trip to Umeda with more people.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Some things to know.
こんいちは!

Japan is definitely a different country and I wanted to share some of the daily things I do in my life now that I don't do in America.

  1. You don't wear your shoes on the carpet or inside your home. At our dorm we have to take off our shoes on the title at the entrance of the door inside and put on our slippers which reside in our shoe box and place our outside shoes inside the box.
  2. Bathroom. You do not wear your slippers in the bathroom or walk in the bathroom barefoot. You use the bathroom slippers that are left in there.
  3. Using chopsticks. Thankful I know how to use them or else I would be in trouble since it's nearly the only utensil. Other than the spoon used for curry and soup.
  4. The bedding. The bed is a wooden frame with a futon on it. Basically it layers like a thick, stiff comforter that is used as a mattress, a cushion layer, sheets and then a comforter. The pillow is actually stuffed with beans and thus is quite hard, honestly I find it comfortable though some of the other exchange students would disagree with me.
  5. Always carry a small hand towel or a piece of cloth to dry your hands. If you use the sink to wash your hands make sure you have one because there are no paper towels for you to use.
That's all I can think of on the top of my head, but these features definitely stand out in my daily life. Tomorrow we head off to Umeda for the day.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
First few days in Japan.
こんにちは!

So it's been roughly four days since I have arrived in Japan. I would have written a a post when I arrived but I was dead tired. I had been up 24 plus hours but I forced myself to stay up until around 10 pm in Japan's time to get myself into the time zone. Surprisingly I don't have any jet lag except the day I arrived. I woke up at a decent time the next day.

When I arrive I met the volunteer student, Fuka, that was suppose to pick me up. Thankfully I arrived early and was able to catch my meeting time. There were about five other exchange students that arrived with two other volunteer students. Once it was four o'clock we took our leave from the airport and took a bus to Osaka Station. The bus ride was roughly an hour long, it was very difficult to not fall asleep on the bus since it was so quiet and the ride was quite smooth. When we arrived at Osaka Station in Umeda, we hopped onto a train ride which was another long. But then we arrived. I was the only girl in the group going to Dormitory Ryokuchi Koen which left Fuka and I to drag my luggage up to the dormitory.

Ryokuchi Koen is a nice dormitory. It's small but that isn't a surprise since Japan is known for the small space. The manager Fujiwara is very nice but he barely speaks any English which does make it hard to communicate. But there are a few girls whose Japanese skills who are far enough to hold a normal conversation and helped us all out. He helped point out where everything is and all the rules. And there are tons of rules, but nothing terrible. The only thing that is bothersome is the curfew we have. At 11:00 pm we'll be locked out of the dormitory because the key pad turns off. If we don't come back and we don't tell Fujiwara where we are we'll get in trouble thus making it hard to stay out with other exchange students or Kansai students in general since they don't have curfews.

Julie and Ellie found me during the explanations during the tour of the dormitory. I think they startled Fujiwara and Fuka since they yelled out me name and ran forward for a hug. But it was wonderful seeing them after all summer.

On Friday, we went to the campus to do the first stage of orientation. Everyone was split into groups with two group leaders that were the Japanese volunteer students. Fuka was actually in our group, and the other girl was Mai. Both are super nice, I really hope we can continue seeing them in the future. During orientation we were told that we were biggest group of international students that Kansai has ever had, 64 of us. This does explain why we had to be moved to Ryokuchi Koen because they had literally less than half exchange students last year. I think it was a big surprise for everyone. The orientation was long since it was explained in both English and Japanese which took time but it was worth it.

Saturday, yesterday, was our placement test. No one was happy during this time. The only thing I will say about the test was that it was oral, writing, and an interview. It was just not very fun, and I really don't want to think about it. But later the night we went to go drinking. Julie and I were thinking about leaving earlier before we even got there because both me and her were just not really in the mood to be out. But that changed when we got there. We went to an American theme restaurant which was very comfortable.

We were sat in the middle of the restaurant so we could see all the other tables. On one side of us there was a group that looked like there was a birthday party for. There was a birthday (three in fact, all around the restaurant) but the group was actually the basketball club from Kansai Daigaku. It was fun to watch them though, they were doing drinking games and eventually we started clapping along when they would drink. I'm not sure how or when it happened but Ellie started talking to one of them and then Melissa, one of the residents in our dorm, started talking to him like she was drinking to pick a fight. It was quite the sight. Everyone from the basketball club were watching (more like the whole restaurant) and us watching them as they hovered over us. She was trying to get his Mixi (basically Japanese ver. of facebook) and he agreeing. Then he would ask us and she would respond, it was just quite a sight that can't really be explained in words.

But after that the ice was kinda of broken. Both parties started mingling with each other, sadly it was to late in the night since we had to leave because of our curfew. I wish we could have stayed longer but maybe there'll be another time.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Less than a week left
Only less than a week left before I leave for Japan, but my travels are starting bright and early tomorrow morning. Everything's packed nice and neat (something I think I gained after years of experiencing trips, I swear I leave to go somewhere every year) though I'm sure I over packed a bit. Everything is still in the limit of 50 lbs and not to crazy but a little more than light. Two suitcases, my backpack which will be my carry on and my purse which is a size of a small backpack really. I'm pretty sure when I arrive in Japan everyone will be staring at me like I'm some crazy foreigner going on some insane adventure.

Anyway, tomorrow I will leave with my little brother and father to drive down to Pearland, TX to visit some family. Eventually a large portion of my family (possibly around 30-40 people) will drive down to Sargent where they own some land by the ocean and spent a night or two there to celebrate my Aunt Bobbie's 50th birthday. We'll be camping out there since there really isn't any houses out there, an RV for my grandparents to sleep in instead of a tent. But I know it'll be a good time, and one last real good look at the stars.

The stars are what I'm going to miss the most of. The endless sparkles in the sky with the moon hanging up there with them. Living in the city, you can't get a very good view of that. Osaka is one of Japan's biggest cities and I don't know when I'll have a beautiful view of the endless stars. Endless skies too. My friend had mentioned before moving to a city in another state that she would miss the endless blue skies with the mountains fading in the distance. It's very true though... Arizona doesn't have many forests (depending where you are), giving the illusion of the everything goes on. As much as I always want to go out and travel, see places and things I can't experience here in the states Arizona will always be a very beautiful place to return to after a long journey.

After my time in Texas I'll be flying to San Fran. and enjoy California weather for about three days leaving for Japan on the third. I'll probably spend time with family in California too, not that it's a bad thing. I love my family and spending time with them is always a party (literally). I'm hoping that because all this intense traveling within a week, on the long flight to Japan I can just pass out with exhaustion.

I'm looking forward for tomorrow because my travels start.