Explanations

“So, Sarah, you’re talking about a host family, but you also mention that you’re living in the dorms. What’s up with that?” you might ask. Well, Kansai Gaidai (the university I’m going to) does allow you to participate in a homestay program, but the first week of orientation has you living in the dorms for foreign students. These dorms are known as the “Seminar Houses,” are off campus, and are about a half hour’s walk to campus. I walk back and forth from dorm to campus at least twice a day, if I’m lucky (though this is due to personal preference. I like to walk; other students may spend more time on campus because they don’t want to walk back). This Sunday (minus any effects from the typhoon), I will be moving out of the dorm to live with my host mother.

The tatami, the closets, and Guiliana!

The dorms in the Seminar Houses (or at least mine, Seminar House 3), are pretty small (though, currently, we have 3 students in a 2 student room, so I may have a slight bias :) ), but they have three sections: a tatami section, a hard wood section, and the balcony. Tatami mats are the quintessential Japanese floor-coverings made out of woven rush straw. They’re so soft and delicate. We can’t put anything wet, heavy, or sharp on them! The tatami section is where the bedding is placed and takes up about two thirds of the room. Attached to the front wall (near the door) are two closets. Inside the closets there is a set of drawers and a higher shelf, with a large space in the middle. This large space is where your futon (instead of a bed, in Japan, people use futons), is rolled up and put away during the day. There is also a hanging rack for clothes. Also in that area is the genkan, a lowered part of the floor where you put your house slippers on; only bare and stocking-clad feet can go on the tatami!

Genkan

Please pardon the mess!

The tatami lowers into the hardwood floor area next. This is where the two desks sit with attached wall bookcases for study. It’s really, really small, but it has a frosted glass sliding door that opens into the balcony, where there are rods to dry your wet laundry (due to a lack of clothes dryers in Japan)—but be careful not to leave them out during a rainstorm! :)

Next, the balcony!

It seems like everyone has a balcony in Japan, but my balcony is special. Since I’m on the end of the building and on the second floor, my balcony has an escape ladder hatch, which is all kinds of awesome. In

The hatch for the escape ladder

addition to the escape hatch, my balcony is separated from the other dorms’ balconies by a pink “Emergency Exit” board. I find it ridiculously funny. Also on my balcony are a series of metal rods, which I believe to be for drying clothes, but I’m not sure. Underneath them is a groove, which I believe drains down into the rain gutter, so I think it’s either for dripping wet clothes, rain blown into the balcony (and after today, there’s a lot of water to be dealt with!), or both.

Rods and the "gutter"

The lounge

The kitchen

 And now to outside of my room. My dorm is connected to a bigger room. This room is shared by 3 other dorms and contains a kitchen (that we as temporary guests cannot use for stuff other than boiling water and microwaving) and a lounge with a giant couch and TV. There's also a bathroom, but I've heard that suite bathrooms are unique to Seminar House 3 alone, which is why people pay more to live in it.

But now to the part you all were wondering the most about: the bathroom!

Okay, I’ve heard a lot about all the weird things in a Japanese bathroom (especially the toilets). Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), my dorm in Kansai Gaidai does not have most of the odd things on toilets, except for a spigot where you can wash your hands after you flush the toilet, on top of the toilet.  It’s pretty cool in the fact that the water that you wash your hands with goes into the tank and becomes the water which the next person flushes with, but the coolness is slightly negated by the fact that there is no towel to dry your hands in there.

Outside of the shower

However, the showers here are awesome. There are two dials, one for water temperature (and it’s done so that if you want over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), you have to press a button) and one for pressure. There are also two clips where you can put the removable shower head. This means you can have a high shower, low shower, or shower

Inside the shower

yourself. It’s really good for saving water. Also they don’t use paper towels, instead they have a hand air dryer, much like the Dyson Air Blade that the Aldo Leopold Nature Center’s in their new bathrooms. 

Close-up of the shower controls

Well, that's all for now, folks! I hope you have a better understanding of what I'm going through. :D

The First Thursday in Japan!

Yesterday was pretty boring, just basic orientation and things we need to consider during our stay in Japan. Today was a little more fun. In the morning and afternoon it was more and more orientation stuff, including safety and immigration. I also found out that I have been accepted into the Sumi-e (ink brush painting) course, which really makes me excited.

The afternoon was more fun. Mita and I went to Fresco, the cheapest supermarket around where we stocked up on food. Why did we stock up on food? Simple. There's a typhoon coming our way. Wikipedia says that "a typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean," which basically means a lot of rain and wind. Unfortunately, this means that the trip to Kyoto tomorrow is canceled, and they're not planning on rescheduling it. This really bums me out because from the moment I stepped foot on Japanese soil (and even before then), I wanted to go to Kyoto. But Mother Nature cares for no one's hopes and dreams. I guess I'll just have to go on my own someday in the near future.


Today I also found out about my host family. My host mother's name is Hideko, and she's 68 years old and lives alone. I admit, I was kinda hoping for a family with kids, but I'm super eager to bond with her since she's from the older generation and (I'm guessing) knows a lot about traditional Japanese cooking. Hopefully she has grandkids or kids in her neighborhood. Her house is about 23 minutes from campus using a combination of buses and walking. I'm mostly worried about how I'm going to get all my suitcases over. I've got three of them and they're all pretty big. She's also a big fan of cooking, traveling, and watching films; since I like all of those as well, I'm hopeful we'll get along well. She knows some English and wants to have English conversations, but is also willing to teach me about "Japanese culture, customs and so on." I get to call her お母さん, which means "mother" in Japanese.

Liz (who is one of Mita's two roommates) went with her speaking partner Tsukasa, and her friend Chris to a sweets shop this afternoon, and I tagged along. First we walked, then we went on a bus, and then we took a train, until we arrived at a huge shopping mall. Inside there were all kinds of shops, with a surprising amount not in the food court that centered around food. We went to a crepe shop (named "Aphrodite" for some reason), where I had my very first crepe! It was a アイスバナナチョコクレープ (that's an ice cream, banana, chocolate crepe, for all you non-speakers) and it was delicious, cheap, and filled me up. I think I like crepes.

I'm planning on writing more about my temporary life in the dorms and a decent background for anyone who is a bit confused by my previous posts tomorrow. So until then, じゃね！(Good bye!)

Sarah's Shopping Shenanigans

So, today was a very busy day for me. First off in the morning I had my Japanese Language Placement Test. The less said about the kanji portion, the better (I was never good at kanji... :( ). Then, after that, Mita and I went to the cafeteria, where I dined on katsudon (chicken rice bowl). It was delicious and cheap. Following that we took a tour around campus and we checked out the various clubs on campus. Unfortunately, the competitive ballroom dancing club is not accepting members at the time. I've decided to track down the president and plead my case, though. Wish me luck!

Lookit the ladybug!

Then Mita and I went to meet Mita's speaking partner, Yume. She was accompanied by her friend Yui, and together we decided to go to the downtown Hirakata center. I felt kinda awkward because my Japanese was so halting and broken, but Mita's Japanese was excellent and both Yume and Yui could speak English well, so we all managed to communicate with each other.

Mojibakeru packaging

First we went to the shopping center イズミ (Izumi). There were so many cute things there! However the things I got were a pink polka-dot umbrella (here everyone uses them to ward off both sun and rain) and a pocket watch. I got the little pocket watch because I do not have a watch. My lack of a watch is due to the fact that I used my cell phone at home, and I can't get a cell phone  in Japan until I turn twenty (which is only 6 days away, so I can wait). And the most

Zoe-chan

important thing I purchased: MOJIBAKERU!! This is a type of children's toy that starts off as a kanji and then transforms into what the character represents. My mojibakeru is an zou (elephant). She is adorable, and I call her Zoe-chan.

Me and my first palm tree!

From Izumi, we went down a couple of backstreets, up a hill, down another hill and across a bridge to Kiddy Land, a supermarket where I managed to track down the exact shade of nail polish from my manicure that got so chipped during my travels. It will be fixed tonight! I got a folder (something that surprisingly is hard to find in Japan) with kitties on it as well.

Then we were off to yet another department store. There were cute shoes on sale, the largest size (LL) didn't fit me, as both Yume and Yui squealed about how big my feet were. I took this in good humor, because I started this myself. 「このくつはかわいい、でも、私の足は大きいですが。」 ("Those shoes are cute, but my feet are so big!")

Yume, Mita, Yui, Me!

Then we went up to the top floor where we did a purikura photoshoot. Purikura is a type of picture taking in a photobooth, but the Japanese take it to the extreme. With this photobooth, it will automatically make your eyes look bigger and while you took your picture, you could

More of our purikura

choose different frames, backgrounds, and photoshop effects to happen to you. Then, after the pictures were taken, you left the photobooth and went into the adjoining booth where you could write on the photo, add all sorts of odd

backgrounds and clip art to the photo, and even change the color of your hair or eyes! Yume and Yui were extreme, hardcore purikura-ers, and thus most of our pictures look really full. I got to decorate one as well! In

Our only plain picture!

the pictures, we all wrote our names, ミタ (Mita)、サラ (Sarah)、ゆめ (Yume)、and ゆい (Yui). After a hard day's work of purikura and shopping,

The purikura I decorated

we went back to Izumi's food court for dinner. I had gyudon (beef rice bowl) which was filling and delicious as usual.
Then we went to--wait for it--Mister Doughnut, the doughnut shop. Readers who know me will be surprised, I have no qualms about expressing my dislike of doughnuts (oh the stories my family can tell...). Doughnuts are gross and disgusting and utterly inedible. But I decided to look past my stigma and pick up some sweet takoyaki doughnuts. For those of you who do not know Japanese cuisine that well, takoyaki is a dumpling with a piece of octopus in the center. Of course this doughnut  was not really takoyaki. It only used the takoyaki sauce on the top, which was pretty savory and yummy. However, I find doughnuts still not really edible, I'm sad to report.

But the care and effort put into its packing is something to write about! First the nice shop lady took my order and put it in a box. Thinking that was it, I reached for the box. How wrong I was. She pulled the box closer to her, as if she was a mother protecting her child. Confused, I strayed back. She then put the box in a striped paper bag and then the bag into a clear plastic bag. Following that, she positioned the bag so that it was centered in the other bag. Only then did she allow me to remove it from the counter. Oy vey!

Boxed

Bagged

Double bagged

My Room and Sushi!

So, it's not even the end of the first day of orientation, and already I have things to blog about!

The view from my dorm's balcony

One structural feature I’m seeing everywhere is balconies. And that’s just awesome. I love balconies. My temporary dorm room has a balcony, and it appears every other apartment has a balcony as well. I have a theory. Since the Japanese do not have dryers (for clothing), everyone needs to dry their clothing outside. People who have houses also have courtyards so they can dry their clothing there. But people in apartments need balconies to dry their clothing due to a lack of courtyards. What do you guys think?

Other people's balconies nearby

Also, in Japan, people drive on the other side of the road. And every time I see that, I get a little heart attack before I remember that Japan is different from America (that seems like a no-brainer, but I’m constantly having to remind myself of the fact).

Technology Woes: So my converter, which I thought I checked carefully enough, doesn’t work in Japan. Apparently it’s only to be used for converting lower voltage to higher voltage, and not vice versa. Today Mita and I are going on a trip to find a converter for me. I at least need to be able to use my laptop. I can wait and charge other things separately, but my laptop is most critical. Mita has generously been lending me her converter until I can get my own (I’m shopping for it today, so wish me luck!).

Me and my sushi

For lunch today I had my first "real" Japanese sushi. Despite being from a supermarket, it was delicious. Instead of having a big glob of wasabi packed along with the sushi, like in American grocery stores, the wasabi was rolled into the sushi, giving it the perfect amount of bite. I had some sort of fish and cucumber. Yum, yum, yum!

My sushi lunch

The Thirty-Hour Day

(okay, so it really was only 29 hours, but 30 sounds better!)
So, I'm finally in Japan! And boy, oh, boy was that a trip to remember!
As I said on my Facebook: "Arrived safe and sound(ly asleep)."

I wish.

I woke up at 4am on Friday, August 26 and proceeded to go to the airport where I needed to do a quick transfer of luggage for between my old carry on, my two gigantic suitcases, and my new carry on (it had wheels!). I then boarded the plane and made a 12 hour flight from Chicago to Japan. During this flight I slept, watched Miss Congeniality, and played ~5 games of Solitare. I also read 253 pages of a book and ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Then there was a layover of 2 hours in Tokyo, and then there was an hour long flight to Osaka. I am very happy that there were carts that I could put all of my luggage in instead of me having to pull them. Ugh. Otherwise I would probably have less luggage. :)

Having suffered from no airsickness on the previous flight, I was upset (to my stomach) to find myself airsick for the second flight. Then we (for I was traveling with my friends Mita and Lena), waited to leave the airport for ~2 hours (until 8:30pm JST) as the rest of the Kansai Gaidai gang arrived. I also entered my very first conbini (convenience store) and had onigiri (rice balls with filling) for dinner. They were yummy. 

After we took a bus to Kansai Gaidai, we were given our rooms. I have two other roommates in my cramped little dorm who haven't arrived yet. I cannot wait until this week is over and I actually get to meet my homestay family! It will be the day before my birthday.

It also appears that I have bypassed the jet-lag part of my trip already. I'm relieved because it seemed like a nasty thing to go through.

Today I did a little exploring with some of the people from the dorm I'm staying in. Despite being in a foreign country, the idea that I'm stuck here for a year (hooray!) hasn't really sunk in yet. I'm sure it has something to do with everyone talking in English and walking down somewhat empty roads, with no people.

The houses and streets here are so smushed together, I barely know how they can breathe! But every house looks perfectly complete and not cramped at all. In addition, many of the houses I've seen have beautiful gardens and gables. Right next to each other are houses that are in "modern" and "traditional" styles. Put together, it's not a hodgepodge as some would imagine. It goes together well.

But anyway, today I explored around. I actually saw the Kansai Gaidai campus (which is beautiful and ginormous, if you wanted to know), and went to a couple of conbini and supermarkets. Sunday is the day when the school cafeteria isn't open, so we had to fend for ourselves. Things are pretty cheap at conbini (and compared to the lunches at the cafeteria here, as well!) so I'm sure I'll be returning within the week.

Today I bought a pair of house slippers. House slippers are used in Japan as secondary shoes that never go outside. People take off their shoes in the front of the house (houses are even designed so that there's a small place to do so) and then put on the slippers and then continue throughout the house. Mine are pink and red with cherry blossoms on them. They barely fit my feet, but were the biggest ones in the store. Oh, the travails of having giant feet... :)

Also, everyone told me about the heat, but I didn't realize it until I was red (almost purple) faced and sweating. Unfortunately, my Latvian ancestors gave me my very fair skin tone, and there's absolutely no way to hide how hot I get in the sun. (Also, as a side note, I would like to congratulate all the Japanese women I saw today driving their bikes one handedly as they held parasols over their heads. I would not be able to drive in high-speed traffic or dodge pedestrians like that, but you made it look effortless). At least I finally got my air conditioner working. :)

Well, that's all for today. Perhaps tomorrow (the first day of orientation!) will bring new surprises (and maybe pictures as well!)

Farewell!

Leaving at 4am

Yep, so tonight's my last night in the ol' US of A. I'm really excited to be going, despite having to leave at ungodly o'clock in the morning (that's 4am for all of you who didn't read the title...). So, I'm just going to stay up all night and crash on the plane. Healthy, no. Fun bonding time with the little sister, yes! Family has been calling me all day, despite the hecticness of the packing. It's been really nice to hear from everyone. :D

Yesterday was very busy with Mom, Em, and I rushing all over Madison looking for good omiyage (which is a type of souvenir/gift that is traditionally given at first meetings and after travel) to give to my host family. We finally found some very nice important chocolates and a picture book of Wisconsin for the coffee table. I hope they like it!

I also got a manicure and pedicure at a luxurious day spa. Mom got a massage and Em also got a manicure. Her nails are blue and shiny. My nails are pink and sparkly. When Mom saw them, she said, "I don't know why I'm surprised you got your nails that color, but I am." Silly Mom. Pink and sparkly shall rule the world one day!

Back to packing, as of 6:47pm (that's right now for me), I have all three bags packed and put in the trunk of our car. My purse is sitting  next to me and it's almost ready to go. Oh my, I'm so excited, I can barely wait!

My next post will be from Japan~!

Two Weeks~!

A word to the wise--never try to dye rice krispie treats. They will only dye your mouth and your lips and your teeth, making you look like the walking dead.

This post is because I'm thrilled. I've only two weeks left before I go to Japan. Yesterday, Mom and I got luggage. It's so nifty! One's a green roller/duffle/backpack. The other one's purple and has four wheels so you can roll it around without having to drag it. This is especially important because I'm taking a year's worth of clothing (or trying to at least!).

Mom's garden is in full swing with the zinnias blooming beautifully.

 And then here's one of our daily, hard-working visitors!

I've decided it's a little too much trouble to mark every single one of my photos, but please ask me before you use them. It's only common courtesy, so I think everyone should be fine with this...

Two weeks!!