The End

So, I know when I started all this; it was just a temporary blog for the summer. The summer's winding down. In 1 week fast track will be over, and in 2, school will start again. I decided on my way home tonight (in the hotbox car) that it's time to retire this blog. It's served it's purpose and kept all my friends and family updated on my adventures.

If you haven't had a chance to read of my travels, I'll leave the site up for a while. I suggest going through the archives ５月２００５　(May),　 ６月２００５(June) and ７月２００５(July). You'll have to go through each archive backwards to read them chronologically. Those were the interesting months of my summer because let's face it, fast track isn't that exciting to write about.

Thanks to all who have spent the time to read and comment. I really appreciate it.

So, I'm free of the dark side once again.

Toodles!

Another random blog game

So Karen did this in her blog, and I figured mine could be interesting. You type "(your name) is" into the google search engine and copy the excerpts it shows. I guess there are many meanings to my name

1. "The estimated number of Sami is 50000-75000." Yeah, I'm a type of people in the Norwegian area and such.

2. "Retour à Sami.is.free. Les Liens. Ces liens seront prochainement commentés etmis à jour. N'hésitez pas à écrire pour signaler d'éventuels liens morts. ..." No idea.

3. "SAMI is not the only captioning technology available for PC multimedia today.... Because SAMI is based closely on HTML, it has a similar (but not ..." Yeah, I guess I'm a type of technology too?!?!

4. "Northern Sami is the largest-spoken Sami language, used by a 75% of all the ...Lule Sami is the second largest Sami language with an estimated of 1500-2000 ..."

5. "Sami is stunned to open her door and discover a mysterious man. ... Sami isdesperate to try to put her relationship back together with Lucas. ..." Hmm, sounds like a soap opera. God, I love Days of our lives. (Actually, that might be where the spelling came from.)

6. "Sami is a general name for a group of the Uralic languages spoken in ... Very oftenSami is erroneously referred as one language for all Lappic people. ..." Yeah, this whole tribe thing is getting kind of repetitive.

7. "Adnan Sami is homesick for Mumbai HTTabloid.com Mumbai, May 6, 2005." Still, no idea.

8. "Sami is a general name for a group of Finno-Ugric languages spoken in parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, in Northern Europe. Very often Sami is erroneously referred as one language for all Lappic people. There are several terms in use for Sami languages: Samic, Saamic, Lappish and Lappic. The latter two are, along with the term Lapp, considered derogatory by some."

9. "sami is abbreviation for 'synchronized accessible media interchange'" Craziness, my mom never told me that!

10. "The Northern Sami is used for both purposes systematically. The other two can beused f'or meetings with simultaneous interpretation. Their use is, however, ..." Yeah, that whole tribe thing . . .

Yeah, I doubt most people get tha type of reaction, but it's fun to be Sami!

6.

A little tease on me

So, I guess I can keep this interesting by writing about more humorous things that happen to me. I've already told my audience out there about my experience with a bird and ice cream in Japan. Although this can't measure up to that, this is something to give someone a little laugh and let everyone else know I'm still alive.

I think everyone out there knows that my car isn't the newest thing in the world. The "It's not old, It's a classic" sign on it basically sums it up. In the daytime in the summer, I have to run it with the heater on full blast and stick my head out the window like a dog to cool off. Recently, it started making loud noises when I accelerated, which according to some of my friends means that there's a leak in the exhaust somewhere. I'm not whining. I love that little blue station wagon with rust spots, but it does get a little aggravating at times.

So we decided to take some of the fast-trackers to Indy to see "Batman Begins" at the IMAX theater. I had never seen a real movie at an IMAX theater, and I thought it would be a cool experience, so I went for it. Fred, another counselor, and I were the two counselors taking a group of 8 Fast-trackers to Indy. I hadn't had much trouble with my car so far this year and no one wanted to drive, so I offered to drive . . . bad idea.

For one, the speed limits have gone up on 70 - from 65 to 70. When the speed limit was 65, I normally stayed around 60 because my car seemed more comfortable at that speed. With the speed limit higher though, it means going 5 under is a lot harder than it used to be. My car isn't getting any younger, but the speed limits seem to think so.

I warned Fred before we started that my car can't handle high speeds, but I didn't have much of an idea what I was talking about. After going about 20 miles on 70, I got a check engine light. I did what I was taught - pray for it to go away. After 30 seconds, it thankfully went away so I thought I was clear. (By the way, I normally don't get check engine lights with that car as much as the "temp" light that tells me my car's too hot.) About 5 minutes later after trying to pass a car on a hill (Hill=BAD), the check engine light returned, along with the temp light.

Now, I don't mind driving with one of those lights on and praying that they go away, but 2 lights seems a little too much to hope for. So I tried to call Fred to tell him I needed to get off on the next exit. But does my phone work on 70, no! I love how verizon definitely has indiana colored in on it's connection map, but it rarely works well in the Haute, and I have no service on 70 between Terre Haute and Indy. Luckily, one of the fast-trackers had a phone and he called him to tell him we needed to pull over.

When we stopped at the gas station, smoke came up from my car again along with the familiar smell of cooler fluid vaporizing. We opened up the hood to see the cooler fluid boiling over and hissing and spewing. I figured I hadn't checked my oil in a while, so I added a quart there while I was already stopped. Then we started calling. Fred was calling the counselors to see if he could get someone to come pick us up and take the rest of the fast-trackers to the IMAX. Since my phone still would not work, I waited and borrowed his to call my dad.

I love how this car overheating is like not a big deal at all to my family. Dad's just like "turn the air conditioner on. Is the fan by the radiator running? Good. Run it." When they say "run it till it dies," they mean it. So we got back in, opened the windows, turned the heater on high, and went for it. Thank god for that sun-roof because I don't think my car would be drivable without it; the driver would die of heat stroke. We went a little cautiously for the next 40 miles, and somehow, we made it.

Of course, we were already like 15-20 minutes late, and the clerk said he wasn't even supposed to be selling us tickets at this point, but I think the profit beat the inconvenience at $12 a head. We rushed up the elevator and found some seats and watched "Batman Begins" on the super-large IMAX screen.

The ride home was uneventful besides dying from the heat from the heater. The kid in the passenger side is lucky - he could put his feet up to escape the strong heating my car provides on the floor. My feet, however, felt like they were melting to the mat. I also was going way dehydrated and fighting headaches because I hadn't had water in a couple of hours and the heat wasn't helping.

No worries, though! All's good. Just another fun event with Sami's car! (Mom and Dad - I'm really thinking about taking you up on your offer of g-pa's car.)

Sorry . . .

So, I know I said this blog was going to be for the entire summer, but obviously, I haven't been doing to well at updating it for the half of the summer that I'm doing fast track. It's not like I'm doing anything extremely exciting, besides helping with Calculus, and my day schedule would be the same every day if I discussed that.

I feel bad having a blog if I don't update, but I don't see anything to update with. I'm a fast track counselor. I'm living in New Res, staying up all night once a week to help the fast-trackers with their homework, and I'm grading more than I ever imagined I could grade. I'm eating in half of the ARA because the Colts took my Raisan Brand Crunch and chocolate milk. (Grr!) Yesterday, I was almost charged 5 dollars to park in my own parking lot because the colts fans were coming for family day, and they filled up all of our parking lots. Besides the Colts and Calculus, there's not much happening with me. I get to goof of with the fast trackers when they are in states of euphoria from no sleep. I've began improving my juggling.

See, not much is really happening, so I don't see a point of updating, and I feel bad having people check my blog if I don't update (cause I know how much I hate that.) Hmm, I'm going to go take a nap so that I can make it through the night without sleep because I have graveyard.

Yeah, this again

So this whole blog was deleted because of my stupidity. I wrote it during class and then closed it out with out saving first. Sorry.

In very shortened summary, I got back to Terre Haute safe and sound after a very long day.

I had a great night Saturday night hanging out with my Rose peeps.

Fast Track started on Sunday.

Lots of homework and formatting since then.

As you can see, it's a very shortened summary, especially for me. If I have more time, I might try and write it again.

My last post from Japan

So, I just wrote this whole post and it was really long, and now I have to do it again because of my stupidity. Grr.

Well, anyway, this is going to be my last post from Japan. I leave tomorrow morning for Nagoya and tomorrow night for America.

On Thursday, we finished up our bridge project. We started off the morning with writing our presentation that I made after lunch. I did pretty well, but since I just had finished writing it that morning, I didn't very well have time to memorize it. I read it fine though so it's all fine. After the presentations, we had a bit of a bridge show, with everyone putting their bridges and posters on display. We went around and voted for our favorites. My partner and I came in second for the prettiest bridge, and we got a few votes for our poster. After that, it was time to break our bridges.

Even though we scored at one of the highest on our first bridge because it held 9 juiceboxes, we scored pretty low this time. We had weekened our bridge because we needed the extra material to make it pretty. It broke on 7 juice boxes this time. But at least it was pretty to begin with. The winner held 30 juice boxes! It was like twice as many as the second place bridge. That's pretty flimsy balsa, I don't know how they did it.

After the competition, we headed to dinner at okasan's and had our last dinner of her excellent chicken katsu. After finding how to get there, we headed to the karaoke bar for a couple of hours and sang quite a bit. There was only 4 of us including Robyn, who doesn't sing, so I sang my heart out quite a bit. It was great. I wish we had karaoke bars in America. There are all these little rooms and there are no stages or anything, you just sit around a table and use the microphones to sing along. It was great fun. I will miss it.

Today, we had a closing ceremony in the morning. It was crazy formal. They were giving us certificates, but we couldn't just walk up there and get it. When our names were called, we said "はい” before standing and walking towards the center of the room. Then we turned and walked straight towards the president of the school who was making the presentations. Once we got a couple of feet from him, we had to stop take a breath and then bow. He then talked a little bit before presenting us the certificate.

When receiving the certificate, there was formality in that as well. First we grabbed it with our right hand then our left hand and then bowed. It couldn't even be one fluid motion. We then had to take a step back before returning to our seat because we aren't allowed to turn immediately and show our butts to the president. This was explained in detail to us, and then each of us had to practice once individually before the ceremony even began.

After the ceremony, we headed to lunch at びっくりラーメン ("Surprise Ramen") which is where we can get 189 yen ramen. It was our last taste of ramen in Japan. Ramen in America is definitely no where near the same. I'll miss it.

Then we went back to our rooms to pack up a bit. We also had to have an exiting interview where they asked us what we thought of the program. Then we had an 11-page survey about each aspect of the program. Then we turned our loaned computers back to the school.

Around 4, we headed to the 100-yen store and the supermarket to do the last bit of shopping.

We ate our last dinner in Japan at the "どん”　restaurant. We got やきにく (grilled meat) again. It was excellent as before and lots of fun to make the meat and vegetables right in front of us at the table. It was expensive as before, but worth it because it was our last dinner here.

Tonight, there is a party where they are planning on staying up all night because the Japanese students and us don't want the program to be over. I probably won't end up going though cause I need to get sleep now, so I can sleep on the plane tomorrow and make the time change more easily. I'll really miss all the kind Japanese friends that went so out of their way to introduce us to Japanese college life.

Tomorrow is a big day . . . in a lot of ways. For one, it will last 38 hours. For two, I'm going to be going practically halfway around the world, traveling in bus, train, airplane, and car. At 7 am, I'm leaving here and taking a bus to Kanazawa station. Then I get on the bus to take me to Nagoya, where I'll have a 3 hour break at the station before taking a train to the Nagoya airport. Then I have 3 hours before my flight leaves. After a 12-hour flight to Chicago, I have a layover and customs and then a flight to Indy. From Indy, I have to find my car in the expansive parking lot, and drive to the Haute to unpack and become a Fast-Track Counselor. From leaving KIT to arriving at Rose, it comes to about 29 hours of transit. Let's hope it all works out. Be praying for me.

I can't believe this trip is almost over. I've learned so much, and practiced my Japanese more than I ever have before. I found out I can survive in Japan if needbe with the little Japanese I do know, but I also learned there is a crapload to learn. And I have nowhere to learn the rest because Rose doesn't offer anymore. I can't believe all the people I've met here I will never meet most of them again because there will be a big ocean inbetween us. I hope I can come back here before I lose all my Japanese speaking ability. Even my friends from Rose that took Japanese with me, I most likely won't see them very often anymore because I won't have any classes with them anymore.

I'm glad to be going back to the states though. Making money and having my room and board taken care of will be nice for the rest of the summer. I've spent a lot here. Also, I'm ready for a bed and to see my friends at Rose.

Well, I guess I'm signing off for the last time from Japan. I guess this marks the halfpoint of my summer . . . Craziness.

3 more days?!?!?!?

Craziness, this trip is almost over!

On Monday, my presentation went well enough. I talked about being kicked out of the pachinko parlor in kyoto. After class, we decided to splurge for lunch and had wonderful 焼肉 (grilled meat). There are some restaurants with a grill in the middle of the table, and you are given raw meat that has been marinated. You cook it for yourself on the grill and eat it with rice (of course). It was amazing! So yummy! It was the most expensive meal I've bought for myself since being here at 1150 yen (11 dollars), but it was so good. Now, I want to go there again before I leave . . . shame on me!

Afterwards, we had the afternoon off, so I went to try and figure out how to send my large suitecase to the airport. Japan has a luggage delivery service all over the country, with terminals at every combini (convenience store - every block). I went to ask whether i could send my luggage from the nearest combini to my airport. I called it Nagoya airport and they said no.

Then I had to go talk to the teachers to see what they could do. They said they would announce on Tuesday in class, and they did. I got my 28 kilo (over 60 pound) large suitecase sent out this morning with little to no trouble. I just hope it's at the airport when i need it. It's Japan so they should be efficient and they have 3 days so it should be fine.

Afterwards, I helped with preparing for the party that the other American students are putting on for the SGE Japanese students and our professors. We decorated 3 different rooms, made 70 servings worth of spaghetti and had signs up for people to sign. We also had Dance Dance Revolution in one of the rooms to play, and we were able to get all of the sensei's to do it. It was great! Making that much spaghetti in our little kitches went much better than expected, and everyone seemes to get yummy spaghetti.

Afterwards, my roommate had an asthma attack, which was the scariest looking thing I have every seen. I now have a renewed respect for anyone who lives with asthma because that looked like the scaries thing to go through. She really didn't want to go to the hospital, and then when they suggested it, she got even more scared which made the asthma worse. They ended up going to the hospital and walking around there but not going in because she was finally getting better by that point.

Tuesday was a culture class and the beginning of SaJeKa (Yay!). Lunch and then project class, where my partner and I made our bridge amazing. I will definitely have to put a picture up of this one. We "painted" the balsa wood with purple, pink, and green markers, and then added paper cranes on it to make it 美しい(beautiful). It's quite comical, and has been claimed as "ridiculous" by many of the Americans, but I'm always going for the most creative award (even if there isn't one), so I could care less what people think. It's beautiful in my eyes! ("If you could see her through my eyes" - Cabaret)

Afterwards, I went to see the family that owned the vet clinic again to pick up the crazy shell things. Of course they couldn't just give them to me and let me go. It had to be a big performance again. The vet was prepping for a cat castration at the time, and since my mom does this surgery all the time, I was interested to see the differences. There were quite a few differences, mostly that it took him like 15 minutes for a surgery that takes my mom maybe a minute, but alas, no worries.

Then we went upstairs to the area they live in, and had something to drink as they showed me the shells. She had put the cloth on the back of the shells I liked, and I was super happy cause it was purple. She said the material she used was very old, but I couldn't understand what it had come from. Then they gave me another shell because in Japan it is lucky to give a pair of things. They also gave me these things made to carry the cups used in tea ceremony that were made out of the grandmother's old obi (belt for kimono). The grandmother is so crafty and kind.

Then they decided to give me some watermelon as well, which is always a treat in Japan. Yuminess! We talked for a couple of hours or so, and then it was time for me to head back to find my peeps for dinner. We got some oyakodon at Itadakimasu and it was yummy.

We couldn't make a decision where to go, so we ended up playing a few games of hearts in my room and listening to Rent. Oh, how someone in our group needs to learn how to make a decision. We still want to do karaoke again, but we had trouble getting enough energy to go and do it last night because you have to ride the bike there and such, and we didn't really know how to get there either so it would make it real interesting.

This morning, I woke up and sent out my super heavy suitecase! Yay! I'm free of it! I feel 60 pounds lighter (not really).

I miss you all! 3 nights of futon left and then a bed! Hehe.

Oh, happy birthday Matt (if you even read this)!

My Last Weekend in Japan

Yeah, that's right. My last weekend in Japan has passed. I only have 5 more days here! It seems crazy! Hmm, let's see what we did.

Saturday, the farewell party went well. I met my host family again, and they said thank you for the thank you card. They gave me yet more gifts. The Japanese are really generous people. We sat and talked for a bit over some snacks. They then showed a movie that we had all individually prerecorded a thank you message to our host family. There were other movies that they had recorded throughout the program as well.

The SGE students also gave us t-shirts and we went around and got them signed. It was awesome cause I got all (but 1) of my notes in Japanese, so I completely love the shirt. I can't wait to wear it at Rose.

We spent the rest of the party trying to sign everyone's shirt. Afterwards, Robyn and I decided to go for that spaghetti that we needed to use the rest of. Phil joined in later and helped us finish it off. We then stopped by the combini to get some desert and such.

We played cards for a while, and then decided to find the bookstore with really cheap books. There's one that had manga for 10 yen a peice (=10 cents!!). We found it surprisingly more quickly than expected and soon I had chosen out 2 manga to try and read. I've never really gotten into manga, but it's a good way to practice Japanese in the states, and at 10 yen, it's practically free.

Then, I made a really stupid act that I'm not going to share about on here, cause I feel like a fool now for doing it.

Phil bought Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone in Japanese on DVD, so we went and watched it on his computer cause he had already changed the region on it. Since we all knew the story line pretty well, we watched it in Japanese with Japanese subtitles to have the best academic experience from it. It was an awesome way to pick up more Japanese and I wish I could afford to buy DVD's and a DVD player here so that I could keep learning Japanese at home, but I can't really do that, can I?

About half way through Harry Potter, I was getting tired and I couldn't focus anymore enough to understand the Japanese so I called it a night.

I slept in on Sunday until about 10 and goofed around reading my book until around 1 when we went to search for somewhere to eat. Because the place where you grill the meat in front of you was closed, we went for some curry for Phil.

Afterwards, Robyn and I took the long bike ride to town so that we could arrange what she was going to do next Sunday morning when she stays at a hotel and has a train leaving at 6 in the morning. We did a bit of shopping before riding right back to campus.

We sat around a while before heading to one of our new friend's rooms to make onigiri. We boiled the rice and then put stuff in it and mashed it up into little balls to put into seaweed to eat as onigiri. I don't really like any of the extra stuff so I just ate a plain rice ball, but no complaints here.

We played a little bit of hearts while waiting for our rice to cook and afterwards, which was fun. We also played some bs before heading our separate ways for the night.

Today I have my final presentation for culture class, and although I have the basic idea of what I'm going to say, I'm really just going to wing it. I practically just have to talk for 4 minutes about something about culture, so I'm sure I'll be fine.

Ah, the excitement of my life in Japan has digressed; I am sorry. 5 days and I'll be back at Rose in a bed!

A few more days gone by

So, my final went pretty well and the exit test went pretty well, so no more tests!!!! Now, just to give some to the fast-trackers for the rest of the summer . . . jk. We were able to build our second bridge in like 2 hours on Thursday, so now all we have left is to decorate it and make it look pretty, make a poster, make a presentation, and break the bridge for that class. I have to make a presentation for culture class on Monday, but that just involves talking for 4 minutes in English so I'm not too worried.

It's crazy that everything is already winding down. I'm ready to get back to the states, and I'm ready to eat some vegetables. (I know I'm weird, but my mom definitely gave me a taste for vegetables at a young age.) All they have here is starch and fried meat, it seems, so I feel like I need to get back to my diet I was eating at Rose.

Yesterday, we went to Shiroyama Shrine with our culture class. We took the train there and walked up this beautiful pass to the shrine. It looked like the gate leading into the shrine was a hole in the mountain, which was really neat. We had a priest greet us and show us the proper way to purify ourselves before entering the shrine, which involved washing your hands and mouth out with pure water from the mountain. He also showed us how to pray and we went through a service there. It was really weird and it seemed like all it was about was purifying us. Lots of purifying rituals in like a 10 minute service and that was it.

Afterwards, they had a small sip of sake for us (going with the purifying ritual). I decided to try it because it was supposed to be some of the best sake I would ever taste. They said this sip of sake was okay for underage people; I think it's kind of like the wine at commonunion at a catholic church or something. I was actually kind of scared of it because I didn't know what to expect. As I put the clear liquid to my mouth and took the sip, I felt like I was drinking nail polish remover. My peers said it was some of the best sake they had ever tasted, and I thought this was humorous cause I literally felt like I was drinking nail polish remover. Well, doesn't make me very excited to drink at least.

After heading back to campus, I went and finished purchasing my transportation for the 16th. It's going to be one fun day, especially if I can't get some of my luggage delivered to the airport by the luggage delivery service. Here it is:

7 am leave room
705 am - ride bus to kanazawa station
830 am - get on bus at kanazawa station
1230 - arrive at Nagoya station
- 2 hours of wandering around nagoya station (maybe eating, but probably just finding where my train is leaving from and popping a squat against a wall somewhere with all my luggage)
230 pm - get on some train that will take me from Nagoya station to the airport
3 pm - arrive at airport
- 3 hours to check in at both places and trying to explain in Japanese that I'm not going to Fort Wayne but that I'm changing and going to Indy and that I need my luggage to do the same (btw, I can't say that in Japanese) -
6 pm - leave Nagoya on American Airlines Flight 26 (11 hrs and 45 min, but notice time change)
345 pm - arrive in Indy
around 7 pm - get on United Airlines to go to Indy (hoping my luggage is doing the same)
around 8 pm - arriving in Indy, getting my luggage, finding my car in one of the expansive parking lots of Indy International
around 9 or 10 pm - arriving at the Haute, unpacking and turnign into a counselor

Yep, that's my 38 hour day for you. Don't worry, I'm splitting it up into two 12 hour days with 8 hour nights. Going East isn't too bad for night time crap but I'm worried about Monday morning in class at Fast Track. I'm probably going to be dead in the mornings for a week or 2.

Oh gosh, if anyone is looking for a book to read, I suggest The DaVinci Code. I bought it Thursday night so that I would have a book to read on my travels next week, but I'm already over half way done. So there's my little book recommendation for everyone.

Now, I've got the farewell party. I'm going to see my host family one last time and spend a couple of hours with them. I don't know what all is involved with this party, but my friends and I skipped lunch, hoping for food. Well, I'd better be off!

I miss everyone so muches!!!! (I know it's not proper english - shushhh)
If anyone still has the patience to read my blog by the end of this and knows how to leave a comment, leave a comment! :)

Hi Amy!

Something Random

So, I felt like a bad blogger since I hadn't updated since this weekend so here goes.

Classes are winding down. I'm turning in my journal for culture class today, and that means all I have left in that class is a presentation in English. I'm taking the final for the language class today, but it's only worth 15% of my grade, and I think I have at least a 98% in there already, so I'm not too worried.

Our main class from now on is our project class. With a Japanese partner, we are making in series two bridges out of 2 mm thick balsa wood. Now, I don't know if any of you have experience with balsa wood, but when it's that thin, you can bend it over a span of like 80 degrees or so without it breaking - just bending.

The funny thing too is that within all the American and Japanese students participating there is only one who is actually a civil engineer. Everyone else has no care for bridges in the majors at all. I've heard a few too many people complain about bridges the last few days.

Anyway, my partner is absolutely awesome! She cares about as much for bridges as I do (which isn't much). Actually, our first bridge had to be in the top few of all the bridges. We did this crazy triangular prism design, and it did surprisingly well. It held 9 juice boxes (100 ml each), which had to be at least 18 times its own weight. I don't think we did the best, but we definitely did well enough for both of us.

The next competition factors in beauty as well as strength, so we're practically making the same bridge, and then adding a few peices of balsa wood to make a tower and such. We have the system down for making this type of bridge, so I'm sure we're going to be able to make it like pros this time. Hopefully, we're going to be real girly and color our bridge with markers and add rhinestones and cotton and stuff. Hehe! 女の子パワー！(Girl Power!)

On the subject of 女の子パワー, this school has a worse ratio than Rose. 7 guys to 1 girl! There are basically no girls anywhere, it feels. Oh well.

Well, my final is in an hour, so I should probably go study or print my journals or get money from the atm or buy my bus ticket back to Nagoya or put up my travel plans on the board - all things I should do today . . . hmm.

Day in Kanazawa

So, I know I just posted yesterday, and I feel like no one's read it yet, except my gorgeous Karen!!! But nothing happens during the week, so I'm going to post on the weekends when stuff happens.

Yesterday, for lack of other things to do, we decided we wanted to go into Kanazawa to look at the local sights and for some shopping. We chose to ride our bikes because bus fees both ways adds up to being about $6.50, which I'm a poor college student so that's too much for me.

After catching lunch at a local combini, we got on our bikes and started riding, which in itself was interesting since we weren't exactly sure where we were going, but when we started doubting ourselves, about half an hour into the ride, we saw the bridge that always takes us into Kanazawa so we were relieved.

We checked out one big department store in the area. I think it was about 6 floors or something so it takes a while to see everything. We didn't even buy anything there, but we were "shopping" in Phil's definition.

We then decided to run over to the 21st Century Art Museum. It's shape is a circle and all its designs are very contemporary. We were too cheap to actually go into the central area of the museum, so we walked around the perimeter and saw the store and a few exhibits and such. I liked its architectural design much more than I think I would have enjoyed the paintings anyway.

After walking around the museum, we headed back to look for Omicho Market, which is a famous market in Kanazawa, but since it was Sunday, it ended up being closed. On the way though, we stopped by Oyama shrine. It had an extensive garden (even though it was in the middle of the city) and we hiked around the hills and over the water! It was interesting. We also saw the tail end of some Bhuddist ceremony where the priest was blessing a family, and afterwards, he came out to even bless their car. We purified ourselves by walking through a reef of grass before heading back towards Omicho Market.

When we reached the market and discovered it was closed, we decided to go to the department store across the street. This was a very large department store about 7 or 8 floors, and we spent an hour or two wandering around inside. They had a few Japanese type stores that we bought おみやげ at. I was excited because I could actually use my credit card here!

We ate dinner in the market in the basement of the department store before heading outside and discovering our worst nightmare - It was raining!!!

Now, I know it's rainy season, and it does rain every day, but that didn't phase us when making plans to come to town without bringing an umbrella or raincoat! So, first we had to walk about half a mile in the rain to our soaking wet bikes, and then we biked home in the rain for half an hour!!

I was soaking wet. We all were! I took pictures at the end, don't worry. I guess I'm really funny in the rain. Even though it was raining, and we were worried on our flimsy Japanese bikes, I was singing and dancing the whole way! I think it was so everyone knew i was still there (even though I was in the front of the line, shh!)

Then there was a warm shower and dry clothes awaiting me!

Time for class! I hope everyone's 4th of July celebrations went well!

A Japanese Vet Clinic

So let's see since the last time I wrote, I had a presentation on bridges on Japanese, which went quite well considering I had one day to memorize it all. Then we had the final for the Japanese tech class the next day, which went good enough. That was my least favorite class because we had readings in Japanese and I always felt stupid cause I didn't know half the words they used because most of the words were more technical words that you wouldn't encounter in normal Japanese text books. So whew, that class is over.

Now the projects will start. We have to make two bridges with a Japanese partner. My partner is awesome, and she has about the same amount of caring as I do into making bridges (close to none). Neither of us really care about how we do in the competition because are majors are in more technical fields, so we talk about more important stuff instead. She's talked about how to make Japanese dishes because she likes cooking, and she's given me random vocab words like おりたたみがさ which is the word for a collapsible umbrella that folds up. And words for intense and hard with a tiring connotation in it as well - しどい。I like Japanese periods。 Aren't they fun？ I think all Japanese punctuation is cool、but I don't have the patience to change back and forth anymore. Sorry.

Yesterday, we had a "party" with the college of wind and air (or something like that). That's all we knew going into it, and so we were expecting to see more college kids that we would be suspected to speak Japanese with. There was food and drinks of course (even beer - which I thought was weird since it was noon), but I think the beer was meant for the students of that college. It ended up that almost all the students were middle aged or older, and their teacher was an American woman, and they had set this up so they could practice their English with us. We had 2-way conversations in that they would speak English to us and we would speak Japanese back to them.

It's getting to the point where after a little bit of time, I don't realize whether I was listening to people in English or Japanese. We we were paired up with 2 ladies first, and we showed them where we lived and some points of interest on a map of the country. We needed something to talk about so one of the ladies suggested we talk about our families. It was quite ironic because the first lady had 3 daughters, all about the same age as me and my sisters. The second lady's husband was a vet and one of her daughters was studying to be a vet.

It was so ironic all the similarities I had with these two women's families. It was also ironic, because out of all of our families, there were no sons or brothers. It was crazy. Well, I found out that the one lady's husband ran a pet hospital, so I decided I should ask to see it because my mom is a vet and my sister is studying to be one. I just couldn't pass up this opportunity. We decided that we would walk their afterwards, but then they had a rotating time where we changed partners.

It seemed Robyn and I were very popular with the rotation. At first we had 3 other poeple with us, and 2 other people joined in. I don't know why. Robyn is quiet and I don't think we are all that entertaining. So we talked with these people a while and answered their questions and such. They had a "photographer" going around taking pictures the whole time. I guess he was someone's father and he was 84. He really liked me for some reason. He said I was his 一番すてきな人。 (favorite person) He was a funny guy.

So afterwards we expected to be walking to the clinic, but instead after I went and got my camera, they had a whole group of them ready to take us to the clinic. There were 3 ladies and 1 man besides the wife of the vet. They had 2 cars so they could take us all (only Robyn and I).

The clinic was really cute. Like all Japanese buildings, it was very small, but tall and had 3 floors. The clinic was on the first and they lived on the second and third. The clinic was very small (I think smaller than Jill's before it renovated, Mom.) They only had like 7 animals there besides the family's cats on the higher floors. One dog that was boarding, one in for a spay, 2 cats boarding and one in for ear canal cancer. Outside there was a type of a bird called a spine that I guess the recuperate and then release back into the wild, and in their garden outside they had a fairly large turtle wandering around. The turtle was really funny.

He had a room that he must see patients in that looked like it could also serve as a surgery room. A room for prepping with a sink-table thingy, and a surgery room and a reception desk. That was about it. It was really cool to see though because I've seen so many clinics in my life in America it seems so it was interesting to see one in Japan.

After walking around in the clinic, the vet said it felt awkward so we went up to their house for something to drink. We chatted up there for about 1-2 hours. They did quite a bit of comparing of veterinary medicine in Japan verses America, and I got all sorts of pamphlets and magazines that I think mom will be interested in seeing. They talked about how it is a regular surgery to declaw our cats in America and how some people cut off the tales and parts of ears in certain breeds. I've never agreed to that so I didn't know how to respond.

Then the grandmother of the family came and she showed us some of the artwork she had done. She made these shells that she got from a restaurant into beautiful peices of art. She painted them on the inside and she put cloth on the outside. I guess these shells used to be used as a game for children of the higher classes where they tried to find the match to their half of the shell. They were so beautiful. She gave us each one, so you'll have to ask to see it when we all get back to Rose.

She not only did that, but she made dolls. One of the dolls was a Japanes doll, which she changed the kimono of for the season. She made the kimono out of her old kimono. And this kimono had at least 3 layers to it, with a complete obi (belt). It was beautiful. I couldn't believe she had more than one kimono for this doll. It was crazy. Then she pulled out some bag-like things that she said were used in the tea ceremony that she had made out of her old obi.

Japanese have the highest life expectancy on the planet. It's common to see these many Japanese of this age in the home of their son's family. From this experience, I guess that they normally take up crafts and gardening of types to fill their time. They normally don't get sent to nursing homes. Instead they live with the family of their son, and the wife is expected to take care of them.

After a few hours, the other Japanese guests decided we had outstayed our welcome and it was time to go. After a picture and instructions on how to come back so I can pick up my shell (because she hadn't put the cloth on the outside yet), we headed off back to campus.

Then Robyn and I needed something to do, so we borrowed bikes and randomly rode down a road that we thought would lead to Kanazawa, but it didn't. It was a nice bit of exercise though.

Have a great fourth of July everyone. I hope your celebrations are lots of fun!

My peeps in the Haute - Have a great time at the party on Sunday! I wish I could be there!

Sorry about that really long post just about vet clinics, but I'm sure my mom and Shawna might at least be interested in it.

Happy Midyears!

So guess what tomorrow is (or at least tomorrow for me)? That's right (if you can read the title)! It's July 1 - Half way through the year 2005. I was figuring that since new years resolutions never work; we should all make midyears resolutions! I know at least for me, there's been something I need to do (or not do for that matter) for myself. So, if you've been feeling down, and you feel like you've needed to do something for a while, you should make a Midyears Resolution!

Okay, just a random thought that occured to me last night while trying to fall asleep on the hard futon . . . how I can't wait for that bed at Rose Hulman. A BED - how nice!

Only 3 weeks left . . . 3 weeks of tests, quizes, and projects

Although a lot of you have said that my trip sounds exciting, from now on, I ensure you I will have a lot less to write about. We`re down to the last 3 weeks, which means some of the classes are winding down to an end, while others are getting ready to be at full swing. Tomorrow I have a presentation that I have to make about bridges in Japanese. Don`t really understand the words that are coming out of my mouth half the time, but hopefully, I`ll be fine.

Yesterday, we had a "party" with our conversation partners . . . yummy Japanese snacks and a continuation of the struggling to converse in Japanese.

雨が降ってるよ！The Gods of Japan have declared it to be raining season, and they are downpouring on us. I`m glad that I have classes inside all day, but I have a feeling this rain is going to keep me inside the rest of the trip, which is kind of crappy cause I was planning on seeing more of Kanazawa, but if it keeps up, since it is considered a "season," I doubt I`ll make it.

It is raining hard. It`s distracting, but sounds nice.

I should go back to studying my presentation.

Toodles

P.S. If I don`t write for a while, don`t worry. I just have nothing to write about. I`m alive. If you want me to write, ask me (appropriate) questions in the common section, and I`ll see what I can do.

Home-stay Fun

So I got picked up at 10 am on Saturday to begin my homestay. The mother picked me up and brought me back to their house, which is a nice quaint Japanese house. There house in a district of Kanazawa called 寺町 or "temple village." There are over 70 temples and shrines in the small area of Kanazawa.

She then took me to the Kutani Kosen pottery kiln and museum, where I had a nice tour (in Japanese) of the kiln and saw some skillful Japanese artists making bowls out potting wheels. Afterwards, we painted a souvenier from the potters' wheels. On the way there and back, we saw many temples and traditional Japanese stuff.

We then headed back to the college to pick up my host sister and her friend because there was a school wide test for first year students that they were at. We ate a lunch of ざるそば or cold noodles. I then showed them pics of home and my trip so far, which I think they all enjoyed. They were really excited by my sister's wedding on the cruise boat and such.

We headed to the supermarket to pick up meat for dinner, and when we got back, we hung out for a while, and then started that. May I say delicious! They had these large hot plates where we cooked all sorts of meat and veggies right in front of us. It was sooooo good! After the meat, we moved on to grilling up some noodles as well. I ate so much, but it was so yummy! I couldn't believe how much everyone else was eating as well.

You have to understand at this point, that I was the きょ人 or giant for the two days. I think the next tallest person in my homestay family might have been up to my shoulder. They were a pretty large family though - 3 generations in the same house; a grandma, grandpa, mother and daughter and they were all stick-tiny. I so felt that I needed to shrink around them.

When my stomach was busting full though, they could still eat more food. It amazed me.

After we ate dinner, we walked to the コンビ二 or convenience store where my host sister worked to meet her friend and pick up some snacks (like I needed to eat anything else).

We came back to hang out and snack on the Japanese snacks while admiring my host sisters room. Then we took turns in the family's bath, and then met the grandparents friends. I did the whole presentation of the pictures again for their visitors, and then we sat around, and they brought out some watermelon for yet another snack.

Watermelon in Japan is really expensive. One large watermelon is normally over 30 dollars so I was surprised when they brought it out. Fruit is a treat in Japan and boy does it taste good when you get it. The Japanese love fruit but they don't have enough land to raise it so it's really expensive. Yummy!! (once again, like I needed more food at that point).

The two girls and I hung out and stayed up until around 11 pm, snacking, watching tv, and making origami. When it was time for bed, we put down two futons in my host sister's room besides the bed. They were gracious in letting me have the bed, which was really nice, but with the two other futons in the room, there was absolutely no floor space to move in. So we had a little Japanese sleepover.

I woke up in the morning about 730 (because I can't sleep in in a foreign bed), but they were still asleep, so I forced myself to stay there. It was so hot!!! By the time, I had to get up to go to the bathroom, I was dripping in sweat (I saw the temperature gauge say 30 degrees celsius, which is 86 degrees farenheit and even worse because there was no breeze in the room and the humidity was at about 85%). I felt bad because then once I went down to the bathroom, my host mother went and woke them up.

We then ate a large (as Japanese breakfasts are) breakfast. I had toast with strawberry jam - another luxury and oranges (another luxury). We didn't end up eating until around 10, and when we were ready to go somewhere around noon, we walked to two temples in the area for tours, and then we drove to another larger temple.

After the temple sight-seeing, we went to Choco's, a "Californian" restaurant, for lunch at about 3 pm. I got some meet that was cooked in foil with all the juices and sauces and such making it as tender and yummy as can be with a baked potato and bread. Oh, it was so yummy. I haven't really been craving American food, but this hit the spot. They insisted on getting me desert as well, so I got some caramel crepes with ice cream. Magnificent!

Which brings me to the topic, why don't we have crepe stores in America? Crepes are so delicious and more healthy than other deserts because they have real fruit in them. Japan has them and they are a lot farther away then we are from France! I've at least had 4 crepes since coming to Japan, and now I'm mad that when I go back to Rose, I won't have any more, unless I talk the French club into letting me borrow their crepe maker!

They then dropped me back off at my dorm, and I've been catching up on blogs, writing a report, and this since.

The homestay was an awesome experience. I really enjoyed getting to know another Japanese family!

I'm really sorry I write so much about everything - I'm a real blabber mouth, but I like to think some people enjoy it.

Karaoke and the weekend

Yesterday was the normal day of classes and tests that Thursday entails. Japanese for Science and Technology is proving to be a hard class because we're expected to read technical writings in Japanese and actually comprehend them when I'm not familiar with over half the words, but eh, I'll be fine.

Last night, we went to a karaoke parlor. In Japan, going to Karaoke is a bit different then in America. There are whole businesses dedicated to karaoke. You rent a room and get two mic's. Everyone just sits around the table and chooses songs out of telephone book-size catalogs.

I enjoyed singing my heart out again cause I haven't been doing that much lately - no choir in Japan. The Japanese students were great and so cute when they tried to sing in English. It was bunches of fun!

We had to ride bikes rented from an international club here, and then we road down the narrow sidewalks to go there. The bikes are road bikes - you have to go fast to keep balanced, but we went in a group so we were all following the person in front close behind so it made it really interesting. We finally finished our singing around 2 am, so riding a bike on a Japanese street at that time is definitely an interesting experience.

Today, we only had two hour of class in the morning. I still don't know what I'll be doing the rest of the day.

Saturday, we're going to do homestays. I'll be spending two days and one night with a Japanese family. I met the mother a week ago, and it sounds like we'll have a good time. She didn't speak much English at all, so it'll really test my Japanese. The funny thing is their whole family is relaly small. She was probably about at my elbow. I'm sure she weighs half of what I do, so it'll be interesting in pictures, I'm sure. I'm not really sure what we'll be doing for the time. I guess we'll see.

Thanks to mom for the glasses and the cookies!!!! You're awesome!!

Rose peeps : I miss you!!!

A little bit of blog games

So for all the people who are reading my blog as their first blog-reading experience, excuse this brief break from my travels in Japan (scroll down to the next article-thingy - it's new). For all of you others, I've been tagged, so I'll go ahead and tag someone else.

List five songs that you are currently digging ... it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words or even if they're any good but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artist and the song in your blog along with your five songs. Then tag five other people to see what they're listening to.

Okay, I'm going to cheat because the only song I'ver really been digging since I've come to Japan is this one random song that I hear in a lot of stores and restaurants, but I have yet to find out its singer or title. So, I chose the songs that were first to come to my head when I got tagged and what I've been listening to since then. Anyway(in no particular order - order depends on my mood) . . .

1) Opening sequence from "Rent"
2) Cell Block Tango from "Chicago"
3) Think of Me from "Phantom of the Opera"
4) Master of the House from "Les Miserables"
5) Jacob and Sons from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (It's been one of my favorites since I was like 5).

1. Jesseca (you can leave it in my comment section)
2. Nancy
3. Brittany
4. Witt
5. Rabbi

Sorry, it was hard to choose the 5, but I left out a lot of you who often say it in your blog . . .

There's stuff from today on the post below.

An elementary school in Japan

Well, today with the culture class we went to a Japanese elementary school. We were greeted by the principal and as always took off our shoes before entering the building. We were shown up to the washitsu or the traditional Japanese style room. Here in a large building of classes and such, there's suddenly a room with traditional tatami and shoji screens . . . weird? I think so, but that's the Japanese way. In our walking from the front to the washitsu, kids stopped what they were doing to yell and laugh at us. It kind of felt like being a fish in a fish bowl.

After arriving in the washitsu, we obtained nametags and split up into pairs to go and meet some fifth graders. It was basically split up so that a pair of American students were with 5 or so Japanese 5th graders. They did quick introductions in English, where they said their name and that's about it, and then they showed us scenes around Kanazawa. We were supposed to guess what they were. They were actually pretty simple, but don't tell the fifth graders that. Then they showed us how to do origami to make a ninja star. They were so cute!

After origami, some of the other groups had already wandered out of the classroom, so we followed their lead and went to the gym. Here we practiced throwing our ninja stars (I admit, mine didn't fly very well.) Then the teacher's decided to organize basketball games. 4 American students vs. about 10-15 Japanese 5th graders - Scary? I think so. There were so many of them all over, but luckily the height advantage let us get a two-pointer. The kids were really good at moving the ball around, but when it came to scoring they beat us 4 to 2, so the little kids still beat us, but that was how we wanted it to end.

Then we went back for a "break" in the washitsu, but it ended up that the kids were having a break too, so it wasn't a very relaxing one. I think every single first grader climbed up the stairs to the room we were in so they could gawk at us. They yelled and screamed at us for the entire 10-minute break. They had a lot of fun with the student with green hair, who we've nicknamed midori-chan. I don't think teachers would allow kids to be that loud in an American school, but I honestly don't think the Japanese teachers even noticed. There's a lot less rules in their elementary schools. I think the kids learn responsibility for themselves somehow through it.

After the break, we headed to the 6th grade classroom where one of us did an introduction, and we showed them the hokey-pokey (Its been a while since I've done it - I think I might have to get people doing it again!) The kids thought we were so funny when we were turning ourselves about.

Then we split into groups to learn about different parts of Japanese culture. We headed to a room with caligraphy sets set up. The kids in our group did self introductions - this time with what they liked to do as well (these were 6th graders this time). Then they had us practice our caligraphy skills. Thanks to Mrs. Semba, I think they were pretty impressed at my elementary caligraphy. They also offered to make our names into kanji (the third alphabet in Japanese based off of Chinese). I already had it, but they had a fun time trying to change my partner's name.

We practiced quite a bit, and they gave us pointers. After a while, it was time to head back to the washitsu for a short break before an observation of some of the classes. We then headed back to campus, lunch, and then 2 hours of classes followed by a project meeting and dinner. That's about it. I promise I'll stop writing so much daily soon. It will become more boring and more classes and not much else soon. I have a homestay Saturday and Sunday this weekend, and I think after that, the schedule doesn't goof around as much and we are forced to study bunches.

Nighty night!

The weekend in Kyoto

So, I know that this will end up being long, so let's see how successful I can be at breaking it down.

Thursday

So, after classes on Thursday, Robyn, Phil, and I went back to our rooms to pack up our single backpack full of stuff for the weekend. Once we were ready, we headed to the bus stop in front of the college, and took a bus from the college to the kanazawa station. We found something to eat at the station, and then caught our bus from the station to Kyoto. It was basically like a greyhound bus, but with JR - the company that has a monopoly on all Japanese mass transportation. Within the four-hour drive, they stopped at rest stops every hour or so.

Once we arrived at Kyoto station, we went and searched out our first hotel which was a few blocks from the station. It was a ryokan - a Japanese-style inn. There were tatami rooms, where we slept on futons, and the bath was japanese style, but luckily was for private use. It was a really cute little place, and the hotel people were really nice.

Friday

In the morning, we headed off back to the station to meet for our tour with Johnny Hillwalker. He gives walking tours to foreigners in English. We walked from Kyoto station to near Kiyomizu temple. He showed us a few temples and shrines and a garden and a good view of the in-home industry in Japan. We saw fan-makers, tatami-makers, pottery-makers, and many other products made in the homes of Kyoto. He was very knowledgeable of religion and culture in Japan, so it was nice to hear information from a real Japanese man. In the tour, we not only went in the world's largest wooden building, but we stood under the heaviest bell. Also, we saw the former headquarters of Nintendo when it was making Japanese playing cards. I suggest the tour to anyone who visits Kyoto.

After the tour, we found our new hotel to drop off our backpacks (because they were killing us by then). It was realy cute. It was Japanese dorm-style. Robyn and I were in a dorm with 6 other ladies in a tatami style room, and Phil was in the guy dorm. After dropping off our bags, we searched out somewhere to eat on our way up to Kiyomizu-dera (dera=temple). It's a Buddhist temple up in the hills surrounding Kyoto. It gives great views of the city, and it's water is supposedly very pure, so we had a drink from their fountain. There were also a 3-story pagoda, and a few other temples and shrines in the area that we wandered around.

When it was getting time for the temples to be closing, we hit up the shops on the way back down, but they were closing really quickly so we ended up not getting much. (Just so you know, stores in Japan close at 730 and if they are around temples, probably around 6) So we headed down to the area of Gion to search out some Geisha. We saw a few running from one place to another, but the bugs were getting bad and we were tired, so we headed back to the hotel for a shower and sleep.

Saturday

In the morning, we got up and walked to a bus station to grab a bus to Nijo-jo (the second jo=castle). It's the old castle of Kyoto. It has a palace with nightingale floors that squeak when you walk on them. We wandered around the castle and the garden for a while.

It was here, I think, that we discovered the wonderful concept of Bench touring. With bookbags full of stuff and walking from place to place to save money, we soon found ourselves exhausted pretty quickly in the 85 degree weather with 95% humidity or so. The heat makes you crazy hot in no time. Also, because I've been hang-drying my clothes with cheap laundry-detergent, my clothes are all starchy and feel horrible in the heat. Because of all this, we developed this new form of sight-seeing. It involves going to quite a few places, but in the process, finding many places to sit down and camp out. We sat on benches, ditches, edges of hundreds of years old palaces. We sat around for about 15 minutes or so at each place, until we felt revived enough to move on. It's a great way to get around.

After Nijo-jo, we headed to Kyoto cheapest inn, our hotel for the night (seriously, that's its name). It had about 10 bunk-beds in about the smallest room that you could imagine that many being in. There were many random people staying there - scary Germans, some crazy-looking Americans, little Japanese ladies that ran in before bed and left before everyone else because most likely, she was just as scared as we were of the foreigners.

Anyway, after dropping off our bags at the inn, we walked to Kyoto Imperial Palace Park. It's a large park around the imperial palace. The park is public, and seems to be a common visit for people from Kyoto since there is very little other green areas with trees and grass around. We did a lot of bench touring there, as there were many benches around, and the park is about a mile wide. We walked the long length of it, but it took us about 3 hours because we took lots of breaks.

After walking across the very large park in central kyoto, we wandered out back into the city. With more benching, we wandered into stores and such.

By the way, if you need a contact case, don't look in Japan. Even though a large majority of them have contacts, I guess most of them were hard, which apparently now have different cases in Japan than soft. I had forgotten my contact case when packing for Kyoto, and so I had been looking for one all day. We found some in a couple of stores, but they were all around 900 yen (about $9!!). I finally found one for a bargain of 840 yen that I gave up and bought cause I couldn't do without it.

We walked down the street and wandered in the area until we randomly turned onto an alleyway that became a large walking mall. About 3 or 4 blocks of streets in that area were walking streets dedicated to all the different stores you could imagine. We did some shopping, ate some dinner, and some crepes for dessert in that area. It was really funny though, because inbetween the stores, you would randomly see a buddhist temple or multiple shinto shrines. It was crazy to see the old and the new so close together.

While heading back to the hotel, we decided we wanted to try pachinko, the gambling game of Japan. We wandered into a parlor, and while we were trying to figure out how to play, we were approached by a Japanese man who said "Japanese only" and motioned for us to leave. We were discriminated against because we were white! Hehe! No fee money for them!

After exhausting ourselves, we wandered back to the inn to take a shower and head to bed in our 3X3X5 ft area that we called our own for the night (one part of a bunk bed). That hotel was definitely an experience to remember.

Sunday

In the morning, I was able to grab the computer for a second to put up a short post, telling everyone I was still alive.

Then we headed out back into the city of Kyoto. We caught a bus that took us up from central Kyoto to North-western kyoto (our first bus since coming to the city). We went to see Kinkaku-ji, AKA the golden pavilion. As before, it was beautiful and glorious, but at the same time, packed with foreigners so much so that it took us a while to find a few places to bench at. Finally, we found a spot, and people-watched for a while. We enjoyed watching people go by, laughing at the other foreigners going by and noticing random things. While benching, we were approached by these middle-school Japanese kids from Tokyo who asked to talk with us. They were so cute! They had to talk to some foreigners on their trip for their English class so we answered a few of their questions and took pictures with them. It was so random!

After Kinkaku-ji, we headed towards another temple that we planned to go to and looked out for lunch. Yay for ramen! On the way there, we took lots of bench stops and at one point, it was really weird because at one point we were in the city, and the next it seemed we were wandering in the mountains of Japan. With the backpack and heat and all, it felt like philmont all over again.

We made it to the temple, and we benched for about 2 hours there. They had a 5-story pagoda along with numerous other temples and such. We took lots of pictures, and we watched foreigners as they put trash in the wrong trash cans and depurified the water meant to purify people before they pray at shrines. Thanks to Johnny Hillwalker, we knew better.

After the temple, we took our 3rd bus back to Kyoto station, where we tried for about 45 minutes to get to the south side of it. It seems that no one in kyoto wants to go south of the station - only the north part of the city is important?? We ended up walking the streets in the area until we found one that went over the endless tracks of trains leading into and out of the station. I think we must have walked a mile out of our way.

After much strain and hardship, we found our hotel around 5. We checked in. This was another ryokan but this is a newer-style ryokan, in that the tatami were made out of plastic instead of the normal dried grass. We had a private room in this one, which actually consisted of 2 tatami rooms a toilet room, and a bathroom. It's actually a lot like our rooms at KIT, just newer. We followed the directions of the nice man at the reception desk suggested for Japanese food. It was our first real restaurant in Japan, in that we were shown to our seats by a waiter and waited upon. It was a little pricy but yummy anyway.

Afterwards, we just went back to the ryokan because we didn't dare try and go to the north side of the station and get stuck again. We watched the Haunted Mansion and Anger Management with Japanese subtitles, and basically relaxed and had a relaxing night.

Monday - almost done, I promise

We grabbed breakfast at the combini across the street. (Its a convenience store - basically like the inside of a gas station without the gas and car stuff. They are on every block in Japan.) We then followed the directions of the reception desk man to go under the station to get to the other side. Who would have thought that you need to go to basement 1 (not 2, mind you) from a department store on one side to get to the other side of the station.

We headed to Kyoto tower, because it was the only real plan we had for today. Kyoto tower looks like a spaceship. (Look at a picture of it off of google!) We saw the city and all the places we had visited. It was nice to go there at the end of the trip, so we could retrace our steps and find some of our hotels and such from the tower. I took lots of pictures, and we benched on the floor for a while because there were no benches in the tower. We then wandered around Kyoto station and it's multiple floors and the mall in under the streets to find somewhere to eat.

We finally found someplace that a lot of Japanese were going in and out of. We were looking for cheap Japanese food - so this was a good thing. They were making udon at the front of the shop from scratch. I got udon cause it was the cheapest thing on the menu, and it was super yummy.

We then wandered up the escalators of kyoto station, and ended up at what might have been the 12th floor. It was awesome. That station is amazing! I took bunches more pictures.

We benched around the station for the rest of the time until our bus came to take us back to Kanazawa. We finally got to Kanazawa and finished our expensive weekend by eating some 189 yen ramen.

I've been eating carbs a whole bunch this weekend because everything else was too expensive. I'm glad to be back on campus so I can get lots of cheap college food. Yay! I'm really getting used to living here even though I miss all my friends from Rose. I miss my puppy and pets too but at least I got to pet a doggy at the final ryokan. I'm going to have glasses that are all in one piece again soon - thanks mommy!

Well, I better get to other stuff cause class starts full-off tomorrow! Sorry about the length - I'll try and give you guys a couple of days to catch up.

Having a blast

Well, I only have a second just to tell everyone I`m still alive in Kyoto. Today we`re going to see Kinkaku-ji. We developed a new way of tourism called bench sight-seeing which is absolutely great! To see what I`ll be doing in the next few days, see the last post.

I HEART you all!!

Off to an adventure

So, after a short week of lots of studying (geesh, I never knew I could possibly do this much Japanese in a day), we're going to have a 4-day weekend break. Now, in my realistic thinking, I don't know how I could possibly not go somewhere. The chance to go to Japan and see these sights are few and far between, so I decided that I'd go with Phil and Robyn somewhere.

After lots of deliberation, we decided on Kyoto. It is one of Japan's old capitals that was kept from war raids during WWII due to all of it's national treasures and heritage. I went there the first time I went to Japan, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. For larger cities, it's the closest which means that it costs the least.

Here are our plans:
Thursday-
3:15 pm class lets out for the weekend
6 pm board bus at Kanazawa Station
10 pm arrive at Kyoto Station
walk to ryokan (Japanese style inn) for the night.

Friday-
10 am walking tour from Hajime Hirooka, also known as Johnny Hillwalker - he takes people around Kyoto for ￥2000, and he shows us gardens, temples, and shrines.
3 pm tour ends around Kiyomizu-dera, a famous temple in Kyoto, that I visited the last time I came
After shopping and such, we'll head to Gion, a geisha district, to see a view of the old Japan.
We're spending the night at Gojo guest house (essentially a youth hostel)

Saturday-
Seeing Nijo-jo castle and the area around that
We're spending the night at Kyoto Cheapest Inn (It sells a tatami mat size bed for about $10 a night)

Sunday-
Seeing Kinkaku-ji (the golden temple - saw it last time - magnificent) and Northern Kyoto
Heading back to the station early to stay at a ryokan. They have a puppy! Yay! And they offer a traditional Japanese dinner for around $30 and a traditional Japanese breakfast for $10. It's a little expensive, but it is a sample of Japanese traditional life that I have always wanted to experience.

Monday -
Spending the area around the station, and getting on the bus around 2 pm to head back to Kanazawa.

I'm really excited about this trip. I have planned many trips around Japan for classes, and it's exciting because I'm actually doing this one. For one, it's a real step of independence because I'm going out into a foreign country with very little support besides two other American students who have about the same knowledge of Japanese as I. Also, we are spending every night at a different place, which means we will be literally living out of our backpacks. It'll be like backpacking in a city! It's going to end up costing quite a bit even though we are staying the night at some of the cheapest hostels possible, but I think it sounds like a good adventure. I'd be worried if I was on my own, but since I have Phil and Robyn with me, I'm not so worried.

So, I'd better get back to studying for tomorrow, but after that, I'll be gone for a bit, so I'll leave time for everyone to catch up reading, since apparently I write too much . . .

Sayonara!
I miss you all!
Mom, you're awesome!

Back to the school part

Well, I guess I'm finally getting used to these futon things. I was able to sleep in until 10 on Sunday. After finally setting on some Ramen to eat, we went back to working on homework most of the day. About 5, we headed to the city to see a Noh play. Now, I guess I don't understand enough Japanese to understand this type of play, which made it a little hard to stay interested for 2 and a half hours, but it was a cultural experience. It was hosted by the Noh school in Kanazawa, so it started off with some little kids performing Noh which was really cute. Once we got into the real Noh play, elaborate costumes shined in the lit stage in front of the Kanazawa Castle gate. It was really a site to see.

We got crepes on the way back to the bus stop. Yumm! Crepes in Japan are delicious! They're worth the trip alone.

The buses were near the end of their routes, so we hopped on a bus number that normally takes us back to campus. For some reason, it never announced our stop, so we just kept riding, hoping it would turn around and go back toward campus. Eventually the bus driver stopped and essentially said this is the end of the line, and so we started to get off. I guess he took pitty on us Americans though (because there aren't very many of us in Kanazawa) and he took us a little closer to campus where we would recognize where we were. It was really nice of him since he was off-shift and all, but I guess that goes with the normal actions of any service in Japan.

Monday was full of 5 hours of classes, and lots of studying for today because I have 2 vocab quizes, each over about 20-35 words, and a dialogue quiz. I better get back to studying and head to class.

Toodles!

An Interesting Couple of Days

Maybe I gave the warning a little too early that things would die down . . . this weekend so far has been quite eventful. Sorry for the length!!

We had our unit quiz on Thursday. I didn’t know everything perfectly, but I’m sure I did well enough to pass, which is all that really matters in this course. We luckily got her to agree to spread the unit quizzes out over each day so there is less to memorize per day, so that will hopefully be pretty helpful. Thursday was pretty uneventful and after a day at class, we went to a ramen store. Ramen in Japan is so much better than the instant ramen we make at home. It normally has some type of meat and veggies along with it, and the broth tastes a lot better. The best part is that I can get a big bowl of ramen that always fills me up for only 185 yen (less than $2).

Afterwards, I headed back to my room because I had gotten into the climax of 1984 and I felt that I had to finish reading it. Comments on the book – I liked it all the way through, but I could care less for the ending. After finishing 1984, I went to the lounge where the SGE students and my fellow students were watching some type of Japanese old samurai movie. It was really funny. I came late to it though, so I have no idea what its name is.

Friday, I woke up and packed for our trip to Anamizu. We had a short culture class in the morning and then we got on a bus to spend an overnight stay in Anamizu. Kanazawa is on the edge of a fairly large peninsula, and Anamizu is a town that is farther up on the island area of the peninsula. KIT has a training facility there. (Don’t ask me what they use it to train for at an institute of technology, but who knows?!?)

We first rode the bus to Daijo-ji, a Buddhist temple in Kanazawa. It was over 300 years old with ornate Japanese architecture. It was beautiful. The monks of the temple gave us a tour around the temple, and showed us their Buddha house which is a national treasure or something. It was beautiful. After the tour, we had a tutoring session with the head monk on how to perform “sanzen” (a type of meditation).

Every part of the meditation had certain rules on how to do it. There was a certain way to get up onto the raised platform of tatami where the sanzen was performed. Also there was bowing a turning and hopping and all sorts of fun stuff. The proper way to sit for meditation is where you are cross-legged with your feet over your thighs. While we meditated, we were supposed to essentially not pay any heed to the world and let the sounds go in one ear and out the other.

It was a really neat experience. The monks really tried to have us achieve a good idea of what the life was like there, and it was really neat how they gave up their lives to be as they were. They start sanzen every morning at 4 am. There is no closing of eyes in sanzen either, so sleeping is strictly forbidden. They actually have a monk that walks around with a stick in case you fall asleep. We only did it for about 5-10 minutes, but you really got a taste of it.

Next, we got back on the charter bus to head to Anamizu until we stopped about an hour later at Nanao Fisherman’s wharf. It was basically a Japanese style mall with a fish market on the first floor. I got a ramune bottle, which makes me happy. The place reeked of fish, which doesn’t particularly strike my fancy, but it was a nice break from the bus ride.

After getting on the bus again and riding for another hour or so, we arrived at the compound. The rodes were so interesting, because these islands are made out of volcanoes and therefore there is no beach, it goes from mountain right into the sea. There’s no coast and no flat area for roads. The whole ride was with a mountain on one side and the sea on the other – very pretty.

We arrived at Anamizu and bowed ourselves in. This place is so traditional Japanese. Once we came inside, we took off our shoes and placed them in cubby holes and traded them with slippers to use inside. In our room, there were 3 bunk beds, 6 lockers, and a 3-matt tatami floor. The toilets were all Japanese style – a hole in the ground with flushing capabilities, practically. And when you entered the toilet room (because it’s not really a bathroom or a restroom), you had to change into different slippers.

Once we partially moved in, we had a welcoming meeting, where we were told of our responsibilities while being there. Because the compound has a small staff, we would clean everything ourselves. Everything down to folding the blankets and making our beds was very regimental. After the meeting, we had free time in which my group just sat around on the tatami and talked.

Once the SGE students came, the fun began. We helped them move quickly, and then we moved down to the sea edge to have a “barbeque”. It was very Japanese style – so much seafood that I’d never even consider eating, but there was also some good stuff for us. BEEF – gosh, there’s no beef in this country, I swear, but gosh, did it taste good off the grill. As well as corn and chicken and unions. Yummy. I spent the whole time grilling just because I enjoyed it, and I like the small chat you get to talk to while you’re busy. I don’t like the awkward silences we get when trying to talk to the Japanese students, and if you’re both busy or giving out food or something, it’s much more easy to relax and have a good time.

The barbeque was really fun, and in the Japanese style, we cleaned up after ourselves afterward. You have no idea how fast things can get done until you ask a group of Japanese students to clean up. They’ve been cleaning up after themselves for their whole lives and you can tell. Right from elementary school, they begin help cleaning the school every day. I’ve never seen an area cleaned up so quickly.

I didn’t notice until we went back inside how much I reeked of fish. I hadn’t noticed it by the grill and I didn’t eat any fish, but the cooking of the fish definitely showed on my clothes and me. I was ready for a shower. One problem – in this compound, everything is Japanese style, including the baths, which means they are public! At least there was no mixing of genders, but I definitely felt a little uncomfortable for a while. The bath felt nice though – like a hot tub.

Afterwards, we went over to someone else’s room for games a Japanese snacks. One of my SGE roommates had brought Japanese snacks to share and we played “batsu” (punishment) games. If you lost and you were a guy, we got to paint your fingernails, and if you were a girl, you had to eat some really hot snacks. I got lucky and never lost, but I painted a few fingernails, hehe. Tried a few yummy Japanese snacks as well, so it was a good night.

We were woken up at 630 by a PA announcement that was one of the longest I’ve heard ever. I swear the music lasted at least 5 minutes. I guess there’s no snooze button at the compound. We headed down to the gym at 7 for a traditional morning meeting. We did “rajio taiso” (morning exercises) as a group, which was essentially a series of stretches that most Japanese do at their school or office to start off their day. I hadn’t done it since Mrs. Semba’s class in high school, and it was a nice little exercise.

After rajio taiso, it was time for our cleaning chores. Each room was assigned to a specific area to clean. Our room got the “ofuro” or bathroom, so we got to spray it down and squiji (sp?) it clean. Afterwards, we went up to our room to fold our blankets properly for inspection.

Finally it was time for breakfast, and luckily there was some bread besides the traditional Japanese breakfast, which normally involves some kind of soup, salad, fish or eggs. I got to make some toast, which was excellent. Then it was time to head for our culture class for the day (yes, it is a Saturday and we did have to have class because we’re in Japan). The class was on religion in Japan, and I had a lot of trouble staying awake, but so did the SGE students as well, so it was quite humorous.

After the lecture was finally over, we got to head back down by the sea for a bay cruise. We took lots of pictures, and the boat was very nice. It was like any other bay cruise of the liking, and the scenery was very close to any other cruise along a not so populated area. We saw two different bridges, which they made sure to point out because one of our projects is to make a bridge with a Japanese partner that we’ve been paired up with.

Then it was time for lunch after we got back. Of course, it was curry, which I don’t really like so I had a large lunch of rice for a meal. Sometimes I’m too picky for my own good, but I’m getting better, and it was just the spiciness that got me this time. I ate a little, but then my mouth was burning and I had to go buy a drink.

Soon it was time to head back to KIT. We had only one bus on the way here because the SGE students had to come up later, but this time we had two buses to take us back, and we could ride either, mixing the students. We ended up on the Japanese bus because Americans all save their seats really early. It was really fun on the way back. We played a card game with them that I’m sure I’ve played before in the states, but I don’t know what it’s called, but in following with all my card training, I did pretty well at shocking the Japanese students with my playing skills.

In the middle of the bus ride, we stopped at a rest stop, where I got the type of ice cream that I had gotten the time the bird stole it, and it was very good, in its entirety this time. We then got back on the bus and Robyn and I decided to do a bit of studying. The Japanese students had fun trying to help us on elementary shapes and terms, and they teased us about the dialogue that we had to practice. They were a lot of fun.

After we arrived back at KIT, it was time to head out for the Hyakumangoku festival, a historical annual festival in Kanazawa. There was supposed to be a parade with Odori dancers, but because it was rainy, it was canceled, but of course, we didn’t find this out until we had already spent the 330 yen to get to downtown Kanazawa. We decided to go down the roads and roads of food tents that were set up for the events and grab supper. It was like the midway, with lots of yummy foods that are for fair-like things. It was really fun going down the sidewalks and ordering random foods from the vendors.

We were hoping to head to karaoke after grabbing dinner but the leaders of the group decided not to because it was too expensive because it was a holiday weekend. Hopefully, we’ll have another chance. While most of the group headed back to campus, Robyn and I wandered around for a little through the stores. There was one store that was solely devotes to selling socks! Nothing else – just socks. It was amazing, and we had walked by it before, but this was our first chance to go in. I bought the cutest socks ever, and you’ll have to ask me to see them sometime! We found out that on a Saturday night in Kanazawa, everything closes at 8 so we were kind of forced to head back around then.

We took a bus back to campus, but it didn’t really go all the way back to campus, and we were lucky to have found campus from where we were, but we did it. I think Robyn and I are getting pretty good at getting around Japan together. Knowing more the spoken and written language definitely helps, and it really encourages us to keep up our studying!

Well, off to more events of the night . . . maybe, sleep!

I miss you all!!

3 days down . . . about 27 to go . . .

So, tomorrow morning I go onto my fourth day of classes. I have a unit quiz in language class where I`m supposed to have 10 dialogues memorized. I don`t know who can possibly memorize these word for word, but I`ve started to give up on the possibility. I also have a computer term quiz in the Japanese for Science and Technology.

One of my friends was put into a lower level than me and she asked to move up, and today they told her that the language class isn`t so much harder, but the Japanese for Science and Technology class will be really hard with long readings assigned each night. So they gave her the choice of changing or not. Do we get a choice? No, which I probably wouldn`t change away from class 3 anyway, but it seems the work load is already large enough without all the readings in Japanese and the projects that are soon to come. My point here is to learn as much as possible. I just hope they grade easily. I really only have to pass to get credit, so I might just go for the passing at 60%.

I`m kind of running out of things to blog about. Now that we`ve been in class 4-5 hours a day with hours of homework to do besides, I don`t really have much that is interesting to write about. The most exciting time of most of these days is going to meals, and what next will be put on my plate. The only thing I can put on here would be a journal that I`m writing anyway for culture class. It`s just random observations I`m making on differences in the culture from America to Japan. If you guys would like to read that, just to make sure I`m alive and all, comment and I`ll start putting those up as blogs.

An interesting thing happened to me today. I had gotten some ice cream after lunch (oh, how Japanese food makes me crave sugar afterwards . . . ) and we decided to walk around a bit outside before our next class started in a few minutes. Suddenly something swifted by my shoulder and flew out in front of me. It freaked me out. It was a large hawk, maybe an eagle, that was at least a foot to maybe a foot and a half tall. After I had gotten over the surprise of a bird flying that close to me; I swear it could have landed on my shoulder, I looked to take another bite of my ice cream, and it was gone!!!!! The eagle had come down, grabbed the ice cream out of my hand and flown away to enjoy its prey! I hadn`t even noticed that the wrapper was empty until after it had flown away. I think the Japanese around me were laughing inside, but we just started out bursting out laughing. We couldn`t stop laughing for about a half an hour, and the laughs continued into class. I found out a few minutes later from a British lady who is there for some reason that this happens all the time, and all the students are watching out for their food if they are outside. I feel like a performer in a bird show as the large hawk comes and takes food from my hand . . . but this hawk was wild.

Oh, if you out of curiosity want to know what time it is here, add two hours to the current time and put it in the next set of 12 hours. For example, if it`s 9 pm in Indiana time, then it`s 11 am here the next day.

We also met our partners today for another part of the Japanese for Science and Technology. We are going to have a bridge building contest between pairs of one Japanese student and one American student. My partner seems awesome. She is also in a more technical field of study than civil so I doubt we do fantastically. Why are they always civil projects? I`m a biomedical / mechanical engineer - I do things that MOVE. Okay, enough of the rant on civil engineering projects - I better go memorize some dialogues.

Toodles!

First day of classes

To answer Jesseca's request. I do have an address, but I'm not too fond of putting that on the internet for anyone to read and send who knows what to me. So, if you want my address, send me an email to my school address, and I'll reply back with my address.

So, today was my first day of 6 weeks of classes. After eating a bit of breakfast in my room, I headed for my first two hours of class. This was Japanese Commmunication II, a two-credit hour course of intense pure Japanese speaking. My teacher handed out syllabi and other random papers. I hope I was rightly placed into this course. She speaks in Japanese all the time, and there often words that I don't know. I guess that's the whole point. Instead of like how a normal class goes, in our class we are going to focus purely on speaking communication. We aren't going to spend a lot of time on grammar, but instead, we're going to practice what we know and how to use it in different situations. It seems like I'll learn the most this way, but I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to keep up. She wants us to speak purely in Japanese, which I know is good for learning, but it's frustrating at times when you don't know how to say what you want. Plus, I'm not very good at using what I know to put the words into my head into words in Japanese, so it can be frustrating at times, but I'm sure I'll be fine.

After 2 hours of class where we went over at least a page of terms that we had come across and what we wanted to know, we headed to the cafeteria for a quick lunch. I just ate some soba, but I was pretty full afterwards. I found out at lunch that the other two classes were reviewing over stuff that I definitely did know, so maybe I was placed in the right level.

We then headed to the culture class in another building. This classes pure aim is to teach us about the culture about Japan, and we have to keep a daily journal of culture observations that we make during our stay. Our teacher is a lady who was born and raised in Japan, but then she went to college and then stayed 30 years in the US. She studied anthropology in America, and she seems to be a very interesting person. She seems to have a good idea of the culture differences in Japan and it will be interesting to ask her questions on culture differences that we come about.

Then it was study time. I had to write journals for the culture class as well as learn 14 terms for Japanese Communication and learn 20 or so terms for the technical Japanese class. I also still have yet to practice dialogues with my partner for Japanese Communication.

After a bit of studying, we head to a restaurant to eat. We went to the same restaurant as I had the chicken katsu at before. I guess it's called Kasanchi. I got something that looked good on somebody else's plate. I asked what it was and found out its called karage. So I ordered it, and was karage with rice. Of course, I find out that it was fried pork after I ate it, but that's how life is in Japan.

Then I came back and wrote some and did some homework and such.

Sightseeing in Kanazawa

For the rest of last night -

Robyn and I couldn't find anyone so we went to look for a meal ourselves. Luckily, we found some other 外人 (foreigners) that are also in the program standing outside a restaurant thinking about going in. We joined these students, who are from Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. We had fun deciphering the menu as a group and finally ordered after a bit. They said that it was a favorite restaurant of the local students, and I could see why. For 600 yen (a little less than 6 dollars), I got miso soup, rice, some cold soba, and a large piece of breaded chicken (katsu). It was excellently delicious, and I'll be sure to visit there again.

Somewhere after dinner, we went back to the dorm to check and see if the classes are up. I made it into the most advanced class!!! So I guess I didn't do too badly on the placement test. This of course means that I'll have the biggest challenge possible, but I'm up for it. I kind of miss being busy (Rose syndrome), so it'll be a welcomed change. I'll be in the class with Phil and some other Rose peeps, but sadly, Robyn was put into class 2. I think she should go talk to the teachers since she has had 5 years of Japanese as well, but she's going to wait it out a bit first.

After checking the class lists, Robyn and I randomly walked around Kanazawa, just looking around and not being duds. After remembering that I needed an alarm clock store, the search was on. You'd be surprised how hard it is to find an alarm clock in Japan. After a drug store and 2 supermarkets, we finally found one in a convenience store - for over 1000 yen!! So, I ended up paying about 10 dollars for a cheap alarm clock, but hey, I'll live.

We found our way back to the dorms and headed to bed kind of early.

Today we had completely off from school, and the SGE group organized sight-seeing for us. Now, just so everyone understands, in my 5 years of taking Japanese, I have done 2 reports on Kanazawa - one in high school and one in college. Because of this, I'm pretty knowledgeable of the sights around it, and I really wanted to go see everything. Because it's impossible to see everything in one day, we went to see Kenroku-en (Kenroku garden), a wagashi making store. and one other venue. I chose to see Ninja-dera (dera=temple even though its not really a temple).

First we went to Ninja-dera. It was a house made by an enemy of the lord of the time to allow for many secrets and quick exits. It reminded me a lot of the Haunted Castle for all of the Fort Wayne peeps out there. At the time when it was built, there was a law saying that no house could be above 3 stories, but in this house, there are 29 stair cases connecting 7 different "half" stories. It's really old, being moved to its current location in 1643. It has trap stairs, hidden stairs, an inside bridge for the tea ceremony, a lookout, a well that also served as a tunnel, a trick offertory box, and the light stairs. It was completely awesome!!

Next, we went to a supermarket to buy obento (boxed lunches). I grabbed some yakitori (grilled chicken with sauce on a skewer) and something that we like to call waffle balls (They were shaped like balls a little smaller than golfballs and they tasted like waffles.) I also got a pastry that looked like cinamon raisin with some icing on top.

We then went to the remains of the Kanazawa Castle. Not much really, only the gate is left, but its pretty magnificent itself. When I say gate, I don't mean a little gate. It has a name by itself - its the Ishikawa gate. We had our obento near a nice little garden with a pond.

Afterwards, we did a little shopping before heading to the wagashi making shop. Wagashi are Japanese sweats made from bean paste. In Japan, they are prized sweets that are normally particular to thea area. We went to the third floor of the shop, where they had demonstrations on how to make wagashi. It was fun cause it was like playing with play-doh that you could eat after you were done. We made 3 different designs of wagashi, and although mine didn't look like the teachers exactly, I think I still did pretty well.

After a little bit of time of buying stuff at the store under where we made the wigashi, we headed up to Kenrokuen Garden. Now, I've written two reports on Kanazawa and each of them were mostly on Kenrokuen Garden, so I'll give a little history. Kenrokuen is one of the three most beautiful man-made gardens in Japan. It's name is from a garden combining six themes of beauty. It's a 27-acre garden of green. It has waterfalls, fountains, bridges, streams, ponds, areas of different types of trees, and anything else you think of when you think green.

We walked around and took hundreds of pictures. Phil, Robyn, and I had lots of fun. After an hour or so, it was time to meet to leave. We met up with the rest of the group and headed off back to campus. We were all exhausted by this point from the heat and all the walking so we were ready to head back.

After a long wait for a bus and getting back to campus, we headed to a ramen store. I had ramen with rice, but there was so much ramen that I could barely finish all the rice or ramen broth. It was excellent and only 315 yen! Afterwards, I went and got some Jushi na Furutsu (Juicy Fruits) at the convenience store. They are like little balls of icy fruit. They were really yummy.

Well, that's about it. Then I came back here to write to you all.

Tomorrow's my first day of class. Hopefully, it'll go well, and I'll be able to understand the teacher adequately enough to learn. It seems like at times here, I feel like I know a lot more than most people, but then most of the time, I feel like everyone else knows far and above what I do. Hmm, we'll see. . . I'm sure I'll make it through. I always do!