Sunday, June 24, 2007
Geh this mac sucks!
Monday, June 18, 2007
So uncreative with titles
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Long time no blog!
Current thoughts on the trip: The best parts are my friends and host family. The worst part is I feel I'm learning a lot more outside of class than in (and geez the work is tough!). This weekend everyone's going to Noto while I go to Tokyo for my grandfather's memorial service. Hopefully I won't miss too much.
I feel like I know Kanazawa inside and out know. I don't even know my own neighborhood that well! I guess that's what happens when you use public transportation instead of have your parents drive you around. Last night I was thinking about the culture shock of staying inside a Japanese family's home. At first there were a lot of instances where I was like "they do what?" or "they don't have that?" but then I realized that the things that surprised me were just aspects different from the American suburban home. This is my first time not living with my family (well, aside from college) so that's more of a culture shock for me than being in Japan. I take for granted that everyone has a dishwasher or a backyard or central air conditioning when really I know so many people who don't. Those things aren't even normal in American cities!
One huge difference though between Japan and America is that Japanese people are always thinking about conservation. You hit a button to turn on the hot water and a lot of families have two cars - one energy-saver for short trips and then a normal (not minivanish) car for longer trips. Despite all the stuff we learned in elementary school, I feel like a lot of us don't pick up that mentality. I definitely have left an extraneous light on once or twice. I wonder if my habits will change once I come home?
Anyways that's my week! Now off to hang out with my friend at her house. Hope you're all having great summers too!
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
It's really hot in Kanazawa...
Cristina and I stayed a night in a Narita hotel and it was pretty chill (and easy to get to). They had my favorite Japanese band (The Back Horn) on TV so that made me happy, yay. Then, my uncle helped Cristina and me get to Kanazawa. He was really nice and helpful. This was my first time practicing Japanese in Japan and it went pretty well!
When we got to Kanazawa, we stayed in a hotel overnight and then I got to meet my host family the next day. They're so sweet and awesome! Very chill and sorta Americanish. I can also understand them pretty well and they can understand me. My mom's a girl scout leader and does lots of fun things in her free time. Last night we went to a 100-yen shop and then got some cake. Let me tell you, 100-yen shops are like the underrated secret of Japan! You can get plates, jewelry, pencils, dolls, clothes, everything! And way less creepy than the graffitied-up Family Dollar at Yale... So here's a photo of my host parents and me at Kenrokuen. When we went, they had a festival going on and these students were playing jazz music and singing gospel. VERY weird seeing gospel coming from a bunch of Japanese students in the middle of Japan's most beautiful garden.
PII went to Kenrokuen again yesterday. We did a really casual tea ceremony (ev
My worst experience so far: I had been hanging in Kourinbou (hip shopping district) on my own and I was waiting for the bus to go home. When it finally came, it just rushed past me so I waited about an hour to finally get on a bus. It seemed like the right number... but I knew something was wrong when I found us up in the mountains and me looking down on Ishikawa. Luckily I can sorta speak Japanese so I talked to the bus driver and got instructions to the closest stop that would take me home. The whole experience scared me to death (I'm awful at travel) but I eventually made it home, an hour late for dinner. Luckily my host family didn't care.
Wow I really babbled on and on there didn't I? Hehe to tell the truth, this was really a post where I wanted to put some fun photos on my blog. So I've supplemented it with lots of text too. This last photo is all of PII at the Ishikawa prefectural governmental doohickey place (can you spot the Wilma?). Ja mata! (The next time you here from me I will have seen the Back Horn in concert!!)
Monday, June 4, 2007
Now in Kanazawa!
Today can be the food post! I LOVE Japanese food. My mom's Japanese so I know Japanese food pretty well, though it's in America so it's obviously not the same. So being in Japan is like my mom's cooking times a million. Or like the food my mom eats that's too good to let me eat (sniff). I have yet to dislike a meal here. Luckily my host family's good at cooking too, though they're always surprised when I know what they're serving me. What especially surprised them was that I knew about nori, dried seaweed used with rice.
Here's the PII special breakfast we get served at the ANA hotel after we first arrive. Yummyyyy.
They're setting up chairs around me right now so looks like I should finish up. Later I'll talk all about my trip to Kanazawa, my host family, and classes (today was the first day and I got into the 3rd level, yay!) Until next time!
Friday, June 1, 2007
Hello Nihon!
Cristina and I stayed at a Narita hotel to recover from the flight before we take off for Kanazawa on the train later today. My uncle's gonna come pick us up, get us some food, and off we go on our 4 hour train ride. My flight wasn't too bad. I get sick on every form of transportation but surprisingly I survived the 14 hour flight (err but I didn't survive afterwards...). I rode ANA so we had pretty good food. Soy sauce pork on rice, osoba, yummy salad, and even Haagen Dazs ice cream! I watched various movies too. One was the Japanese film I Just Didn't Do It by the guy who did Shall We Dansu? Just gotta say, wasn't that good. So don't watch it when you fly to Japan! It's about an innocent guy who gets wrongly accused of groping a school girl and you see the whole court process.
Our hotel's really chill but really American. So many foreigners here since it's so close to Narita. There's also still English everywhere. We took a walk around at night and it was so cool how everything was so similar but different enough to be exciting.
Especially for my boyfriend, here's a photo of a diner so no worries, there is American breakfast in Japan (it looks so much like TGIFriday's or something).
Totally better photos coming later! I miss you all!!