Sayonara

Well, it's late and I'm still packing, but I figure that's ok because it will help me sleep on the plane. This will be my last Japan post, so I would like to list some things that I will miss very much:

- Mini-stop
- Store clerks saying "Irashaimase!"
- The sewer covers that are different in every town and include representative cultural items. In Okazaki it's the castle and some fireworks.
- Cell-phone charms. Everyone from junior high kids to middle-aged salarymen have them. I will also miss the jingle of the bells that accompany them.
- Mustard flavored rice chips
- Japanese vending machines
- Hello Kitty everything!
- Tile roofs
- Kitsutsuki lunch, both the food and the company
- Walking home by the big lake
- Shinkansen
- Strawberry pan breakfast
- Japanese flowers and gardens
- Puri-kura
- Adventuring around every weekend (ok, so I do this alot at home too...)
- The huge tofu section at the grocery
Ok, there are so many more things I will miss, too many to list, but these were the first that came to mind. It has really been a great experience to be here, I have made so many wonderful friends, seen many amazing places, and learned so much Japanese! Having said this, I'm sure I'll be back soon, and of course there are many things I miss about the U.S. too, and many people I will be happy to see.
Stay posted!

Flowers

Just a few pictures from around Okazaki. I'm quickly approaching my return to the states, but I will maintain this blog after I return. Joe and I usually travel once a month or so, and I plan on posting from our travels to other places both domestic and international. I'll probably also post things from home if something interesting comes up.

Out in Okazaki

Yesterday was test day for me, ugh. It was also Andrea's birthday! So, we headed to another part of Okazaki (near the castle) to get some Indian food- veggie curry and nan, yum! After we came back to our area of town, a few of us continued the evening at an izakaya near the station. :)

Rainy day studying

It's a rainy Tuesday in Okazaki, so I thought I would use this opportunity to post some pictures of my room, and the view out my window. :)

Customer service

Some things in Japan are vastly different than in America. Take for example the Mini-stop. This is the convienience store that is in front of the dorm. While on the outside it may look just like any American covienie, it is not. The products that are offered are similar, but with the expected cultural differences, a wide range of beverages, snack food, magaznies, toilitries, etc., except there is far more green tea, they sell hot mustard flavored rice chips (my favorite!) and instead of hot dogs and burgers they sell sushi and soba noodles. The main difference here though, is customer service. Once when I asked if they had a certain product the clerk actually ran over to the section and apologized profusely when she discovered they were out for the day. Another time when purchasing coffee in the morning I left my sunglasses on the counter and the clerk came after me apologizing, and offered up my sunglasses with both hands in a very respectful way. I can only imagine how this situation would play out at a 7-11 in America. This is not limited to the Mini-stop, everywhere one goes in Japan sales clerks and others in the service industry are curteous and eager to please. While I do appreciate the American ability to be straightforward and honest with others, I am left with a little cultural envy over customer service like this, and will defnitely miss it upon returning home. :)

Daily life 2

Today is a landmark day- I have inherited a bike! It may not be the most beautiful bicycle, but I am pretty excited to have a method of transport other than my feet. Thank you Scott! Riding a bike in Okazaki is slightly exhilarating, as there is lots of traffic and the streets are narrow, but there are bike lanes in some places, and the drivers seem quite aware.
The other photos in this post are from the coffee shop next to the Yamasa campus (きつつき, kitsutsuki, or woodpecker) where I eat lunch most days. I truly love this place. They offer a daily lunch special with a discount for students, but the women who run the shop know that I don't eat meat, so they make fried rice just for me (not even on the menu!) when the lunch special contains meat. They are so kind, I think this lunch ritual will be one of the things I will miss most when returning to the states. :)

Class

Today is the last day Laura and Scott will be here. One of the interesting things about Yamasa is that students have the option to come and go every two weeks. This means that people are constantly coming and going. The picture here is the original group of students in my class with our head teacher (second from left, back row, we have 3 teachers who rotate throughout the week), we are now down to 7 or 8 students, and things will change again by the end of the week. I am in class from 9-2:30 M-Th and 9-12 F with a 50 minute lunch break and 10 minute breaks each hour. I also have a one hour private lesson each afternoon where I usually cover extra material and practice conversation, and of course plenty of homework. The students in my class hail from Taiwan, China, Switzerland, Sweeden, Canada, Singapore, and the U.S.

Cooking group

This week Laura, Scott, Alex and I formed a cooking group! As anyone who knows me knows of my love of cooking, this is great fun for me. I cook, the rest of the group buys the groceries. Though I am not feeling as skilled as I would in my own kitchen, or even with a grocery where I could read the labels, I think the meals have turned out fairly decent, and it's healthier than eating out all the time. Tonight Scott even said he might be turning vegetarian, which is about the best compliment one could give me. Yae! :)

Park and Bowling

On Friday after class I went to a local park with Diego, Laura, and Alex. We rode the ferris wheel (!), walked around, and had ice cream. It was quite pleasant to be in a wide open space, and to get an overview of Okazaki from above. Later in the evening a large group of us had dinner out and went bowling.

Okonomiyaki

On Monday a group of 14 of us went out for Okonomiyaki (literally 'cook to taste'). One orders from the menu, or selects their own ingredients, and they are brought to you raw in a bowl. I had mochi and cheese, which included cabbage and eggs. You mix the ingredients, and pour onto the hot griddle at the center of the table, cooking yourself. At the end you add sauce (kinda like bbq sauce), mayo (not like American mayo), and seaweed flakes. Yum! Pictured are (from left) Scott, Amy, me, Alex, Alex, and Lily, all dormmates. :)

Okazaki mall

So, this evening we set out for the Okazaki mall. This was not the best idea, as it is about a thirty minute walk, and it is rainy season, but it was fun nonetheless. At many points I could have easily forgot that I was not at Woodfield, or any other American mall, but then we would stumble upon the kids kimono section (complete with Hello Kitty kimono) or the tea shop. Ah, globalization...The Sanrio store (Hello Kitty) was probably my favorite. We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant in the mall that was pretty good (see photo), and walked back in the rain. A good Thursday evening in all. :)

Daily life 1

It's the week, so there's lots of studying to be done, and nothing terribly exciting to report. I got these great tatami house slippers at Feel News, which is a combination grocery and household items/clothing store about a 15 minute walk from here. I love them! We each have a shoe box at the front door with our room number, the large slot is for outside shoes, the small slot for house slippers. I never wear shoes at home, so the concept is very comfortable for my Dutch-ancestored self, and my snazzy slippers are so comfy, why would I want to wear anything else? Good thing my feet aren't any bigger though, as these are the absolute largest size they had, and they just about fit my very average feet. Happy World Cup everyone! :)

Dinner out

Today was my first full day of classes. I have class with about 13 other students in the morning, and we moved quite quickly. It's going to be intense, but I already feel as if I'm learning alot. I have a private lesson every afternoon for an hour, which seems like it will prove to be very helpful! On campus we are asked to speak only in Japanese, and our teachers only use Japanese, but as one can imagine, native tounges make their way in, especially English, which is also spoken by most of the European students, and just seems to have a way of sneaking in.
I went out to dinner with a group of people from the dorm this evening, I had soba with tempura, which was quite good, and a small sample of sake. After dinner they gave us these crackers which were labeled with the word "Steak". I actually think they were steak crackers. Others said they were quite good, but all four vegetarians (including me) stayed away. Why ruin a good cracker with steak? Anyway, as with most meals, we recieved a hot towel before hand, and some hot tea. Dinner was followed up at the campus bar, and a good time was had by all. :)

Walk to class

Well, today was orientation day, which meant we had to take a very difficult written and oral exam, so we can be placed into classes (むずかしですね!). In the afternoon there was orientation to the school and town.
I really like the ten to fifteen minute walk to class, which is mostly through a residential neighborhood. The first picture is of the dorm I'm staying in, which is pretty nice, much better (read: cleaner and quieter) than any of my college dorms. I'll post about that another day. But, the walk takes me by lots of little (really little!) houses with cute gardens and some cats. I also pass the cemetary, and this tiny rice field located between apartment buildings, as well as some shops. :)

Grocery

Well, it's my first day, so I had errands to run to get set up. This morning I went to the 100 Yen store (100 Yen=1 dollar) and the computer store, and this afternoon I hit the grocery, which while perplexing, it was not as disorienting as I might have thought. This was a good time for me, as I love grocery stores. I had a history prof in undergrad who called them the 'museum of food,' as the selection is so big, and items are displayed in such a nice fashion. Perhaps it's the comprehensive catalog-like organization that attracts me so much, or the cultural insight (America, lots of processed food, Jamaica, jerk spice section, Cambodian market, fish still flopping, etc.). Anyway, I was quite pleased to see the tofu section (middle picture) which was HUGE, and overwhelmed by the rice aisle (right)- which rice to buy?? How much rice can I eat in one summer? The fish section was also large, though I didn't know many of the species, and the produce selection seems ample. The pickled foods section, as I was warned, was very large, who knew there were so many things to pickle? I'll try and get a photo of that next time. :)