Tim's Japanese Travel Archive

New Blog

2010-03-11T09:50:00.002+09:00

Hello everyone!

I have decided to make a new blog and preserve this one as a shrine of my one year experience in Japan. My new blog can be located at:

http://timinhouston.blogspot.com/

Cell Phones・携帯

2010-01-17T14:40:00.003+09:00

前の日記はすごく良好な反応があったので、これから英語と日本語で書くことにしました。質問があれば、是非聞いてね。

一年間日本に住んでいましたから、日本の携帯電話を持っていました。でも日本の携帯とアメリカの携帯はすごく違います。まず、外国人にとって日本の携帯はすごく高いです。AU/KDDIと一年間の契約を結んで、月額は９０００円　（９０ドル）ぐらいでした。解約料は３万円ぐらいでした。結局一年間の契約は１０万円くらいでした。アメリカで、月額は４０ドルぐらいです。そして解約料は１００ドルぐらいです。

でも日本で携帯は必需品です。アメリカでは電話の方が多いけど、日本ではメールを送るほうが多いです。彼女がいた時、５分に一回にメールを送りました。

それに、日本のエモーティコンはすごく面白いと思います！日本のエモーティコンはすごく可愛くて複雑ですが、アメリカのは簡単です。たまに意味がわかりませんでした。

m（_ _) m - おじぎ

(^▽^) - 嬉しい

♪ - 上機嫌

D: しかめ面

:-) ほほ笑み

;-) まばたき

携帯のハードウェアにおいては日本の方が勝ります。私の日本の携帯は前文ができました：インターネットとかスイカとかテレビのリモコンとか赤外線があるんです。私のアメリカ携帯はすごく簡単です。そして機能が強力ではありません。

English：

Since I got such a positive response from my last English post, I have decided to write my diary in English and Japanese from now on. If anybody ever has a question, please feel free to message me.

Since I lived in Japan for a year I owned a Japanese cell phone. Japanese cell phones are a lot different than American cell phones. First off, especially for foreigners, Japanese cell phones are a lot more expensive. I had a one year contract with AU/KDDI and was paying about 9000yen ($90) a month. When I canceled, I had to pay about 30,000yen ($300). I must have spend about 100,000yen ($1000) for about a year of service. In the USA, an individual contract will cost about $40 a month with a $100 cancellation fee.

Although in Japan, owning a cell phone was almost essential. In America we tend to make more phone calls, however whenever I lived in Japan I found myself sending mails a lot more. Especially when I was dating a girl, I would receive a text once every five minutes it seems.

Another thing that I find interesting are the emoticons that people use. In Japan, the emoticons were really cute and elaborate.　However, in America our emoticons are very simple. Sometimes I didn't even understand the meaning.

m（_ _) m - Bowing

(^▽^) - Happy

♪ - Good Mood

D: Frowning

:-) Smiley Face

;-) Winking

As far as the actual cell phone, I would have to say Japan wins. My cell phone in Japan did everything... internet, Suica, TV Remote, IR transfer. My American phone is really simplistic and does not have any of the features my Japanese cell phone did.

Sabino Canyon

2009-12-28T10:36:00.004+09:00

It is Winter Break and I am staying at my parents' house in Tucson for one week. Tucson is surrounded by mountains and desert and tends to be a very good temperature all-year round. I went with my mom and dad to Sabino Canyon. It is very scenic and there are tons of little hiking trails that go all throughout the desert.

Me in front of the desert

There are many wild cats around and also many signs warning about the danger.

Since it is the desert, there are many huge cactus.

With my mom in front of a mountain landscape

Picture of the landscape with the moon in the background

There are many other nice trails in Tucson that I want to go on. I go back to Lubbock in a few days so hopefully I will be able to see a little bit more.

Picasa Pictures

Hibachi and Cricket's

2009-12-10T02:34:00.003+09:00

The other day I went out with Chiaki, Mayo, Yuki, Stephanie, and Larry to Yamagata's Japanese Steak House. In America, by far the most popular sort of Japanese restaurant is teppanyaki. This is funny as it is not popular at all in Japan and is actually pretty rare. My language exchange, Kumiko, actually works at this restaurant so we were treated to free karage and free California rolls. It was pretty nice in the sense that it was bring your own beer. We bought a bunch of beer at the supermarket and then brought it to the restaurant. I also got a very generous portion of Hibachi Scallops.

Afterwards we went to Cricket's (a local bar) and had a few pitchers of beer.

Chiaki, Yuki, and Mayo are returning to Japan on Saturday so it is likely to get a lot more quiet in a bit. Today was the last day of classes and now all I have left is to study for finals.

Yum!

2009-11-29T15:10:00.003+09:00

One thing that America trumps any other country on is BBQ. Texas has the best beef BBQ and Tennessee has the best pork BBQ.

This huge sandwich, some slaw, and a big beer for $9. What a country!

Tennessee Vacation

2009-11-28T02:05:00.007+09:00

For Thanksgiving Break I am visiting some family that I have in Tennessee.

Tennessee is a fairly rural state that has a bunch or beautiful hills and nice country roads. A lot of my family grew up in Tennessee so I though I would visit it for the few days that I get off from university. I have been spending the last couple of days at my Grandma's house in Columbia, TN. It is about an hour away from Nashville and is a very quiet country town.

The other day I went to my uncle's house to have some steaks. He lives in a very very small town called Santa Fe, TN. He has a huge yard and also a very nice house. The lot where his house is on is about 17 acres (~70 sq meters) and seems like a very quiet and relaxing place.

We grilled up some steaks and had a nice dinner with sweet corn from Amish Country and green beans.

The next day I went to the Jack Daniel's whiskey distillery. Jack Daniel's is popular all over the world and every drop of it is made in a small town called Lynchburg, TN. It was really interesting to see the distilling processes. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures of the distilling process, but I could take pictures outside.

I will post some more pictures once I get back to Lubbock. I have been hanging out with the Japanese exchange students lately and have really been enjoying myself. I sent off all of the application material for a few different Japan programs, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for a reply. :-)

End of the Year Party

2009-11-24T04:23:00.005+09:00

On Saturday we had the annual end of the year party (忘年会) for my Japanese class. Living for a year in Japan and working at a company at the year I knew all about how parties should be. To be perfectly honest this party was a little disappointing.

The first problem is where the party took place... Hayashi Japanese Grill. When I was going through the earlier classes (before I went to Japan) we held the party at a place called Yamagata. It was by far more authentic. The owners are Japanese and they always made a special menu just for the sake of our party. It was a very relaxed atmosphere and we usually go the entire restaurant to ourselves. Hayashi, however, is a hibachi type restaurant (鉄板焼き）. Speaking from experience, I can say that despite how popular this type of restaurant is in the USA, it is actually quite rare in Japan. It would be appropriate to say that it is "Americanized" Japanese food.

Location aside, the price paid was also pretty steep. $14 got us two sushi rolls, a small bowl of rice and miso soup, a meager portion of hibachi, and also a small bowl of edamame. Novelty aside, I am sure if I went to Yamagata I could get all of this for around $5. Thank god Hayashi had a bar though.

That leads me to my next gripe... there was no alcohol. Anyone that has been to Japan (and isn't a complete social recluse), will tell you that alcohol is a very important part of the culture. An end of the year party or company party without some form of alcohol is unheard of. Now I know I am complaining about impossible stuff here. This is America and it was a party of mainly college students. Of course the instructors can't officially endorse drinking due to the fact that we live in a backwards country where the drinking age is absurdly high. Do you know what everyone did though that was of legal age? They started a tab at the bar. Before the party I went to my friend's house with a few of the other Japanese students and we played drinking games.

To demonstrate how "authentic" Hayashi was, we spoke Chinese to the chefs. Still it was a nice show though.

I have enough to gripe about with how the Japanese program is run at Texas Tech to warrant another blog post so I won't go into that here. All of the setbacks aside, I did enjoy talking with the Japanese people at the party. Kumiko, my language exchange, came and we talked quite a bit.

Like I said at this point I am nitpicking. It was really fun and I think that the instructors made the most of the situation. Part of the reason was that my Japanese had far surpassed 95% of the people in the Japanese program. Whenever the instructors spoke they always used dumbed down textbook Japanese. I did have a few good conversations with the other Japanese people though.

Picasa Pictures

Friday Night in Lubbock

2009-11-23T08:14:00.005+09:00

Last Friday I went with a bunch of friends to eat some Italian food, got to Main Event, and then go out to a bar to finish off the night. It was really fun and since I had been busy with school this semester. This was a really nice chance to just go chill out and have fun. Next week we get a week off for Thanksgiving, so I really didn't have too much homework to worry about.

First we went to Johnny Carinos, a popular Italian restaurant in Lubbock. There I got a nice Italian draft beer and also some lobster ravioli. Mayo and Yuki got some nice looking pasta and also a nice bottle of wine. The food was really good and it was nice to socialize with everyone. One of my old buddies from Electrical Engineering came too. When I went to Japan he had graduated so I hadn't seen much him.

Next we went to Main Event with everyone. At Main Event they have a big arcade, bowling alley, lunar golf, and also a laser tag arena. In Japan they don't have laser tag so I think this was a really interesting experience for the Japanese students.

In laser tag, you wear a laser pack and also carry around a laser gun. The point of the game is to defend the beacons at your base while at the same time attacking the enemy base and scoring points by shooting their beacon. Usually there are a bunch of defenders and attackers. The arena is dark with strobe lights everywhere. There is techno music playing to enchance the mood too. You have a certain level of health and ammo also. If you run out of either ammo or health, you must return to the energizer on your base and it is replenished. Pretty much it is the closest thing to a first person shooter outside of the army.

It was really fun! My team (the green team) completely annihilated the other team. I was an attacker and was the second highest scorer on the entire team (35000 points). My engineering friend also scored high with 45000 points. Chiaki scored an incredible 310 points (it was her first time, so it is OK). Yuki and Mayo also scored quite a bit.

We went bowling afterward (I did terrible). It was a really good night and I had a lot of fun. We also went to the arcade afterward and I won a stuffed bear. I gave it to Chiaki.

Afterward we went to Bash's (a local bar) and took advantage of the drink specials. It was nice just to sit down and socialize with everyone with cheap drinks.

The night was very fun and a nice break from school. I will have to do stuff like this more often.

Picasa Pictures

Cajun Food

2009-11-16T12:40:00.003+09:00

Today I went out with a few Japanese students over here to eat some Cajun food at Jazz Kitchen. A few friends wanted to take the Japanese students out to Jazz because Cajun food is very unique and not really found anywhere outside of America. I love Cajun food. I love anything spicy so naturally I like Cajun food.

They had a really good selection of microbrew beers. I ordered a nice Turbodog, while Yuki and Ben ordered a Big Easy.

Chiaki says that she likes shrimp. She is so adorable!

I ordered a pound of crawfish. They were so delicious! Since you can't get crawfish in Japan I think that the Japanese found them fun.

It was freezing cold outside when we took this picture as can be seen by Yuki's smug face.

It was very fun and everyone had a blast. This is one of the niche type of foods that I missed a lot while I was living in Japan. The beer that I ordered was really cheap also. A pint of Coors Lite only cost me $2.00! In Japan that would have been at least $6.00. I hope that I will be able to go out with the Japanese students more before they leave.

Picasa Pictures

RISC Emulator

2009-11-16T04:16:00.003+09:00

One of the more interesting classes that I am taking this semester is a microprocessor architecture class. The assignment that I have this week is to program an emulator in verilog that simulates the structure of a pipelined RISC CPU. It is a pretty challenging assignment, however I think it is actually very interesting.

Just looking at the diagram and translating it into code seems really interesting to me. Making sure all of the opcodes are accounted for and making sure all of the different components of the CPU are working seems cool. Obviously this is a trivial example, but maybe when I get more time I will look into making an emulator that takes the CPU of say an Atari 2600 or an NES. In any case it would test all of my skills as a Computer Engineer. Going deep down into the hardware does not only require software skills, but also an active understanding of how all the hardware communicates with each other.

That aside, this semester is completely nuts. I am always busy it seems and never really have time to update anything. I will try to keep this updated as much as I can though.

ティムのつぶやき

2009-11-09T15:14:00.000+09:00

今日、仕事の面接から帰った。いい会社だけど、国内だからあまりしたくない。すぐに日本に戻れなかったらこの会社がいいと思う。でも最近、英語教師の仕事に応募をしている。僕の専門は電気工学だけど、日本に戻れば是非僕はうれしくなるよ。

日本授業のほかに、今学期の授業はすごく大変！月曜日に試験があるので、今一所懸命に勉強している。毎日図書館に行くことにしている。大丈夫かな～！

最近新しい日本人の留学生が来た。先日一緒に飲みに行った。すごく楽しかった！一人は小田急線に住んでいた。吃驚した！日曜日にメキシコ料理を食べに行くつもり。楽しみにしてる。

ニューヨークヤンキースはワールドシリーズを勝った！最後の試合は松井は最高殊勲選手。僕の出身はニューヨークだから、今すごく興奮してる！前の部長はヤンキースを大好きだから、プレゼントを送るつもり。

毎週の金曜日に言語交換をすることにしてる。いつも楽しい！よく日本語を練習ができないので、いつか日本語で喋られたら、僕はうれしい！

先日デートに行ったが、あまり楽しくなかった。実は日本に住んでいた時、よく出かけた。でもアメリカの方が日本より楽しいと思う。だから今僕がデートがいけない！だからちょっと寂しくなる。

先週風邪をひいた！すごく大変だった！宿題があったら、風邪が大嫌い！そしてジムに行けないので、悲しくなる。

僕のつぶやきを読んでくれてありがとう！

Computer Science Homework

2009-10-21T15:02:00.004+09:00

Uggggh, college would be good if it wasn't for the class part.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=d5z9dbp_274gmsbhdgd

Can I go back to Japan yet?

Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy

2009-10-16T12:48:00.004+09:00

I saw this clip by an American comedian today that I thought was very funny and also alarmingly true. Nowadays technology advances so fast that we take a lot of thing for granted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk

I was thinking about this when I was studying in the library today. Cell phones have pretty much exploded in the past decade. 10 years ago it was very novelty to have a cell phone it seems. In the library at Texas Tech, there is a huge "quiet" study area section with a bunch of large study desks/cubicles. I like to go there to do homework and study. In my room there are way too many things to get distracted with so I go to the library. Today there was some noisy person on there cell phone. You could tell everyone else in the area wanted to murder this person. This is probably my biggest pet peeve ever.

However, this just got me thinking back to this one clip though. 10 years ago we wouldn't have this problem as that person wouldn't have a cell phone. Cell phones definitely have their advantages, but it seems in America they seem to make some people become completely inconsiderate of those around them.

Anyway this has just been a random rant that I was thinking about in my head. This clip is really funny and I really like this one comedian (Louis C.K.). If you have time it is definitely worth checking out some of his other stuff.

Japanese Practice

2009-10-14T01:49:00.003+09:00

Despite being in the middle of nowhere in Lubbock Texas, I do make an active effort to keep practicing Japanese and stay sharp. One of the things that I do is write a blog in Japanese once a week.

In Japan, MIXI is the most popular social networking site. I think one of the reasons it is so popular is because it limits its members to those who have a Japanese cell phone. This way a lot of foreigners are automatically filtered out and it can be kept a closed community. Anyway, one of the biggest parts of MIXI is the blog feature. Every week I write about something random (everything from college life to food). Sometimes I get messages from random Japanese people.

I wish I was in Japan so that I could actually talk to these people in person, however conversing online is the best I can do for now.

I also like to do letter exchanges (snail mail) with my old Japanese friends. I alternate writing letters to them in English and Japanese. I think that writing these letters is much more effective than typing emails on a computer. Writing out all the kanji and taking time to think of the grammatical structures is very beneficial to my Japanese.

West Texas isn't the type of place that attracts the most Japanese, however I was fortunate enough to meet a Japanese student that is studying English. Her fiance lives in Lubbock so she decided to move here with him. I think that her English abilities are on par with my Japanese abilities so it is a good matching.

Nostalgia

2009-10-04T14:44:00.002+09:00

I don't really know what made me think of this, but it is heart-warming to see stuff from your childhood years later.

I used to watch this show all of the time. I remember sitting in a Las Vegas hotel room on a family vacation with my sister watching this.

Not much is new in my life. Just busy surviving in school and applying for programs/jobs that will let me return to Japan after graduation. I have an interview for the Fulbright program on Tuesday so I am excited about that. The JET Program is also about to open for applications so I will be busy gathering all of the necessary materials for that.

Curly Braces

2009-09-20T02:35:00.005+09:00

You know what is one thing I hate? When people put curly braces on the same line as the function declaration. Look at the following example in C:

int fact(int a){

blah blah blah

}

That is dumb! It should be like this:

int fact(int a)
{

blah blah blah

}

It makes it a hell of a lot easier to read it than the first way. For some reason CS majors tend to me more guilty of this than other majors. You shouldn't do this. I look at the code and I hate it when someone does this.

Computer Science

2009-09-01T12:43:00.004+09:00

You know it is really amazing how much your viewpoints can change in a year. I've talked a lot about the fun times I have had in Japan as culturally, but I haven't really mentioned how much I have grown professionally. I have undoubtedly grown as a programmer. If you take my knowledge as a computer scientist from a year ago and compare it to my knowledge now, the change is undeniable.

Before this job I, like many other students, shared an uncanny hatred of Java. There was no real sophisticated reason behind this. It was just the product of learning C++ as an introductory language. From a uneducated college student perspective Java was just a bloated and slow programming language. Through this internship I was forced to use Java. At first I was really hesitant, but I decided to just bite the bullet and go with it. Even I had known that Java was used widely in the CS field and I figured it would be better to be positive about learning it than to sulk about it. Luckily I worked with very experienced and resourceful programmers who were extremely helpful in teaching me the intricacies of the language.

I really think that you limit yourself as a programmer if you make a competition out of different programming languages. It would be the same as a carpenter who refuses to use a hammer because he likes using a screwdriver so much. Sure you can hammer in a nail with a screwdriver if you are really dedicated, but what is the point? Different languages have different purposes and it takes a real computer scientist to realize which tools to use for the job. I can't imagine doing the stuff I did at Asahi Kasei with a language such as C++.

Another invaluable skill I learned at Asahi Kasei is how to properly structure a sophisticated programming project. Anyone can write a program. Anyone can pick up a Java programming book, read about the syntax, and write programs. I think the difference between a "programmer" and a "computer scientist" is that the computer scientist knows how to structure his project. He knows how to effectively break down a large problem into smaller problems. Most importantly, he knows his solution for the big picture will work before even writing a line of code. Through my job at Asahi Kasei I feel that I switched from being a programmer to being a computer scientist.

Anyway, this has just been me ranting about stuff I had in my head. This rant is no more reliable than my own meandering experience. I started my classes already so I am going to have a lot on my plate this semester. Hopefully, if all goes well, I will be able to return to Japan next year. I will try to keep this blog updated as much as I can!

Future Career Possibilities

2009-08-17T02:03:00.005+09:00

Well now that all is said in done about my brief one year visit to Japan I am starting to look at future career possibilities that will bring me back to Japan. I've hashed out all of the routes that I am going to investigate.

English Teacher

As much as this doesn't have anything to do with Computer Engineering I am sure I would enjoy it. I love working with children so I think maybe being an Alternative Language Teacher (ALT) would be a fun job. This is by far the most readily available job in Japan. With my credentials I would fair a very good chance of landing one of these jobs.

I am also going to apply for a few linguistic school jobs in Japan. This differs than the ALT jobs in that my students would tend to be professionals wanting to expand their knowledge of English for career related reasons. I think this would also be an interesting job.

The thing about an English Teacher is that it would just serve as a gateway for me to get back to Japan and build up my arsenal of Japanese knowledge. Ideally what I would want to do is go to Japan as an English teacher, spend a few years teaching English, and then find a job more related to my major once I am over there. From what it seems it is immensely easier to get a position in engineering once you already are residing in Japan.

Fulbright Scholar

The United States and Japanese government have a long-running program that gives college graduates the opportunity to travel abroad and conduct independent research. This program is fairly competitive, but I do plan on applying for it. The problem here is finding a good research proposal. Looking at past proposals they seem to be fairly broad in category. I could do anything from a technical research topic to a social issue. A lot of thought will need to be put into this before the application.

Graduate School

Going to graduate school in Japan is another possibility. Surprisingly it is considerably cheaper in Japan that it is in the United States. Right now I am about $20,000 in the hole from undergraduate student debts. I would have to take out more to go to graduate school and could very well be in $40,000 in debt by the time I get my Masters. My only realy worry about this route is the linguistic requirement. Right now I can communicate in Japanese just fine, but I dread to think of how a Japanese graduate course in electrical engineering would be. Still, often times these classes are in English.

Domestic Job

I could always get a job in the United States and then hope that the job involves some sort of traveling to Japan. I would definitely get paid quite a bit more money and would have no trouble getting a job within Computer Engineering. This wouldn't be in Japan however and I would likely distance myself from Japan after I get the job.

Japanese Job

The other option would be to find a non-teaching related job in Japan. This could prove to be a little difficult as the economy isn't doing too well right now in Japan and usually foreigner jobs are the first to go. Still I do have experience at a Japanese company so this option cannot be overlooked. I would be willing to take a dent in my salary just for the fact that the job location is in Japan.

I'm sure after living in Japan a while the novelty will go away and it will just become the place that I live. However, the aspect that I think will keep me wanting to live in Japan is the people . Sure it started to get redundant going to festivals/temples and traveling to cities, but the friends that I went with made me appreciate every single moment of it.

I think that the friends that you make will define how much you enjoy living in an area. From my experience in Japan it seemed like it was difficult to make a genuine Japanese friend (outside of the obligatory courtesy that most people display), however once you made a friend you had one for life. I love to get out but I also love to stay in sometimes on lazy weekends. It seems that Japan allows for a comfortable balance for both of these.

Anyways this has more or less just been a way for me to hash out what has been in my mind. This fall will be pretty hectic with applying for jobs, taking tests, hoarding reference letters, and also going to class in the midst. I am going to try to use this blog more as a personal blog for now on.

Kansai Trip

2009-08-09T08:08:00.010+09:00

So before I left Japan I went on a trip to the Kansai region of Japan. The Kansai Region is home to some of the most well known cities in Japan: Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka.

Transportation

To get to and from Kansai I decided to use the bullet train. It seemed like the fastest and most comfortable way. The ticket was a little pricy, but since I was leaving Japan soon I did not mind so much. Both ways (Tokyo to Kyoto and then Osaka to Yokohama) averaged about 13,000 yen each. The train itself was awesome. I got to ride on the Nozomi Super Express train and it was very quick and the ride itself was very smooth. I definitely reccomend riding on the bullet train at least once in your time in Japan.

Kyoto

We stayed at the Chita Guest Inn in Kyoto. It was in a very nice spot; very close to Kyoto Station and one of the biggest temples in Kyoto. It was also very close to a bus stop that allowed very easy access to all of the big sights. The owner spoke English well and was very friendly.

The first temple we visited was the Kiyomizudera Temple known for its wooden pavillion. It was a very scenic and quite impressive temple. We took a bus from Kyoto Station that was about fifteen minutes. There were also tons of touristy souvenir shops along the walk to the temple.

After the temple we lounged around a little until about 6pm when we headed over to the Gion Festival. The festival is one of the biggest festivals in Japan and is held in the Gion area around the Yasaka Temple. The festival was really nice. There were tons of tasty junk foods lining the streets of Gion and around the temple. There were many taditional Japanese drum performances and the environment was really nice.

The following day we headed to the Fushimi Inari Shrine. It was a couple of stations from Kyoto. I really liked this temple. There were tons of Japanese Tori and the environment was very tranquil.

All in all Kyoto wasn't bad. There were tons of tourists everywhere which I didn't like, but I still definitely recommend visiting the city. It is very beautiful.

Nara

In Nara we stayed at Yougendo Guesthouse. . It wasn't in Nara, but in Oji (a couple of stations away from Nara). Despite this, I definitely recommend staying here. The owner is British and it is a very comfortable place to stay. The rooms are beautiful and there is even a bar very close by that is operated by the owner.

Nara itself was very nice. There were tons of stuff to do outdoors and the hiking was very nice. Nara is famous for the thousands of tame deer that roam around in the park. There were many vendors/shops around selling rice crackers that you would feed the deer. It was really nice to be able to give the rice crackers to the deer and pet them. The thing is once one knew you had a rice cracker all the others started to swarm around you.

In Nara Park there were many temples. We visited the Todaiji Temple which is known for its huge Buddha Statue. The temple was gorgeous. It was very big and the architecture was just plain stunning. A picture cannot do it justice. In this temple there was also this very small crawl-hole in one of the wooden pillars. It is said that if you can crawl through it you can reach nirvana. I knew I was too big to go through it, but there were many girls/little kids that were able to go through it.

I also hiked around the mountain/hills area around Nara Park. It was a very enjoyable hike and the weather was very nice. I saw some nice views around Nara. I really liked Nara. It seems that I saw many less tourists/foreigners here than in Kyoto (especially when I hiked around a little).

Mt. Koya

To be honest I think this was the highlight of my trip. Mt. Koyo is about an hour away from Osaka and is home to the Shingon Buddhist sect. We took an hour train from Osaka to the cable car station, and then a cable car station up to Mt. Koya.

I stayed at Eko-in for one night. I looked at the best temple lodgings on TripAdvisor and decided to pick this one. We booked for one night.

When we checked in we were shown to our room and I was asked to fill out a card with all of my information. I was then explained the rules of the temple. It was explained that dinner was at 5:30pm and they would give us a call before bringing the food to our room. After a nice hot cup of green tea in our room and a bit of relaxing the monks gave us a call and asked if we were ready for dinner.

A monk brought the dinner to our room shortly after and set it up for us. It consisted of traditional Japanese cuisine that the monks eat. It was all vegetarian so don't expect any meat or fish. I was feeling the moment and also bought a beer with my meal (700 yen for a big bottle of Asahi). The meal was really good and we had some lovely tea to go along with it.

There is no bedding in the room at first. After dinner finishes the monks come and clear away your table trays. They then bring Japanese futons to your room and set everything up. The beds are futon mats with covers. Pretty much all you need.

The room itself was a traditional Japanese style tatami mat room. It had a window with two straw chairs overlooking the lovely garden. It was really relaxing. There was a TV in the room (although we never used it). There was no air conditioner so know that before going. Koya-san is actually pretty cool (even in the summer) so the fan that they provide in the room was adequate even in the peak Japanese summer.

The bath/shower is open from 4pm-10pm. It is a traditional Japanese style bath so you must be comfortable with public nudity as it may be hard to catch the shower alone. It is big enough though so you really don't have to worry about it. The bath water is very hot and a really great way to relax after a day of hiking. All towels, soap, shampoo, and rinse is provided to you along with a Japanese Yukata (pajamas). While there were definitely monks with English ability, having some extent of Japanese linguistic skills helped. I suppose this is the same anywhere you stay in Japan though. If you don't speak a word of Japanese don't worry.

The location is near plenty of useful shops: a restaurant, souvenir shop, and a grocery store. It is important to note that you cannot bring food onto the temple from outside so be aware. Eko-in is also close to a major bus stop that will take you all over Koya-san.The Morning Prayer ceremony feels authentic and is a nice experience. It is very intuitive what to do and is a nice way to start the morning. There are two computers set up with high speed internet so you can check your mail or upload pictures easily.

Overall it was a nice stay. If I had to do it again I would stay for two nights and enjoy everything the mountain has to offer. We paid 12000yen for one night so we didn't want to make it too expensive. Overall though this was definitely a worthwhile stay.Mt. Koya was really nice. There was a ton of nice hiking to do and I could have easily stayed an entire week there if I wanted to. If you like outdoors Mt Koya is definitely for you.

Reflections
The trip was really nice but honestly a little expensive. I am glad I went once, but next time I am back in Japan I am definitely going to go to some of the smaller and less known prefectures. I also never had a chance to make it up to Hokkaido which I definitely want to do in the future.

To be perfectly honest, just going off my brief five days in Kansai, I prefer the Kantou (Tokyo) Region a lot more than Kansai. The people seem to be a little bit more tolerant of foreigners. I just like big modern cities more than average sized towns I suppose. I liked Mt. Koya a lot because it was so small and secluded though.

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Back in Arizona (Finally)

2009-07-27T04:18:00.008+09:00

Hello everyone,

Sorry that I have been a little late updating my blog. I have now concluded my internship at Asahi Kasei and am back sitting at my parents house in Arizona.

The flight back was incredibly tiring. I woke up in Atsugi at my apartment at around 8am. I had to finish up some cleaning before going to the station to run a few errands. First I had to go to the bank to cash in all of the loose change that had been accumulating in my room.

I took my bike to the station and started walking to the bank with my Tupperware full of loose change that I had been accumulating over the year. Unfortunately it started pouring monsoon rains on my way to the bank so I had to sprint. I went to the third floor and went to the machine that changed all of your loose change into a bank deposit. I was really caught off guard here... I had about 8000 yen in loose change! That's crazy... it really didn't look like that much at all! I definitely recommend anyone in Japan with a "loose change" bowl to go to the bank and cash in.

Next I had to cancel my cell phone. Somehow the rain started to pick up even more on my way to the AU KDDI store and to make matters worse I forgot my umbrella. I slipped and fell on my ass in front of a bunch of school girls on the way. It was complete fail. Anyways after talking to the cell phone clerk, waiting 30 minutes, and paying about 30,000 yen, my cell phone was canceled. I grabbed some McDonalds take-out and went to my room by cab (my bike was still at the station so by now it is probably in the impound lot).

I had about an hour before I had to head to the station to catch my bus to Narita airport. I did some final cleaning and finished some packing. I then realized a fatal flaw in my plan... I had no cell phone to call a cab with. I had already packed my laptop it the depths on my luggage so I couldn't use Skype. I started panicking and then decided to go outside to try to find a payphone. After running around the block (or swimming through the 100% humidity air) I was able to find a payphone at the convenient store. I called a cab and then sprinted back to my apartment. At this point I felt sweaty, hot, and like death.

After taking the cab to the station and then catching a two hour bus I was at the airport. I had two HUGE bags that I needed to shuttle around. After mixing up the terminals, catching the bust to the right terminal I was ready to check in. Since I had two bags and two carry-ons I had to do something very unfortunate... I had to throw away my Mt. Fuji stick. It was either that or pay $150 for another checked bag. I was already over my limit for spending and had to conserve money so regrettably I had to throw it away. I will always remember (by pictures and memories) that I climbed Mt. Fuji so in the end it is ok... still kind of a bummer though.

Going through security I had another problem. For some reason in the midst of my packing I had packed a small bottle of sake in one of my carry-ons. Why I did this is beyond me, but security would not allow it. It was a decent bottle of sake so I decided to step outside of the airport and have at least a taste of it (no open container laws in Japan). It was good although I would have liked to savor it a little more.

Finally after getting through security and boarding my flight I was on my way back to America. It was really saddening in a way. I really grew to like Japan so getting on the plane was a little emotional. The flight itself was pretty uneventful. They showed god awful movies on the entertainment but all in all the flight was just long as hell.

I arrived in San Francisco and had to recheck my baggage. It turns out I missed my connection from San Francisco to Austin so I had to fly to Denver (2 hours), live through a 4 hour layover, and then fly to Austin (2 hours). In the end I got to Austin at 11pm (CST) on Friday. My parents had made a reservation at the airport hotel so I was able to have a decent bed to stay in (I had been away for a little over 35 hours). After ordering a nice American pizza I passed out.

The flight the next day to Tucson (where my parents live) was also uneventful. I flew to Dallas and then to Tucson. My parents picked me up at the airport and then we went out to eat at Applebees. I was reminded about how cheap beer was in America. A tall glass of beer (about 1.4 pints) was only $3.50 (about 350 yen). This was awesome considering in Japan a pint was about $10 (1000 yen).

It feels weird to be back in America. I am experiencing a little bit of reverse culture shock. Whenever I throw away a can or bottle I feel taboo placing it in the trash can with everything else. I feel the service here is about 10 folds worse than Japan (although airport service isn't really a good benchmark). I do enjoy being able to speak English to everyone around and actually being able to read signs. My parents' house is beautiful and I am enjoying the nice landscape of mountains and the nice refreshing pool.

To be truthful the trip to Japan not only changed me as a person, but also had an immense effect on my career goals. I think at this point it is a certain fact that I will return to Japan as a worker. I am a little anxious to get back to school and finish my degree so I can return to the land that treated me so well. I will still continue to study Japanese in college (taking classes) and also keep in touch with all of the friends that I met over the year. I will always look back at the experience with warm and fond memories. It was the first time I truly went abroad and I was given a taste of the international community; a taste that I will undoubtedly experience again.

I still have a few stories to write about my travels right before leaving Japan. Since I have essentially nothing to do for a week before school starts I will take my time with that. I will also have to keep updating MIXI in Japanese to stay sharp. It will be nice to be able to buy shoes in my size and also extra tall clothes. For now enjoy these pictures that I took of my parents house:

I will write more of my thoughts later as I become more bored :-)

Mount Fuji - Climbing Reflections

2009-07-11T08:04:00.004+09:00

So last weekend I climbed Mt. Fuji with my dad. I kind of did it on whim really. I figured I came all the way to Japan, could see Mt. Fuji from work, so it would

We started from the Kawaguchi 5th Station and planned on climbing the Yoshida trail during the night so we could watch the sunrise from Mt Fuji. After taking a two and a half hour bus ride from Shinjuku to the 5th Station we geared up. After buying walking sticks and suiting up we started climbing. It was pitch black so we equipped the lights that we had brought.

A small note on the lights. I brought a headlight that used a regular light bulb and by dad brought a LED one. The LED one was the better choice as mine just seemed to to be too dim

From the 5th to the 6th station we seemed to go up a zigzag type pattern for quite some time. It seemed to go pretty fast but as I later found out on the climb down it was actually a pretty big distance. The terrain wasn't terrible here and the rate of ascent was moderate. Every now and then we stopped to take a sip of water but it really wasn't terrible. The sixth station seemed to be way up there though. We kept climbing and climbing but the light of the sixth station for some reason didn't seem to be getting closer. Finally we reached it.

We got our walking stick stamped at the station and rested up a little bit. We were so oblivious with what was to come. From the 6th station to the 7th station it was terrible. The terrain was absolutely horrific. Mt. Fuji is a volcano so there are a lot of volcanic rocks. I am really skeptical to call this section hiking... it was more mountain climbing. The ascent was really sudden and very treacherous. The walking stick that I bought really got in the way here. I needed to use my hand to grab rocks to hoist myself up. It was really like boulder hopping. Still somehow after a couple hours (which seemed like an eternity) we managed to get to the 7th station. After the 7th station was more boulder hopping.

At this point the altitude change really started to get to my father and me. We could only walk very short distances without stopping for air. At one of the 7th stations we got some oxygen which didn't really seem to help me too much. Anyways we eventually reached the first 8th station. It seemed like it took forever though. It was more boulder hopping off sharp, steep, and treacherous volcanic rock.

A few days before we started climbing I made a reservation at one of the 8th stations on a whim. I figured that we got to the 8th station too late, but after asking the clerk it turns out that we were able to stay. Thank god for this. We were so tired, exhausted, and fatigued. After resting a few hours at the station we had enough energy to chug up to the top. We didn't reach the summit in the time for the sunrise but it actually worked in our favor. From the 8th station we could see the sunrise while from the summit there were clouds obscuring the view. I took some really nice pictures.

From the 8th station to the summit was mixed terrain. Some of it was boulder hopping (more towards the summit), but a lot of it was walking on narrow paths of volcanic gravel. This proved very hard as sometimes the gravel would slip up under your feet leaving you on your ass. It was hard to take care of all the factors at the same time.

Finally after what seemed like hours and hours we made it to the top at roughly 8am. It was a cold desolate place. The wind was blowing really hard and it was very very cold. We wanted to stay there as little as possible. After taking a few pictures we started our descent.

The descent took just about as long as the ascent. There was snow on the "special" descent course so we were forced to go back the way we came. I don't see how some people did it, they were just Mario hopping down the mountain. I was mortified that I would slip and break a leg or sprain an ankle... I couldn't imagine what I would have done if I did do that though. It seemed like it took FOREVER to go down. More so than it took going up. It was very hard. I guess going up we were excited (for the majority) about getting to the top, but hiking down was so miserable.

After falling on my ass a couple of times and cautiously going down the mountain we made it to the bottom of the mountain. We were dead. We hadn't showered or had a decent night sleep in over a day. Zombie would be the right word to describe me. After catching a bus to Kawaguchiko train station, taking about four transfers, we ended up in Hon-Atsugi. Taking a Taxi back to my apartment we both passed out after taking a nice relaxing shower.

The muscleache could be felt for days afterwards. Everything... legs, arms, butt (from the falling). Looking back at it, it was definitely the ultimate workout. I can say now (some 3 weeks after the fact) that I am glad I did it once... but there is no way in hell I would go again. It was an experience and it feels good now to say that I did it. I would reccomend anyone who lives in Japan to go. However, here are a few words of advice.

This is what I brought to Fuji:

LED Hand Light
Light bulb Head Light
2.25 liters of water
Sweater
Snow Cap
Scarf
Onigiri/Snacks
Tennis Shoes
Camera

Looking back, it was very chilly and I could have done better with a bit warmer clothes. I am very resistant to the cold so it worked out fine, but a pair of gloves or a warmer sweater would have worked.

If I had to do it again (which I don't see in the near future), I would do it as follows (in order)

Make a reservation at a mountain hut on the 8th station
Start climbing early afternoon
Reach the hotel in the evening (7/8ish)
Spend the night at the hotel (start climbing again at 2/3ish)
Reach the summit to watch the sunrise
Descend the mountain not tired

Like I said I don't really foresee myself doing this again. The terrain was really rough and to be honest I believe there are many other superior hiking trails in Japan. I am glad I did it once though and it was a really good experience. I suggest everyone does it at least once. It kind of has a "wow factor" to it. You can say you climbed Mt. Fuji and even Japanese people are surprised.

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Tokyo Giants Game

2009-06-28T11:19:00.003+09:00

I went with Steve, Andre, and Shozakai-san (the big big boss) to a Tokyo Giants game on Friday. It was really fun and I had a blast. We left around 4:20pm from work by bus and took a train to the Tokyo dome. From Hon-Atsugi there were a couple of transfers and it took about an hour and a half.

We grabbed some Subway before going in (food was very expensive inside the dome). After getting our bags checked we were in. Our seats were right in front of third base. The were really nice and were close to the action.

The game was really interesting. I followed baseball a bit back un the States. The environment was very festive and everyone was having a good time. The Tokyo Giants were playing the Yakult Swallows. The Giants dominated (7-2) and even hit two home runs.

It was also nice to talk to Shozakai-san. He showed up about 30 minutes after the game started. I talked to him about many things ranging from baseball to life. He is the big big boss who is busy with everything so it was nice to talk to him on a personal level and get along nicely.

Anyways even if you don't like baseball I would suggest going to a Giants game with friends. It was one of the most fun things that I have done in Japan and when I come back I how that I can see more professional games within Japan.

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Pepsi Shiso

2009-06-23T23:45:00.002+09:00

I pride myself with being pretty relaxed when it comes to food and drink. I am not picky at all and the advantage of this is that I can eat and drink pretty much anything (this comes in handy in a foreign country). I was at the convenient store today however and saw a new green looking Pepsi called "Pepsi Shiso". Intrigued, I bought it as well as a breakfast sandwich (salmon, letuce, bread, and cheese).

There aren't a lot of drinks that I can only take one sip of and not finish. It tasted like grass and cough syrup. It was the worst tasting devil's nectar that has ever touched my tastebuds.

This is one of them. It is saying a lot. I could not finish it and immediately gave it away to a friend. Not to my surprise, most of my foreigner friends shared my anguish.

I bought two of them so I could take a picture of it and post it on facebook/here. Later I learned that Shiso is actually a plant. In any case I did not care for it all. I thought I would share it here just to show some of the different drinks they have in Japan.

Bilingual

2009-06-20T18:07:00.002+09:00

I know I am far from being fluent in Japanese, but it is fair to say that I have reached a certain level since coming to Japan. While my Kanji level is severely lacking, I can communicate in Japanese pretty well. I think that this elementary ability is good if I plan on staying in Japan for only a year, but if I want to live indefinitely in Japan it is not enough.

In America for example there are tons of immigrants (Mexicans, Chinese, etc.) who have a very basic understanding of English. Sure they can communicate in elementary and sometimes childish English, but it really does not say a lot to their intelligence. There is being able to communicate and then being fluent. I really want to strive to being fluent and having a good grasp of the language.

Lately I have been studying honorifics in the Japanese language. Before coming to Japan I read a few books on how a Japanese company is structured. In a professional company the language used plays a very important role in how you are treated. Foreigners in general are usually at a disadvantage in Japanese companies, however in reading all these books it seems that the more you try to assimilate in the company (pretty much act Japanese) the more respect that you get and in result more responsibilities. This is why I think it is important to study honorifics.

Talking with a couple of Japanese friends from work about how they speak to their bosses, the universal response is that they use keigo (a very polite, honorific way of speaking). I think that I as a foreigner would not be expected to use this type of language, however, this is the thing; I want to break this expectation. Since I want to live in Japan after I graduate I will not be content with simply being able to communicate. In any Japanese class,　keigo (Japanese honorific language) is taught towards the end. After my experience at working at a company I can say that the language ability plays a very important role.

Anyways I still have a long way to go with my Japanese study. I have been stepping it up a bit within the past couple of months. I have been doing more language exchanges, practicing while watching TV, and also attempting to read a newspaper every day. I suspect it will take at least a couple years of living in Japan and intensively studying until I can even consider to be "fluent."

Crazy Japanese Snacks

2009-06-17T20:48:00.004+09:00

Japan has it's share of snacks that you may find a bit weird from a foreign standpoint. Here are two snacks that I found in the convenient store.

The first is Coke with green tea flavor. Green tea is very popular in Japan so it seems only natural they would have Coke with green tea. To be honest I couldn't taste too much difference between this and Coke Zero.

The next is a small hot dog snack that I think is supposed to be a breakfast food. I think the funniest thing is the English that is written on it.

As for my personal life there is not much going on. Right now I am wrapping a lot of stuff up at work and planning my trip to Kansai next month. It should be pretty hectic this next month but I am sure it will be a lot of fun.

Kabukicho Izakaya

2009-06-14T18:33:00.003+09:00

Yesterday I went with a few friends from my Japanese class back in America, one of my coworkers, and my Japanese professor from Texas Tech to an Izakaya in Shinjuku. Incidentally, the Izakaya was in the biggest red light district in Japan (Kabukicho), but the drinks were cheap and environment was nice so it was ok.

For those who don't know, an Izakaya (居酒屋) is pretty much somewhere between a bar and an actual restaurant. You go in and normally sit in a private room. You can order drinks and cheap appetiezers and socialize with whoever you brought. It is a good place to talk and socialize and often times I will do language exchanges there.

The room we were in was pretty unique. It was like a small mini bar where one person sat behind the counter. There was a door that led to the otherside under the bar that Stephanie managed to crawl through somewhere to the otherside.

Overall it was pretty fun. It was nice catching up with people from Tech and at the same time put into reality that soon I would be returning to America. As I stated in a previous post I plan on coming back to Japan after graduation. Japan is easy to live in, safe, and fairly financialy stable.

Next month is going to be really busy. Apart from having to wrap up everything at work (documentation), and packing up my apartment, my father and sister will also be coming to Japan to visit. I have to plan all of what we are going to do. I am taking a trip to Kansai with my sister so that should be pretty fun.

言語交換とHo!サマー！

2009-06-10T21:55:00.003+09:00

今日友達と言語交換をしました。楽しかったけどぜんぜん英語で話さなかった。ちょっと吃驚した。　日本に来た時絶対上手じゃなかったけど得意になりました。

海老名の回転寿司に行った。ホタテや鮪をたべてすごき美味しかった。そして著安かった！多分15個を食べて会計が1000円ぐらいだった。

後でカラオケに行った。海老名では楽しそうな場所がいっぱいあるのでよく遊ぶ。友達に洋楽を歌われた。可愛かった。

日本語の楽曲を歌った！

Ho!サマー

漢字は全部理解ができた！日本語能力試験の二級よしゃ行くで！

Go-Karting by the Sea

2009-05-28T06:28:00.006+09:00

Last weekend I went with Randy and Nicola to the seaside with bikes. The weather was really nice and I was exercising so it was a lot of fun. We traveled a good distance. About 43km (about 27 miles).

There were some beautiful cycling paths on the way. We went along the riverside both going there and coming back so we got to see some really pretty landscapes.

The ocean was really nice. It was tranquil and peaceful. There was something calming and settling about just sitting there on the seawall, watching the waves crash down.

Randomly when we were coming back we found a go-karting place by the river. Randy and I decided to give it a go while Nicola stayed back to take pictures. After grabbing a quick dinner at a local ramen shop Randy and I suited up. The guy explained the rules to us (in Japanese) and we were off.

Japan doesn't mess around with go-karts. They were a lot faster than the ones we had in America. We had to wear gloves and also a helmet. I guess in America there are a lot of lawyers so you can't have them go as fast.

Overall it was a good day. I forgot to wear suntan lotion so I got a little burnt, but nothing too bad. I could see myself going carting again.

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More Learning Japanese

2009-05-21T06:08:00.007+09:00

One of the main reasons I was so interested in finding an internship in Japan is that I wanted to learn the Japanese language. I could have easily got an internship in America that payed double, but I chose this internship for the cultural and linguistic learning opportunities.

Sometimes I am a little surprised that some foreigners in Japan don't even make an effort to learn Japanese. I figure if you live in Japan, you should speak Japanese (or at least try to). In America some people get mad when some Mexican or Chinese person speaks no English, and I'd imagine such people exist in Japan also.

I just figure that this is such a good opportunity, it would be a waste not to try to learn Japanese. I want to get all that I can out of this internship both technically and culturally. I've highlighted a few of my Japanese study habits that I have picked up in hopes that other people may find them useful.

Kanji
Ahh kanji, the juggernaut of learning Japanese. For those of you that don't know kanji are Chinese characters that the Japanese language borrows... there are tons of them and they all have different multiple pronunciations.

The best way I have found is just to read print, look up the kanji you don't know in a dictionary/DS, and write them down. Do NOT use rikaichan. It may be convenient, but it does not help you learn kanji. It is like god mode in Doom.

Recently I have been reading a newspaper. Newspapers in Japan are crazy... they are a different type of language. They are very scholarly and have many kanji that even native Japanese have problems with. Nonetheless it is a good way to practice all different types of kanji. Usually reading the same article more than once is a good way to memorize kanji. It doesn't have to be a newspaper though. Sit down with a notebook, dictionary, and your choice of Japanese print, whether it be a newspaper, manga, magazine, whatever.

One good thing about reading is that you start to recognize the kanji you learn everywhere. The other day I was reading a newspaper article about the new flu, 新型インフルエンザ. I didn't know the kanji for "new type" (新型) or (しんがた) so I wrote it down. The very next day when I was coming back from the grocery store I saw a Nissan billboard for the 新型ムラーノ (The New Murano). It just goes to show how useful studying kanji is.

Speaking
Living in Japan provides the greatest facet for learning how to speak in Japanese; everyone knows it. Speak every opportunity you get.

Speak in Japanese all you can. A lot of times people will want to speak to you in English because you are a foreigner, but usually if you show them that you have some Japanese knowledge they will speak to you in Japanese.

Language exchanges are nice too. It is good if you can get a weekly language exchange going though. Be sure to actually make it a language exchange though and not a pseudo-date. Speak in English for around 50% of the time and ask any questions. Be sure to correct your partner if they say something wrong and hopefully they will do the same to you.

Grammar
For grammar all I can say is go beyond the simple stuff. Make it a point to use new, more complicated grammatical structures. Being able to use the more complicated grammar fluently is what separates "dumb gaijin" Japanese from sophisticated Japanese.

Vocabulary
My study habits for vocabulary are pretty much the same as my habits for kanji. I carry around a small flash card book with vocab words and their translation. Every time I hear or read a word that I don't know I find out the translation and write it down in this book. Later I can easily review the new words.

It is also the same as grammar. Go beyond the simple stuff. Once you have learned a certain level of Japanese it is easy just to stick with your known vocab... but in order to really master the language you have to go beyond this level. Make it a point to learn and use new words.

That is pretty much all that I can think of right now. I still consider myself extremely lucky for having this internship. Back in America I know people that would kill for a month, let alone a year to be Japan. I really want to make the most of it and learn as much as I can.

Excercise in Japan

2009-05-18T22:52:00.004+09:00

Anyone living in Japan for an extended period of time may be interested in the various facets of exercising that are available. Even if the food is healthier than American food, it does little if you don't exercise to burn those extra calories.

Gym memberships in Japan are expensive... to the point where getting a one year membership in my mind isn't quite worth it. Perhaps if I was living here for longer than a year I would be inclined to, but there are many free alternatives.

I run with a few foreigner friends at a local sports park. Since I can't be bothered to wake up extremely early before work, I go after work at about 8pm. Of course it is pitch dark but since this is the only time it cannot be helped. The sports park is free and has a pretty decent dirt track which is roughly 1.5km (0.93 miles).

Picture compliments of Randy.

Since I work with a lot of Europeans I always get left in the dust, but slowly I am gaining endurance. Running in the dark is interesting and I can only imagine what a Japanese person running on the track would think if they saw several large gaijin running at them in the dark.

I especially like it since it is by the river. I get to turn on the Rocky music and get pumped up. Anyways besides running I lift free weights in my room. Japan is pretty friendly when it comes to free outdoor places to exercise. There is also a sports gym closer to the station which is 300 yen per day, and has all the standard basketball and tennis courts of a regular gym (along with a nice big pool). I've lost about 20 pounds since coming to Japan and hopefully can get to a weight that I can maintain when I get back to the states in August.

Atsugi Food Festival and Billiards

2009-05-18T07:05:00.004+09:00

Time for some catch up of what happened over golden week.

I went out with my friend that was visiting from America and a couple of Japanese friends from work to a local food festival in Atsugi. Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard so we all had to huddle under an umbrella the entire time. The festival was held in a local Atsugi park. There were tons of food stands set up and also a stage where local dance groups from local high schools were performing. Besides the rain it was a great environment.

The lines for one stand were really really long, so we decided to try one of the shorter ones. It was called a Zerry Fry (ゼリーフライ) and was kind of like a breaded fried potato. It was from Saitama, a nearby prefecture.

There were a lot of people dressed up in animal uniforms promoting all of their stand's food. Chuck was kidpapped by a cow and extorted into buying some fried potatos which were actually pretty nice.

Afterwards we all went to play billiards. It was Kozasa-san's first time playing billiards but despite this everyone seemed to have a lot of fun.

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Birthday Nabe Party

2009-05-17T15:53:00.004+09:00

On Tuesday is my Birthday (I will be 22), and Hunlun and a few people in the office wanted to hold a birthday party. My birthday fell very close to Rumi's (the Japanese teacher's) birthday so we decided to combine them. It was a "nabe" party and was really fun. A nabe party is where there is a big crock pot in the middle of a room with a lot of raw meat around it. You pretty much just cook it at your own pace and to your choosing.

The group picture. Everyone had so much fun.

The tequila was very popular... although I think it hit some people harder than others.

It was really fun and it is truly like I have a family away from home. Thanks to everyone who put it together and I had a great time.

Everyone is Free To Wear Sunscreen

2009-05-11T22:53:00.002+09:00

I remember this video from back in high school but recently watched it again. It is really inspirational and whenever I get down I watch it. There is some really good advice in it and I though I would share it with everyone.

Tell me what you think!

Graduation

2009-05-10T09:41:00.002+09:00

So today is graduation at Texas Tech University. It is kind of a weird feeling. I took a year off of school to go to this internship in Japan so sometimes I can't help but wonder what if I stayed in Lubbock. I am glad I took this internship and there is no doubt that I not only grew as a student, but I also matured as a person.

I feel refreshed. I will be able to go back to school with a clear head and be able to do what I need to do. I am still going to have a few friends from the old days, but many of the people I knew (especially in my major) are long gone. It will be hard adjusting back to American culture (especially the food), but I think it will be fun.

This internship has showed me that I want to do something international after I graduated. Preferably Japan, but I love to travel overseas. It is just exciting to learn a new culture and get to know many people. I have thought about applying for an English teacher job, as I like working with children, or I have also thought about pursuing a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science in an international university. Either way it is safe to say that after I graduate I will be doing something overseas.

Anyways, I had a friend visit for Golden Week and I will be making a couple of blog posts about what we did. We went to Chinatown in Yokohama as well as a few other places.

Someone Dropped 50 Yen

2009-04-15T18:48:00.002+09:00

The other day at work after lunch I got an email from one of the office ladies.

Apparently someone dropped 50 yen by the vending machine and she was sending out an email to the entire floor saying that if anyone wanted to claim it to go speak to her. 50 yen in the rough equivalent of 50 cents so this email really shows something about Japanese culture. In the USA, anyone would just pick up that 50 cents and not feel guilty about it.

I guess this type of thinking is one of the subtle things I will miss when I go back to America.

Costco and Red Lobster Japan

2009-04-11T08:38:00.005+09:00

Last year Levi and I got a membership to Costco. Costco in Japan is actually very similar to Costco in America. The membership cost 4000 yen (compared to $50 in the States) for a gold membership. The only thing is that in Japan, none of us have a car to haul everything back.

The closest Costco is in Tamasakai, about40 minutes away from Hon-Atsugi by train. This means we have to bring a huge luggage container to Costco so that we can easily haul everything back through the train with ease. The first couple of times we went, we bought beer and had to carry back the heavy cases through the train, lately we have wised up and only got stuff we can put in the luggage.

This last time I went with Levi and Kozasa-san (my language exchange from work). Kozasa-san I think was a little overwhelmed with everything. With those who aren't familiar, at Costco you have to buy everything in large quantities. For example, you can't just buy 200g of ground beef, you have to buy 1kg (which I did). SO I think for her it was really fun seeing all of these imported foods in huge quantities. It was also I think weird for her to see everything all together in the same room Kitchen appliances, food, books, games, clothes; Costco had it all.

One thing that I particularly liked about Costco is the bakery. You can get really big and delicious bread/muffins/bagels for really cheap. The big twelve pack of muffins only cost about 800 yen.

Other than that I just got a lot of snacks and food to last me through the month. I forgot to take a picture of all the stuff we bought, but here is a small breakdown of everything and the prices:

Tostitos Tortilla Lime Chips: 460yen
Pace Picante Huge Salsa: 1000yen
1kg Ground Beef: 1000yen
12 pack Muffins: 800 yen
12 Cheese Bagels: 600 yen
Huge Block of Mozzarella Cheese: 1000 yen
7kg Angel Hair Pasta: 1000 yen

There are a bunch of other things too that I am leaving out, but generally everything was really cheap. When we bought beer it was about 3500 for a 24 pack of Corona and 2000ish for a 24 pack of Asahi. They had a good selection of import beer including Coors, Grolsch, Heineken, XXXX, and a few other European beers.

Afterwards we went to Red Lobster that was near by. Red Lobster is pretty much the same as it is in America except that it didn't seem as popular when we went. Granted that it was a Tuesday night, there were only a few people there and business didn't seem to be booming. It was also really expensive. I dropped about 3000 yen on my dish. I got a nice variety plater that was delicious but hard to eat. Kozasa-san got a lobster dish and Levi got a steak.

It was a really good night and I got a lot of cheap stuff that will last me through the month. We go to Costco about twice a month now and it really saves money in the long run. If you are in Japan for an extended period of time it is definitely worth getting a membership.

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Otaku Drinking Party

2009-04-09T21:31:00.003+09:00

On Saturday after all of the festivals I went out with one of my Japanese co-workers (Katagiri-san) to meet with his Otaku friends. His friends wanted to see what foreign otakus were like and apparently I was one that fit that description. First, for the Japanese impaired, "Otaku" pretty much means someone who really likes anime/video games/etc. I often talked to Katagiri-san about this sort of stuff, and I'm sure he's seen that in my music collection I have tons of anime/game music, so I must haveve fit this description.

Anyways I met up at around six in Ikebukuro with Randy and Marek. After walking around for a little bit and enjoying the great weather we met his friends at an Izakaya. Katagiri-san previously mentioned that all of his friends were girls, which made the entire experience even more interesting.

It Izakaya was a small quaint little place. Throughout the night we ordered various food and drinks. His friends were very interesting. It was really interesting getting to talk to a different social group and really networking. All of this otaku stuff that I usually hide when I am around girls was really fun to talk about to people with common interests.

At about 11pm we called it a night and returned to Atsugi. After a number/email exchange change and an hour trip back to Atsugi I passed out in my bed. It had been a long good day.

Kamamara Fertility Festival & Yokosuka Naval Base Hanami

2009-04-08T20:01:00.006+09:00

**WARNING** This post contains pictures that are not safe for work. You have been warned.

Last weekend I went with Steve, Boris, and Levi to Kawasaki to visit the infamous fertility festival. The fertility festival (aka penis festival) is a festival that promotes safe sex and also raises money for HIV research.

From Atsugi, it took about an hour to get to Kawasaki-daishu where the festival was taking place. After a quick lunch at McDonalds we headed towards the temple. Right from the train station it was obvious that this festival is very popular amongst foreigners. There were so many different types... Russians, Australians, American...

Anyways as we walked down the street to the temple we apparently caught the parade. The parade was really interesting.... basically a bunch of people holding platforms of penis statues marched down the street singing and chanting.

The biggest penis statue was a pink one with all transsexuals holding it. Apparently the festival originated to promote safe sex among transsexuals, but the meaning expanded over the years.

The temple was gorgeous although crowded as hell. It was really hard to walk around and buying stuff was hell. They sold these penis lollipops that were extremely popular. We all gave money to Steve and told him to go buy a bunch of them as it was easier than all of us buying them individually. About ten minutes later Steve emerged from the crowd of people with a handful of penis candy.

There were these big wooden penises too that you could sit on and have your picture taken. It was really funny and people were really getting into it. Given this chance may never have reach me again, I decided to get a picture.

Afterwards I headed to Yokosuka to the American Navy base. They were holding a huge cherry blossom festival and were allowing everyone to come on base and celebrate. It was extremely popular among the Japanese. There were thousands and thousands of people. Honestly it was way more crowded than Comiket or Tokyo Game Show.

Anyways, after waiting in line, getting our bags searched (where they found penis candy) we were on base. Levi and I had come from the Taco Bell (they can't be found in Japan), but we were devistated to hear that it was blocked off and reserved for military people only. Still they had a ton of American food and beer there and the environment was really nice. It was in a gorgeous area also and the weather was relatively decent.

All in all it was a good weekend. After the base, I went with a few people at work to an Otaku drinking party that I will write about in my next post. I am trying to do much more outdoors stuff since the weather is getting better. I have a lot of good stuff to write about.

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Sakura Tree Viewing (Hanami) in Atsugi

2009-03-29T19:56:00.004+09:00

So today I just wanted to do something local, so I went with Randy, Marek, and Levi to a local mountain to view some Sakura Trees near Atsugi. We took a bus from the station and about 15 minutes later we were at the base of Iiyama.

There was a big local festival that was going on too that was really neat. A lot of local schools helped out and the decorations were great. There were many stands where you could buy some interesting food. I got pretty much a roasted fish that tasted really good and later on I got a grilled corn-on-the-cob that was delicious.

It was pretty funny too. When we got to the main festival area there was a dance show that some of the local schools put together. A bunch of students (mostly girls) would dance to different beats. It was really funny watching them dance to songs such as Beastie Boys and Black Eyed Peas, and it was kind of heart-warming too to see that American music was so popular among younger people in Japan. There were also some neat traditional Japanese dances.

The temple was gorgeous. It had a nice view of Atsugi and it seemed really tranquil and hidden. We were the only foreigners there and everyone seemed very nice.

After walking around a bit, taking in the scenery, and taking some pictures of the shrine/temple, we decided to go back. It was a nice little outing and the weather was great. If I was staying in Japan longer, it would definitely be a nice place to go on a date with a girl to.

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Sakura Tree Viewing (Hanami)

2009-03-29T09:47:00.008+09:00

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. It's been a combination of having fun in Japan and being lazy. I'll make it a point to update more from now on.

Anyways, yesterday I went with Marek, Hunglun, and his wife to Tokyo to meet up with some of his friends for Sakura Tree viewings. Every year the cherry blossom trees in Tokyo bloom on a certain weekend. I was suppose to go with another friend, but he ended up having a late night drinking and couldn't make it.

But anyways we left the Youth Heim at around noon and headed to Korakoen. Korakoen is right by the Tokyo Dome and is also a very historic place. It was kind of neat seeing a really traditional Japanese park nestled away in Modern Tokyo. There was also this cool looking roller coaster that looked like it went almost 90 degrees.

The park (which was 300 yen entrance) was really nice. The sakura trees weren't in complete bloom, but the ones that were blooming were amazing. It look very pretty and a bit majestic.

After Korakoen we headed to meet up with a few Chinese friends over at Yoyogi-koen. After a quick lunch at McDonalds, we headed to Yoyogi-koen. There were a ton of people there and the environment was really nice. After some searching, we were able to meet up with the Chinese friends. Everyone was really cool and the environment was really relaxed. Just sitting around and watching the trees, talking, drinking, and playing games.

After Yoyogi-koen we went to a Chinese restaurant and had a few courses of really good authentic Chinese food. It was a ton of food and also was really cheap (1100) yen. My favorite was the Beijing Duck.

After the Chinese food we went around the area to view some of the night flowers. I forget where it was, but it was very pretty. I even took some good night shots.

It was a really good weekend, probably one of the best that I had in Japan. I met a lot of really cool new people and experienced some Japanese and Chinese culture first hand. There is another Hanami next weekend at the American army base which I may go to also.

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Trip to Shinjuku

2009-02-09T17:16:00.004+09:00

Yesterday I went to Shinjuku with one of my friends (Hitomi) and we decided to go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. It is one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo and offers a great night view. We had a dessert and drink at the top of the building and enjoyed a great night view.

Afterwards we ate at a pasta restaurant near Shinjuku station. It was really nice and I got back to Atsugi relatively early (10ish). Problem is for some reason the next day (today) I felt crappy for some reason and had to burn a sick day :-X

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Kaiten Zushi/Sushi and Sukiya

2009-02-03T20:21:00.006+09:00

So today I went with Alvaro and Randy to the Kaiten Zushi place close to work for lunch. Kaiten zushi is a type of sushi restaurant where the sushi comes around on a conveyer belt and you pick up which ever one that you want to eat. Each plate that you pick up is a different color that corresponds to a different price. The really expensive sushi plates can only be specially ordered. In our case the special order sushi was delivered by a small model train that was next to our seats.

The sign "Sushi-bee", I thought the last supper thing was funny

The different prices of the plates

Salmon maybe?

In the evening I had a language exchange with Kozasa-san so I decided to get some food at Sukiya with Steve before hand. I got the cheese curry set, that came with a salad and a bowl of miso soup. We also got a couple of beers.

The sukiya across from AXT Tower (our workplace)

My set/combo

I try to eat as much authentic Japanese food as I can, even if it is just fast food, but sometimes I cave and just get McDonalds or Burger King. Anyways, I hope this post was interesting. I am climbing Mt. Onoyama on Saturday so my next post will probably be about that.

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Japanese Level Up

2009-02-03T02:26:00.003+09:00

For some reason lately it seems that I have been way more confident with my Japanese linguistic skills. I've been doing as many language exchanges as I can (about three a week) and I have been studying at work every day. For some reason though lately I am just more confident when speaking to people. Maybe it is because I just reached the six month mark, but I really enjoy it.

So that brings me back to my suggestion for people coming to Japan; speak Japanese. Not only will you learn a lot, but you will also get a lot more respect from the Japanese people. I think it is a safe assumption to say that for any speaker of a western language, Japanese is fairly hard compared to other languages. Practice all that you can. Whether that means language exchanges or simply having casual conversations with people in the office, the more you speak the better you become.

Weekend Cycling

2009-01-25T17:18:00.003+09:00

Today I went with Randy to go cycling to the seaside. It was a more spur of the moment decision, but I needed the exercise and I just needed something free to do on a boring weekend. We left at about 1pm and just cycled straight from Atsugi to Hiratsuka. It took about an hour or so and we wasted a fair amount of time just walking around the beach.

The pacific ocean. Somewhere on the other side of that is home.

Me with Mt. Fuji in the background.

It was very fun. It was a very nice day so you could see Mt. Fuji very well. Overall the trip was healthy, nice, and free. It is really amazing how you can go from really modern and urban environments to very peaceful countryside cities in Japan. The whole trip took about three and a half hours.

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Kabuki & Ooedo Onsen Monogatari

2009-01-20T19:42:00.002+09:00

Last weekend I went with a few friends to Kabuki and then to an onsen afterwards. Kabuki is a form of traditional Japanese theater that combines traditional Japanese music as well as a traditional dancing style. Since I live close to Tokyo, I was lucky enough to be able to go to the Kabuki-za.

After catching a train to Higashi Ginza Station with Boris and Steve, we met one of Junko's British friends. The Kabuki theater itself was very beautiful. The architecture was really traditional and it was neat to see such and old and very Japanese building surrounded by new, modern Tokyo buildings.

After standing in line for about twenty minutes and paying 900 yen for a student ticket we entered the theater. Luckily there were English narration radios available that we used. The radios/earphone rental was about 400 yen and thank god it was there. Talking with Japanese friends, the language is hard enough to understand for native speakers, let alone my elementary Japanese skills. Since we arrived a little bit late we were only able to get standing room.

One interesting thing about Kabuki is that all of the performers are guys. Even the women characters are played by guys. Traditional Japanese music/song played all throughout the play. The story was a love story that ultimately was a tragedy. I am not going to explain it too much, but it was very interesting and I am glad I went there. Thanks to the translator I was able to understand the main points of the story and enjoy it to its fullest. Overall it was a nice cheap traditional activity to do in Tokyo.

Afterwards I headed to Odaiba with Boris and Junko's friend to meet up with Junko at the Ooedo Onsen. Before the onsen we decided to walk around a popular shopping center in Odaiba (Venus Fort). In the shopping center there was some sort of NFL cheer competition going on where a bunch of cheerleaders from different NFL teams cheered and answered questions. It was kind of refreshing in a twisted type of way to hear a valley girl accent again.

Next we headed to the onsen. An onsen (hot spring) is a very big part of Japanese culture. This one was really nice. Again it was nice seeing such a traditional Japanese building in the middle of modern Tokyo. I found the sign outside to be funny as it explicitly forbade Yakuzas. It also prohibited people with tattoos, but that was acceptable.

After entering the Onsen we dropped our shoes off at a locker and then paid the entrance fee (2000 yen). After paying we went to the Yukata table and I got a yukata. Surprisingly, they had yukatas for 195cm tall people and it fit very well. Next Boris and I went to the mens' changing room where we put on our yukata (with boxers on underneath). With the yukata on we headed to the common room.

The common room was really nice. Everyone was wearing a yukata and was barefooted. There were a bunch of restaurants, souvenir shops, and mini-bars set up and it was very open. Everything was also very Japanese: the souvenirs, the architecture, and all the food was Japanese. When we checked in we were given a locker key. Attached to the locker key was a barcode that you used whenever you wanted to buy something inside the onsen. It was a really nice system. You were even able to buy massages and entrance to different types of spas.

After hanging around the common room Boris and I headed to the actual hot spring. We went into another changing room where we were given two towels (a big one for drying and a little one for privacy). After putting the rest of our clothes in the locker we went to the hot spring. I guess a lot of people are uncomfortable being around a bunch of naked men, but to be honest I didn't really think it was a big deal... it is part of the culture. In the onsen there were a few different bodies of water. The way you are supposed to do an onsen is to first wash yourself in the shower, then take a soak in the bath, and then shower again before leaving. The bath was huge and separated into a few different parts. All of them had stones lining them and looked very nice and traditional.

Boris and I liked the outside open-air onsen better. The water was hotter, the landscape was nice, and in general it was just more enjoyable being under the open sky. In the inside onsen there were a few jacuzzi style onsens that looked nice, but I didn't actually go in them.

After staying in the onsen for about an hour we headed back out to the common room and met Junko and Shauna. I had a really tasty bowl of udon as well as a couple of beers and a bottle of nihonshu (sake). We spent a couple of hours talking and took a few group pictures (in the common room everyone is clothed so it is allowed). After we were done we got changed into our street clothes and then checked out. All the food and drinks that I ordered came out to about 2500 yen which was a really nice deal.

Overall the onsen was great. It is a must go to anyone visiting Japan. It was really relaxing and overall was a great experience that helped me relieve a bunch of stress.

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Mark's Farewell Pizza Party

2009-01-17T10:56:00.004+09:00

So Mark (Scottish) left yesterday. It is really a strange feeling having all the older interns leave and being left with somewhat seniority status, but I guess it just comes with the job. To see Mark off we held a surprise party for him in the Youth Heim common room.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, Levi and I recently got a Costco Japan membership. One good thing about Costco is that the little eatery inside Costco sells American pizzas (the same ones that they have in Costco America). I'll make an entire post about Costco later, but right now I'll just talk about the party/pizza. So for the party we thought it would be a nice idea to get beer and pizza at Costco. Pizza from Pizza Hut costs about 3000 yen for an American equivalent medium and is just really gourmet (see my Pizza Hut Japan post). At Costco, the XL American pizza is 1500 yen, and beer ranges anywhere from 2000 yen (for a 24 pack) to 5000 yen (for a 24 pack of the premium imports). So obviously we wanted to get our pizza there.

The thing is Costco isn't exactly close. It is about 40 minutes away and two train transfers. Originally the plan was to bring three people to help carry four pizzas, two cases of beer, and one case of cokes, but at the last second Levi bailed on us and Nicola was feeling sick. So in the end only Steve and I were able to go. Getting to Costco was fine. It was coming back that was a pain in the ass. After picking up the beers and pizza at Costco, and wrapping the pizzas in a trash bag so that we wouldn't get as many weird looks on the train, we took a cab from Costco to the station by Costco (the drinks were heavy as hell).

This is something I don't want to do again. Don't get me wrong, I lift weights quite routinely, but carrying three crates of heavy drinks through crowded stations wasn't exactly fun. At one point I dropped the cokes and said some obsenities in English. Finally though, after much effort we arrived at Youth Heim. It seems that most people liked the pizza. I guess this type is really rare in Japan so it was nice to introduce a few people to the greasy, unhealthy, delicious American pizza.

As for Mark he seemed to have a good time. He worked late so it actually worked out in our favor for going such a long way to Costco. Everyone seemed to have a good time and enjoy themselves.

Randy was kind enough to take these pictures (my arms weren't working after carrying the drinks). The entire album can be seen here (credits to Randy):

http://picasaweb.google.com/mrhazard/PizzaParty#

Crew's Cruise Burger

2009-01-16T19:41:00.003+09:00

On Wednesday after Japanese class I went with Rumi (the Japanese instructor), Salvatore, Steve, and Levi to eat at a burger place (Crew’s Cruise Burger) close to Youth Heim. It was a pretty relaxed atmosphere and was very American. It was more or less how a bar is in America, however they operated under the guise of a burger shop. I ordered the double cheeseburger (the largest one I was told). The food itself, while the portions weren't great, was actually pretty tasty. The tomatos/veggies were fresh and the fries and beef were seasoned very well.

They also had a pretty decent beer selection too at not off the wall prices. I had probably 3/4 a pint of Bass Pale Ale for 600yen, and even had a Coors Light for around the same price (beer, let alone import beer is expensive in Japan). The burger meal cost me about 1200 yen. All and all it was a decent place. To put it on American scales think better than any fast food, but not quite home BBQ. I would say it was gourmet for American standards.

Another interesting thing to note is that I got a Costco membership. At the end of the month (when I have more money) I will write a full blog post about this complete with pictures and an account of my trips to Costco Japan.

Japanese Vocab Lesson 5

2009-01-11T09:34:00.005+09:00

Well since it is a new year I figure I'll start studying Japanese again. I got a really good language exchange at work so right now I need to just build vocab. I think I might start doing the exercises in the Genki book with the language exchange as well just to get a Japanese perspective on them.

A lot of this might be review, but it is good to go over some of the simple stuff.

So yeah, adverbs in Japanese are pretty easy. For い adjectives you just drop the final い and add く before the verb. For　な adverbs just drop the な and add に .

美味 (びみ) - Good Flavor/Taste
高級 (こうきゅう) - High Class
燃す(もす) - To burn, can also be used as in "Damn, I burned that much money at the bar last night"
屋 (や) - Shop, used at the end of other words like 本屋 and 電気屋
変更 (へんこう) - Change/Modification
遊び相手 (あそびあいて) - Playmate/Flayfellow　(Used for little kids)
似る　(にる) - To resemble, often used in the -te form
息子 (むそく) - Son
晴れやかな　(はれやかな) - Sunny
布団　(ふとん) - Futon
膨らむ　(ふくらむ) - To Expand/swell. Also used to "air out futon"
ぶつける - To run into/knock into

Got this one from a language exchange:
でも、日本はドアの入口の高さとかが低いから、頭ぶつけそうにならない？
demo, nihon ha doa no hairiguchi no takachi toka ga hikui kara, atama butsuke sou ni naranai?
But, Japanese doorways have a low height, so do you often hit your head?

Winter Vacation 2008/2009

2009-01-04T20:07:00.009+09:00

Well I have a lot to write about here. What a crazy week it has been. There are a few different things that I did so I will split them into different sections.

New Year's Eve/Day

First off is New Year's Eve/Day. I went with a few friends to Roppongi to go to a club to celebrate New Year's. Originally the plan was to go to an Izakaya in Harajuku and have a bunch of cheap beers, but the Izakaya turned out to be closed so we ended up just having a couple of beers at and English pub before heading out to Roppongi.

I think Azrael (the Gaijin Smash guy) put it best when he said "god doesn't exist in Roppongi." It is completely true. One of the things that I didn't like about Roppongi is that there are tons of foreigners. I like to be in places where there are very few so I can have a little bit of the limelight.

But anyways after meeting up with a few of Dan's friends we ended up going to a club called Feria. Feria sounded promising, and I guess if I was more into the clubbing scene I would have enjoyed it more, but Japanese clubs are just not my thing. Talking with Yuko (my previous Japanese instructor) later I found out that there is a certain group of Japanese people that go to clubs. It is considered somewhat delinquent in Japanese society and usually they type of girls that go there are the gaijin collectors.

To say the club was packed would be a gross understatement. First off it was 6000 yen for entrance and three drinks. While the drinks were strong (like three parts whiskey and one part coke), it really wasn't worth it. Anyways on the main floor (the dance floor) it was so crowded that you couldn't even move, let alone dance. It was so crowded that Mark (Scotish) said that he saw two girls cat fighting for a seat.

(Best picture I have)

The only somewhat enjoyable floor was the second and fourth floors. These were a little less crowded and actually gave you the opportunity to move around freely without feeling violated. The only thing is that once you ran out of drink tickets the prices were ridiculously high. It also seemed that a lot of the people there were very elitist. Mark and I ended up using all of our drink tickets and then just going to a bar. At least there we could sit down and have a drink with real people.

Somehow at the bar I lost Mark. I have no idea where he went and still haven't heard from him. Steve said that apparently he made it to the station and got on the right train, but ended up missing his stop. I left around 1:30am or so after talking to random Japanese people. One thing to note is that trains run all night on New Year's night. The only problem is that Odakyu (the one that goes out to my city in Kanagawa) was local only. This mean that instead of skipping the smaller stations it stopped at every single small city between Shinjuku and Atsugi. It ended up taking a couple of hours and it was about 4:30am when I got to sleep.

Overall, Japanese clubs aren't my thing. I've been to a couple now and didn't like either of them. If you want to try to pick up some random girl or "dance" then it should be your thing. Otherwise I'd just go to a bar. It will be cheaper, more interesting, and you will meet in my opinion cooler people.

Chiba
So a friend invited me to her parents' house for a couple of days to relax and get a feel for a traditional Japanese family. Her parents live in Kashiwa in the Chiba prefecture. It is about two hours away from Atsugi and costs about 1000yen by train.

Her parents' house was very Japanese and their hospitality was amazing. As soon as I got there they made me feel right and home and bombarded me with tons and tons of food. I must of gained at least 10kg throughout the trip. The first night we had delicious sukiyaki. Sukiyaki is a kind of Japanese style of food where there is one big pot full of meat and vegetables, and everyone just helps themselves. There was a ton of meat. I pride myself with coming from the fattest country in the world but I still couldn't eat all that they were giving me.For my bed I had a futon on a traditional Japanese tatami mat. It was very comfortable and I slept very well each night I was there.

The following day we went to Tokyo to meet with Steve, Nicola, and Levi to visit the imperial palace. On the 2nd of the year is the only year in the entire week that you can actually enter the imperial palace.

After a quick meal at Subway (yes, the sandwich place, it exists in Japan and I got a foot long Subway Club with double meet which I was ecstatic about), we headed over to palace. Unfortunately we got there too late. It was closed so everyone was a bit disappointed. We did manage to get a few good pictures at the park around the palace though.

The next day I went with her and a couple of her friends to a local shrine. The shrine was gorgeous as was the weather. There was a big line (that went pretty quickly) to the main part of the shrine. At the main part, everyone throws a five yen coin into the money slot, bows, and then makes a wish. Apparently your wish won't come true if you tell anyone, so I'll keep it to myself, for now.

Afterward we went to get our fortune told. After paying 100yen we drew a fortune stick at random from the fortune telling box. Each stick represents a different fortune, so after drawing I gave it to the shrine girl and got my fortune. I couldn't read the kanji, but I was told that it was good luck. I am also going to meet a girlfriend this year and receive something that I deeply deserve (about time)!

After a quick lunch at a Japanese Denny's, we to Tokyo to meet up with Steve and my Japanese instructor from Texas (Yuko). We met at Shinjuku and made our way to some Spanish Japanese restaurant. The food was really nice and I had probably the best glass of wine since coming to Japan. It was really nice catching up with Yuko. It felt nice talking to someone else that had gone to Texas Tech and reminded me that I did have a life before coming to Japan. We talked about things that we missed (driving, Mexican food, The Rec) and talked about what we were doing currently.

The next day I went nearby park. The weather was great and there were a bunch of people at the park exercising, flying kites, and walking their dogs. My friend told me that kites are very popular in Japan during January. It kind of reminded me of when I used to fly kites with my parents as a kid.

After the park we visited an old junior high school. Since it was Sunday, the only people there were from sports teams. It was still interesting to see the outside buildings of a Japanese school and also see the students playing sports for their clubs.

Afterward I went to the supermarket. This supermarket had a large variety of fish including squid, octopus, crab, etc. It was really neat and her dad seemed very anxious to show me around the fish department.

I headed back to Atsugi around 2pm and got back to my apartment at around 5pm. It was a really nice and relaxing trip. Her parents were very nice and I got to eat tons of tasty food. Her parents used to live on a farm, so they also had a ton of fruit that they kept giving me. I had so many apples- it was great. The thing that I really like is that I was able to see true Japanese hospitality. There was a very small language barrier between me and her family, but overall my Japanese seemed more than adequate. It was definitely a trip that was worth the time. Now all I have to worry about is working off all the weight that I gained :-( .

Comiket & Tokyo Tower

2008-12-31T15:39:00.007+09:00

Yesterday was the last day of Comiket, the largest comic convention in the world. Since it was only about an hour away from my apartment, I decided to go. Nicola (German/Bulgarian) came with me also. Afterwards we planned on meeting up with Steve, Levi, and Levi's friend to go to Tokyo Tower.

Anyways, waking up, leaving Youth Heim at about 9am we got to Tokyo Big Sight Convention Center in Odaiba at around 11am.

It was really fun. There were tons of people there so it was more or less like bumper cars inside. There were not as many gaijin as I thought there would be, and the ones that were there seemed to all be the "dumb tourist gaijin" that I mentioned earlier. There were a few cool foreigners though. It was pretty cool though, there were a few main halls with thousands of thousands of people in them. Thousands of tables were set up in the hall and tons of doujin authors would be selling their latest creations. The good majority of the comics were ero/hentai/echii, but it was still cool. You would just go up to an author's table, pick up the book they are selling, flip through it, and then buy it if you wanted. The material ranged from 100 yen to 1500yen depending on quality. I'm really not too much of an otaku, but it was still fun to go through and see it from a tourist standpoint.

After a quick snack we met up with Steve over in Shinjuku. Levi needed to pick up an adapter for his laptop so we headed to Akihabara. Levi was wandering around everywhere with his friend, and it seemed like a hopeless search (which in the end it was), so Steve, Nicola, and I decided to go get a beer at a local pub.

After that fiasco, we went over to the Tokyo Oedo Subway line to Akabanebashi station. From the subway station we walked about five minutes over to Tokyo Tower. Just viewing it from the outside it was amazing. The lighting was brilliant, it was huge (bigger than the Eifel Tower according to Steve), and overall very majestic. We made our way to the base of the tower. On the base there were a ton of shops/restaurants, and museums. We bought our ticket and headed up to the main observatory. The view was very stunning. Pictures don't do it justice. You could see why everyone raves about the night view in Tokyo.

My camera is good for taking night shots, but my hands are very shaky, so I couldn't set the exposure time too high. Maybe I will get one of those mini tripods....

Overall it was a very nice experience. There were many different people at the tower. Foreigners, Japanese, a lot of little kids, and many couples. Afterwards we just headed to a bar in Shinjuku and got all-you-can drink for a couple hours. We took one of the last trains home and I got back to Youth Heim at around 1am.

Movie Review: Uchoten Hotel

2008-12-20T11:31:00.013+09:00

Since it is Saturday, I am running low on money, and I need to practice Japanese, I am going to try a bilingual movie review of a recent Japanese movie that I saw. The English version will come first followed slowly by the Japanese version. I've been watching a few Japanese movies recently so perhaps this may be an on going thing, but on with the review.

The Uchoten Hotel (translated The Sweet Dreams Hotel) is a Japanese comedy written and directed by Koki Mitani. The main plot follows the operation luxury hotel in Japan on New Year's Eve. Of course, this in itself isn't really a movie, but all the crazy and unfortunately humorous accidents that happen throughout the night make this a memorable and worth while movie.

The movie starts out with various hotel staff greeting in new customers for the new year and hard at work setting up decorations for the New Years party that night. One of the main characters is the third in charge of the hotel Heikichi Shindo played by Kôji Yakusho. Shindo has a very serious demeanor but at the same time is a very likable character and seems to get along better with the hotel staff compared to the more uptight second in charge played by Katsuhisa Namase.

Immediately you are introduced to a variety of very unique and likable characters. Yoko the callgirl that sneaks around the hotel trying to find clients, Kenji the Bellboy who has recently given up his dreams to become a famous musician, Hana the maid who was involved with in a political scandal with Senator Mutouda, who is also staying at the hotel this night. A lot of characters are introduced quickly but the movie makes it work. All the characters have a very unique personality and you grow to love them quite well.

The Uchouten Hotel is one of those type of movies that is made up of many different subplots that all tie together throughout the end. One subplot that I found was really weird was that the Bellboy Nirou Tange was in a middle of a lovers' quarrel with maid Noma Sakuragi. All throughout the movie he is trying to get back with her but she wants nothing to do with him.

The two maids get called on to clean up a suite that is notorious for looking like a bombsite. After praying outside the door for the tenant to reform her ways they go in and discover that it is in fact as messy as a bombsite.

While cleaning, Hana gets curious and decides to try on some of the tenant's extravagant coats. While lost in the expensive clothing, the son of the tenant's sugar daddy comes in. He mistakes Hana for the girl that has been with his father and tells her to come down to the cafe. From here he tries to bribe her to leave his dad and a bunch of hilarity ensues. I am not going to go too much deeper into this as it might spoil some of the plot, but overall it is an interesting plot and seems to keep viewers engaged.

Another tenant that is staying in the hotel is nominated man of the year, Professor Yumi Hotta. For some reason I really liked this character. The actor did a really good job of getting into the role and at times you couldn't help but feel sorry for the character. Hotta was staying at the hotel for the night with his wife to accept the man of the year reward. Unfortunately Hotta had also had a history with the callgirl that hangs around the hotel, Yuko. Yuko has a very incriminating and very embarrassing picture of Hotta on her cellphone that she describes as Hotta doing the "Snake Dance".

All throughout the movie Yuko is constantly being kicked out of the hotel and sneaking back in. She meets Senator Mutouda who takes her up to the high-end lounge on the top floor. Mutouda doesn't seem too interested in her but yet she still tries to seduce him.

The bellboy Kenji supposedly has his last day on this night and plans to head back to his home town. He gives away his guitar, bandanna, and lucky charm to the hotel staff. For some reason the bandanna ends up on escaped duck "rub-a-dub". Rub-a-dub is the partner of one of the performers that are performing at the New Years' celebration. All throughout the movie you see the duck and for some reason it is very funny. It is kind of hard to explain. Something really serious will happen and then all the sudden a duck will just come out of nowhere.

I'm not going to go into too much details about the rest. There are loads more subplots to go into but it would be better to actually just to see the movie by yourself. At the end they all tie together very cleanly and the New Year's party is a big success. There is a very nice musical scene at the end by the singer Cherry Sakura (played by singer You).

This is definitely a movie worth watching. It is a very distinct comedy that will be enjoyed even if you are used to seeing western comedies. At the very least it is worth a rental (or torrent). I ended up buying the film, so if you are in Atsugi just ask and I can lend it to you. Overall a great film.

Movie Rentals

2008-12-18T21:54:00.002+09:00

Ah, rental movies. In America I went to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video all the time but in Japan it seems that for the longest time I never had a membership to any video rentals spots. At a language exchange with Kozasa (girl from work) this came up. I admitted that one of the reasons I didn't have a rental membership is that I was simply afraid of going to the video rental place and having to get a membership. She graciously offered to help me get the membership.

The place that she took me to is Tsutaya. Pretty much your run of the mill video shop. Think Blockbuster, except with porn (in a back room), and a ton of anime. It was really uneventful. I walked around with her and we talked about what movies we liked. She gave me a reccomendation for "The Magical Hour" (which I will actually review later) and she rented some other Japanese movie. I'm glad Kozasa was there when I went to get the membership. Despite having to know my age in imperial years, I also had to write the kanji of my address. It was difficult.

Anything after all was said and done I got my Tsutaya card. It wasn't too expensive at all. The membership was 300 yen and the movie for four days was about 400 yen. The late fee (which I ended up paying) was about 120yen per day. One thing that was a little odd was that instead of the generic plastic bag, they gave me a nicer real bag to keep my movie in. When returning the movie you give them the bag back with the DVD in it.

One really important thing to look out for when selecting a Japanese movie is whether or not it has English subtitles. My Japanese isn't really skilled enough for full-fledged movies, so English subtitles are a must. A good amount of Japanese movies have the subtitles. So whenever you rent a movie, look on the back of the DVD cover for "英語字幕" (eigo jimaku), or English subtitles.

Care Package

2008-12-13T13:20:00.003+09:00

I got a care package from my parents today. It's really nice getting stuff from America as it kind of reminds me life is still going on as normal half way across the world.

Anyways, here is a small list of stuff that I recommend bringing to Japan if you are planning on coming for an extended period:

Two pairs of shoes:
I have big feet (14in, 32cm). These size shoes are impossible to find even in the Tokyo region. My parents sent me two pairs over in their last package and they were a life saver as my old ones were falling apart. It doesn't help that in Japan you walk everywhere so shoes tend to go bad more quickly.

Sandals:
You take your shoes off before going into any Japanese apartment/house. That's why sandals are so nice. If I am going over to an intern's room I don't want to deal with getting socks, putting on shoes, and lacing everything up. Sandals or flip-flops are a must in Japan.

Sweat Pants:
In Japan gym memberships are very expensive. That means that if you want to do any sort of cardio workout the best bet is going to be running/jogging outside. It also gets very cold in Japan so during the winter that is very hard to do if all you have is gym shorts.

Medicine:
I talked about this earlier, but Japanese medicine is too weak for me. There's nothing like good old fashion Tylenol or Dayquil. Be sure to bring a mega pack over.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups:
This doesn't really have to be Reese's, but it is good to bring over some small sort of sweet that you can give to people around the office or share with friends. Something small that reminds you of your own country is nice just for those moments that you feel home sick.

Deodorant:
There is no mens' deodorant in Japan. Luckily someone told me this before hand and I ended up buying about 7 sticks of old spice before coming over. I can only imagine if I ran out how akward it would be.

That is all I can think of for now. Sorry that my last two posts have been in Japanese, I really wanted to practice. I have a few ideas in mind for future posts so I will be sure to update more frequently

日本語ブログ

2008-12-08T20:40:00.002+09:00

日本語能力試験が終わったのにもう日本語を学びたいです。だからこのブラグは日本語で書くつもりです。

最近仕事は忙しいです。ウワンとマルコは国に帰りましたから仕事は静かになりました。九州の旅行の跡でお金がない。でもクリスマスになるかプレセンッとを買わなくちゃいけません。日本に来るからたくさん友達を使いましたから、プレセンッとを買いたいです。

日本で血液型は特別です。面白いですが僕の血液型が知りません。Oは思いますけど本当にわかりません。

たくさん動物がいます。昨日美しい猫をみました.日本でたくさん人は動物アレルギーがあるなので触れません。猫よりが好きですけど日本に一年だけ住んでいるから、飼えません。

大統領選挙は面白かった。オバマが好きですからうれしいです。アメリカの南のほかにみなはオバマより好きです。

日本のファッションが大好きです。アメリカでセクシーな服は人気がありますが日本で可愛い服が今めかしいです.どうしてかな。。。

日本語能力試験とクリスマス

2008-12-02T17:20:00.003+09:00

今週の日曜日に日本語能力試験をうける予定ですけど心配しています。たくさん漢字があるし言葉は難しいし心配しています。よく勉強しますがこの試験は難しいすぎます。でも頑張りますよ。

クリスマスに成っていますね。アメリカでクリスマスは家族の休みですけど日本でラブラブの休みですね。今家族はアメリカに住んでいるのでいまちょっと寂しいです。

Kyushu Trip

2008-11-27T18:32:00.019+09:00

Wow, wheh, two days after getting back from Kyushu I am still exhausted. It was a really nice trip, but a little bit more expensive and tiring than I thought so.

For those of you that don't know, Kyushu is the southern most island of Japan. The best way to reach it from Tokyo is by plane (see the transportation section below). We visited three cities, Fukuoka, Nagasaki, and Kagoshima.

Fukuoka
As far as arrangements go, we stayed at a youth hostel in Fukuoka. It was OK. Not great, not terrible, just a place to sleep. It was relatively clean and had a great heater. My only real beef was that the very small showers had a time triggered water stop which cause me to hit the water button every minute to keep the shower going. But overall the people were friendly and it was a place to sleep.

In Fukuoka it was raining for a good part of the day. We took a trip to Fukuoka Tower via bus and went up to take a look at the lovely view. It was really nice... you could see a bird's eye view of the city and a good view of the water north of Fukuoka. There were a bunch of elementary school kids on the top of the tower that kept saying "hallo!" at me. I'm guessing they were from a prefecture where foreigners are a bit more rare, but it was still pretty amusing and fun.

After the tower we decided to take a cab to Temjin (downtown Fukuoka) to try to get some famous Fukuoka ramen. After walking around for a while we wondered to the basement of a department store and sat down at a crowded ramen place. A third of the way through the meal a couple of Japanese businessmen sat down next to us and started conversing in English. The ramen was really just mediocre. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad.

After eating we headed over to the station to meet one of Boris's friends. She showed us around Fukuoka and we visited some places like Canal City (huge shopping mall), some of the city center, and also a temple. It was very pretty and we were lucky to have someone familiar with the area show us around.

Nagasaki
Ah, Nagasaki. See travel below to see how I got to Nagasaki. After arriving on the train though we took the street car to Akari Youth Hostel. This hostel was very nice. The staff was really friendly, spoke very good English, and the rooms were a mix of Japanese straw-mat floors and western beds. The shower room was a typical onsen style washroom with two showers and a huge bathtub all in the same room.

Anyways after relaxing at the hostel a little bit we decided to go enjoy some of the Nagasaki night life. We headed to the city center and walked around an area that was swarmed with bars and people. There were a few Chinese girls that would randomly come up to us and offer shady sounding "massages" for 3000 yen. After wondering around a while we found an izakaya restaurant and had a few beers and some appetizers. Afterwards we wandered to this bar owned by an American. Surprisingly, he was also from Texas. He had grown up in Wichita Falls which was very surprising. Anyways we spent the rest of the night there. I had a couple glasses of souchu and everyone had a ton of fun.

The next day we woke up and headed out to view some more of Nagasaki. First we visited a very peaceful temple that was close to our hostel. Nagasaki seemed to be very queit and very peaceful. The weather was gorgeous and the temple was outstanding.

After the temple we headed out to the harbor part of Nagasaki. Since the weather was really nice we also visited the famous garden that was close to the harbor. We took some really nice pictures and again it was very peaceful.

After walking around some more we took a cab to the atomic bomb museum. No pictures are allowed in the museum so I don't really have anything to post. The museum was pretty depressing and scary. I'm not going to try to debate whether the bomb was justified or not, but I think one thing that everyone can agree on is that atomic warfare is terrible. One thing that I though was particularly scary was the wall that had the shadows of those killed by the bomb silhouetted in them. When an atomic bomb goes off it generates a massive amount of light. It was really morbid seeing the shadows of someone seconds before they were vaporized.

Anyways after the museum we headed to the hypo center. There was a big monolith directly below where the bomb was detonated. Again it was very eerie to be at that exact spot. After visiting the hypo center we headed over to the peace park. It was a very nice day and the peace park was really something else. There was a large statue that represented peace and was pretty impressive to see.

After the peace park we went to Mt. Innae to see supposedly one of the best night views in all of Japan. We took a ropeway to the summit and the view was spectacular. After moseying around for about half an hour we went back to the hostel. I was dead beat at this point so I decided to take it easy and rest up for the trip to Kagoshima the next day.

Kagoshima
Kagoshima was awesome. As far as arrangements go this is by far the highlight of our trip. We stayed at a traditional Japanese ryokan. This included everything from a Japanese style room to a complimentary yukata for each night. Arriving at Kagoshima-chuo station I called Mr. Nakazono (the ryokan owner) and he offered to come pick us up in the ryokan van. After waiting around a while he picked us up and took us to the ryokan. It was very traditional. You had to do the typical take off your shoes before entering and also the floors were all Japanese style straw-mat floors. The rooms were also very Japanese style.

The first day we go to Kagoshima we just walked around and had something to drink and eat before retiring at our ryokan. The next day, the main thing that we did in Kagoshima is visit the volcano Sakurajima. Sakurajima is a volcano on an island south of Kagoshima that can be reached by a ferry. After walking from the hostel and boarding the ferry we were taken to Sakurajima. The Ferry was pretty cheap and only a couple of hundred yen if I remember.

Once at Sakurajima we decided to rent bikes to travel around. It was raining on and off but really wasn't too terrible. The bikes cost about 300 yen per hour. Cycling on Sakurajima was wonderful, although it was an eyeopener to how out of shape I am. Going up the bigger hills I couldn't help but take breaks occasionally, but overall the view you get from cycling is amazing.

At one point there was an onsen for your feet. You just sit down and dip you feet in the naturally hot water coming from the hot spring. We didn't have towels however so we decided to skip this.

After getting about a third of the way around the island we decided to head back. The weather wasn't the best and we felt that we had taken in enough of the beauty (also I don't know if I could have made it around in a decent time). At the 1/2-way point, there was a bunch of souvenir shops. Once there I bought a bunch of postcards (which some people who may be reading this blog will get once I get time to address them). The owners were really nice too and gave us some free mikans.

Back in the ryokan we just decided to take it easy. We went out to dinner at a traditional Japanese restaurant where I had a tempura dish. The next day was all transportation from Kagoshima to Fukuoka, and then to Tokyo.

Travel/Transportation
To actually get to Kyushu we traveled by Skymark Airlines. If traveling within Japan Skymark is definitely the best bet for airfare. It is very cheap if you book in advance (our round trip ticket was about 26000 yen) We left Thursday after work, took a bus from Atsugi to Haneda airport, and then flew straight to Fukuoka. After a lovely view from the air of Tokyo and some pretty rough turbulence we made it fine.

In Nagasaki and Kagoshima we got around town using the street cars. They were very cheap (100yen in Nagasaki and 160yen in Kagoshima) and went everywhere within the city. In Fukuoka it seems that we used Taxis more than anything.

To get between cities we used trains. All around this was a nice option, but a little bit more on the expensive end. From Fukuoka to Nagasaki cost about 4000 yen on the Mamome line, Nagasaki to Kagoshima cost about 9000 yen on the Tsubame Shinkansen, and Kagoshima to Fukuoka cost about another 9000 yen. The Shinkansen (bullet train) was very impressive. It went very fast and the ride was very smooth.

Summary
Well that about does it. Kyushu was a great place and it was very relaxing. Definitely plan a trip if you are going to come to Japan and have some time to spare. Many people will rent a car to keep transportation costs down, so if this sounds like what you want to do make sure to get an international driver's license before coming to Japan.

Anyways, here are the hostels/hotels we stayed at
International Hostel Khaosan (Fukuoka)
Nagasaki International Hostel AKARI (Nagasaki)
Nakazono Ryokan (Kagoshima)

Also, here is a very useful site that we used to find which trains we needed as well as an approximate price:
Train Route Finder by Jourdan Ltd.

Here is Skymark Airline's English website:
Skymark Airlines

And, as always:
Picasa Pictures

Take care!

How did I get here?

2008-11-19T23:10:00.003+09:00

Well I have been in Japan for a decent amount of time, but even now I have my moments where I just ask "How the hell did I get here?" I mean really. I am just a kid from a regular middle-class family that goes to a public university in Texas. Usually you have to pay large sums of money to spend a year in Japan but somehow I got a free ride. It is almost unbelievable.

Today I was walking back from a restaraunt alone and was passing outside the station. It was colder than usual and there was a pretty decent live band playing. The Christmas decorations were up and the atmosphere was really nice. At that point two things crossed through my head. First off was the question that I explained above. The second was a bit different. Walking there in the freezing cold outside of Hon-Atsugi station in some weird way made me realize that I wouldn't mind living in Japan indefinitely. Sure, for the most part only contract work is open for foreigners, and the pay is nothing compared to an engineering job in the states, but if I am in Japan I am happy and that is all that counts.

After I graduate I have decided to apply for any engineering jobs I can find in Japan and even apply for the JET program. While teaching English certainly isn't my top choice, it would give me a chance to emerse myself in the culture and really get a good grasp of the language. Don't get me wrong, I love the United States, but traveling abroad has been a dream of mine ever since I was young, and once this dream came true I realized how much I love other countries. It is different which is what I like.

Anyways, enough of this rant. Tomorrow I go to Kyushu with a bunch of the other interns. I'll have a chance to see a bit more rural Japan and another region other than Kanto. I'll be sure to take many pictures.

Kimisawa Grocery Store Trip

2008-11-16T16:59:00.003+09:00

I went to Kimisawa today (the local grocery store) and did my usual shopping. I realized I haven't posted pictures of my groceries and some people may find it interesting (my mom is always asking what I eat).

I also got dango at the grocery store. Last time I had them one of my friends asked me what type they were. I had no idea so here is a closer picture.

Time to go cook some deviled eggs. Going to bring them into work tomorrow for some of the other workers :-)

Kamakura Trip

2008-11-10T22:28:00.011+09:00

Last weekend Steve (English), Levi (American), Andre (Canadian) and I took a trip to Kamakura. Kamakura is a coastal town in Kanagawa that has many temples and is very historic.

Anyways on Sunday we woke up bright and early and met at the station at about 8:30am. From Hon-Atsugi station we took the Odakyu line to Ebina, the Sotetsu line to Yokohama, and then the Yokosuka line to Kamakura. The whole train ride cost about 700 yen and took maybe an hour or so. Once at Kamakura we tried to find some place to eat. We walked down a little shopping street trying to find some small place but were unable. Eventually we met up with a couple Australians and conversed a for a while. They told us that there was a McDonald's opposite of the station. Anyways, after a little bit of backtracking we found our way to McDonald's.

What happened at McDonald's was the most tragic part of my day. I went in wanting a Mega Mac, but it seems they only were serving breakfast. Heart-broken and disappointed I settled for the breakfast equivalent Mega Muffin. Literally, 2 minutes after I had ordered they switched to the lunch menu. I was so sad. I know it sounds American for me to be heartbroken over a hamburger, but to be fair the Mega Mac (2 Big Macs in 1) isn't served in the USA.

Anyways after McDonald's we wandered to a huge Torii that marked the entrance into a shopping road. It was pretty impressive to see. We asked some random foreigner walking by to take a picture of the four of us together. It turned out pretty well.

After looking around for a few minutes we headed back to the station to the Enoden railway. The Enoden railway is a street train that went all the way to Fuji-sawa. It was very small and went slow, but was a pretty interesting experience. After we got off at the Hase stop we headed towards the Daibutsu (large Buddha statue). The daibutsu was pretty interesting. It was big and the area surrounding it was pretty scenic. There was also a festival going on around the daibutsu with some dancers. There was also a couple of older Japanese ladies playing this traditional Japanese string instrument.

After looking around the daibutsu some more and taking a look at a couple of local shops we decided to stop by the convenient store because Levi and Steve needed to take some cash out of the ATM. Turns out the ATM was closed that day. Yep, only in Japan can society be so anal about trains arriving on time to the min but at the same time not allow you to withdraw your own money on certain days from the ATM.

Anyways after the visit to the ATM we decided to head to the Hase Temple. The Hase Temple had a very nice garden out front. It was very scenic and had a very beautiful assortment of water and vegetation. Fish were also swimming around in the pond which added to the peaceful atmosphere.

There was this small cave beside the garden that was full of statues and small lit candles. The exit hallway to the cave was very small and I had to borderline crawl to get out.

The temple itself was awesome. It was very scenic and honestly pictures don't really do it justice. There was also a pretty nice lookout point right next to the temple where you could see the Pacific ocean very nicely.

After admiring the scenery of the temple more we decided to eat at at soba restaurant right beside the temple. The soba was amazing. I loved the taste and it filled me right up.

After eating we looked around inside the temple a little. It started raining a little bit at this point. While looking around the temple, some middle school kids came up to me and yelled "HALLO!". It turns out they were here on a school trip and one of their assignments was to go to random foreigners and ask questions in English. It was actually pretty heartwarming for these random middle school students to be so excited to speak in English to a foreigners. I spoke in Japanese to them a little and I think they were shocked. In the end they wanted a picture with all of us. I managed to get one too.

After the Hase Temple we decided to go back to the Kamakura main station and go to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu. After another quick stop at McDonald's to get a belated Mega Mac we headed down the shopping street that I talked about earlier. The shopping street was pretty nice and had all sorts of different shops. I bought a pair of chopsticks and the guy selling them engraved my name "ローガン" (rougan) into the chopsticks.

After wandering out of the shopping street we found ourselves on a bit more rural street. We spotted one Torii at the top of a very steep flight of stairs. After wondering up the stairs we decided that it was just a neighborhood with a bunch of houses at top and wandered back down to the main road. After wandering around a bit more we finally got to the temple. At this point it was starting to get a bit dark so the pictures did not come out too grand. Anyways at this shrine there were a ton of big red Torii. It was very beautiful. At the main shrine there was a traditional Japanese wedding happening and many people around. There was a big set of stairs that led straight to the shrine. The shrine itself was gorgeous also. It was very traditional Japanese architecture and looked great.

Anyways after looking around the temple more we decided to head back home. On the way back we bought some rice cracker treats to bring into work. Going back was pretty uneventful. We did however stop by in Ebina to go to Outback Steakhouse for some nachos and a couple of beers. It is kind of ironic looking back at it; this was a visit to tradition Japan but yet we ate at mainly western restaurants. The trip was very fun though. It is definitely a must visit for anyone that come to the Tokyo/Kanagawa area.

Picasa Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/timothy.logan/11908Kamakura#

Japanese Vocab Lesson 04

2008-11-04T12:40:00.004+09:00

More Kyuu-3 words. I apologize to everyone reading this blog that can't understand/read Japanese. It is going to be pretty hectic this next month while I study for this test.

庭 - にわ - Garden
咲く - さく - To bloom
集まる - あつまる - To gather/assemble
事故 - じこ - Accident
大事 - だいじ - Grave/serious matter
難い - にくい - Difficult/hard-to-do
確り - しっかり - Firmly/steadily/reliably
一生- いっしょう - One's entire life
池 - いけ - Pond
釣る - つる - To fish

A little a day is the way to go. I am going to start doing a lot more of these (probably daily) until my test. Somehow I doubt I am going to pass, but it never hurts to study anyways.

Odakyu Studying

2008-11-04T08:15:00.001+09:00

One of these days I just want to get on the Odakyu line (the one that goes from Odwara, past Hon-Atsugi, to Shinjuku) and start studying Japanese. I don't actually want to get off on Shinjuku but really just go back to Hon-Atsugi. Sitting down on the train seems like a good place to study. There are no distractions (aside from the occasional eye candy), there are tons of opportunities to practice my listening comprehension, and it also gets me out of my room. I think I am going to try this some weekend before too long.

Japanese Vocab Lesson 03

2008-11-03T19:40:00.007+09:00

Today I inherited a JLPT Kyuu-3 practice test book from Juan. I decided to go through a test and write down any words that I found to be significant.

Grammar Note:
Whenever using the following sensory nouns as an action, you use が instead of を. This is some weird niche grammar rule that applies to senses.

匂い - におい - Smell/Odor
味 - あじ - Flavor
音 - おと - Sound
数学 - すうがく - Mathematics
値段 - ねだん - Price/Cost
大切 - たいせつ - Important
機会 - きかい - Chance/Opportunity
中々 - なかなか - Easily/Readily
ちょうど - Just right, exactly
玄関 - げんかん - Entrance way/Entrance Hall
美しい - うつくしい - Beautiful/Lovely
飾る - かざる - To decorate
掛かる - かかる - Can mean many things (to start, to come under, to attend)
噛む - かむ - To bite/gnaw
習う - ならう - To learn
力 - ちから - Strength/Capacity/Ability
重い - おもい - Heavy/Massive or Serious/Important
荷物 - にもつ - Luggage
泥棒 - どろぼう - Thief/Burglar

Grammar Note:
たかい can also be used to describe a tall mountain.

Wheh. That was just one section of one test. I could get a lot of the answers from context but I really plan on studying more vocab.

Pizza Hut Japan

2008-11-03T15:42:00.007+09:00

Today I was feeling very lazy so I decided to not go to the grocery store and instead get a pizza from Pizza Hut with Levi. Pizza Hut is very expensive in Japan but I figured that ordering once wouldn't kill me. Anyways I ordered online. After navigating through the kanji on the website I finally found out how to order online and picked my order. I decided to go all out and get a half broccoli, onion, squid and half shrimp, mushroom and green pepper pizza. Levi got a BBQ chicken pizza. After entering all of our information and a confusing email confirmation process our pizza was ordered.

About thirty minutes later I got a ring at my door. The pizza hut guy then proceded to read off my order and I paid him his money. In the end it was 7900 yen for two large pizzas, two drinks, two chicken sides, and some tuna puffs. Quite expensive.

Here are the pictures

It was actually very delicious. The crust was this weird curly cheese crust which just screamed fat but was amazing. I don't see myself ordering pizza again in the forseeable future as the price was high, but it was very groumet compared to American pizza.

Mount Ōyama Hiking

2008-11-02T08:15:00.010+09:00

This weekend I decided to take a break from drinking/clubbing and do something a little bit more healthy/traditional. I took a trip with Randy (Dutch) to Mt. Ōyama. Originally a few other people were supposed to come with us but they all seemed to cancel due to either being sick or staying up too late at karaoke.

Mt. Ōyama (大山) (translated big mountain) is pretty close and can be seen from Atsugi. I met Randy at the station around 9:00am. After a quick realization that we were the only ones going we boarded the Odakyu line towards Odawara. We got off at Isehara station where I proceeded to buy some onigiri and some water for the hike. We then took a fairly crowded bus to the Ōyama base. There was cable car that takes people to the halfway mark but we decided to tough it out and hike the entire thing.

While the mountain wasn't exactly huge (1252 meters) I thought the hike was pretty strenuous. It was very steep at points. Imagine a huge stairstepper with hard rocks instead of stairs. Anyways before too long we stopped at the halfway point where there were a couple of restaurants set up. We ate at this soba/udon/ramen place where I had probably the best bowl of udon soup that I have had since I came to Japan.

After admiring the scenery we continued on. Right at the halfway point there was a big marble staircase that lead straight to a huge temple. Unfortunately the temple was under construction at the time but it still was neat to see. I even got a pretty decent picture in front of it.

At Japanese temples there are also these arches that are called Torii. Torii can be found at Shinto and Buddhist shrines in Japan and are supposed to mark the entrance from the "normal" world to the "sacred" world. There were a couple of Torii on Ōyama.

There were also a couple of water fountain type statues. With these statues you give a donation (I gave about 100yen) and then use the spoon on the statue to clean your hands and even drink the water.

After the halfway point the hike got a little more treacherous. One big slip and I could have fallen off the edge and have been seriously injured. There was apparently more people on the mountain than usual. I thought that it may have been because this weekend is a holiday weekend in Japan. Anyways after many breaks, lookout points, and onigiri later we reached the summit. The view from the summit was very impressive. Right when we reached the top a helicopter came and medevacted someone that was injured. I was right below the helicopter when it was hovering in the sky repelling the rescue worker and I got to feel the full blast of air and noise.

After this we went to get a snack at the ramen/snack shop on the top (the guy working there was surprisingly very rude for a Japanese person). We stayed at the top for a good couple of hours just admiring the view and taking pictures. We seemed to be the only westerners on the entire mountain (there were some Chinese foreigners hiking) which was nice in its own way. The summit was very nice and very peaceful with the exception of the 5 minutes with the helicopter. There were also a couple of nice looking temples on the summit.

The climb down was a lot easier as far as physical endurance goes. By the time we reached the halfway point though it was pretty dark. Fortunately there were lights scattered along the trail from the halfway point to the base. I had to be very careful and make sure that I climbed down without slipping though. At the base we caught the bus back to the station and then headed to Hon-Atsugi. At Atsugi we stopped at a restaraunt where I had some ramen and fried rice. We both even had a beer to celebrate the ocasion.

It was a very nice trip and I have decided that I am going to do more things likes this. Randy had mentioned that he went with Brian hiking to the Aokigahara last year. I think that this would be awesome to something similar. The newer interns seem like they would be up for this type of stuff also.

Here are the rest of the pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/timothy.logan/Ooyama#

I will post more when I get them from Randy.

Three Months

2008-10-28T21:06:00.002+09:00

Last Saturday marked my three month anniversary in Japan. In other words I have been in Japan for 25% of my scheduled stay. It's hard to imagine that so much has already passed. Looking back at when I first came I realize how much I have learned not only about the Japanese language but also the Japanese culture. I've gone from being the "new guy" to one of the experienced guys. What's even more intimidating is that after Juan and Mathieu leave, I will be one of the most knowledgeable ones in the Japanese language.

I've already been trying to build up my base of Japanese friends. I plan on going to a few international exchange parties to also make some friends. More and more I find myself doing stuff on my own. I've become used to everyday life in Japan and I am starting to grow more and more distanced from American culture. I joke around that when I go to a convenience store back in the United States I am going to say "arigatou" and also bow a ton.

Sometimes I do get the ocassional homesickness. Usually it is nothing big though, although I would kill a man for a burito from Freebirds right now. In the end though I am having the time of my life. From the first weekend in Tokyo where I stayed up all night for about 48 hours, to the crazy time I had in Thailand, and even to the relaxing weekends that I spent eating bentos and watching anime in my apartment I have had fun so far. One thing that I have made a point to do is to exercise more. I go running with Levi (American) five days a week. Hopefully before too long I can shed a few of those extra lbs. Also I want to do a lot more outdoors type things. This weekend I am going with a bunch of people from work to Mount Ooyama. It should be pretty fun and I'll be sure to take pictures. It is going to be nice not having a weekend with a hangover for once.

Haircuts in Japan

2008-10-25T13:36:00.004+09:00

Well since I have been in Japan I have only got my haircut twice. I tend to like shorter hair so this is somewhat unusual for me. Anyways the reason I haven't gone as much as I did in the States is because I simply didn't know what to do. I have dirty blond hair which isn't common in Japan. I wasn't quite sure whether to go to a fancy salon where they may have more experience or just a regular barber. Here are the experiences I had.

My first attempt for a haircut was a bit more pricey and quite honestly not worth it. Talking to Marco (Italian) he said that he went to a place kind of close to the station called "Cover with Earth". He said that the service was very good and that they spoke broken English pretty well for Japan. The downside was that it cost about 4000 yen. Anyways, I figured to bite the bullet and just go there. When I got there and went in they welcomed me and asked for my name. After the normal gaijin spelling of my name they took me back and started shampooing my hair. They did a damn good job with the shampoo. The girl doing it paid very close attention to detail and they seemed to be using high end shampoo. The seat was typical Japanese size so I had to slouch down in order for my head to line up correctly with the seat.

Anyways after the shampoo was the cut. He asked me what I wanted and I figured I would just say "tekitou ni niau no harustairu wo shite kudasai" (please cut in a fashion that suits me). I didn't really say much else about length or anything which looking back at it was a mistake. So anyways he started cutting and styling my hair.

In the end, I got a fauxhawk hairstyle. It wasn't my type of thing and honestly that was the last day that it was actually up and styled. Anyways going into wasn't really too worried. After another shampoo and 4000 yen less I was done. Looking back I should have said something more, but this place seemed a little out of my league to begin with. I was used to getting $15 haircuts at pro/super clips back in the states so to go to an actual salon was different.

The second time I went for a haircut was last Thursday. Randy told me that the place he goes to is close to the station and is relatively inexpensive. It was called something like "Popeye". This time I went with Steve. Immediately when walking in I knew that this place was a little bit closer to my standards. It was a little bit more down to earth and more for normal people.

When I got to the seat they must have wrapped my shoulders with at least three layers of towels. He asked me what I wanted. I told him to do a hairstyle that suited me, but I also gave him specifics about the length to cut. finger-length. He asked me also if he could use clippers (mashiinu wo shite mo ii desu ka) which threw me off at first, but after he pointed to the clippers I understood. I'll have to admit that he did a damn good job. He paid attention to detail and it seemed like he was very experienced even with my different gaijin hair. At the end he told one of the students working there to finish up. This was a bit different. They got shaving cream and actually shaved the parts under the back of my neck and behind my ears. It was pretty neat.

Anyways as I was finishing up with my haircut Steve was about to start his. Steve (who I have linked on the blog friends) spoke very limited Japanese. I explained that to them and they smiled and chuckled a little. I tried to translate for him but something got lost in translation. In the end though Steve said that they cut his hair pretty well.

This haircut only ended up being about 1200 yen, but since he did such a good job I tipped him (which is unheard of in Japan apparently). I will definitely be going back to this place the remainder of my time in Japan.

Japanese Vocab Lesson 02

2008-10-20T08:07:00.004+09:00

Now for some vocab out of my language exchange emails.

卓球 - たっきゅう - Ping pong - The second kanji is also used for 野球 (baseball). The first kanji almost looks like a ping pong table with only one leg.

返す - かえす - Verb, to return something - The kanji has the little sgwiggly from 道. The other part vaguely reminds me of someone mooning someone. Think that someone just flipped you off on the road and they are returning it by mooning them (I told you my way of remembering is weird).

飼う - かう - Verb, to raise/domesticate (a pet) - At first I tried to use 持っています but my language exchange corrected me. The kanji has the character for "eat" in it so I can remember this by saying when you raise a pet you give it stuff to eat.

気が立つ - きがたつ - Expression, to be excited - The kanji is pretty easy to remember for this one. 気　as in 元気 and then the kanji for stand up. So in essence, to be excited is to lively stand up.

通う - かよう - Verb, to go back and forth/commute - Has the same sgwiggly for road. You use a road to commute.

お互いに - おたがいに - Expression, together, mutually -The kanji looks like two people shaking hands from an overhead view.

言葉 - ことば・けとば - Noun, language/term/word - The first kanji is "to say" and the second kanji is the kanji for paper. Words are written on paper.

携帯 - けいたい - Noun, Cell Phone - This one is hard, but the second kanji vaguely looks like a cell phone?

洋楽好 - ようがく - Noun, western music - The second two kanji are the characters for music (I remember because the first one looks like a speaker).

I think that is enough for now. For some reason I have been on a Japanese vocab binge for the past couple of days. I have seven language exchanges going simultaneously so I think I overdosed. I am still going to try to keep it up though, although hopefully I can make some real blog posts before too long.

Japanese Vocab Lesson 01

2008-10-19T22:28:00.008+09:00

Well I figure one way of studying is to watch anime. While I tend not to like to get an otaku/nerd aura, usually anime is simple enough that I can make out bits and pieces. An idea I have is to watch an episode or parts of an episode and record any vocab that I have to look up. The following is from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu episode two. I must warn everyone though, the way I remember kanji is very unique. I am just going to write down the first thing that comes to mind. It might be something really weird, but if it works for me I don't care.

安心 - あんしんする　- Verb, To be relieved. - First kanji looks like kanji for woman (but is a little different), second kanji is kanji for "worry", when I am with a woman, I am relieved of my worries.

昔 - むかし - Noun, olden times. - Kanji vaguely looks like an old man's face squinting.
With this word, you can say something like "昔からTimはへんな女が好きだね" and it will mean something to the effect of "Tim has always liked weird girls, right?"

さて - Well, now, then - There is about three different kanjis for this one. Kind of a good random filler word to know.

驚天動地 - きょうてんどうち - Noun, outstanding, astonishing - A very strong word to describe something that is unbelievable.

偶然 - ぐうぜん - Adjective, unexpected, chance - Apparently it can also be used as "coincidence"

天才 - てんさい - Noun, genius, prodigy - The first kanji is for heaven, and the second looks like a mentally retarded person holding out his hands. Sometimes the mentally diseased are ridiculously genius.

凡人 - ぼんじん　- Noun, average/ordinary person - First kanji looks really easy and whoever made it is really lazy, or an ordinary person.

That concludes the first vocab lesson. Hopefully I will do more and more of these as time goes on. I need to study and build my vocab as much as possible. This is only from a small segment of the episode so I will try to post more and more.

Busy Doing Nothing

2008-10-18T11:19:00.002+09:00

Ah Saturday. It seems that I haven't had a Saturday just to relax and do nothing for quite some time. Honestly I need a day of just waking up and relaxing. There is always something going on it seems. Inevitably this time I missed a night of dinner and clubbing in Tokyo. While I'd love to spend 10000 yen for some appetizers, a couple of beers, and to go to a club which I'm not exactly crazy about, I figure I would take a breather.

So yep, nothing. I think I am completely out of my "vacation" phase and into the "I live and work in Japan phase". Tomorrow I am going to Harajuku to look at shoes (in my size) and Akihbara to get a USB drive. For the hell of it I think I am going to take my camera. I also need to get a haircut. Someone at work suggested this cheap place called "Popeye" which I think I will give a try. If it ends up too bad I can always just resort to a buzzcut.

Now, I need to go back to being lazy and doing nothing.

Trains in Japan

2008-10-16T21:54:00.006+09:00

It seems a bit strange that I haven't really talked about the train system in Japan considering how amazing it is. I am going to try to be a little bit more informative in this post so that I can help anyone who might be reading my blog and plans to come to Japan.

The trains in Japan go everywhere and are also relatively cheap. For me to go from Atsugi to Shinjuku/Tokyo it will only cost me about 480 yen one way.

To better explain it I will just walk through a typical train ride into Tokyo starting from the station in Atsugi.

In Atsugi I normally get to the station at any time. Trains run frequently enough so that you don't really have to look up a schedule. If I am meeting people I like to get there early so I can just stand outside the station and people watch. This sounds boring but in Japan it never gets old. You see all different types of people from school students in their uniforms to punk goth emo Japanese teens.

Anyways, when I actually want to go into the platform part of the station I normally use my Suica card. The Suica card is pretty much a cash card that you can use in conbinis and transportation places. You can add money on it freely and it is almost like a debit card except for the fact that you can't take cash out. Anyways, if I need to add money I do so at one of the machines which also conveniently have English buttons. Anyways the suica card has an RFID in it so I just put my wallet on the sensor near the entrance and a green light goes off telling me I can enter and my balance displays on the little lcd screen. If for some reason something went wrong the little doors by my entrance would shut and a red light would go off.

From the entrance I take an escalator to the platform. In Hon-Atsugi station there is only one line (Odakyu) which goes to Shinjuku in one direction and Odawara in the other. There are a few different types of trains. The "local" trains will stop at every single station between Atsugi and its destination. These trains are good for getting to the small towns in between, but take too long if you want to go to Shinjuku. The "rapid express" train is what I normally take to Shinjuku. This train only stops at major stations and takes about 45 minutes. There is also a train called the "Express" train that costs a little more. This train only stops at maybe one station in between Atsugi and Shinjuku. You are also guaranteed a seat on this train, but because it costs more I rarely take it.

Anyways once a train comes everyone scrambles to get on the train for the off chance that there is a free seat. Most of the times I end up standing up for about twenty minutes until someone gets up from their seat at a later station. People are like vultures for seats in Japan. Usually you have to ninja your way into one. Me, being raised in a western culture, will often forfeit my seat/get up if an elderly person gets on the train, but unless you are in a "priority" seat you don't have to (most Japanese people don't).

People also sleep on the train. No, they don't lay down, they sleep sitting up. Often times they will lean on the person next to them. This previous weekend when I went to TGS I sat next to a girl and she was all-out sleeping on my shoulder. Now I am not exactly sure what to do in this situation. As weird/sexist as this sounds, ff it was a guy I would have woken him up no hesitation. But for some reason she just looked too peaceful to wake up. She eventually did wake up right before Shinjuku and seemed to be blushing, but apparently it is a pretty normal thing.

Most Japanese people are silent on the train. The only people who talk are foreigners and rowdy Japanese youth. I usually tend to keep it down because I am just a quiet person by nature. Overall though the train is very clean and the view is usually pretty interesting. I've contemplated getting on the train just to sit down and study. This sounds dumb, but sitting on the train is a very good place to study Japanese. You can read a book with no distractions and even practice listening to weird Japanese slang from the kids. The thing is as long as you don't get off the train you only have to pay for one round trip. See, train fares are based off of where you enter and where you exit, not time. Technically you could ride to Shinjuku and back ten times and only get charged once.

At Shinjuku you really just swipe your card on the sensor at the exit gate and a green light goes off telling you how much money has been deducted from your account. If you have an insufficient balance the red light goes off and tells you to go top-up.

All in all the train system is awesome. I want to take a Shinkansen (bullet train) when I go to Osaka also. They tend to be a little bit more expensive but it seems like something I have to do for the experience.

Learning Japanese... in Japan

2008-10-14T19:47:00.005+09:00

One of the main reasons that people (especially students) come to Japan is to, well, learn Japanese. I guess I was a special case in that my official purpose was engineering related, but lately I really have been trying to make an effort to learn the language.

You see at my work everyone speaks English. I program in Java, which is also English, and the only Japanese I get to practice is with the office ladies beside me or the bentou/conbini clerks. As you can imagine it is not the "intense" sort of linguistic training that one would get with a program such as JET.

This leaves a lot of responsibility on me to learn the language. I have decided today that I will dedicate an hour a day to studying by myself. It may not be a lot, but if I can do this I feel that I will not have wasted time in Japan. Right now I am just building vocab and making sure that I am solid on the grammar. I really need to seriously start studying kanji as well.

Coming to Japan I had two years of university level Japanese. As fun as it was, to be honest it wasn't as useful as one might imagine. Sure, as a tourist the level that one would learn in a college Japanese class would be sufficient, but for anyone actually living in Japan it is only the tip of the iceberg. I am fortunate enough to live close to Tokyo so I don't have to deal with any off the wall dialects. It is really hard to explain to be honest. I guess the best way to describe it is the Japanese you learn in an American university is "gaijin English". Yeah, it may be useful in some situations, but any native Japanese speaker will just find it cute.

I guess it would be somewhat productive for me to go into what was useful and what wasn't useful in my class.

Kanji is my own personal kryptonite when it comes to Japanese. I think one of the reasons that I didn't learn the kanji so well in my class is because I always crammed right at the last minute. This is my fault entirely, but in my opinion writing the kanji shouldn't be emphasized as much. Very rarely do I have to write kanji without a computer so I feel that if I just focused more on being able to read the kanji I would be good. I remember in the homework that if we attempted a kanji and messed up even one stroke we would be counted off. On the other hand if we just wrote in katakana/hiragana we would get full credit. This lead to no incentive at all to even attempt the kanji.

One aspect of my class in university that didn't help at all was the dialogue checks. See, the dialogue checks did wonders for my memorization skills, but nothing for my comprehension. During class we had to go up and recite a conversation with another classmate from the book. The thing is it had to be VERBATIM or else we would be counted off (at least in my first one and a half semesters). This essentially caused everyone just to memorize the words long enough so that we would do fine on the checks. After class we completely forgot about them.

The thing about the dialogue checks also was that they were so mechanical. No one really talks like that in Japan. Let me give you an example. One of our dialogue checks involved us asking about a particular menu item at a restaurant. The conversation went something like this in the dialogue check:

Magical Genki Dialogue Check Land

You: Tonkatsu? Sakana desu ka?
Waiter: iie, sakana ja arimasen. niku desu.
You: Sou desu ka...

You: Pork chops? Is that fish?
Waiter: Not it isn't fish. It is meat.
You: Is that so?

Real Life Japan

You: Tonkatsu? Sakana desu ka?
Waiter: iie. tonkatsu wa buta niku de gozaimasu
You: ano, nan desu ka? mou ichido itte kudasai.
Waiter: (in english) porky pig is pig animal!

You: Pork chops? Is that fish?
Waiter: No sir, a pork chop is pork.
You: Uhm, can you say that again?
Waiter: (broken english) porky pig is pig animal!

That's why they never really worked.

One good way to really learn Japanese is to set up a so-called "language exchange". What a language exchange usually entails is meeting someone online, conversing a while through email, and eventually meeting said person in real life to practice speaking. Ideally you teach them English and they teach you Japanese. The problem is it is very hard to find a legitimate language exchange. For males it seems to be particularly hard as there are a good number of Japanese girls out there just trying to find a gaijin boyfriend. While sometimes this isn't a bad thing, if you want a legitimate language exchange it doesn't really do much good. I've had two girls try this on me none of which that I particularly fancied.

Another problem I have with language exchanges is that I usually exhaust the conversation after the first time. I ask just about everything that I know how to say in Japanese which leaves the next time we meet pretty hard to hold a legit conversation.

In Atsugi free Japanese lessons are also offered. These are usually pretty helpful, although the level between students differs very greatly. One of the other interns that I work with just started learning Japanese so it is hard for the teacher to come up with material that is both beneficial to both of us. Usually I just end up studying alone and ask questions if anything arises. It still is a good opportunity to ask the teacher if I need any help.

In December I am taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). To be honest I am a little intimidated. I am taking the Kyuu-3, which is the third hardest out of four. Taking a few practice tests it is apparent that the vocabulary is not standard. The kanji is also pretty advanced and not common. Anyways I soon plan on buying a review book and also starting to study hardcore for the test. I spent 6000 yen for registration so I have to make an active effort.

Tokyo Game Show 2008

2008-10-13T10:14:00.006+09:00

Warning, the following post is going to be kind of nerdy. This is the first really nerdy thing that I have done since I have come to Japan though. On Saturday and Sunday we went to Tokyo Game Show. For those who don't know, Tokyo Game Show (or TGS as I will call it) is the biggest video game expo in the world. It is where all the companies showcase their latest games and most even have playable version. New games are announced also and there is a bunch of merchandise that is available for purpose.

Well first off on Saturday we woke up a bit late due to a party the night before. When all was said and done we probably left around 12:30. It wasn't even planned really. I woke up pretty early and had to run to the conbini to grab some toothpaste. On the way I met Nichola (Bulgarian) and we decided to go to TGS after everyone got ready. In the end the only people that ended up getting ready in time were Steve and Nicola. TGS was held in Makuhari Messe which was on the other side of Tokyo (about 2 hours away). Anyways from Hon-Atsugi station we too the Odakyu line to Shinjuku station and then boarded the Chuou line to Tokyo station.

On the way to Tokyo station the emergency break on the train went on and we came to a stop. It wouldn't have been that bad, but the AC and main lights went off as well. From what I could understand, there had been some medical emergency of some sort (the PA guy was speaking in keigo/very honorifics so I couldn't understand much). After about 15 minutes the train started up again and we made our way to Tokyo station.

Tokyo Station is huge... way bigger than Shinjuku. The line that we wanted to take to Makuhari was the Keiyo line. It was very far away from the Chuou line. We had to go about 5 levels underground and probably walk about a mile to get there. Anyways, the Keiyo line was pretty enjoyable and scenic. We passed by Tokyo Disneyland which was neat, and we even got to see the Pacific Ocean. To my suprise we even passed by a Costco... I had no idea these existed in Japan.

Once we got to Makuhari we made our way to the convention center. The convention center wasn't as packed as I had imagined. We got there pretty late (around 3pm) so it wasn't too bad. It was really cool though. Outside there was a huge Norton Antivirus statue of a robot that I got a picture with.

Inside the show it was crazy. Truly a promised land for video game fans. All the major companies were there: Square-Enix, Capcom, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, although I could not find Nintendo. Most of the companies had demos of their actual games. It was pretty amazing really. As far as the games go, I will just do a quick summary below.

Star Ocean 4 - The Last Hope (Xbox 360)
I played this one and it was amazing. The line was about an hour and a half long, but it was totally worth it. It seemed very popular and many people wanted to play it. The battle system seemed to flow a lot better compared to the previous games. When I did play it I was on the end station meaning everyone could see me play the game. There were about 30 Japanese people watching me so if I messed up they could all see the stupid gaijin. I kicked some ass though so I was safe :-)

Perfect Prosecutor / Gyakuten Saiban 5
It's exactly what you would expect. It is the same as all previous Phoenix Wright games except now you are Edgeworth. There are some added graphics in the courtroom scenes though as it would appear.

The Last Remnant (360/PS3)
Was terrible. The fighting system looked too complicated and just was not fun to play. Talk about a disappointment.

Sonic Unleashed / World Adventure
Was fun although I only played the first city level. Sonic games tend to be very fun for the first level and then suck afterward (Sonic Adventure 2).

Street Fighter 4 (360/PS3)
Was very very good. Fighting mechanics are very fluid and it was overall a very enjoyable game with all the great cast from the previous games.

Those are all the games I really played. the lines were long so I didn't get into many of them.

There were tons of cosplayers there too (people who dress up as characters from anime/games). Most of them were really good. Japanese people can pull off cosplay. Their uniforms are made very well and most of them have figures to match their characters. Foreigners can not pull off cosplay. I have made the following flowchart for anyone who is confused.

Right, if you are at an American anime/game convention where everyone else is in shitty cosplay it is ok. But in Japan, where all the cosplayers are borderline professionals and they spend half of their lives making their costumes, you are only going to stick out. I saw one Phoenix Wright cosplay with all the characters that looked 100x better than any shitty Phoenix Wright cosplay that I saw in the US (you know who you are, and sorry, but the truth hurts).

That was another thing I didn't like about TGS. There were a lot of foreigners. Now don't get me wrong, in Atsugi there are foreigners, but nothing compared to how it was at TGS. I kind of lost a little bit of the limelight. Not only were there foreigners, but they were the foreigners that the other countries are ashamed of. Those whose spend the majority of their lives in their parents' basements and only shower once every fort night. The only reason they are here is that mommy and daddy could pay for their plane ticket over here... they aren't actually contributing anything.

Another random thing, if you are a fat, stinky, balding nerd, don't wear the "I am looking for a Japanese girlfriend" t-shirt. If you can't get an American girlfriend you won't be able to get a Japanese girlfriend. The only person I know that could pull off wearing this T-shirt is Marco because, well he is Marco (a handsome Italian man). It doesn't work if you are an otaku.

Anyways, that is enough of that rant. I went back on Sunday with Steve and Marek. I ran into Juan, Levi, Andre, and Levi's friend there too. But at this point I was very exhausted. I ended up going back alone early. A few things happened on the train that warrant a blog post which I will make later :-)

And as always, pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2273730&l=2d781&id=16720765

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2273731&l=81947&id=16720765

Pedro/Neuman's Farewell Party / Different Languages

2008-10-05T14:18:00.004+09:00

Yesterday we went to a farewell party for Pedro (Portugese) and Neuman (German). Before the farewell party I actually went to language exchange with Marco (Italian) in Shinyurigaoka. The language exchange went pretty well. One problem that I am encountering however with Language exchanges is that I always exhaust every possible subject the first meeting. I talk about everything that can be talked about so the second meeting is quite difficult to find topics to talk about.

Anyways, after the language exchange Marco and I went to Ueno in Tokyo to take a look around the park. Unforuntately I had my camera on the wrong setting so all the pictures came out very blurry and no good. When Marco posts his pictures I will be sure to post them here. The park was really nice though; seemed like the perfect type of place for a date. There were tons of buildings that had traditional Japanese architecture and the weather was perfect. There were also a lot of those gates that mark the entrance of a temple (I forgot their name) everwhere and the entire park was very scenic. There was one lake section with a ton of water lillies in the grass. Some sore of reggae concert was going on with some guy playing the trumpet, but you had to pay to get in.

Afterwards we went to Shibuya. We just really walked around and went to different shops to waste time before the party. At one point we saw a power ranger on the street and even got a picture with him.

After a while we met all the other people in front of the hachikou statute (famous dog statue in Shibuya). There were a ton of people ranging from Rumi (the Japanese professor) to old interns that started with Pedro. Anyways, we went to a Yakitori (barbeque chicken) place. It was the traditional place where you have to take off your shoes before you sit down. Anyways it was nomihoudai (all you can drink) so everyone had more than enough beer. I decided not to drink that much as I was still a little hung over from the night before.

To be honest the food was good but not even near worth the 4000 yen that we paid. It was mainly just the quantity. Now I realize that I am in Japan, and quanities are limited, but this was small even for Japanese standards. It was one of those places where they bring out all these appetisers and you just share with the people around you. For the same price I could have gone to Outback or Yakinuku and recieved 4x more the food.

Anyways after everything was done I decided to catch the last train back to Atsugi. A lot of the guys were going clubbing but I wanted to take it easy that night and conserve my money. I also didn't really want to drink that much for another night.

Here are the pictures that I did take:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2272099&l=c7ecd&id=16720765

***

In Japan it feels like I speak about four languages:

Japanese
Well I am in Japan so I do speak Japanese. Out of a scale of one through ten, ten being fluent and one not knowing a thing I'd say I am a four or five. I can communicate with most people but when they start speaking too fast or too technically I can't understand. My vocab is constantly expanding (especially since I am studying for the JLPT), but I tend to speak in Japanese to most Japanese people even if they speak in English. Since I am in Japan I should try to speak as much as I can I figure. Whenever we go drinking with Japanese people my Japanese level tends to go more towards a six. I think this is because when I have alcohol in me I am less afraid to mess up and just speak a little bit more relaxed. Speaking with other interns this seems to be a shared trait.

Broken English
When I encounter a Japanese person who wants to speak in English to me but barely understands it I just use broken English. I suppose there are no real sentences in broken English, just noun, adjectives, and verbs thrown together with nothing in between. It usually get's the job done but at the same time makes my English skills go down. I try to speak in Japanese before I resort to this.

Regular English
This is just the English that I would speak in the United States. I speak this to the other interns and at work to non-Japanese. Like I said before sometimes the broken English makes this skill go down.

Hyper English
Hyper English is the name I give to the super form of English I speak in when I don't want any random Japanese person around me to know what I am talking about. It usually involves using overly complicated vocabulary and speaking very very fast. Only native speakers or Europeans would probably understand this. Half of the time you have to decode it and pay attention very keenly, but I treasure Hyper English as my own invention.

It's Over 9000!

2008-10-02T08:40:00.001+09:00

Yeah, I'm downloading Dragonball Z, so what? That show was my childhood. Watching it now I realize however how oblivious I was to censorship back in the day.

Confessions of a Terrible Eater

2008-09-30T23:28:00.002+09:00

I'm not going to lie; when left to my own cooking abilities I am a terrible eater. It was bad enough in America with fast food everywhere, but at least in the United States I could go to the grocery store and get healthy food that I was familiar with and knew how to cook. When I moved to Japan my cooking skills went from abysmal to borderline inedible.

The first reason is that I have no idea what's going on at the supermarket. From what I've heard many Japanese people hold a sense of fear when confronting foreigners. I can attest that for me this is completely the opposite. I am more afraid that they are going to speak in crazy fast Japanese. I suppose you can compare it to the whole "the snake is more afraid of you" saying (not to say I am a snake :-(). But anyways when I go to Kimisawa (the local grocery store) my whole objective is to go in and out as fast as possible with as little interaction as I can get by with.

The whole problem though is that most everything I knew about cooking in the United States is rendered useless in Japan. Let me play out a typical scenario I have when I go grocery shopping:

*Walking through the meat section*
- "Oooh, steak, I know how to cook that... 800 yen is expensive, but at least it is a safe bet, I just fire up the grill- shit, I don't have a grill. Oh well, at least I can just put my oven on broil- CRAP, I don't even have an oven. Can I fry a steak? I have no idea... wouldn't it still be raw in the middle? I don't want food poisoning. Oh well, looks like tonight I am having spaghetti with tomato sauce drenched in tabasco."

And boom goes the dynamite. Yes, I've had more spaghetti/pasta here than I did in America... and that tabasco reference was no joke. You may remember my earlier post where I made mobu tofu, but other than that I really have nothing that I can make. Sometimes I just get bentos (lunch boxes) from 7-11, but there are only so many times I can have the salsbury steak soba combination.

For lunch at work I normally go out and get a bento from the street cars, and to be honest that is usually my best meal. Every now and then I will go to the cafeteria, but for some reason I prefer getting the bento and being able to sit down while relaxing.

But anyways, back to Kimisawa, another problem is I am not quite sure how to get some of the food. In the United States, there were bags next to all the vegetables where you put your fruits/vegtables in the bag and then they will ring it up at the cash register. These bags don't exist in Japan. Do I just grab the vegtables and they ring it up at the register? What happens if that isn't what you're suppose to do and the clerk starts speaking to me in Japanese very fastly when I get to the register? Oh well, looks like I am eating spaghetti with tomato sauce drenched in tabasco tonight.

I talked to one of my friends from college about this and he suggested the best solution is to get a Japanese girlfriend. While I would love to have a Japanese girlfriend, not having to cook isn't a good reason. Besides, it's easier said than done to "get a Japanese girlfriend".

Before I came to Japan I bought a Japanese cookbook. I think during my free time I am going to read through that and try to find recipes that are easy and fast to make. I am also going to make a pact right here not to buy anymore tabasco... that stuff may taste good but it is evil!

Pattaya and Trip Overview

2008-09-27T22:32:00.003+09:00

Well I am back in Japan. I didn't have a chance to talk about Pattaya when I was there as it was just too crazy, but I am going to sumarize it right here.

In short, Pattaya is crazy. The beach there is very nice to just sit around and chill and the nightlife is almost surreal. The first day we got to Pattaya we took a cab from our hostel in Bangkok to Pattaya that cost about 1800 baht. Once there we checked into our hotel. The hotel in Pattaya was something else. King sized bed, fully stocked kitchen, emaculate bathroom... by far the best hotel I have ever stayed at.

After we checked in we just ate at this local restaraunt (which we ended up eating at for the next three days) and then proceeded to walk around. Pattaya is crazy in the sense that so many "ladies of the night" will just be out in the open trying to get you to go to their bar. Just walking down the sea street you have to be careful. There are many shops in Pattaya along the sea and you can find some pretty decent souveniers.

The next day we decided to go jetsking. After taking the free hotel taxi to the beach we decided to shop around. Eventually we found a place that offered jetsking for 650 baht per half hour. It was really dun and the jetskis went very very fast. Afterwards we all just sat by the beach and had a beer. Many people came by selling stuff and we even had a cheap massage. That night again we walked around quite a bit enjoying the night life before going back to the hotel.

The last day was pretty uneventful. We went to the mall to look around (I tried to find shoes my size, but couldn't), and then just walked around Pattaya again. We went to a amateur Thai boxing match which was really fun. A few American stepped in the ring to challenge the Thai guy and everyone had a good time.

The next day we caught an early cab back to Bangkok, hung out with our friends from before for a while, and then went to the airport. We had to wait about 7 hours for our plane and just walked around the airport. After passing out on the flight we went straight from the airport in Japan to Atsugi via bus and the straight to work via cab. All in all the trip was very fun but I am glad to get back to Japan. Thailand is a great country but nowhere near as developed as Japan or the US. I would definitely recommend anyone to go.

Picture Highlights:

It Started When:

Our first day in Thailand eating at some random restaraunt.

Defining Moment:

Relaxing by the beach.

Most Fun:

Me before jetsking.

Most Embarrassing Thing I Will Admit:

Picture of me with a ladyboy.

It Was Over When:

Sitting at the bus terminal at Nari

Picasa Albums:

http://picasaweb.google.com/timothy.logan/BangkokThailand#
http://picasaweb.google.com/timothy.logan/Pattaya#

Thailand Part 2 - Weekend Market, MBK, and more Nightlife

2008-09-21T05:37:00.004+09:00

Well today was a very interesting day. Juan and I woke up around nine or so and took a quick shower. After that we had breakfast at the hostel which proved to be very disappointing. We had a croissant, toast, and a boiled egg. I don't know how you mess up a boiled egg, but somehow they did. It also came with tea and coffee which was pretty decent, although it came with a shot glass of what I thought was milk but turned out to be cream (I learned the hard way).

After breakfast we went to the station and took the sky to meet two of Juan's friends that he had met online. The friends turned out to be very nice and one spoke very good English. We proceeded to go to the weekend market which was a few stations and one transfer down. At the weekend market we had some more "dirty" food which was delicious. We had some crab stir fry, some Thai fried chicken, and some other spicy Thai noodle.

After we ate we just walked around the market and bought random things. The market was all outdoors and was huge. There were so many things to buy and you could always bargain down the price. The first thing I got was this VERY nice bag that I paid 800 baht for. In the US, that bag would be well over $100. I bought a Ralph Lauren (probably fake) polo that looked very nice for about 300 baht. I also bought a pair of shorts that were pretty decent. We walked around the market some more and evenutally had coffee at a cafe in a department store.

After the market we met Pui and again and went for some more shopping at a huge department store called MBK. It was a little bit closer to a mall and a lot more legitimate. I bought a Thai reggae CD and a few nick-nacks. I also bought a Thai beer T-Shirt for a souvenier.

At one point we walked through this huge electronics section. In the electronics section there were tons of bootleg DVD, CDs, and a lot of signs advertising unlocked iPhones. The prices seemed a little cheaper than the US and even Akihabara.

Afterwards we said our farewells to Pui and met the girls that we has met earlier. Juan and I went to the hostel to drop off our loot and then took a cab straight to the university where we met the girls. It was a very nice location, seemed to be a lot of Thai college students. The bar we went to had a very nice atmosphere. We were the only westerners there but everyone was very nice and drinks were cheap. There was Thai rap music blasting out the speakers and a soccer game on the big screen.

After a few hours we went outside and walked around for a while before catching a cab to the hostel. At the hostel we met a few other foreigners sitting outside. One was from the USA, one from Switzerland, and one from Australia. After talking a little we all decided to go to this notorious go-go girl bar. According to Trevor (the American), EVERY girl there was a prostitute. We just went there to mess around and I had absolutely no intention of actually going home with a girl. It was really neat though, however once you made eye contact with a girl god help you. They come over and really try to get you to go home. After a couple of hours we all left the bar to find something to eat. We eventually just got some dirty food from a street vendor. It was some type of kabob which was very tasty.

We got back to the hostel around 3 am and after checking my mail I went to sleep. We are going to catch a cab to Pattaya beach today. So far Thailand has been a blast and I have had a ton of fun.

Thailand Part 1 - Grand Palace, Wat Pho, and Bangkok Nightlife

2008-09-19T19:51:00.004+09:00

Well the first day went pretty well. We woke up around nine, took a nice shower and were on our way. Just walking around Bangkok in the morning really brought to reality that I was in another country.

In Thailand there are not pedestrian street lights, you more or less just have to use your best judgement when to go.

Anyways we walked around a while and then ate breakfast at some western cafe. I just had a beef/pastrami sandwich and some water (bottled, tap water is not safe). After that we just walked around a little and made our way to a station. On the streets of Bangkok there are a lot of street carts that sell various food such as fruits, fried food, and traditional Thai food. The street food is a little bit more down the earth, and we called it "dirty food". It is really really good, but just very modestly made.

We made our way to the sky train station and bought a ticket to the Central Station. From the central station we bought a boat ticket to the Grand Palace pier. In Bangkok it seems that everyone is out to get your money. You can't let your guard down. While finding out the right boat to take we were approached by at least four "private" boat owners that wanted to charge us 150 baht for the same service. The official boat that we took ended up being 17 baht.

The boat ride was pretty enjoyable. We managed to get a seat near the front. The river looked pretty dirty though and I would hate to fall in, but seeing Bangkok from the riverside was pretty cool.

Once we got to the Palace pier we actually had to walk to the Grand Palace. Coming out of the pier there were a ton of dirty food stands with delicious looking fruit and interesting looking food. We walked down the road ignoring all the offers we got for taxis and made our way to the grand palace within ten minutes. The grand palace was beautiful. All the architecture looked very traditional and the colors were very vibrant. We had to have pants on (which I did), and there were a ton of foreigners there. At one point I had to take off my shoes to go in and look at the temple. It was very very pretty, but I was not able to take any picutres as photography was prohibited.

After the Grand Palace we made our way to What Pho. Wat Pho is famous for the traditiona Thai massages. Again we were more or less harrased by the taxi drivers as we made our five minute walk. Wat Pho is also famous for the reclining Buddha, a huge statute of a Buddha laying down. We had to take our shoes off again for this but it was really a sight. The statue was HUGE and you had to wonder how it was made.

We asked the guy working at the Reclining Buddha where the massages were. He took us outside to a shady looking establishment, so knowing that it was a scam, we went back to the temple and found the official massage place.

We decided to both get one hour massages with "herb" treatment. It came out to about 400 baht and was well worth it. First we went to a changing room where I put on some massage pants. Next I went to the massage bed and the massage began. I had never had a professional massage but it was really nice. I got a full body massage by a true professional. The massage girl pressed hard on a bunch of muscles and pressure points and I left feeling very relaxed and refreshed. As I left we were also handed a drink that seemed like water, tea, and milk. It was very nice.

After the massage we were both hungry so we looked for a dirty food place. We found a pretty decent one that served this spicy udon-looking soup. I bought a coke and Juan bought a water and we ate. It was very good and it only came out to about 30 baht.

After the food we just walked around the street vendors and looked at all the different goods. Tomorrow we are going to the weekend market, so we didn't want to get too crazy. Eventually we made our way back to the pier. At the pier we were approached by 3 Thai university students that had to do an assignment for their college. It consisted of them asking us different things in English like why we came to Thailand, where we wanted to go, etc. They seemed pretty nice and we took a few pictures with them. They even helped us get on the right boat.

Next wek took the boat to the central station and then the sky tram to the station by our hostel. We just chilled at the hostel for a couple of hours, took a shower to clean off the abnormal amount of sweat, and then headed out to meet one of Juan's friends at the station.

Juan's friend (who he just told me he is in love with), Pui, met us at that station. She was really kind and spoke English very well. We all took a cab from the station to this authentic Thai restaraunt. It should be noted that since Pui spoke fluent Thai, we were charged about 10% for the cab of what we normally would be charged. :-)

Anyways, the restaraunt's food was really delicious. We ordered three entrees and also had a couple of Heinikens. For the first entree we had this sort of seafood curry that had a very distinct Thai spice taste. The second entree was crab with shredded mango, and the last dish was catfish with this very very flavorful spice. Did I mention that I love Thai food?

After the restaraunt we went to this Irish pub together. I just had a pint of Guinness (which was delicious), and a Long Island Ice Tea. It was a pretty nice bar and there was a nice band playing that performed western songs (such as No Woman No Cry). After the pub we bid our farewells to Pui and Juan and I decided to walk around the market/bar area of Bangkok.

This proved to be a very interesting experience. I don't think I've ever been aproached so much (even in Shinjuku) to go to strip clubs/hostess bars. Almost all bars that we passed by had bikini clad girls dancing. We went down this very interesting "Japanese" street also. All the signs were in katakana which through us off, and during this time Juan and I only spoke in Japanese.

At the end of the Japanese street we walked down another main road a little bit and then turned down a market road. There were tons of street vendors on this road selling everything from sunglasses to tasers. At one point Juan was in an engaging converstation to one of the vendors about buying some sunglasses, but after about five minutes we just left without buying anything (they were overpriced). If I am dead tomorrow please send condolences to my family. (joking)

At this point we had a little bit of liqour in us. We passed through this "gay" street which was just screaming "gay" and "ladyboy". Being a little bit buzzed we decided to go on this street. Let me assure you, Juan and I are 100% straight and love women, but it was hilarious going down this street and having tons and tons of guys trying to usher you to go to their lady boy club. At one point we even got a picture with a few of the bouncers that I will post later.

At the end of this street there was very chill bar which Juan and I got a beer and a tequilla shot. It was really relaxed and not crowded at all. Behind the bar was a ladyboy club with a few ladyboys out front (which I couldn't help but periodically stare at), but the bar was pretty nice relatively inexpensive. Aftwards we decided to head back to the hostel. We passed through the Japanese road again (and again we spoke in Japanese). After passing through another market road and dodging some cars at intersections we got to the hostel and I imediately got on the internet where I am writing this message now.

Tomorrow is our main shopping day in Bangkok. I want to buy a nice bag and perhaps some sandals. I bought some postcards at Wat Pho for family and friends, but I really want to buy something unique. Anyways, the first full day in Thailand was amazing and I am eager to write about new experiences.

Arrival in Thailand

2008-09-19T01:17:00.004+09:00

Well I have arrived in Thailand. I am writing this post from the free internet in the hostel that I am staying at.

We caught the plane just in time. We took the wrong train from Niigata and ended up in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE in Japan, but somehow managed to get to Narita Airport just in time to get on our plane (we had to go through the staff security checkpoint because we were late). We took a taxi from Narita station to the airport, but unfortunately we were dropped off at Terminal 1. We departed from Terminal 2. At this time it was mass chaos as we more or less ran to catch the bus to Terminal 2.

The flight itself was pretty uneventful. I sat in the back row far away from Juan and watched Ironman and the new Indiana Jones. Towards the end I talked in Japanese to the guy sitting next to me and we talked about Thailand. He seems to work for a civil engineering firm and said that Thailand is actually pretty safe for foreigners. Whenever they made an announcement on the PA they said it in Japanese, English, and Thai. I don't know any Thai.

I have the weirdest habit in Thailand also. I tend to try to speak in Japanese. I suppose it is the fact that I have never been to a foreign country other than Japan, so my default foreign language is Japanese, but I can only say "Hello" in Thai. Juan and I have something going where if we are saying something that we don't want anyone around us to understand, we speak in Japanese. That way the only people that would understand us are Japanese people (it is very rare for a Thai person to speak Japanese).

Anyways, after we arrived we passed through customs with no problems and then proceded to exchange currency. I only traded 20000 yen at the airport (63000 baht) and will probably trade the rest in as I go along. We went out to the Taxi line and Juan showed the driver the hostel that we were staying at. At first, the Taxi driver tried to rip us off. He said 500 baht, which is way more than it should be. Juan, being attentive as ever, said just to use the meter. After about a 20 minute drive during which we saw a nice view of the Bangkok skyline, we arrived at the hostel. Again, the Taxi driver tried to charge us significantly more than what the meter said, but we were able to bargain it down to 385 baht.

The hostel is really nice. The AC is huge and Juan and I share our own rooms (bunk beds). The bathrooms/showers are also suspiciously clean. Well worth the $10 a night we paid.

Anyways Juan and I decided to go out to eat. We walked around a little while and then it started pouring rain. After a while we made our way to a 7-11 where we both bought an umbrella for 99 baht. You see some pretty interesting stuff on the street. There were a lot of beggars, suspiciously looking "massage" parlors, and even an elephant on the street next to the swanky looking hotel.

After walking around a little bit we decided to eat at this upscale looking restaurant called "Sillom Village". It was a little bit more expensive than Juan wanted, but in the end we spend about 800 baht total for both of us (1 entree and 2 beers each). I had this very spicy Thai beef and Juan had this Duck curry. We shared our food and it was really good. The beef definitely had authentic Thai spice.

Anyways that leaves me where I am now. Going to go to sleep soon so I can rest up for tomorrow. I will definitely keep this blog updated though.

Tidbits Part 2

2008-09-12T17:07:00.003+09:00

Since writing my last post I have thought of a few new things to say. Here are some more mini-rants.

Japan has so much coin currency
Talking with European friends this seems to be true for the euro also, but for some reason I find myself with a alarmingly large amount of change. In the USA, the smallest bill that we have is the one dollar bill (~100ish yen). In Japan, the smallest bill they have is the 1000 yen bill (10ish dollars). This leads to me getting an assload of change. The thing is that 100 yen coins look very similar to quarters so I don't really affix too high of a value to them. However they do have a considerable value. Yesterday I counted all the change I have in my room, I had over 100 dollars in purely change alone. If you ever come to Japan be careful on this.

Another thing is the 1 yen coin. These are useless... they are a mix between plastic and metal. The thing is you never use them. They are such a nuisance to carry around and you never want to dig around when you are paying at the conbini for exact change.

Cook-Your-Own/Uncooked Food is Popular
There are many different restaurants in Japan. Many of them require you to cook your own food or even not cook your food at all. Yakiniku, shabu shabu, sushi all are like that. In yakiniku you just grill raw meat brought to you while in shabu shabu you boil it. Don't get me wrong, it is delicious either way, just a bit of an adjustment. I have also realized that there are a lot more raw/half-cooked eggs in Japan. At Sukiya (Japanese fast food chain) they give you a raw egg and you crack the yolk over your food. Many other places give you a half-boiled egg with a runny yolk. I tend to like the half-cooked eggs.

Japan is Safe
I've been saying negative stuff up to this point, but here is something very positive; Japan is safe. I never felt like I've been in danger in Japan. Even when walking around downtown Tokyo at 3am in the morning I feel so safe. Maybe it is because of the difficulty of getting a gun or just the Japanese mindset but I really love it. Another thing on this note is that most bicycles only have the lock which goes around the back wheel. In the US this would never fly as the person would just pick the bike up and throw it in their truck, but I find it quite amazing that people don't have to purchase more heavy duty locks to prevent their bike from being stolen.

Age Requirements are Ignored
The minimum age for drinking and smoking in Japan is 20. This is completely ignored. You can be 16 and still buy alcohol or cigarettes in a convenience store with no problem. Hell, skip the convenience store and go straight to the vending machines that dispense alcohol and cigarettes. As far as the age of consent goes it is also not enforced. From what I hear older guys will take 15-17 year old girls to love hotels and it will be perfectly acceptable. Kind of sad really, but just shows the difference in cultures.

Vending Machines are Everywhere
I'm sure most people who studied Japanese culture are aware of this but let me reiterate. Japan is FULL of vending machines. It seems that there are at least three of them every 25 feet, and no that is not an exaggeration. I love because it tends to give some variety and also whenever I go out for a run or trip I can always get something if I am thirsty. There are a few weird things though that you can get in vending machines. I've heard of vending machines in Akihabara that dispenses used panties, but have yet to actually see them. That kind of makes me wonder where the used panties factory is and how they make them.

That's it for now. I get to go to Thailand next week so that should be pretty fun. If I have any new material to write about I will before then, but I am still recovering from that nasty cold :(

Tidbits

2008-09-11T19:08:00.008+09:00

There are a few small things that I have found interesting in my month and a half here in Japan. Most of them don't warrant an entire blogpost so I am dedicating this post to all the small things.

Soap in Japan Sucks
It is really kind of funny. Many Japanese people walk around with masks on to prevent catching a cold, but at the same time many Japanese people (more so than the United States) don't wash their hands. I can't really blame them, because the soap is terrible. To me soap should have some texture and smell like, well smell like soap. Most of the soap that I have encountered in public bathrooms has the fluidity of water... cold water at that. It also smells like fish. I cringe everytime I go to wash my hands and keep telling myself it is for the greater good of killing bacteria.

Japanese Toilets are Crazy
I'm sure many people have heard of this, but many Japanese toilets (western ones, not the pits) have electronic controls on them. The ones at work have features such as seat warming, ass cleaners, and bidets. The seat warmer I never could come to like. To me a toilet seat should be cold, if it is warm you get that sensation that you came in JUST as the other person left. In Akihabara there is even a department store which has toilets that will make flushing noises? Why just noises? Well, say that you have a bad case of mudbutt and the bathroom is pretty crowded. Do you want other people to hear your embarrassing sounds? I

Over-the-counter Medicine Sucks in Japan
If you come to Japan long term chances are you are going to get sick at some point. When you do I hope to god that you brought medicine from your native country. I am writing this post while recovering from a nasty cold, and I can say that the cold medicine that you buy in Japan is REALLY weak. To put it in perspective my friend Juan gave me some leftover American medicine (Tylenol PM). I had been using Japanese medicine before that, and 3 of them at a time (1.5 doses). Just ONE Tylenol PM (0.5 dose) worked infinitely better than the Japanese counterpart.

That's all that I can think of right now. Maybe down the line I will think of more
to post, but right now I have to rest and recover from this cold.

Maid Cafe and Brazilian Festival

2008-09-07T13:07:00.005+09:00

So yesterday I went with Juan (American), Levi (American), Marco (Italian), and Pedro (Portuguese) to a Brazilian festival that was taking place in Yoyogi park in Harajuku. We all got to the station at about 12:30 and took the Odakyuu line straight to Tokyo and then the Yamanote line to Harajuku. The station at Harajuku was packed. There was some fashion show also going on nearby so there were tons of girls everywhere, which is a good thing :-) . Anyways, we went on a bridge towards the direction of the park and somehow we were some of the only guys around. After we passed the fashion show and went into the direction of the festival it started to thin out.

The festival itself was pretty interesting. It was the only place in Japan that I truly felt that I was not in Japan. There were so many foreigners... not just from Brazil either. There seemed to be tons of Americans and Europeans there also.

When we first went there was some sort of Brazilian martial arts demonstration going on. I got a couple of pictures.

Afterwards we just walked around and listened to the music at the festival. It was Brazilian music and it seemed pretty neat. I was impressed.

There was tons of food there also. The Brazilian food was really expensive though and the line was huge, so all I got was a Brazilian beer. I went to the American booth and got some strange looking sausage that was pretty tasty. We took a picture with all the Americans.

Afterwards we just walked around Harajuku. There is this one strip on Harajuku right by the park where bands come regularly and just perform freely. Here are a few pictures of what we saw.

This band kind of seemed weird. The music wasn't terrible but I thought the hair looked strange.

This is some sort of band that uses those drum/bell instruments. It was pretty neat.

There was also a guy doing Japanese calligraphy in some weird suit.

Next we just walked around the main part of Harajuku. There is this one narrow street that is really famous for buying all sorts of clothing items. Harajuku is also known as the "Fashion City" of Tokyo. I bought a T-Shirt that doesn't fit. I'll probably just send it to my Brother or someone.

After that we went to Akihabara to the maid cafe. A maid cafe is where you go in, all the girls are dressed as French maids, and they call you things like "Master" and play kid's games with you. From a western perspective it is really weird, but it is something that you do for the experience.

We tried walking around Akihabara first to scout out the different cafes and find one with the cutest girls, but this ended up to be no use. We got there pretty late (around 7), so we decided to talk to a few by the station. At first we were going to go to a NUN cafe. Yeah, I know, a NUN cafe. What type of messed up fetishes are we getting ourselves into here? Anyways, when we got to the nun cafe it turned out to be just a bar where the girls were dressed as "sexy" nuns. Nothing really special and not something we were looking for. Instead we went to Donkyote at a pretty well known maid cafe on the 6th floor (ironically on the same floor as all the sex toys).

Anyways, after about a 40 minute wait the maid took us to the big table where we had to take off our shoes and sit down. A maid came to our table and started explaining to us the cafe. One thing though, she was speaking in fluent English. I mean fluent. She spoke better English than either of my Japanese professors back in the states. A few sentences in she just stopped and looked at us and said something to the effect of "What's wrong? I'm getting a bunch of blank stares here." Mark finally managed to spit something out to the effect of "I think we are just a little shocked." Apparently she grew up abroad.

Anyways I ordered a ginger ale and some of the other guys ordered an ice cream and a drink. Levi I think ordered an iced coffee and when the maid came to put milk in it, she told Levi to say "Nyaa Nyaa" (the sound a cat makes in Japan) when there was enough. Before we all drank we also had to put "love" in our drinks with the maid. We made our hands into hearts, said something like "go mune kyuu!" (go heart kyuu!) and then we made our heart hands go from our chest, to our drink. It was pretty funny. Anyways none of the guys at the table could hold a legitimate conversation. Everyone was just staring at the Maids.

Anyways, I don't have a ton of pictures of this as they did not allow you to take your own picture. You had to pay 500 yen for a picture with the maid, and they just used their own Polaroid camera. I did pay and get a picture with the maid. It was worth it in my mind :)

Rough Translation:

MOE (term used in otaku world, means cuuteee or something to that effect)
Master Tim! <3<3
Mirufu

More pictures of the entire festival can be seen at the picasa album below:

http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/timothy.logan/BrazilianFestivalAndMaidCafe09062008?authkey=BYzCcmg-TXQ#

My Job

2008-09-04T21:31:00.003+09:00

I get asked a lot what I do at work. I was hired on to help the Tools team develop internal tools to be used with voice recognition software. I am also going to help the US Modeling team develop models for US English voice recognition.

There are certain limitations to what I can say about what I do, but I'll try my best. As far as programming, I program in Java mainly. There are bits and pieces of other code that I have to read, but I program entirely in Java. Now anyone I knew at university may have known my hatred for Java, but to be honest for this type of application it is acceptable.

The tool that I am programming now will import certain information about a voice recognition corpus and allow employees to work with it in a GUI. It will always be used internally, so a fast and flexible way to deploy the program to customers isn't really necessary.

I have to say though that it is like I am still in University. I am learning all the kinks and niches of Java and how to work with it. It is a lot higher level than what I am used to, and in my honest opinion I think that the API is overly complicated. For some reason just the way to work with it does not seem as straight forward as C# did. This could be because I am working with Swing, and Java isn't really made to be a powerhouse for GUI building, but it seems to even to the simplest thing in Java requires an unnecessary amount of programming.

Overall though, speaking strictly from a technical standpoint this internship is really great. I am learning so much about Computer Science and a lot more than I would've learned in a class. Everyone at work is very helpful and always willing to answer any questions that I have. I feel a little guilty though because it doesn't appear that I am getting a lot done, but in reality I am researching/learning about a new language.

I wish I could post some screen shots of the program I am working on, but taking the advice of a co-worker I decided that it probably wouldn't be the best idea. I have more than enough to keep me busy (which is more than could be said about my last job) and the fact that I am also in Japan only multiplies the experience.

As far as modeling goes, I have yet to do anything past the training material. I'm sure as the internship progresses I will learn a lot more about how to work with models, but for right now it seems that my job is mainly focused on programming.

One other minor thing that I do is lend the company my voice. Since it is voice recognition they want to get native speakers of the language they are working with. I've only gone once, but I when I did I went to this big recording room with Tanaka-san. The recording room was completely sealed off from outside noise and I even had to take off my shoes before entering. There was a computer in the middle of the room and I just had to recite the words that appeared on the screen. I think I remember Randy calling it something like slave labor, but I didn't really mind it that much.

Anyways, yesterday we had a farewell party at Shabu Shabu that I will talk about probably tomorrow. I also have gone on a couple of dates that I will also talk about, but right now I need to rest.

Bicycle and Cell Phone

2008-09-03T23:29:00.005+09:00

So after being in Japan a little more than a month I have picked up a few material possessions. First of which is a cell phone. In Japan, cell phones are essential. I heard it was because regular PCs aren't as available to the Japanese teenager, but it seems that everyone uses their cellphone to email. Every girl that I've met with always asks me for my keitai mail (cell-mail), and I get way more messages than I did on my US phone.

A couple weeks ago I went with Shieri and Levi to pick up a cellphone. The first place we went to sold cellphones from all carriers. Talking to the other interns, it appeared that Softbank was the best value. However, when I went to the store, I was told that I would have to pay 70,000 yen up front for even the cheapest phone, and the monthly bill would be quite high. Asking the sales clerk, AU seemed to be the best bet as far as costs went. I didn't have to pay for the phone up front and I could split it up over 12 months.

We actually decided to go to the AU-only store, as it had a better selection. One thing to note, cell phones in Japan are expensive. I think I am paying about 5000 yen a month for 120 minutes and a moderate amount of packets. Granted, that is probably just the right amount, I remember paying about $40 a month in the US for 400 minutes.

The application for the phone was fairly painless. I got to practice my Japanese quite a bit while Shieri helped the less Japanese-savvy Levi. A few signatures and hanko stamps later I was the proud new owner of a Sanyo Passport for AU. The cellphone is very nice. The screen is a lot longer than most US phones and there is even an antenna that can pick up broadcast TV specifically for phones (for free). The Japanese smileys are also very crazy.

Last weekend during the concert Marco secretly took a picture of my phone while I was on the train, and it actually came out quite well.

Marco caught me writing a mail. I feel like such a teenage girl.

The second thing that I have bought is a bicycle. A bicycle is by far the best investment that I have made in Japan. Everyone rides a bicycle. I decided to buy one at SATY (Walmart of Japan) so that I would no longer be a stinky pile of sweat when I went to work every morning. So anyways I went to the bicycle department and the Japanese sales clerk greeted me in broken English. I then started to talk in Japanese and asked him which the biggest bike was. (いちばん大きなじてんしゃはなんですか）. He referred me to a bike that was about 14000 yen, so I decided to buy it. This is where SATY differs from Walmart. He then proceeded to assemble the bike for me, made sure the tires were full of air, and even told me to ride the bike down the isle to make sure it was satisfactory (service in Japan is so great).

He also asked me where I was from in America and I decided to say Texas this time around (where I go to university). When I said this his eyes seemed to have lit up. He aparently was a big fan of US Western movies. He mentioned something about Billy the Kid and Clint Eastwood, and I kind of felt almost at home while he was talking to me about this. Anyways, after I paid for the bike I took it down the elevator and rode it home. It has been worth every penny so far. On Monday we went to a sushi restaurant for Lunch, and it would have been hell to walk there in the dead afternoon while it was so hot outside. A lot of people at work are also into Cycling. I like to cycle, but fear that I wouldn't be able to keep up with them. In any case I look forward to going.

My bitchin' bike.

The bike is plenty big for me (I am pretty tall). One thing that was new to me was that the lock was ON the bike actually. There is a mechanism on the back wheel that makes a bar go through the back spokes and make it so it won't turn. I guess this wouldn't really work in America as people would just pick up the entire bike and throw it in their truck, but according to Randy it is fairly common in Europe. Anyways it is great and I ride it everyone. To anyone coming to Japan long term it is a must buy.

Mobu Tofu

2008-09-02T19:11:00.014+09:00

**Update** (Read if you got here from google)
Now (some six month after living in Japan) I realize that I got the name of the dish and even how to make it wrong. First off, you are probably looking for mapo tofu I messed up the name. Also, you aren't suppose to smash the tofu. You are just suppose to cut it into squares but not actually blend it in. *shrugs*, you live you learn.

Sometimes I get asked what I eat in Japan. Most of the times I reply with the generic bentou (Japanese lunchbox) or Onigiri(riceball), but sometimes I cook. I went to Kimisawa the other day with Juan and Levi and I picked up a few things. Tonight I made Mobu Tofu, which is ground beef with tofu, rice, and some seasoning. Anyways here is how I made it.

The tofu. Not used to cooking with it, but it is pretty cheap and very easy to find in Japan

Ground beef. Pretty much the same portion that you can get in the USA.

The mobu tofu mix. Again pretty cheap, it was right next to the tofu in Kimisawa.

And of course some white rice, the epitome of Japanese diet.

First we put our rice and water in the rice cooker to get the rice cooking.

First start cooking the ground beef in a frying pan and cook it until there is no pink left.
Next add the tofu to the ground beef. Mash it up and mix it evenly into the ground beef.

Make sure it is evenly distributed within the ground beef.

Now stir in the mix and make sure it is evenly distributed.

Serve next to rice ( like curry) and mix it as you eat. おいしい

It was actually quite good. I added some tabasco sauce to give it an extra kick, but overall it was fast, easy, and cheap to make. It didn't require much work at all. Well, I guess that concludes part 1 of cooking with Tim.

Guys Night Out & Concert

2008-09-01T19:32:00.000+09:00

On Friday I went out with Juan (American), Levi (American), and Mark (Scottish) for a mini "guys night out" deal.

First we just went to the "Cheap Cheap" yakiniku place that is very popular among interns. Didn't get anything crazy this time around. Last time I got a shrimp which was questionably still alive, but this time all I had was some beef/vegetables, a few beers, oh and yeah, some squid. Afterwards we went to the arcade/game center. It was really fun actually... and really cheap; only about 250 yen for 15 minutes of unlimited play.

My favorite was Windjammers, they had an old school machine that had a bunch of CPS2 and NeoGeo games on it. I also really enjoyed the 4 player arcade Mario Kart. Juan had a big mouth but most of the times we came in neck in neck, and I also beat him once I got the hang of it.

Side Note: I stole this picture from Mark's Blog.

After that we went to this American bar. It was actually quite American, despite the only American beer they had on tap was Budweiser (shiver). We just had a few beers and then I rode my bike back home through the rain.

On Saturday I went to Maiko's (a former co-worker) concert. It was a classical music concert and Maiko played violin. It was really refreshing. I hadn't been to a classical concert in so long, but to be honest I really really enjoyed it. Maiko was of course fantastic and it was really interesting. The concert was out near Odowara which I really enjoyed. It was really rural compared to Atsugi and had a river that went through it that looked perfect for cycling/running.

Another Side Note: I stole this one from Randy.

A group of interns and I are planning to go to Akihabara this weekend to a maid cafe. I'll definitely take a lot of pictures. :)

Catch Up

2008-08-31T11:19:00.000+09:00

I haven't been updating this as much as I would like to. But anyways, instead of just getting more and more behind I thought I would just do a quick summary of everything that has happened since my last post. This way I can just start new from today and not get any more behind.

Anyways, here we go:

Arrival Trip to Tokyo:

My first weekend here I went to Tokyo with Alex(Canadian), Marco(Italian) and Marek (Polish). It was indeed pretty crazy for a first weekend. First we went to Akihabara. For those who don't know Akihabara is known for its electronic shops, anime stores, video game stores, and maid cafes. We really just walked around for a while looking at everything. We didn't go to a maid cafe, but sooner or later some of us interns are going to go to to one and have a bunch of fun.

Anyways it turned out that this weekend was also a festival weekend in Tokyo. That means that there were a lot of Hanabi (fireworks). We went to the river side to watch the fireworks and they were pretty awesome, hands down better than anything I saw in America.

Originally the plan was to go to a sex fetish party with the other people I was with, but I figured it was a bit too extreme for my first weekend. Instead I went with Mathew (French), Loic(French), and a couple of their friends to Shibuya to this "American" bar. There wasn't anything American about it, all the drinks/food were very small. I think that was the first time that I hate french fries with chop sticks. Anyways, after the bar we all went to Karaoke and spent the entire night there. It was pretty fun. We spend the ENTIRE night in Tokyo (the last train on my line leaves at 11:50pm) and it was a pretty good experience for my first weekend.

Yakiniku Welcome/Farewell Party:

The company held a welcome party for the new interns and also a farewell party for the ones leaving. It was at a very fancy Yakiniku place (BBQ) where you had to take off your shoes before entering the restaurant. Yakiniku is where you just get a bunch of raw meat and get to cook it yourself on a grill in the middle of the table. I sat right infront of Shozakai-san (the big boss) and talked to him about a lot of things including travel, baseball, and America. He visited America last month to Las Vegas and said it was very fun. Shozakai-san was the guy who flew to Lubbock to interview me.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the Japanese love to drink? At this Yakiniku party, everyone was drinking. Everyone always refilled everyone else's glass, so it was really easy to drunk. Later one we had about 5 bottles of Nihon-shu (Japanese sake). The other American intern (Juan) and I convinced everyone to try an American drink (a sake bomb). Only in Japan can you do sake bombs in front of the big boss and not be jobless the next day.

Anyways, after the yakiniku we all went to karaoke. A bunch of the interns dressed in costumes (they didn't have any that fit me) and we all spent the rest of the night drinking and singing. I think at one point I was singing SMAP, but I am not quite sure.

Mt. Fuji Cancellation Party

One weekend ago we were suppose to climb Mt. Fuji. Instead what happened was that it started raining like hell the morning we were suppose to leave so we had to cancel. Instead we had a huge party in the common room of our apartment complex. Brian brought in some Chinese liqour that was EXTREMELY strong. Anyways we all started drinking and then went out to ramen. At this point I was sobering up a little, but then we went to karaoke. All I really remember after that is singing Motteke Sailor Fuku with Brian. Oh yeah, Brian was dressed as a nurse.

Farewell BBQ

On top of an official farewell party, we also had a farewell BBQ by the riverside. I left at around 5pm with Marco (Italian) and we decided to go to SATY (Walmart of Japan) for some food/drinks for the party. We were the first ones to the party which was pretty alarming because we had no idea where it was on the riverside. After a while though other people came and we started to get food grilling and drinks open. Someone brought fireworks and I remember talking to many new people at the party including Rumi (later to be found out the Japanese sensei). At about 3am we were all pretty full of alcohol and some of the interns (not me, I wasn't THAT gone) decided to strip and cross the river. Suprisingly, no one got arrested, although Brian did end up doing the landshark D: . I walked home at about 5am with Randy (Dutch) and some of the other older interns and passed out until about noon the next day.

That's all I am going to really say about the past month. I probably missed a few things but if I go into detail about everything I won't get anything posted. I WILL start posting on a more regular basis. Right now though I have to get to work :)

Catch Up Pictures #1 - My Room

2008-08-30T10:41:00.000+09:00

For the sake of future interns that are coming to Asahi Kasei that are googling desperately trying to find information (like I was), I figure I'd post some pictures of the room.

The Entryway. I am so tall that I bump my head on the top between the kitchen and my bed area. Even after being here a month I still do it occasionally.

The good ol' desk. Yeah, not much else I can say about that.

My bed/futon and TV. I am a tall guy (195cm/6'5"), but I can still fit onto the bed with no problem. At first when I came over I had to use the stock pillow. It sucked, it was more like a beanbag... I almost died before I bought another pillow at SATY.

My main living room. It isn't big, but really it has everything I need... fridge, microwave, rice cooker, bed; I can't complain.

Since it is a Japanese apartment, I have to take off my shoes before entering. I still have to bend down to take them off. Shieri had some insane method of just slipping into the shoes which I have yet to master.

My kitchen. Only one burner, which is really more than enough for me. The tap water in Japan is safe for anyone wondering.

My bathroom. I think my brother put it best when he said something like, "So, you have a space shuttle bathroom?"

Arrival

2008-07-27T20:49:00.001+09:00

Well I have settled into everything in Japan. I have been here for a week and a few days and have had the chance to really adjust to life.

The flight really wasn't as bad as I expected. It was kind of crappy because the movie-on-demand feature was broken (it always is), but there was enough to do and I talked to an older Japanese lady. She was really interesting, she said that as long as you make an active effort to fit into Japanese culture, you will receive a warm reception. I got lucky though and was able to have an isle seat with two empty seats to my left. It was a little annoying because I was near the bathroom, but overall it wasn't too bad.

Anyways, after I got to Narita and got through customs I had to buy a bus ticket. At customs I had practiced a little Japanese, but it mainly consisted of me nodding and saying "Hai" (Yes). I bought the bus ticket with no problem at all. There was a little bit of confusion when the lady asked "Nan nin desu ka" (How many people?), but somehow I managed to get by. After I bought my bus ticket to Hon-Atsugi, I decided to call my parents. It was a pain in the ass to figure out the phone, but somehow I managed to call my dad to tell him that I had got to Tokyo fine. I also called Asahi Kasei to tell them when my bus arrived at Hon-Atsugi.

Next I went out to my bus stop. I took all of my luggage (there was a ton) on the luggage cart out to the bus stop. The minute I walked outside I realized something about Tokyo, it is very very humid. I thought coming from Houston I would have been used to humidity, but damn this was like 100x worse. Anyways I had about 45 minutes until my bus arrived so I decided to just hang out near the bus stop. At this point I took a picture, but I was really way too jetlagged to care about anything. The bus came and from there it was about 2 hours to Hon-Atsugi. We passed through Yokohama and over a bridge that overlooked the Pacific Ocean (never saw it from that side). Bus didn't seem too bad, but like I said, I was too jetlagged to care.

Once I arrived in Hon-Atsugi, Shieri (the intern coordinator) was waiting to pick me up and take me back to Atsugi Youth Heim (my apartment complex). She spoke English very well. Once we arrived at the Youth Heim and dropped my luggage off she showed me were the 7-11 (or conbini) was so I could get food and snacks. When we came back to the Youth Heim, a few other interns had gathered. I met Marek (the Polish intern) , Juan (the US Spanish intern), Alex (the Canadian intern), and Marco (the Italian intern). After talking for a while we decided to go to a Yakiniku (BBQ) restaurant that the interns had dubbed "Cheap Cheap". It was awesome. Basically they just brought out raw meat and a mini charcoal grill and everyone cooked their own meat. Afterwards some of the interns went to karaoke, but I decided to go back to the Youth Heim and sleep. I was so tired at that point. I will post pictures here a little bit later as well as catch up with my posts.

I have already done so much and have a ton to write about. It's been so crazy that I haven't really had the chance to update the blog recently. But anyways, I will try my best to keep it up to date.

Intern Day at National Instruments

2008-07-17T04:48:00.000+09:00

Now for a post not about Japan at all. Before I start my internship in Japan, I have an internship at National Instruments in Austin Texas. It is really really fun. I've met a ton of people and learned so much about LabVIEW and other products NI makes.

But anyways, last Friday was the intern day. This day essentially consists of the interns getting paid to come to work and run around playing games... kind of like getting paid to go to recess in elementary school. Anyways the day started with the group intern picture. Aparently we were supposed to wear our school shirts, but I never got the memo. Incidentily, I was wearing my school's IEEE shirt. I think the picture turned out well. Somehow, I don't think all 180 interns showed up, but it is a nice picture anyways.

Can you spot me?

Here is a school spirit one. I have my gun up in this one.

Anyways, after the picture we went to a few presentations about NI as a company and future careers at NI. It was pretty interesting and I can definitely see myself working at NI after I graduate.

After the presentations we were divided into groups. These groups would be our teams for the rest of the day. I was in group eight, or as we were known, "The Crazy Eights". We thought of doing The Crazy Eighty-Eights, like Oren Ishii's bodyguards in Kill Bill vol. 1, but decided to just stick with eight. Here is a picture of our team. I am the one on the left with the blue shirt.

Our first task was actually pretty fun. We were grouped with another team and had to make a bridge out of materials that they provided us. The building materials consisted of chocolate bars, twislers, marshmallows, pipe cleaners, and other various objects. The challenge was that each pair of teams had to make half the bridge in different rooms and then combine them at the end. We ended up making a bridge that looked more like a roller coaster than a bridge, and on top of that we named it "The Hersey Highway". It was the most ghetto/inappropriate bridge in the entire completion, but we won 3rd place!

Next came the scavenger hunt. In this, we ran around the NI campus based off of clues that we were given. When we got to different locations we had to perform different tasks. The tasks ranged from singing the national anthem to chugging a root beer. It again was really fun. We came in 5th in this competition.

After the scavenger hunt was the Olympic competition. We played everything from water dodge ball to tug-of-war. One thing to note was that because Austin is ridiculously hot, the sand in volleyball courts are also hot. I think I have second degree burns on my feet.

Overall I really enjoyed the internship. My project kept me busy and the people I worked with were great. I leave for Japan a week from tomorrow and am very excited. I have to do a few things before I leave such as buy some more shirts and buy some Japanese yen. One thing that the current intern over in Japan suggested to me was to bring a year's supply of deodorant. Apparently Japan doesn't sell it, and the only thing available is women's deodorant O_o. Anyways, I'm sure I'll get some looks at customs when I have six sticks of old spice in my luggage.

Everything's Good to Go

2008-07-05T08:40:00.000+09:00

Well I finally got my visa. It was pretty uneventful really. I drove to Houston to the Japanese consulate about a week ago to drop off my application along with a certificate that the company I am working for in Japan sent me. Surprisingly, it only took a couple of minutes. I was told that the entire visa issuance process would only take a few days. I think I could have just mailed in my application, but since Austin is only a few hours from Houston I decided to take a nice road trip. After my trip to drop off my application, I had to come back to Houston again to actually pick up my visa.

Here is some information that the office lady at the Japanese consulate gave me. Essentially it outlines Japan's process for aliens entering the country. For some reason it reminds me of those flight safety brochures from Fight Club.

I also have all my airfare finalized. Despite wanting to fly on a Japanese airline, it seems like I am going to be flying with United Airlines. I can't complain though, free airfare is good airfare. Having the visa and airfare though really puts things in perspective. I am going to be in Japan for a year. The whole experience will be a very good experience both personally and professionally, but I can't help be a little nervous. Like I said, being a little nervous is going to be good, as it will keep me on edge.

While I was in Houston the first time around I went to an Astros game. I have been trying to get more and more into baseball like I was in high school as it is pretty popular in Japan. I went to the Astros v. Red Sox game and it was really fun, especially since Houston won. It was really heart-warming though to be standing up in Minute Made Park while the national anthem was playing.

It is weird meeting all of my friends like it is the last time I will ever see them. I may be moving to Japan for a year, but in that year a bunch of my friends will be graduating. When I come back there will still be a few around, but most of the students I knew in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science will be gone. Right now I am in my sister's apartment in Galveston. My parents are visiting me one last time before I depart. This is going to be my last US holiday in the United States until when I come back. I am pretty excited. I get to go watch the fireworks on the beach tonight.

Anyways, I am sure once I am on the plane or in an airport I will have more to type here. I should be brushing up on my Japanese, but in between work and everything it is really hard to find time. I am going to make it a point however to post here as much as possible.

Fun in America

2008-06-07T01:07:00.000+09:00

Given the prospect that I am going to be out of the United States for a year, lately I have been deciding to soak up all of the things that I may miss while I am in Japan.

Take barbecue for example. From what I have heard, beef in Japan is pretty expensive. Thinking back to my Japanese class, I vaguely remember Isashiki-sensei saying something about how small steaks are in Japan compared to the United States. Luckily, I live in the motherland of beef, also known as Texas. Not only that, but I live in the best city in Texas, Austin. A couple of weeks ago I went to Satlick BBQ with a few other interns from National Instruments and it was phenominal. For $18 they just kept bringing out plates and plates of brisket, beef and pork ribs, potatos, cole slaw, and bread. The only annoying thing was that you had to bring your own beer, but in a way this was good as it prevented me from spending $4 for a pint.

I also went to a minor league baseball game. Granted, there is baseball in Japan, the styles of playing are a lot different. In Japan, from what I hear, there is a lot less emphasis on hitting hard. More times than not, the hitter is going to bunt. Since I am in Austin, I couldn't really go to a major league game, but instead I went to a Round Rock Express (minor league) game.

Another thing I may miss about the United States is having a car. I like driving. I like being able to drive 10 miles to Walmart at 2am in the morning (go engineers!). Granted, I also like walking, I am going to miss not being able to take long roadtrips on the weekend anymore.

There are a lot of small things I am going to miss about America. Nothing really too serious though. I'm sure once I get used to cooking the food, I won't have a problem with that. I will however miss America's beer.

I like Asahi and Sapporo, but nothing beats a nice cold Shiner or Rolling Rock. I have been told there are a lot more varieties of Asahi and Sapporo compared to what we have in America, so I'll have to wait and see how I like them.

All this being said, I am so excited to go to Japan. It still is kind of surreal in a way. In about a month, I am going to be 6500 miles from Texas. I can try to prepare all I want, but once I get over there it's the real deal. Am I nervous? A little. But being a little nervous is good as it keeps me on edge. I am going to be living over there for 12 months. That's insane. I can study the Japanese language all I want, but I'm sure once I get over there I will realize how little I know. I've already got in the mindset that I am going to be as reserved as I can in Japan. I am representing Texas Tech University, and in a way the United States. I want leave people with a good impression.

I will make one more post here before I leave. Right now, I need to concentrate on finishing everything that needs to be done with my current job.

And finally, for all my buddies in Engineering, I had to post this.

Apple Manzana, you might be what I miss most about America.