Allison's Japan Blog

Farewell Japan

2009-06-22T15:52:00.002+09:00

I am currently in my Narita hotel room! I was in Tokyo yesterday and left there this morning. Tomorrow morning (tuesday) i check out of my hotel and head to the airport at 11am... then my flight is not until 6pm but there is a 2 story mall on the top of the airport, plus that observation deck and food restaurants so i'll just hang out for a while. They say you should be through the gate and stuff about 2 hours before hand so i just have to bum around for about 4 or 5 hours. It's rainy outside and kinda nasty. I'm so sad to be leaving. Yesterday morning when we left Niigata to head to Tokyo it was very sad saying goodbye to all of our friends that we made in Japan. We will keep in touch and I definitely want to come back someday and they want to come to America as well, but it's just going to be weird not seeing them everyday like we have been the past few weeks. Since i changed my flight, now i'm headed to San Francisco, so it's 9.5 hours to get there, and then i have a 2.5 hour layover and a 5.5 hour flight to Orlando. Kerri is coming to pick me up and i can't wait to see everyone again! =) The time difference is so funny, i leave Japan on Tuesday at 6pm and then arrive to Orlando Tuesday at 10:30pm... 4 hours huh ;) haha. I'm so excited to sleep in my bed with all my pillows and be in my new house in my new room and then i can't wait to go see patrick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (SO excited for that!!) Be home soon!!

last field trip, dance club, farewell party

2009-06-20T23:58:00.005+09:00

Well the last 2 days have been very busy! We ended thursday by having a roof party! well sort of... we just hung out on the roof, ha. on friday we had our last field trip. We started by taking a 2 hour bus ride to the sea of japan. We drove through the mountains and it was beautiful!! we played around on the beach and walking around in the water for a bit and then we headed off to another shrine in the city. It was gorgeous, as they all have been... but then we took a cable car up the mountains to the top for lunch. now THAT made the day worth it :) It was such a long day since we went so far away... by the time we got home at 6 we were all exhausted! Instead of napping I went shopping and bought a new bag for the plane ride back... background story: I took my suitcase to be sent to the airport (you just go to the 7-11 an they do it for you there) but they weighed it and it was too heavy so they sent me home... SO i bought a duffel bag to use as a second carry on with my laptop bag and then took weight out of my bag. I was able to send my big suitcase today to the airport so all is well :) After that we all had dinner and then went out to another underground club to watch our friend Tomoko's dance performance! she was so good and we saw some famous and AWESOME break dancers. Apparently one of the guys is famous all over japan and supposed to be one of the best. We stayed out until 6am... so this morning when i woke up at 10 to go to our farewell party at 11 i was PRETTY tired!!

The farewell party was really nice! they presented us each with our certificate of course completion and gave us some Keiwa college folders and a towel. We had an amazing lunch and desserts and all of our japanese friends were there! After that, Manami and Wakaba and I went to go mail my bag at 7-11 and then we went to the post office and shipped my comforter back to the states!! it'll take like 2-3 months... but it'll come one day! We then went to an electronic store and i picked up some blank cd's and made them and Wakana (i know... Wakaba and Wakana... i call them the waka's) some cd's full of american music! they made me a thank you not later on and went out and bought me some really cute hair stuff to say thank you. they are too nice!! i'm really going to miss everyone here and all of my new friends. We see everyone every single day so it will be different once i'm home.

I realized today that 6 weeks ago i began the countdown to now, and here i am wishing that tuesday would never come... like i knew i would. I leave in a few hours on a bus to Tokyo and then on monday i'll be in Narita and on Tuesday I leave here at 6pm and get to Florida at 10:30pm... funny how that time change thing works haha. I'm heading back from the future and back to the land where the sun does not rise at 3:30 in the morning and is up in the sky when i leave the clubs at 6am. damn.

Well, see everyone soon!

Nearing the end

2009-06-18T19:53:00.002+09:00

Well, today we had our finals and finished classes. I hope i did well! Tonight we're throwing a little apartment party and tomorrow we have our last field trip day. It was rainy and gloomy all day today... kind of played with the sad moods in the air knowing that we're beginning the end here. On Saturday the school is throwing us a farewell party on campus and we've all invited our homestay families and classmates and teachers, that should be a lot of fun! they're hanging up some of our crafts that we've made as decorations and then afterwards we're free to take everything and bring it back home with us. Tomorrow I am shipping out my large suitcase to the airport to wait for me to get there so i do not have to carry it around in Tokyo the extra time that i'm here by myself. I also am shipping the comforter and pillow i bought here back to the US tomorrow too... which means i'll have to brave sleeping in the hotel beds on my own! ahh.

Yesterday we made japanese paper lanterns! they were kind of like paper mache because you start out with just a small egg shaped balloon and then you cover it with a paper like substance, string, and some leaves or whatever else you want to throw in it. Then they let it dry for about a week, pop the balloon, then fix the light inside of it. They are going to ship it back to the US for us so i'll get that sometime this summer :)

I'm excited and sad to be coming home. This is all i've been used to for the past 5 weeks and i just don't want it to all feel like a dream after i get home. Patrick moves today to Pensacola, so he won't be there when i fly in to pick me up but i will drive there as soon as i can and see him =) Well, more later, and see you all soon!

Drums and Calligraphy!!!

2009-06-17T01:25:00.006+09:00

Well, today marks a week until i will be home. I can't believe i've been here for this long already. This thursday we take our japanese final and the enginering final, then on friday we have a farewell party up at the college. We all learned and made jaanese calligraphy for the party, so it will be cool to see it all hung up! Then on Sunday morning we get up and disperse, some of us are taking the bus, some of us a train, and then it's over :/ I'm taking a 5 hour bus to Tokyo and staying in Osaki for a night. The train station was right outside of the hotel so it will be easy to travel from there for that night and the next day. The next day i'll get up and then head to Narita and stay the night there. Thennn my flight out is on Tuesday the 23rd around 6pm (my time here in japan). I get in at 10:30pm that night (America time) and Kerri is going to pick me up :) I'll get to see my room for the first time since Patrick moved me into my new house, I'll get to sleep in a bed again, have a car again, and i won't have classes everyday like this ever again. it's so weird. this is all we've been living for the past month+ and here we are in the final 3 days left. i have had so much fun and i am already planning to come back, only next time i don't want to do it all alone. I think if i had this much fun doing it alone, it would be that much better coming back with friends or family. i plan to continue to learn and study my japanese even back in the states, it's such a beautiful language!

Today we had a drum lesson and demonstration by professional musicians! they were SO amazing on the drums and flute. They had a few different types of drums and we got to try them all and watch them give performances to us. I don't know if it beats yesterday's calligraphy lesson... but it was sure up there! so much fun! tomorrow we have origami and 3D paper lessons.

After school today, Manami came and picked me up and we went to see her art on display at an art show! it was very cool. I told her that my mom is a painter and she was so fascinated!! she is just a beginner but it was a small art show room and she loves it.

I"m really having a lot of fun this past week and this week here, i think it's because we all know we're about to leave and go back to the US. it's so weird, i've grown accustomed to the japanese culture, not being able to fully communicate but still having to get your point across, people driving on the other side of the road and the from our passenger seat, the food, sleeping on the floor, and so much more. I think it will feel like it was just a dream once i'm home for a few days. I know i'll look back on the time i spent here and remember it forever, i really hope i don't forget anything! i want to come back again soon.

Field Trip Saturday

2009-06-13T18:35:00.005+09:00

the museum!

SNOWWWW!!

Well, as usual... we had a LONG and semi-eventful field trip day. i swear these things should be optional! Last night i wasn't even up that late, but we all went bowling! (i bowled a 146!) Anyways... at least the last place we went to today was beautiful!! today was just a rainy cold day so getting up at early to go spend all day out in the rain wasn't exactly something we were all thrilled about. Tomorrow is a free day though so we plan to sleep in then a few friends and i are going to make pancakes and have brunch :)

The first stop today was a museum in Niigata. We took an hour bus ride there and then walked around and saw all the museum had to offer (rather boring honestly). Then we took an hour long ferry down the river to get to a village where they had some shops and lunch and live music. They even had an indoor gallery type thing with a bunch of random stuffs and one of the rooms looked like a little town and it had an indoor snow maker!! so we stood under it and got pictures of us playing in the snow!! so cool! We had a great lunch there and for dessert, some cherry and vanilla ice cream in a cone! yummmy!

After that, we took a 45 minute bus ride to another museum and public area of somebody's house. It was HUGE. way bigger than even most of our mansions at home, plus the back part of it was just open to the big back courtyard type thing (where all the pictures are from above) and we layed out and took naps and relaxed. We made it back home around 5:30 and then i did some grocery shopping and a few of us are going to cook dinner in a bit at 8:00.

I can't believe i'm coming home so soon! it actually makes me a little bit sad. Although i will NOT miss sleeping on the floor, my tiny one hot plate 'kitchen', the crazy washing machine and dryer in the shower... not one bit! i'm so excited to sleep in my bed again, and to see my normal friends again and get home and do normal things again! ahh so excited :) see you all in 10 days!

Ikebana & Karaoke Party

2009-06-11T19:35:00.003+09:00

Ikebana was a lot of fun! We had a teacher who's been doing it for years and when you're beginning, the goal is to reproduce flower arrangements just like what the instructor shows you... they do not encourage creativity. it was kind of weird to have them not want you to try and make your creation, but to just get as close to the teacher's model! She did two different kinds so we could pick which one we wanted. I did one with a more slanted look an the other was a straight up and down look. After we finished, we made name cards and now they are centerpieces in the cafeteria on a lot of the tables!! It's so cool seeing it and having everyone else see all of our works of art :)

Yesterday night a few of us went out with the same people i did karaoke with last week. They came and picked us up and took us to a different karaoke place because this one you could bring your own food and drink!! They bought tons of alcohol for us and all different snacks and we brought some too. It was SO much fun! we were there for so long sang sooo many different songs. I really love doing karaoke! it's a lot more fun than it is in America. They just give you a single party room that is just wall to wall benches, and tables in the center and then 2 or 1 big screen tv's. so you don't have to share with anyone but your own group. They give you a couple mic's and a couple controllers so you can pick songs and then you're just on your own all night long. I wish we had karaoke like this at home!!

Today we had a long day of classes with two lectures after lunch: anime and japanese automobile industry lecture... fun, haha. They had us watch this crazy clip... it's like Top Gun remade into an anime clip!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcLl6f_Mfu4&feature=PlayList&p=0710F8492845E33C&index=0

enjoy that one ;) Then after the lectures, i took a nap and now i'm updating my blog! It has been pouring and windy and just nasty all day long, so it was definitely perfect weather. Tonight we are having an apartment party and then tomorrow (where we normally don't have class) we have 3 lectures at school :/ BOO! I guess since we're slowly approaching the end, they're cramming in a lot on everyday that we have left.

I miss all of you and i miss America!! I can't wait to eat some REAL food again!! and i can't wait to see my new house and be back with patrick and all my sisters and back on campus. But... this is really amazing here and i am so glad that i came :) I'll be home in 12 days! ahh :)

Kendo Fighting

2009-06-10T10:28:00.007+09:00

Yesterday we learned how to fight Kendo. It is kind of like fencing and sword fighting mixed together. The demonstration was by 6th degree pro's and they used actual swords and then we used the fake ones :) it was a lot of fun!!! We went out last night with my host sister Manami for Yakitori (various meats on a stick). Yakitori is SOOO yummy!!! :) I took adam, sean, and the other adam with me and they met manami and her family as well. It was nice to see them again and hopefully i will see them again soon. Manami's mother gave us some fresh tomatoes from the place that she works! we're going to try and make spaghetti sauce :) After dinner we went an took photos in the photo booth in the arcade by our apartment and then afterwards we stayed and played a bunch of fun games!!

Today we are learning Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangements) after lunch and then i am going to go into the city and see the movie Angels and Demons with some of the classmates and then i'm going out later with some of the Japanese students i met last week when i went Karaoke with them! it should be fun! idk what we are going to do... maybe karaoke again with some drinks and stuff. Then tomorrow we are going to have school and then tomorrow night we are having a party with food and drinks! :)

I'll be home in less than 2 weeks now! See everyone soon!!

the Kite Festival!

2009-06-08T08:44:00.007+09:00

the kite i made!

The kite festival was SO cool! first we started it off by going to the kite museum and seeing all different size kites and watching a 3D video about the history of this kite festival. Then we got to go make our own kites! (i made mine for patrick :)) So i colored it and picked a cool looking japanese character and it looks pretty cool! After that we were bussed over to where the kite fighting takes place. You can't take cars there because it is like 2 towns that meet with a big bridge and river and the challengers go on the far side and the home teams stay on the other side and you take your huge team of people and pull the rope and run as fast as you can to get your kite in the air and then you try and get the other teams down. The wind was really bad so towards the end they stopped doing 'fighting' and just had the shows of seeing if you could get your kite into the air. It was crazy when they crashed. They were SO big! one of them knocked two people in the head when it couldn't get off the ground and crashed in the bank where a lot of people were. they stopped all kites for a little bit and idk what ended up happening to those people! We got to participate with a team with one of the large kites. it was so cool, so they gave us a blue uniform to wear and we got to pull and sprint with them to try and get the kite in the air. we got it up for a little bit but then it wouldn't stay. then they tried again, but i just did it the once, i was in flip flops so it was a little harder, but still fun! =)

After yesterdays festivities i went out for italian food and had some pizza with friends and it was so good! i also did grocery shopping and now have a stocked fridge =) we had to write our first essay that is due this morning all in japanese... it had to be 1.5-2.5 pages and we haven't even learned sentence structure, or a lot of words... you can see that my teacher is not very bright. he's the program coordinator so he doesn't even sit in class with us... apparently he must think we're fluent already or something. He's really getting on my nerves! and he plans to post in the school hall the best and worst of our class's paper... which really doesn't sound like a nice thing to do.

i miss home so much!!! i'll be home in 15 days, and i can't wait!!!

Elementary school, High School, City Mayor, and garden

2009-06-05T17:32:00.009+09:00

playing with 4th graders :)

the girls that wanted me to come over to their house to play haha

arm wrestling (and playing uno) during recess

signing autographs lol

town hall

at the high school

largest can of fanta everrr

in the garden

fresh flowers... smelled amazing!

the crew

karaoke last night

Today was so busy! First we went to an elementary school to hang out with some of the kids. We were divided up into classrooms and for the first class i went with some fourth graders. we played games, and the kids just wanted to be near me the whole time! especially the little girls :) i definitely remember that age thinking older girls were so cool! They followed me around and i spent recess with them. We played uno, and they invited me to their houses to play (haha) and then they all crowded around and asked me to sign autographs. we missed a picture for that moment but it happened later again with a few more kids so i'll include that ;) After recess, i went to sit in with the 3rd graders in their class. We played an animal game where you have to say the animal in english and move chairs if your animal is called... very fun! more cute small children who loved to play :) After that we went to meet the mayor of the city our college is in. We went to visit him at the town hall and he spoke to us and gave us some of the city's fresh cherries. This city is known for all of its fresh fruit... we drove past tons of cherry trees and grape vines, and the cherries were delicious!! We presented him with an embry riddle flag and took a group photo there. Then we went back to campus and had lunch. today i had the daily special... teyraki chicken and rice, salad, and miso soup, YUM!!! it was only 4 dollars too! :)

After lunch, we headed to the nearby high school. We went into an english class and spoke with the students. They were all seniors, so they were 17 and 18. They each had sheets of questions in japanese and english to ask us. The most popular questions were...
"Do you like alcohol?"
"Do you want to marry a japanese person?"
(then when i told them i have a boyfriend...) "Do you want to marry your boyfriend?"
"What is your blood type"
and "What is your favorite Japanese food?"
They all loved my hair! And they thought my tattoo was so cute. I love the girls here... they are all so nice, and i learned the word for pretty last week and now i notice it being said a lot :) They're way too nice! We then walked with a few of the students and took a tour around the campus. It was a pretty nice campus and big high school! I had one of the largest cans of fanta grape soda in my life... it was like the size of 2 cans stacked in one... and it was just a dollar! haha

After the high school, we went to someone's old historic garden and home. It was so big with a lake in the back! On the west side they had a rose garden, then on the east side they had a traditional japanese garden and in the back there was a lake. They served us tea and cookies and were so nice! i got so so many great pictures from this place!!

Last night i went karaoke with some japanese people we met yesterday. They just came up to our lunch table and asked us if we would like to go, so me and 3 other riddle students went. It was a blast! the japanese kids only wanted to hear us sing, so i sang for an hour... haha. One of the really pretty girls asked if i would hang out with them again next week and we took a few photos together. She got my email address so we might go do karaoke again with them!

Tomorrow is the sports festival! and tonight we're having a little apartment party, so it should be a good night!!!

Miss you all so much :) Be home in 18 days!! (fun fact: i have 1325 pictures from japan so far... yikes!)

Niigata Soccer Game!!

2009-06-04T17:12:00.007+09:00

outside the stadium where we had snacks :) pork innards stirfry, chicken, hot dogs, and beer

niigata is orange!

cheering section plus giant flags! :)

bowing after the game

it had a soccer ball smiley face on it :)

well last night, a few of us went to the Niigata soccer game in the city at the huge stadium! it was SO much fun!!! The team lost, but it was still fun. We had good seats but we moved down to the cheering section for even better seats. we sat in the 2nd row because the first row holds these giant flags that reach down to the ground below and wave them during certain cheers. We learned so many cheers! in japanese of course! after that we went to Mos Burger, kind of like a mcdonalds, but BETTER! and we got home around 11:30 12 or so! Other than that, i've been just doin lots of school, studying japanese... i can read now! :) well, the hiragana, katakana, but not kanji. kanji are the very detailed symbols that stand for like complete ideas. we are not taught that in this course, but i can read everything else! it was so exciting today to read my first full sentence... i sort of paused, looked up and said I CAN READ!! haha :) it was a big accomplishment. my writing has come along way too, i'm working on an all japanese essay due monday. it's going well!

My host student, Manami and i email now and keep in touch and today she came to visit me during our conversation time where she helped me with my homework and we planned a dinner for next week! she is so nice and i like helping her with her english and learning japanese from her. I met a few of her friends today too! I let patrick get on the video chat while i was in my afternoon 1 hour class so he got a free japanese lesson. we were doing numbers today and just doing conversation about how much something is, or roll play buying cameras or checking out in a store. He fell asleep by the end of the class... but i hope he had fun haha :) i can just turn the computer on and then turn the screen off but through the webcam he can still see, tricky :)

Tomorrow we have a field trip to one of the city's elementary schools and the high school (that Manami went to actually!) so that should be a lot of fun! then on Saturday we are attending our college's Sports Festival. We have a lot of participants on the sports teams, unfortunately they didn't have soccer or football team... so i'm just going to go and support the other embry riddle sports we are playing in and take lots of photos :) it's going to be during the day so hopefully i'll get some sun too being outside all day! i feel like i've gotten so pale over here!! it was nice weather today though, just no time to go lay out and no pools or anything. Plus, they don't let anyone with a tattoo enter a pool or the hot springs. boo, huh? that really sucks because we have an optional field trip to the natural hot springs coming up in a week or so... i think i'm gonna go and just hope they don't notice. i mean it's on my foot, not my arm or chest or anything. You have to be naked at the hot springs though, so maybe they would see... that is so weird huh? i might wear my bikini there and see what happens :-P Then on Sunday we are attending and even participating in the big KITE race!!! it is so famous, look it up!!! it's going to be INSANE! the kites are so big. The teams spend all year building them, then you fight against another teams kite to the death basically. until you destroy their kite, then you win. The teams take their kites and are separated by a river. then they attack and tangle their kites up and then pull and go back and forth until they destroy the other team. We are building a small size kite and competing with it i believe. Either way, i am so exciting! it's such a big deal around here! SO i definitely have an exciting weekend coming up!

I got my flight changed to come home on the 23rd instead of the 28th... it was cheaper to buy a whole other roundtrip plane ticket to the US than to stay here and pay for the extra week of hotels (even with my professors teacher and local discount), food, activities, and a train pass and bus ticket... so i've decided just to stay 2 extra nights and come home 5 days earlier.

I miss you all!! Be home soon!

homestay!!

2009-06-01T20:13:00.005+09:00

On Saturday, Manami picked me up from school and drove me back to her home. She doesn't live far from campus. She lives in a nice little neighborhood and has a very old Japanese style house. It was very big! The ceilings are high and it is 2 stories. They had a beautiful front garden and back garden as well. The mother works part time at a research center and the father works at a bank. Manami is 21 years old, just like me! She also has a little brother who is 13 and they asked about my little brother. He was out playing baseball for his team when I arrived, so I met him later on.
This family did not know a lot of English... so it was difficult the whole time. We sat down at their dining room table (on the floor of course) and had some tea and tried to talk to each other. Manami knows the best English, but they all had their dictionaries handy. I pulled out my computer to show them pictures of my trip so far, they also wanted to see some from home, so I showed them graduation and commissioning pictures, some pictures from my spring break cruise, and some sorority pictures. They loved them! Then Manami showed me a photo album of hers and we watched some TV while her mom made lunch. We had an AMAZING lunch of cold noodles and soy sauce, and tempura veggies and chicken. It was definitely the best meal I’ve had all trip. We then left for Niigata city where there is a big 3-story mall. We shopped for about 2 hours and then Manami had to go somewhere for a few hours, so then we dropped her off and I went off with her parents. They took me to the top of this very tall hotel, the Nikko Niigata hotel because on the 33rd floor they have an observation deck that has wall-to-wall windows and you can overlook the entire city as well as the harbor, Sea of Japan, and some nearby islands! It was SO pretty!! We had some ice cream treats up there and watched the sunset. Then we headed to a shrine where they showed me how locals like to go and pray. You first ring a bell at the entrance of the shrine, then you take a 10-yen coin, which is like a dime and you toss it into a cradle type thing. Then you bow twice, clap twice, bring your hands up, pray for a second, and then bow again. After that, you go across the cradle thing and there is another bell rope but this one shakes a metal can that has stuff in it. And that acknowledges your prayers. Manami's dad then got a fortune, he said it was excellent, and then you tie it around one of the posts of the shrine to help it come true. We walked around the shrine garden afterwards and it was so beautiful at night. Then we went and picked Manami up and I met one of her friends! We all went out for Italian, and it was quite possibly better than most Italian restaurants at home! After that, we drove home, showered, and went to bed =)
This was the first time I’ve been in someone's personal car since I’ve been here. Manami has her own car and the family has a van as well. We took the van into the city and it was so spacious inside despite how small it looks outside. Something strange I noticed is that no one parks normally by pulling into a spot... every single person must back into the spots. It is very weird! They also do not have to wear seatbelts here. They laughed at me when I was putting mine on. Apparently, only in the front do you need to wear one. For the night, I stayed in the guest room downstairs and my bed was so comfy! It’s still so strange that people sleep on the floor and just roll everything up during the day. It rained all night long, so the only thing I heard while I slept was rain outside my window and on the roof of the long walkway that connects the rooms outside of the sliding doors. It was still raining on Sunday. On Sunday I woke up and we had a traditional Japanese breakfast with miso soup, rice, sausage, and omelets. Then we relaxed a bit and went over some Japanese together. Manami and I walked to the bakery and picked up a lot of sandwiches and pastries for the family for lunch. We all had lunch together and then went grocery shopping for dinner. Since I love pot stickers, we made homemade pork goyza! They were SO good! Manami, her mother, and I all worked together to make them. After dinner Manami and her younger brother and I watched a movie in Japanese with English subtitles and had some ice cream for dessert. Then the whole family gathered around and we made origami! Now I know how to make an origami crane! I signed one of them and they kept it and put it on their shelf.
It feels so lonely living with a family that you can barely communicate with. Being in Japan has probably been the most alone I’ve ever felt in my life just because it's so difficult. You can talk and talk and talk, but they probably will only understand a few words of it, and never enough to fully get what you're trying to say. A lot of the other study abroad students have been addicted to Japanese anime and cartoons for years and have learned a lot just by watching and reading and teaching themselves, but I have never seen any of this before so it is all new to me.

well, only 26 more days until i'm home! i'm so excited!! miss you all still!!

Shibata

2009-05-29T20:41:00.006+09:00

shibata castle

the governor!

nearby shibata

bean paste sweet

not a fan... haha

shibata mayor

art museum

mutant flowers

shibata castle

sake brewery!

tasting!

today we went to the Shibata Castle, community center/city hall to meet the mayor of Shibata, the art museum, Shibata Garden, a Sake Brewery, and the Keiwa research facility! (busy day!)

the shibata castle was very pretty! in the center of the castle was an actual military base. Each corner has a castle building for defense (from way back when) and a big mote. Many of the castles look similar here in japan.

at the community center, they were using the rooms as offices from city hall because they moved locations temporarily. the mayor of the city welcomed us to japan and we presented him with an embry riddle flag! it was very cool =) he did not speak any english... but most people around here don't.

The art museum was so beautiful from the outside! the roses here are SO big. we call them mutant flowers! they were outside of the museum.

the shibata garden was so green! there was a pond in the center and a lot of great picture spots all around it! it was made by the same person who made the first shibata castle and was a place for the governor to relax. The governor was the one who originally lived in the castle too, and they do not tell you what building he stayed in, and they would constantly move him around for safety. we took a lot of pictures in the garden =)

finally we headed to the sake brewery! we got to walk around and see all the equipment and what they use to make it, then we got to taste all of the ones they make there!! that was definitely a highlight! they make this sake candy and sake ice cream that were amazing!!

after that, we quickly saw the research facility off campus where local community citizens and students hang out and take some classes.

Now, i'm relaxing and packing a bag for the weekend because my family for the home stay picks me up tomorrow and i'm with them until sunday night! i hope we do some cool things and i'm very excited to see their home!! I'm glad i have a camera again because japan is so beautiful, but pictures just don't do it justice. i wish you all were here to see what i'm seeing! i miss you all so so much!

Finally and update =)

2009-05-28T21:58:00.005+09:00

snack!

view from a window in one of the classrooms

my room!

at the sushi restaurant with the rotating and zigzagging sushi line!

ordering more sushi to be delivered by a special train!

i know it's taken me a long time to post! our days are filled with 4 hours of japanese with a lunch break in between there somewhere and then usually going out for dinner or an activity together afterwards. I woke up this morning at 7am and ran again, todays run was really nice! then i got ready, had a date with boyfriend on the webcam as usual and then classes started at 10. I had a snack (pictured) of pineapple and grape juice, then a sweet bread roll filled with spaghetti and corn... surprisingly, it was amazing!! Today after class i went grocery shopping, then watched a movie on my laptop in my room to relax for a bit and then we all went bowling with some of our new japanese friends and to a sushi restaurant for dinner!! It had the moving sushi line that zigzagged through the restaurant and was at every table. it was so much fun!! tomorrow we do not have classes, but we are going to Shibata garden and castle as well as a Sake brewery where we will get to taste a lot of sake =) i'm very excited!

oh and i finally got a new camera!!! i can't wait to take pictures with my family for the weekend at my homestay. they pick me up on saturday afternoon and then bring me home on sunday night... so it's just roughly 2 days, but i wonder what they have planned for me! i'm getting a lot better at japanese... still going slow, only day 3, but it's going great!! some of the japanese students have commented that my handwriting is already better than theirs =) (if you know me, you know i pride myself on my wonderful penmanship, so it's nice to know that japanese characters are no different ;))

i still miss everyone like crazy, and i have a million post cards that i need to go find stamps for so i can finally send those out! maybe next week... i'll put that on the to do list =) 1 month from right now and i will be home sweet home in the US of A! It's only 10:25pm here, but i'm off to bed! oyasumi! (goodnight)

learning so much!

2009-05-26T16:27:00.004+09:00

in one day i've already learned SO much! i can read all vowels and can even recognize a lot of words and say them in japanese! i found that my mac can type in all the languages i'm learning, i just change the setting! so here is my full name in Hiragana: ありさんパポラ it translates to the romaji (phonetic) sounds a ri sa n pa po ra. cool huh! it feels like we're in a kindergarten class becuase we practice letter writing, flash cards, word recognition, and introductions... but it works and i'm learning fast! i lost internet in the apartment last night for like 12 hours... it sucked! for now it is back up... so hopefully it will stay up! (i have dates with patrick every evening and morning on our video chat and i would hate to miss those!!) if anyone has webcams and wants to chat just let me know =)

This weekend we have our 'home-stay' where we each get a family to stay with for the weekend. I originally had a very large family with 2 girls, a boy, a grandma, grandpa, and mom and dad... but then one of the boys i know pretty well opened his family info sheet and they said 'we prefer a female student' ...haha so i traded with him so that family wouldn't be disappointed! so now i am going to stay with the Sakuma Family. They have a mom and dad, a daughter that is a college student here, her younger 13 year old brother, and a grandmother. they say that they are a fun and friendly family and they live in a traditional japanese style home! i'm very excited. i may have to go buy a new camera if i want to have any pictures with them to remember this weekend :( still haven't found a camera shop, the only one close by is just a film developing place and i would need it back by this friday... so even if i found one it would prob take a few days. bah! it's so expensive to be over here! the cameras are the same price as in america, pretty much everything is or it's a little more expensive over here, like food! food is very expensive! i might buy a disposable camera or just one of those that comes in a package that isn't very wonderful because i intend to get mine fixed if possible. i promise i'll work on getting pictures soon!

My japanese name is Sato Chan... which means sugar or sweet girl! or i just introduce myself using arisan. they don't have l's in this language, but their 'r' sounds (like ra ri ru re ro) like a spanish rolling r because they put their tongue up to the roof of their mouth when they say it. they don't quite roll it, but it sounds close to an l. So when i introduce myself i would say:
Hajimemashite arisan desu, yoroshiku onegai-shimasu
that sounds like: ha ji me mash te arisan des, yoroshiku on ee gi- shimas
it looks like: よろしくおねがいします

my name in Katakana is アリサんパポラ

they have Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji and then the sounding of things is called Romaji.
They are all used for different things and intertwined so we're learning everything together.
I LOVE IT HERE!!!

miss you all, be home in 33 days!

so so

2009-05-25T16:00:00.004+09:00

this whole having no camera thing really sucks :( RIP camera, you were amazing! gah. today i tried to find a camera shop... the only one around here just sells film and develops pictures. i really just want to take some pictures so you guys can see how beautiful this city is and the college campus i'm attending! my room is definitely picture worthy too! hopefully i'll find a place soon :/ if not... looks like no more pictures!

This morning i started my day by waking up at 7am and going for a nice run. It rained on me the whole time! but a few hours later it was all clear and it hasn't rained since! Today we had our orientation on campus and saw the classrooms and such. Campus is very cool and our teachers are nice. We went to the cafeteria and outdoor courtyard and made some new friends :) we talked about hip hop music artists we shared in common, played music on our ipods and cell phones to share, they seemed to love my tattoo!! the girls made a fuss about one of the boys in our group. they kept giggling and banging on doors to get his attention! they called him 'very nice boy' which translates into cute boy haha it was hilarious!! i've been walking around for the past 2 hours trying to find camera shops, now i'm giving up and sittin on my floor bed exhausted drinking an apple juice box :) (i try to buy beverages with pictures on them so i know what it is!)

i miss you all still so very much and am excited to get home. i appreciate america so much! but there are a lot of things i love about japan too that we don't have or don't do. it's also not illegal to walk down the drink with alcohol in your hand, haha. this place is great! 34 days until i'm back!

Niigata

2009-05-24T15:23:00.003+09:00

Well... the beginning of the next 4 weeks has arrived! i'm here in my college apartment room. It's japanese style, so i have a fold out mat on the floor and on top of it i've put my comforter and sheet and pillow i bought. it's quite comfy. the room is very simple, the shower is a complete room and the toilet is in another room. i have a balcony, a refrigerator, microwave, rice cooker, one stove top burner, a washer and dryer, vacuum, and tv. i went to the grocery store today and bought some food and stocked my fridge! Japanese grocery stores are SO fascinating. i spent probably an hour in there and got so much stuff for just 20 bucks! Normally everything is more expensive here, but i guess i didn't get too much. After that we went to the mall. the mall is about 20 minutes or so walk from where we are. campus is about 2 minutes.

We got in last night around 11 pm and i came in and got settled then went to bed. This morning i was not woken up by the sunrise at 4am... but i was definitely woken up by the god awful birds chirping at 6am. i woke up and found the earplugs my amazing boyfriend packed for me and slept until 8! I've decided that during the week since class doesn't start until 10, when the birds start chirping and wake me up, i'm going to go head for a run down the path of a bunch of rice fields. I want to try and get in shape, and all my pants already are more loose since we have been walking SO much since i've been here and eating healthy and not snacking. It's great here!! I'm so excited to start learning japanese! by the end of this course i'll be able to write, read, and speak japanese pretty well. they have 3 different alphabets and many many symbols. if i learn 3,000 i'm fluent... so we'll see =P Today i ate in the mall at a nice italian restaurant and had a pizza and garlic bread :) soda is like 3-5 dollars depending on what restaurant is, so i drink mainly water or juice if i get some juice out of the vending machine. There are vending machines every few streets or so just randomly everywhere! it's nuts to see so many! they're even in front of houses in neighborhoods! we took the long way home from the mall and cut through some neighborhoods and saw a lot of cool houses and little kids walking home from school =) it's really beautiful here! i think we might go karaoke tonight but i'm not sure. i've noticed there are tons of rice fields all over japan, they really don't like to waste space! instead of having a backyard, people have a rice field... or two, or three!!

Well, i'm going to relax a bit and have a nap i think! i miss you all so much! i'll post some pictures too, i'm going to try and get my camera fixed tomorrow or tuesday. But i'm finally here and settled in and i'll be here until the 21st, then from then until the 28th i'm going to go travel and take on japan by myself! 35 days until i'm back in the US!

Hiroshima!

2009-05-22T18:43:00.009+09:00

I am now in Hiroshima! we arrived yesterday late in the afternoon with enough time to check into the hotel and explore a bit. A few friends and i spotted a castle (japanese style of course though) across the way from the views in our hotel room and decided to go check it out. It was so cool! after that we had dinner in a little italian place in the shopping center where our hotel is. our hotel is very nice!!! there is a bakery down on the basement level of the shopping plaza that we are connected to that is amazing! i had snacks there last night and then breakfast and snacks from there again today!! Last night i went out with a few of the kids i haven't spent that much time with and we went up to the penthouse skylounge at the top of our hotel. We are in the tallest building in hiroshima, so the bar being at the top gave such a great view!! we had great drinks and great conversation and stayed until they closed down (which is pretty early, around here in Hiroshima, things close around 11:30, 12)

Today we got up and headed to Miyajima! Miyajima required a ferry just to get over to where it was but it was definitely worth it! We took tons and tons of pictures and then took the cable cars up through the valleys to the top of the mountains there. There are wild monkeys that live there that were so cute! and the deer just walk right up to you, i even touched one! On the very tip top of the mountain i was handing off my camera for someone to get my picture and i dropped it and it hit a rock next to me and the lens shattered :( then i cried and they tried to fix it and fixed it a little bit but i'm going to take it to a camera shop on sunday when i get into niigata =/ sad day! After miyajima we had lunch at the bottom of the mountains with the view in the shopping center. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the building where the A-bomb hit. It has been preserved all these years and there is a sad museum around there too with lots of stories of those who died there and from the bomb.

Tomorrow we leave to go to our college in Niigata. We're leaving at 10am and not arriving until 9pm... so you can see it will be a LONG day of traveling! we're all just relaxing in our hotel rooms right now taking a break trying to recharge and get ready for tomorrow. In a bit we're going to go to dinner. i'm enjoying the view and the sun set from my room right now though!

miss you all so much!

Kyoto!

2009-05-21T00:21:00.006+09:00

Well, i know i'm a little behind here so i'll post for the past two days :)
Yesterday: Yesterday we got up and checked out of our hotel in tokyo and headed to kyoto! Once in kyoto we checked into our hotels and then i ventured off on my own a bit down some streets. I found an awesome little grocery store thats 24 hours and bought some fresh fruit and juice! After that i met up with the kids i've become friends with (we call ourself team valuable times... translated into japanese it means team good times) and we headed to the emperor's golden palace. It was really pretty there! after that we headed into a shopping district and just walked up and down the streets. We stopped and ate at a place called First Kitchen and it had hot dogs and hamburgers and flavored french fries! i had a bacon egg and cheese burger and normal flavor fries but they also had bbq, spicy, and cheese flavored fries! After that and exploring the shops, we walked home.

I have never done so much walking in my life!!! i feel like my feet are permanently bruised! although it has been getting a lot better. I can't believe i've been gone from the US for a week now! only 5 more to go :) the count down is actually 38 days left! I'm so America home-sick!! and of course i miss patrick, my friends, family, my car, my bed... basically everything!!!

Today: Today i woke up and went on the tour of the Toyota factory. it was SO cool! they started off slow by showing us all the cotton looms and stuff that they originally started with... but then we moved to the car section and robot section! so so cool! they have engines and displays, pretty much everything electronic or robotic! We had lunch there in the museum restaurant and it was pretty good! Then we headed to Osaka. Osaka has a big shopping district and tons of restaurants! We walked around, the boys played some video games in an arcade, i had a donut and then we just walked in shops and stuff. On our way back to search for some dinner we ran into these two english speaking japanese girls. they were SO nice! we became friends and we went out to dinner with them! we went to a restaurant where you pay a flat rate and then you get unlimited food and drink for 90 minutes. It was cool because they bring you a grill with burning coals and put it in the center of the table and then they just keep bringing you plates and plates of different kinds of meat and veggies! I tried cow tongue and pork inards!! it was yummy, and of course beef, chicken, normal stuff. it was SO good!! We exchanged contact info with our new friends and we all have facebook so we're all going to keep and touch and try and meet up again while we're in japan for a night out or something. one of the girls is a DJ at local clubs and she plays a lot of techno or r&b american music, so we might try and head up to Osaka on one of our 3 day weekends once in Niigata. Now i'm exhausted and it's 1am and we check out in 6 hours and head to Hiroshima! so i'm off to sleep =)

Miss you all!!! 38 days left!!

Last day in Tokyo

2009-05-19T14:17:00.008+09:00

Welllllll, today we got up and went to the JAXA space center. It was much like nasa, we took a tour and looked at everything and then had lunch. The train ride there was pretty cool, that's what the first two pictures are from. A lot of pretty scenery here! After that we were able to go have free time. We went to see the Emperor's palace (see picture) but they were closed! :( that is just a picture from the view of the first gate, there are several others once inside to protect the emperor when he actually is staying there. I went around to some shops in Harijuku and had an amazing crepe from a street vender! they were all over the place! mine had fresh blueberries, blueberry syrup and vanilla ice cream all rolled up in a crepe! mmmm :) After that we took a bus over to the tokyo tower and paid the money to go all the way to the top! it was SO cool. Tokyo is SO SO SO big!!! There was a screen where you could run your finger over the time span of one day and watch what tokyo looks like over a 24 hour period, that was neat!! Now, off to Kyoto!! more later =)

miss everyone and america SO much!!

Hama-Rikyu National Garden, Tsukiji Market, Ginza, Akihabara, and Shibuya

2009-05-18T08:14:00.010+09:00

Well, japan is AMAZING! i've been having a bit of a rough time adjusting to japan, i haven't really been sleeping at nights because i don't really love hotels and beds just because i don't like things other people have slept in but today i finally found a store that had comforters and bed stuff... so i bought myself a giant comforter, sheet, and pillow and made my own make shift bed that i can set up on top of any bed! :) SO, i got my first full night of sleep last night and am now going to tell you about my day yesterday!!

We started it off by heading to the Hama-Rikyu National Garden. It's in the middle of the city of Tokyo and on one side is the shoreline and on the other sides you can see all the city buildings and the tokyo tower too! It was so beautiful. It used to belong to the emperor, kind of like one of his own personal backyards he could go walk around. In the center of it there is a little traditional tea house that we sat down and had tea at. They had english paper instructions so we could learn how to do it. It was crazy! i didn't really like the taste of the tea or the cake they give you, but i did it :)

After the garden, we headed to a huge fish market. It's called the Tsukiji market. Those of you who know me well know that i don't like sea food... BUT it was so cool to walk around and see how fresh the fish were and look at all the sushi places. We stopped for lunch and i had the most expensive coke of my life! Apparently in that little market it was more expensive than even their beer! but later i ended up eating mcdonalds for my lunch. (i promise i'm still working on this whole japanese food thing!! haha)

After the market we walked MANY blocks over since it was a sunday and the bus in the city was down and we didn't feel like going back underground for the train line and we headed to a big shopping district called Ginza. Here they had burberry, brooks brothers, tiffany & co., Gucci, Prada, and TONS of other clothing, jewelry, and misc stores! it was a lot of fun :)

Then we headed to Akihabara... or "electronic town". Akihabara is where all the teens and people who dress up like anime characters go to hang out. On a sunday it wasn't filled with too many of those people though but it was definitely crowded! It was shop after shop of video games, old video consols, camera stores, laptop stores, porn shops (they truly are everywhere!!), arcades, and all sorts of places to see and look at.

Finally, our last stop of the day was Shibuya. It is known for having the biggest crosswalk in the world. And i believe that was the one on Tokyo Drift! It was insane. i got videos of it from above and then i walked through it and videotaped that myself! Then we walked around more shopping places and that is where we found a 7 story department store so i could buy some bed stuff :) It is typical for 1 store here to have at least 3 or 4 layers and some basement layers just because the buildings are so big and close together, so they all have a lot of space and a lot to sell!

Well, i miss you all and only 41 days until i return home!! More later :)

I heart Tokyo!

2009-05-16T23:55:00.016+09:00

First things first, i checked out of my hotel in Narita this morning at 11am, then headed to the airport. My professor gave me the option of going to Tokyo alone right then, or waiting until 3 and going with a few more students. if i stayed, there was a 4th floor airport mall and 5th floor restaurant and observation deck (where you can watch planes take off and land outside). I stayed and explored the airport and then headed to tokyo with our asst. prof and 4 other students later this afternoon. At the airport mall it was cool to see all the restaurants becuase they put all their menu items physically in a window out front so you know what each one has. Then there were tons of weird snacks in the convenient store shops and some clothings stores too, and of course a hello kitty store! I ate at mcdonalds (i miss america already!) and they have a mchotdog there! i had a regular bacon cheeseburger though, but it was cool! the meals are called 'sets' so a happy meal is a happy set here, and they serve it with sweet corn!

We got to Tokyo and checked into our hotel and then went out for dinner at this cool place where i tried tempura (fried veggies and fish dipped in this weird sauce) and i had some rice with it! it was great! i included pics :) We passed a subway and saw a sign for one of their sandwiches... potato and shrimp... YUCK!

BASICALLY, Tokyo is amazing... better yet, Shinjuku, Tokyo is amazing! that's a part of Tokyo that has tall tall buildings, lots of young people and tons of weird shops and bars and stores. Those are all the night time pictures starting with me getting my train ticket :) I explored with a few of the people from the program who i've made friends with and it was so cool walking the streets in the city. It's 12:45am now and i'm finally going to go to bed! tomorrow at 9am we're going to the Hama-Rikyu National Garden and Tsukiji Market and have lunch in Tsukiji, then at 2 we are going to go to the Akihabara Electronic Town which should be very cool! then have dinner there in Akihabara!

Only 42 days until i come home! miss you all so much!

I'M HERE!

2009-05-15T18:50:00.011+09:00

well, the flight was long... and i didn't sleep at all despite the two sleeping pills i took! but the seats all had personal tvs in the backs of them with a remote in the arm rest and they had about 30 new movies you could choose from, games you could play, or music you could listen to during the flight. (Patrick, i'm glad i didn't get a nintendo ds because they had a brain game on the flight tv and it was pretty much identical! =)) In the airport everyone was very friendly and two people even stopped to help when i was just standing there looking confused trying to match the picture i had on paper to the place. i eventually found where to meet my professor, then he showed up about an hour later... that was scary! i thought for sure he'd forgotten that i'm coming in a day early and i would be stuck there all night! a lot of the signs are in both japanese and english but my professor told me that in niigata (where the college is and where we will be spending week 2-5) it is definitely not like that and little to no people speak english.

i'm in my teeeeeny tiny square room and low rider bed for the night with japanese television, broadband internet, no cell phone, and no classmates here yet for me to talk to, BOO! i'm watching step brothers on my mac and all my chargers and everything fit into the sockets here so that's one less thing i have to worry about! I check out tomorrow morning at 11 and then take a shuttle bus to the airport where we'll meet up with the rest of the students and then head to tokyo! it's weird having everything said first in japanese and then hearing it in english. So far, i've picked up the currency and i know how to pay people and how much they ask for. Yen is not so hard to figure out, and i can say thank you, yes, no, and i've got the head bow thing down =)

lets see, i miss everyone already... everything is so different here. it's really scary being over here all by myself! it's probably the most alone i've ever felt. i saw lots of weird candy and snacks and food downstairs in the convenient store of my hotel, but good news, they had CORN DOGS! so thats what i'm going to go get for dinner in a bit when i get hungry =) they also have a variety of bread products, pastries, sushi, noodles, and a bunch of other random things like packaged marinated eye balls of some sort, purple squid, noodle cut sausage sandwiches and there's a big random pot of a bunch of fried things floating and cooking in it up by the cash register and i swear there is a hello kitty stand EVERYWHERE!

i miss you boyfriend, parents, family, and friends! only 43 more days until i come back!
( i included some pics i took from the plane, then some of the airport and driving, they drive on the other side of the road!!)

Touring Schedule

2009-05-05T03:01:00.003+09:00

Important dates:

May 14- Leaving for Japan, landing in Tokyo on May 15
"Grand Tour of Japan" May 16-May 23- Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Niigata
May 23- June 20- Keiwa College in Niigata, Japan taking a Japanese language course and an Engineering Japanese Industry course
June 21-June 28- On my own!! Traveling Japan and seeing anything I did not get to see enough of during the study abroad program!

More to come when I get there! =)