Hannah's Birthday and the Weekend

Last Friday, for Hannah P's birthday, a bunch of us celebrated with Parfaits on Shijo. This place was really fancy and had about a gazillion parfait choices. It was also really expensive and the parfaits ranged from about $7 to $150.

This picture is super awkward since I'm so close to the camera.. but there's a really big group of us.

Saturday, all of the Kates (there are 4 of them!!) met at Shi-jo. I went to lunch with Kate, Katie and Katilyn at a place where you can heat your food right infront of you. It was pretty fun :D

Saturday night, Okaasan toook me to a mall that's only a three minute bike ride from my house here. It's a pretty big place and has a grocery store and tons of clothes shops and everything, basically. Okaasan did some grocery shopping and then afterwards she took me to a moon-viewing matsuri that was taking place near the crotch of the river. She had never been to it before and so when we got there we realized that it was really more kid-oriented, but it was still pretty entertaining. The MCs read children's books about the moon and it was pretty depressing because I couldn't understand what they were saying. Okaasan said that it didn't matter because the stories were boring anyways. The best part of the night was that we got free dango to eat. The moon was also really pretty. We couldn't see it at first and then right when we were about to leave we spotted a glow behind the mountains. As we watched, the moon slowly rose up above the mountains.. we could see it move. It was HUGE and totally round, a full moon :D

The next day, Sunday, I went back to the mall to see if I could find any cool clothes but only ended up buying a cheap engrish shirt. In the afternoon, I got some snacks and met my friends at the crotch of the Kamo River. We chilled for a few hours and then talked.

Today was Monday and we went back to classes. They're not so bad but in film class I learned that I have to read a whole 300 page book by next Monday. Also, it seems like I have tons of homework. My birthday is next Tuesday, and I'm turning 20, which is really important in Japan, but I'm gonna hold off the celebrations because of people's workload and the fact that we're going on a three day field trip next week. We'll go to Hiroshima, among other places. I'm super excited for it.

For my birthday, I'm planning to get one of those $100 parfaits (which are SUPER gigantic) and then eat it with ten friends who will each chip in ten bucks. Then, we'll probably go do karaoke or something.

I'm also in the middle of planning my trip to Korea. Today I went and got my Reentry Visa, which will let me reenter Japan after my trip. All I have to do now is make sure my friends get THEIR visas and then we'll buy tickets, a room at a hostel, and start to plan our ADVENTURES.

Kaiyuukan Aquarium, Osaka

Yesterday we had another day off because of the Autumnal Equinox. I wasn't gonna go but because it was supposed to rain all day, I decided to hit up the aquarium in Osaka with some friends. I went to the Boston Aquarium with my family recently, but to be honest, the one in Osaka is better. It's newer and larger and has all kinds of fish.. INCLUDING A WHALE SHARK.

The aquarium aslo had some of my favorite animals including capybara. They're so CUTE.



We got to check out the whale shark. These things are massive and they eat by sucking a ton of water and fish into their mouths like a vacuum. We stuck around for feeding time and so we got to see it do this.



It was a really fun day even though it was rainy. The aquarium was super-crowed but I still got some pretty good fish footage:

Yesterday was also very traumatic. Before even leaving the house I was attacked in my room by the largest cockroach I've ever seen in my life. It was probably five inches long and disgusting. I'm sure I was sleeping with that thing in my room for at least a week. HOLY CRAP.

I had to get Kenshi, my host brother, to come in and kill it for me. He had some kind of roach spray that he attacked it with and then left it under the can so it would suffocate. It's still in my room, under the spray bottle....

Monkey Park and Toji Flea Market

On Monday we got a day off. It was something like, "Respect Old People Day." Because of that, a bunch of us took a trip to Arashiyama, home of "Monkey Mountain." To get there, we had to first take a bus and then a train.

Once we got there, the first thing we saw was a bunch of fake maiko. We know they're fake because if they were real, they wouldn't just be walking around in the street. Real geisha/ maiko get around in cabs and have escorts. Regardless, they looked really cool :O

When we got to Monkey Mountain, we were greeted by a bunch of drawings of cute monkeys.. but we weren't fooled..

Despite the name.. Monkey Mountain.. I didn't actually think things through. I had no idea that we'd be hiking up an actual mountain and so I wasn't really prepared for the 30 to 40 minute hike. It was really humid, but once we reached the top, the view was stellar (!)

From the inside of a building, behind protective fencing, we were able to feed the vicious beasts:

They seem really innocent, but if you look them in the eye, THEY'LL ATTACK. I had a brush with death when I went to get up and accidently locked eyes with one of the beasts. I stood there, afraid to move, but the monkey moved on, probably already sensing my wimpy-ness.

Check out my Monkey Mountain video: FUN-TASTIC

On Tuesday we had class again, but during our lunch break a lot of us went to Toji Temple, in the South of Kyoto. They have a monthly flea market. There was a lot of good street food and a lot of crap. I bought a neat shirt for 200 yen (about 2.50 usd).

Martin found a lot of costumes and decided he'd try them all on:

First Free Weekend IN JAPAN

Friday was really hot so after our PLACEMENT test, Katie, Kate and I went and oyogu-ed (swam) in the Kamogawa. Since the river's, like, a foot deep, swimming is more like wading..


Following that, as part of our mandatory "practica," we all had to go to the Kyoto Disaster Prevention Center. Instead of being super-lame it was actually super awesomeeee:

Check out my YouTube video:

Friday night, a lot of us went for dinner and then Karaoke near Shi-jo. It was my FIRST TIME EVER doing karaoke. It was super. Afterward, we went down the street and did Puri Kura (photo booths) and then took a group picture. There were lots of awesome nihonjin who jumped in with us :

Saturday morning I biked by myself to Toji Temple to check out the South of Kyoto. Toji is really pretty and the atmosphere was really nice since there weren't a ton of people.

Toji is the tallest pagoda/ tallest wooden structure in Japan :)

Later, I biked back up to the crotch of the Kamo River, around where I live, and met up with some friends for lunch. We ate at BonBon Cafe. Supposedly it was french. We had parfaits..

Later in the day, I went shopping down at Shijo and Teramachi with my friends. I had the best time ever at LOFT. I want to buy everything there. That bear, Rilakkuma.. so adorable. I always end up buying everything with its stupid face on it.


Today was ridiculously hot. I went with Kate and 'swam' in the river. We walked south and found a place that was deeper so that we could wade to our thighs instead of our shins. Such a pretty day though. I can't believe its already autumn in NY. Feels just like summer here.


We also went shopping and hit up a lot of 100 yen shops.. which are the Japanese version of the Dollar Tree. I finally bought a cellphone dangly. It's a squishy banana that I bought for 100 yen.

Crunky Ball Nude

Yesterday after classes got out we were bored so we all went to the convinience store. What did we find there?

CRUNKY BALL NUDE

delicious.

Peace :D

First Days of Doshisha

I was a little worried about living with a host family but now that I’m at school I’m starting to get used to things. It feels like I’ve been here forever but I’ve only been here exactly one week. It’s weird. It hasn’t really hit me yet that I still have 8 months here. I feel like I should be doing/ buying/ experiencing everything right now.

I’m thinking I’ll probably buy tickets to go to Korea soon. I want to go in November so that I can visit my friend who’s studying abroad there right now and also experience Korea when it’s not freezing. I have other weeklong breaks in December, February and March but I already have tentative plans for 2 of those weeks.

The first few nights here at my homestay exhausted me. I had to speak in and listen to Japanese constantly and I’m not very good at it yet. I feel sort of bad for my host family who has to speak to me really slowly and use really simple words. Furthermore, I can’t express everything that I want too and look like a dumbass a lot. It’s all right I guess. My second and third night here I was thinking to myself, “can I really survive 8 months of this??” ..But for now I think it’ll be okay. My Japanese will improve and I will become more familiar with my host family.

Classes started yesterday (Monday) and I went to language class and a film class on the “other” in post-war cinema. So far my classes seem OK. I don’t know… On Thursday/ Friday we all have to take a placement exam so we can be put into Japanese classes specific to our levels in reading & writing/ listening/ speech.

Yesterday morning we had a bike practica where two ladies came and taught us the rules of the road IN JAPANESE. It was intense. I’m guessing that these ladies usually go to teach kindergartners because they were dressed up in cute fake police outfits.

Today I got a bike to ride to/ from school (only a 10 minute commute!). It’s blue and mechaaaa kawaiii (toads cute). I’ll probably have a few near death experiences while riding my bike so I also borrowed a helmet ..which I just realized I left at school in the AKP lounge.. stellar..

The highlight of TODAY was when school got out and Katie and I perused the area for a café with wi-fi. We found this tiny traditional-looking place that had pretty decent wi-fi and weird but decent food and a man that spoke very manly and therefore unintelligible Japanese. I TOOK A PICTURE OF US:

First Homestay Weekend

After the Welcome Party on Friday night, I moved in with my host family. They live in a very nice area of Kyoto and their house is beautiful and traditional. My room has sliding paper doors and windows, the ceiling is wood and the floor is tatami. My room is also, probably, pretty large compared to how other Japanese families may live. My host brother’s room is HUGE. Probably just as large if not larger than my room at home.

Although it’s traditional, the house still has modern amenities. My family is lucky enough to have a dishwasher and a garage, and my room has an air condition (though I’m not sure when I’m allowed to use it..).

People are really big on conserving energy in Japan because it’s so expensive. This is definitely NOT a bad thing, but its sometimes an uncomfortable thing.. For example, my family doesn’t turn on the air conditioner unless it is necessary. Other families only allow their host kids to keep the air on in their room for an hour every day. Furthermore, before taking a shower I have to turn the hot water on using a button in the kitchen. This makes me think of the new “Karate Kid” movie when Jackie Chan teaches Will Smith’s son how to turn the hot water on/off in their apartment and SAVE THE WORLD.

This past weekend I spent totally with my host family. On Saturday I went to Toyama with my host okaasan (mom), otousan (dad) and sister because otousan sometimes works out of Toyama. The drive took about 4 hours and on our way there we took a drive through the Japanese countryside. One of the things I wanted to do while in Japan was see the Japanese countryside and, at least where we were, it is totally different from American countryside. The farms were A LOT smaller and there were no big silos and barns. Also, there were no horses or cows, just crops. It was beautiful, though, because the farms were set in valleys surrounded by mountains.

From Toyama you can see the `Japanese Alps`

Though, because we were in the mountains, the roads took a lot of turns. It was sort of sick-making. Furthermore, Japanese drivers are super-scary. The roads in Japan are really narrow (even the highways are only 2 lanes or so) and so if somebody’s parked on the side of the road you have to swerve totally in the other lane to avoid them. So on our trip, in order to avoid a truck in our lane we swerved over to the other side of the road just as another car is coming directly at us. We must’ve been 10 feet from hitting that other car straight on before otousan swerved back into the right lane. HE DIDN’T EVEN BLINK.. and most of all, okaasan didn’t even freak a teeny bit (unlike America mom).

Another example of terrible driving in Japan is the fact that, during my commute, I’d probably be hit by a car if I didn’t keep extra-careful watch of where I’m going. These people have no thoughts for pedestrians or bikers. It’s like, survival of the fittest. Just yesterday I tried to cross the street at a pedestrian right-of-way and almost got mauled by a moped. Not to mention that they go about 60mph on curvy, mountain roads while halfway in the other lane..

Anyways, we got to Toyama, dropped otousan off at his work and then okaasan, Mariya (sister) and I went to a Starbucks on a river and walked around the area. There was some live music going on at an outdoor amphitheater. It was a very nice atmosphere:

Because Toyama is near the ocean and it’s famous for its good fish, for dinner we went for kaiten zushi, AKA conveyer belt sushi. This is one of those restaurants where the food is sent around the room on a conveyer belt and you can pick whatever you want off the belt. Prices vary and are listed according to plate color. We didn’t do the conveyer belt thing but I did get to eat really good sushi and sashimi. SO YUM.

Sunday, my host family brought Kenshi-kun (host brother) and me out for o-mocha (sweets). We went to a temple where they served traditional Japanese sweets: some kind of barbequed mochi with sweet sauce, as far as I could tell. It came on sticks:



It was really traditional. We sat on cushions on the floor and ate in a sort of little teahouse. Some of the other guests were wearing traditional yukata that you could rent for fun.


Afterwards, my family helped me buy a much-appreciated ketai (cellphone) at the local SoftBank. Email me on my ketai address! It’ll be fun ~

KPECK@softbank.ne.jp

AKP Orientation Days 2 and 3

Thursday, AKP hooked us up with Doshisha students so that they could show us around where we are going to live, and teach us the way from our homestays to school. Two girls, Ayumi and Ayaka, showed me around. They were really nice and even knew a bit of English :)

At the end of my tour we went out to eat at Kyoto Station and I had cold soba for the first time ever. It was pretty OK.



Since Thursday was our last night at the Kyoto TOWER hotel, Katie and I went up to the top (100m (?) in the air :O) and took some pictures. Kyoto by night was really pretty:

While there I met トワワーチャん　(ToWaWa-chan/ 'Tower-chan)

The next day everybody in AKP went to Shimogamo Shrine to pray for a successful and lucky year. The first thing you do when you get to a shrine is clean your hands. While we were all there, we interrupted a man who was filling bottles with shrine water. IRONICALLY he was my host father. I got to meet him quickly before we moved on..


While at Shimogamo, a priest sung us a blessing, wishing us a successful and fruitful year. Since it was all in Japanese, the only words I got were "Professor Maki Hubbard" and "Doshisha University." But it was a neat experience never-the-less.


Finally, we got dressed up and went to the host family welcome party. I was so nervous but everybody looked STELLAR :D

AKP Orientation Day 1

I left from Boston, MA. My parents brought me there a day before and we checked out the city. Even though I go to school in Mass I’ve only ever seen the ghetto parts of Boston where Franklin Park (where we run XC races) is. It was nice to be in Boston and not have my coach telling us to not get mugged. We went to the aquarium. It was chuck full of little kids but SO STELLAR. Have some pics:

ME AND DAD :)

Our first night, Tuesday, I was dead tired after being awake for more than 27 hours. After an hour bus ride from the Kansai airport to Kyoto, all we did was explore the Kyoto Station area a bit, buy some dinner at the convenience store and then pass out. But jetlag is a strange and stupid thing and we were up and moving at 4AM the next day, the first day of orientation.

We took the subway up to Doshisha, my new institution, and the profs oriented us on things having to do with Japan. It was pretty easy-going. Later in the day we crossed the street to the Imperial Palace grounds and watched a crazy-awesome monk walk the tightrope. Look at him go (!) :

Some of my classmates also tried and failed at the tightrope. See video (at bottom).

Once dismissed, a group of us went to Shi-jo, or Kyoto downtown, and went through this covered shopping area called “Teramachi.” The first thing we hit up was puri kura. Puri kura are sort of like American photo booths, but infinitely better. For one thing, some thing about the way they take the pictures makes even the most unseemly person look attractive. I think it emphasizes your eyes, makes your skin look flawless and boosts color. All in all, the photo manipulations made the dudes that were with us look like chicks.

Chillin in the arcade~

The next awesome thing about puri kura is that you can draw on the photos when you’re done with them. Using computer screens and a stylus you can write words and put clipart, like sparkles or hearts or little tiny poops, on the pictures. Puri kura is expensive but totally rad.

Finally for dinner we went and got okonomiyaki, a sort of Japanese pankcake. It’s probably not the healthiest choice but it’s so tasty.

Okonomiyaki at Mr. Young Men

I’m happy to be in Japan but I’m nervous to meet my host family on Friday at the Welcome Party..