Stranger in a Strange Land

The Prodigal Son Returns

2011-08-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

I know that it has been a while since I posted, but I was busy with school work and attempting to keep a journal about some of my experiences. It seems that you can only write about so many things without becoming tired of them.

I am currently sitting in Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, attempting to while away another...6 hours while waiting for the Delta Airlines counter to open up at 2 a.m. (my time). I have been here since around noon today, which means about 8 hours straight at this point. It is a rather disappointing airport from the standpoint of a traveler who wishes to stay here. There are no comfortable seats, wifi is a little sketchy, and the selection of restaurants is lacking. There are also no electrical plugs that I have found yet, and no lounge where a weary traveler could close his eyes for a few minutes in peace and quiet. Then again, what's another 6 hours when I've already killed 8 here?

With the program done, I can reflect on my experiences. It was a good program, and I made some good friends, but I am ready to return home to my family. Two months doesn't seem like so long until you live it. On a similar note, i am not looking forward to living Sunday twice. I like to live my days in succession, I'll thank you very much.

This is probably my last blog post from Thailand, since my battery won't last too terribly much longer, and I should probably attempt to find food. I will see you all soon enough.

UPDATE: I'm in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport and my flight information has changed. It is now DL 2735 not whatever number I told you whenever that was.

Update for another week

2011-07-26T04:57:00.000-07:00

It seems that another week has slipped by in this land of strange time. Time is different when I travel. I don't think that the countries that I have visited have their own subjective times. Time, after all, is nearly immutable and makes fools of us all. I have a full stomach and a small glass of scotch, so later on I will probably wax philosophic. (That's actually a word. Hm.)

The past week dragged by, but has flown by. As I said, time gets strange when traveling. The highlight of the school week was the mini-presentation that we had to give on Friday morning. It wasn't too bad, but now I need to focus on the larger presentation which comes at the end of the program. While the one last Friday was 10 minutes, this one will be 15 minutes, 50% longer. However, it's still not very long. From the way Jeff presented it, it seemed like a bigger deal. Maybe it was back when he attended the program.

Saturday was a very dull day. I caught up on reading and did some homework, not really going anywhere except out to eat. Paula, Peter, and I ate a little Japanese style restaurant not too far from the entrance to our soi. It was good, but apparently ramen here just upsets my stomach. On three different occasions I've had ramen and then later had an upset stomach. Oh well.

Sunday, a group of us took a rot daeng to Doi Intanon, about an hour and a half away. The driver is Hmong, and since one of our students is also Hmong, they share a bond. Her husband is also here, and he and the driver share the same last name, which means that they are practically family, in Hmong thinking.

Doi Intanon is the highest point in Thailand, and it is absolutely beautiful. When we were there it was very foggy and misty. I have lots of pictures from the day that I will share when I get home.

One thing, though. The price discrepancy between the price for foreigners and Thais is, quite frankly, ridiculous. The price for a Thai citizen is Bt40, but the price for a foreigner is Bt200. Luckily since I was a student, I got the reduced rate of Bt100, but still. And here's the rub: most foreigners don't know they're getting charged 5 times the price for Thais because it's written in Thai. It's not just this park, either. Paula said that when she and her boyfriend, Peter, went to the zoo, the price for foreigners was considerably more than that of the price for Thais. She also said that it was actually written out in Thai, numbers were not used. So it was something along the lines of this:
Thai Citizens: One hundred Baht
Foreigners: Bt500
Oh, Thailand.

On a more positive note, I've decided to get a tailored suit while I'm here. It will be about half or a third of the cost it would be in the states for just a suit, without tailoring. Which is pretty fantastic, I have to say. Soon, I will finally realize my dream of a linen summer suit. Things are coming up Ike.

Today was very hot. Possibly one of the hottest days since we've been here. The sun was out, which makes it infinitely worse. The sun is the enemy here. Sunny days are nice sometimes, but not when they make you drip sweat sitting in the shade (it happens.)

I'm pretty excited to come home, I will be honest. I want to be around my family, my friends and my girlfriend.

Actual School trip and others.

2011-07-18T04:28:00.000-07:00

So I think that after my day of (sort of) rest, I should be able to write coherently and without excessive detail, which I think bogs down any writer from time to time.

There has not been a whole lot happening in my world apart from the usual routine since my July 4 post. I am getting to the point where I would like to come home, now, though, please. I miss my family and friends, and temperatures that drop below 75.

Friday was the beginning of Buddhist Lent, so we had the day off. This meant that we were able to leave nice and early for our school trip to Lampang, Sukhothai and Phitsanulok.
The first stop was Lampang and a temple that had been standing there for around 700 years. It was left alone by the Burmese when they sacked numerous places because it was off the beaten track for those invasions. It was a very pretty temple, with a very pretty stupa. We had an overly long history lesson in a hot, stuffy, temple museum, and wandered a bit more before boarding the bus to go to Sukhothai.

The problem was that our driver had little to no idea where he was going. We took a route that we should not have been on. It was two-lane jungle roads that were under construction (which meant no bridges at some points. It was really sketchy.) that we should not have been on.

However, we eventually made it to Sukhothai, but we were in the wrong place. That meant that we did Saturday's activity of riding bikes around Sukhothai on Friday after traveling all day. I was tired and cranky, but I did the best I could. I've started to understand that particular phrase is a very useful one. You do the best you can with what you have. Life gave me 90 degree heat and humidity and a bicycle, so I made sweat. Lots and lots of sweat. It was really disgusting actually. It was like when a really fat person eats. It was just pouring off me. We eventually made it to a nice hotel, where we swam and went to bed.

There were lots of ruins and pretty pictures, far too many to post on here, so you'll just have to wait to see them until I return.

It seems that every trip to a foreign country has at least one trip where you see too many of one thing to really care any more. This was that trip and the things were ruins, temples, and ruined temples.

Saturday dawned cloudy (thankfully, it keeps the heat down) and we had breakfast at the hotel before boarding the buss and going to a World Heritage site. More ruins, more temples. It was interesting, but boring at the same time. We tromped around for a bit and got back on the bus to go to Phitsanulok.

At Phitsanulok, we saw another temple (surprise!) This one had a really pretty Buddha in it. We had some time after that to wander around before boarding the bus to go to our hotel. We messed around until it was time for bed, then went to sleep.

Sunday was a museum of Thai folk art followed by bus until we got back to Chiang Mai. Since then, I have been doing homework, posting photos and trying to rest from the whirlwind trip.

This morning I started my essays for my application to the Fulbright Scholarship. I figure I'm a pretty strong contender, so I might as well apply. If I get it, great! If not, that's fine, too.

I realized that I titled this post "and others" when what I want to write about is something that I can't say here in Thailand. We'll just have to see how things shake out tomorrow.

School trip

2011-07-17T04:37:00.000-07:00

Super tired right now. I can't even really think of posting an entry until tomorrow. It was long and hot.

City Tour and Independence Day

2011-07-04T03:44:00.000-07:00

Our city tour was on Saturday. It was a fun time, but also a long time. We started the day around 9 and were moving until 4:30. Also: I forgot my camera because I'm a dope. So no pictures. However, others took pictures, so I'll just mooch off them.

Our first stop on the tour was the ancient part of the city which dates back over 700 years. I'm not going to get too much into the history on here because the Wikipedia article can probably explain the whole situation better than I can (You're going to want the "Lanna Kingdom"). Regardless, in 1296 the then-King of Chiang Mai moved the city from the old location to its current location because of a problem with chronic flooding.

In the ancient city we saw the Lanna version of a Buddhist Stupa, which is in a pyramid style, which is different from the later Sri Lankan style which is characterized by the fact that it looks like it could be in Sri Lanka (It's rounder). We also took a small tour truck several kilometers down the road to look at several ancient temples which had been unearthed during routine farm work. Since we don't know the actual name of the temples they have been named after the people who discovered them and who own the land that they rest on. Interesting note: a Thai temple isn't considered an actual temple unless it has 5 things. Namely: a place for the monks to sleep, a sanctuary for the monks, a place for worship for everyone, a stupa, and a Buddha image. There, you learned something in spite of yourselves today. (I'm talking to you, Becky.)

This ate up the majority of the morning, and so we climbed back into the van and drove through Chiang Mai to the Empress Hotel, where we were to have lunch at an all-you-can-eat buffet that had a number of tasty dishes from several different cuisine traditions. Incidentally, the Empress is a very nice looking hotel and the room rates seem very reasonable. We met the owner before attending the buffet and he seems to be a very happy man. For those interested in ever staying at this particular hotel, rates and lists of amenities can be found here.

After lunch we traveled the traffic-packed streets of Chiang Mai to the Chiang Mai museum. It is what most museums are, rather dry. Our guide was a very nice young Thai girl nicknamed "Mouse" (in Thai), and the Ajaan that had been showing us around both explained much of the information in the museum. It covered the history of the region from pre-history to the present. There was another floor that we didn't get to because of time constraints, but it is what it is.

While at the museum, we ran into a very famous Ajaan who is on the faculty at Chiang Mai University. He invited us to watch a ceremony at a nearby hotel. It was a ceremony of calling in a spirit, and it involved drinking liquor, dancing, and mock hunting.

After this, we returned to our guest house and spent the rest of the evening in relative quiet.

Sunday was devoted pretty much exclusively to homework and talking to family.

Which brings us to...

Today is the 4th of July, which means it's Independence Day back home in America. This is the first time I have been out of the country for this particular celebration, and it has caused me to think about how I relate to my home country.

For much of my teenage and college career, my relationship with America was a stormy one. It didn't help that our President got us into two wars, plundered our education system, and allowed corporations to run amok, eventually ruining our country's economy. During this period, I hated my country. I wanted to live anywhere else. I just wanted to get away from the crapshack our nation was becoming.

Now, however, I really do love America. Years ago, during my anti-America/Patriotism/etc. phase, I read Al Franken's book Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Liar (1. it's a play on how Rush always uses ad hominem attacks and 2. he kind of is, guys). Although I'm not sure how much of it is actually true/applicable (I've since learned to take everything anyone says about this with a grain of salt) one thing did ring true. He said that, yes, patriotism and nationalism share many similarities, but the difference is patriots love their country like adults love, while nationalists love their country like children love their parents when they're very young. What does he mean? When you were a kid, could your parent do anything wrong? Ideally not. I realize in this day and age that it's not entirely a blanket statement, but bear with me, people. When I was a kid, my parents could do no wrong (except vegetables. Oh, and not enough ice cream), I wanted to be exactly like my dad and everything was sunshine and rainbows. However, adults recognize that no one is perfect. People, and countries, can have flaws, but we love them anyway. And, over time, with help from everyone, we can work to shore up and polish out those flaws. To make an overly long explanation short. America is great. Not perfect, not by any stretch. There are so many things that mar her beauty, rampant poverty while the rich have enough wealth to make Solomon blush, environmental issues that a quick fix can't solve, and I could go on and on, but I won't. Despite all these things, I still love living in America. It's a great place to raise kids (It's a damned sight better than Mars. Mars is cold as hell.)

What happened, then, to change my mind? I'm not sure. Perhaps it was a combination of growing out of adolescent rebellion and living in a foreign country that instilled this in me. Regardless, I don't know if I'll ever feel truly at home outside of the U.S. Of course, it doesn't help that I have lived in countries where I stick out like a sore thumb, but I digress.

There are those that pooh-pooh Independence Day, but I love it, now. Independence Day picnics, fireworks, all the things that are America are Independence day. Community, love, food, laughter, and happiness. At least to me. You can take whatever you want from Independence Day, that's your right. That's one of the things about Independence Day, you have the freedom to not celebrate it.

Did I have a point in there somewhere or was I just rambling? I don't know. It feels good to say that stuff, though. It feels good to say something else, too. This 4th of July, July 4, 2011, when our country is more fractured that it has been in many years, put aside politics and work to create a better country. One where babies like the one my sister is having can grow up and not have to worry, and have the freedom to live their lives. A place eventual grandchildren can be proud of.

I'm not going to sign this one with "God Bless America" as one would expect of a post all about patriotism and all that jazz because I think that 1. If there was a God, he should bless everyone, not just one country and 2. I don't think a belief in God is necessary to be an American. Who cares what you do or don't believe in? Therefore, I will use a far more ancient blessing of a people far wiser than I,

Live long and prosper.

Warning: Poop Jokes ahead

2011-07-01T01:10:00.000-07:00

Let's talk about bowel movements.

Ok, now that I have your attention and you hopefully have taken some aspirin for your whiplash, let's seriously talk about bowel movements.

"How low-brow!" You say, "I never thought such a fine, upstanding young man would need to stoop so low to get readers."

Well, yes and no. Seriously though, the Ajaans ask if we have diarrhea with the glibness and flippancy that we would ask someone if they had the time. It's remarkable. I understand that they're concerned about our health, (Believe me, no one is more concerned about his health than me. I hate getting sick.) but man, it whips your head around fast enough that you can hear the crack.

Most of the time, the days pass slowly, but the weeks fly by. Already I'm 25% through my course of study here, while it seems like I just got here. I did, but never mind that. It's only been 11 days since I stepped off the plane in Bangkok, but it feels like I've been here forever.

Yesterday was very, very long. It was the first of our activities: going to the market. Not just any market, either, no, it was a huge market. It had three floors and stalls spread throughout several surrounding streets. It was rather confusing, to say the least. However, I bought an outfit for Bethany’s little boy for US$5 (150 Baht). It’s a little outfit that is traditional among the hill tribes in the surrounding countryside. I hope it will fit him. I have resisted buying a lot of things because I’m always afraid that the vendor will try to fleece me. This, however, seemed like a good deal.

Back in the winter when I had an independent study with Dr. Collins, she lent me a documentary called “Buddha’s Lost Children.” It’s about an abbot in the woods somewhere near Chiang Mai at a temple called Temple of the Golden Horse. I would like to be able to visit it, and I hope that it’s feasible. I’ll ask the Ajaans about it.

Not too much happens on a day to day basis. (See previous post) Therefore, there isn’t a whole lot to tell you guys right now. Look for a big update on my Sunday (your Saturday) because we’re going to tour around Chiang Mai and see the sights.

Miss you all.

2011-06-23T02:41:00.001-07:00

It's been a couple of days since the marathon blog post, so I figure it's about time for another one.

Things are starting to settle into a routine. A routine filled with sweat, heat and culture shock. The culture shock isn't so bad yet, actually. I've only been here a few days, I guess, though it seems like an eternity. I suppose that feeling is compounded by the fact that each day of class is about a week back home, because the entire program is about a year's worth of Thai.

These past few mornings I've woken up around 6:30 and skyped Kelli before taking my first shower of the day and sterilizing my water bottle. I've been drinking between a liter and two liters of water a day, and only eating a couple of times. Yesterday was the first time for a full three meals. More on that later, though.

After first shower, I get dressed and head to campus with the other people who live in the same guest house. We normally stop and get food either on the way, or in the canteen on campus that's not far from our classroom building. I try to eat something different everyday. Class lasts from 9 to noon and is divided into three hours, each with a different teacher. After noon most days we're free. The exception is Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoons we have an activity: going to a temple, going to a market, etc. Yesterday we didn't have one, so it was pretty quiet. I mostly did homework and chatted with friends.

Around 7 yesterday evening I met some friends and we went to a restaurant called "So Lao" which serves Lao and Issan food. The food was good, and I would like to go back, it's just that two of the members were really loud and obnoxious. Paula and I decided we weren't going to go out with them again. It's for the best.

This afternoon I met with my Advisor, she's supposed to help me learn Thai more effectively, in addition to helping me with my final presentation.

This heat is really taking it out of me. Tomorrow is supposed to be hot again, but then it should drop to around 82 and hang in the 80's for a little while.

The First Days

2011-06-20T03:25:00.000-07:00

I hope that people are able to read this, because my last post hasn't shown up yet. Anyway,

So here I am safely ensconced in my room at my guest house. It isn't luxurious, but it is clean and relatively inexpensive. Also, a fairly large room. I have internet and air conditioning, so things are looking pretty good.

Where did I leave off? Oh yes, Somewhere around Tokyo.

My flight boarded and took off and arrived without incident, which mean that we touched down in Thailand around midnight, Thai time (2 am Tokyo time, and 11 am Sunday morning, Home time). By the time I got my baggage and was through immigration and customs it was already 1 in the morning. I had slept some on the plane, so that wasn't terrible. However, my next flight wasn't until 7:45 later that morning. This meant that there was too much time to just kill, but not enough to go to a hotel. What I ended up doing was finding a quiet out of the way spot and sleeping for a couple of hours, off and on. Around 5 the Thai Airlines counter opened, so I was able to get a boarding pass and go through security to the gate. At the counter, I met another student who was also studying at AST, and it being a foreign land, and we being Americans, we were soon fast friends.

We were at the gate about 2 hours before the plane even boarded, so I took the opportunity to sleep some more. A little after sunrise, we were joined by another AST student who had also been stuck in Tokyo, but had finagled an earlier flight, and so was in Bangkok a good 7 hours earlier than we were. She was able to go to her hotel (which was really sketchy, she told us) and get a little bit of sleep.

The plane boarded around 7:30 and we were off and away to Chiang Mai. They provided food and drinks even though it was only a 50 minute flight, which surprised me, but then I remembered how crappy American airline service was, and was less surprised.

After a couple of cups of strong coffee, we touched down in Chiang Mai around 9 in the morning, and it was already hot and humid. The three of us were met by two of our teachers, one who is leaving Friday, and one who is a permanent faculty here at Chiang Mai University. They are both very nice men. We loaded our luggage into cars and then were off to the hostel where we were supposed to be staying the night.

While there, I had the opportunity to wash my face and neck and put on a fresh layer of deodorant and went back down for the orientation, which went well. Everyone in the program seems very nice and I think we will all get along swimmingly. This is no doubt helped by the fact that we do not all live together. That's right, we all live in different places which we have arranged.

As many of our regular readers know, this was the sticky wicket for me, the one point that caused an undo amount of trepidation in my gut. However, after orientation, we went with some of the students who had looked at rental places the day before to help them move in. We were able to see all the places they had seen, and soon we made a decision. Two of the students who came earlier were going to stay at this guest house, which we thought would be the best of all of them. It's fairly close, clean, relatively quiet because it's far back in the soy (alley), and not that expensive. One month's rent is 6,000 Baht for a deluxe room which is more spacious than the standard room, but not as nice as the suite. 6,000 baht may seem like a lot, but really, when you remember that the exchange rate is 30 baht to the dollar the figure shrinks considerable. This means that my entire stay for 2 months will be $400, with a $200 deposit, which I will get back after I check out in August.

After touring everywhere and choosing this nice guest house called Sa-nguan Malee, we moved our stuff in. Since the banks were closed, our Ajaan (teacher) guaranteed the sum with his face (his words), and the promise that we would pay on Monday.

One of our number had to go buy a uniform since she had not done so in the states. Our ajaan was kind enough to drop us off near some stores that sold the clothes that would be a uniform. After purchasing the uniform, and some other essentials, we began the long trek home in the heat. We got lost a couple of times, but not too terribly much, and were back at the guest house around 5:30. I took a shower and unpacked my things. However, I made the mistake of laying down on the bed, just to see how it felt (hard) and closing my eyes for a moment. The next thing I know, Paula is knocking on my door and asking if I wanted to go somewhere with them. Frankly, I did not. Not that I didn't enjoy their company, it was just that, well, I had been traveling since Thursday morning at 3, I had the farthest to go of anyone, and all I wanted to do was sleep.

At 6:30, I finished putting my clothes away and lay down on the bed. I only woke up twice, but slept until 6 the next morning. Almost 12 hours of sleep. It was glorious.

After waking, I was able to talk to Kelli a little bit on skype before showering and trekking to school. We had another orientation/welcome with our teachers at 9:15, which was nice. We all had to introduce ourselves in Thai with the standard name, where you're from, what do you study, have you been to Thailand, etc. When I told the ajaan that I study sak yant, there was a bit of a titter, and a general sense of surprise, but in a good way. Hopefully I will be able to make the connections necessary to be able to study these tattoos in-depth. Afterwards we met our Advisors and did the Wai Khruu ceremony (honoring the teacher).

You'll notice that I have used two different words for teachers: Ajaan and Khruu. That is because anyone can be an Ajaan, anyone who teaches something is an ajaan. However, not everyone is a Khruu. A khruu imparts more than just school knowledge, they also impart knowledge for living, and other important things. It is said that the parents are the first khruu of a child. Therefore, it is important to pay respect to khruu.

After the short ceremony, we had a placement test, which didn't go well. It could have gone worse, but it could have gone better. The first article was strange and used a lot of colloquial expressions that I didn't know, but the second one was much more readable.

With the placement test done, we were free until we had to do the pre-test, which is required by the federal government so that Dr. Gething can say, "See? They made progress." This left us a while before my slot, so we moseyed on over to the cafeteria/student center, where food is dirt cheap. A bowl of noodles is 20 baht, or about 66 cents, and it is delicious.

I changed some travelers checks to use for rent, and we wandered back over to the humanities building, where several of our number were going over the articles for tomorrows class so we would not be caught unawares. The format is very similar to the way that I've been learning Thai for the past year, so it was no surprise to me, but one girl, from Cornell, said that her teacher didn't use this format and was very informal, so this would be her first traditional learning experience with Thai.

The time for my pre-test came, and I went up to talk to the ajaan who would be doing my test. It was very relaxed and they asked about my nickname, Jom (จอม) which means "master" or very good, or high level, or any number of other things. I told them that it was short for Jom gin (that's a hard 'g') which means "Master of eating" and explained that my Thai teacher thought it was funny because of how much I ate. It was the standard test of where are you from, what do you like, etc. and so was very easy.

With the pre-test done, I returned to the area where my friends were studying, and we sat and chatted for a while. While we were there, two of the girls noticed that the Thai girls next to us were talking about my earrings. Apparently this many in the ears of a man is unheard of in Thailand. Eventually we went back to the student center to eat at the cafeteria (from here on referred to as a 'canteen') and got a few more plates of food to eat and share. It was also delicious and cheap.

We then met with another friend who had just finished his pre-test, and sat and chatted for a bit longer. He had come by motosai (scooter) and so returned that way with one of our compatriots, while the three of us who were staying at the same place as they were waited for the electric car to take us to the back gate, where it would only be a short walk back to the guest house. Once there, we settled up on rent, and I came back to write this post.

Now we're all squared away.

If you want to see something interesting, I suggest you go to the weather channel's website and look up the weather for Chiang Mai and see if you can find a visual representation of the highs and lows. Just for laughs.

Anyway, I've rambled enough, this post is too long already.

Thailand

2011-06-19T03:45:00.000-07:00

I'm in Thailand. It's hot. More later. I'm pooped.

Update

2011-06-18T00:56:00.001-07:00

Nothing has changed. I am still in Tokyo. That is all

The Adventure Continues!

2011-06-17T18:49:00.001-07:00

Here I sit in Tokyo/Narita airport a good...8 hours before my flight is scheduled to board. A little early? Yes. Too early? Given last night's fiasco, maybe not.

Regardless, I am here, and it is significantly more difficult to shaft a person when they are standing right there.

Last night I slept some, fitful as it was and woke up around 5 a.m. Japan time. I then took another shower, because hey, at this point I don't know when the next one will be. I also shaved so I look less like a convict. Might as well smell clean for a while. I also took advantage of the sink and soap to rinse and wring out my socks and underwear the previous evening, so I spent some time drying those with the hair dryer despite the instruction that it was to be used only to dry hair. Also, don't get it wet. I used all the tricks that I learned to help dry clothes quickly, with moderate success. At least they're slightly more clean than they were after traveling all day yesterday and Wednesday. It's the little things, I guess.

It's hot in here for some odd reason. It's about 72 degrees Fahrenheit outside, so I'm not sure why the heat is on.

On a different note, could someone who is reading this let my dad know what happened? Much obliged. I don't know what his e-mail address is, it changes so often that I'm never sure.

A New Adventure

2011-06-17T06:40:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the land of the rising sun!...wait, that can't be right, can it? Surely, there is some mistake!

No. I am in Japan at the moment staying a rather nice hotel called Hotel Nikko Narita courtesy of Delta Airlines.

Everything was going very smoothly until we touched down in Tokyo for my flight change on the way to Bangkok, when the announcement was made that the flight to Bangkok would be canceled due to mechanical difficulties, so sorry for the inconvenience. However, there was a flight from Japan Airlines that would be leaving in less than two hours, so if you could please hurry up and wait while we make no special accommodations for you and you miss the flight. So sorry. Now please wait several hours in the airport while we make arrangements. Downside: I'm now a day behind in travel. Upside: Free room with a clean bed and internet and a night of rest.
Here is what the room looks like:

Not bad for a free room, eh? Also, bath and robe included. Fantastic.

Also, that picture at the top is what I look like after getting up at 3:30 Thursday morning and traveling until 10:00 pm Friday night.

I'll blog more tomorrow when I send e-mails to family and friends to let them know what happened.

Dear god, what am I doing?

2011-02-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

It was raining. It was definitely raining. This was not the type of rain where you looked out the window and said, "Well, I don't really know..." It was definitely, unequivocally raining. Cold, too. Cold, definite rain.
It was really the worst kind of rain when he stopped to think about it. Not that he actually did, he was no idiot. It was cold and wet. No reason to stop. It was a turn of phrase, he supposed.
A car drove by just slightly too fast and hit the puddle he was walking near. He was definitely wet. Just like it was definitely raining.

Conversation

2009-09-17T17:54:00.001-07:00

"No?"
"No."
"Never?"
"No, never."
"Well, what then?"
"I don't know. It's your choice."
"You know what I choose."
"That's not a choice."
"Then I don't choose."
"Fine, that's a choice too."
"Good. Good night."
"Good-bye"

The writing flows in fits

2009-08-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

The leaves fell. Each breaking off the tree and gently floating to the earth to join its brethren on the ground. He walked slowly, shuffling his feet through the brown leaves. His dog trotted beside him, sniffing through the leaves.
The sky was the bright blue that only October had. The kind that cool evenings and sunny days brought. The kind you would long for in a few weeks, once November arrived, bringing with it a cold and bitter wind that drove rain and snow before it. The blue would return, of course, in December and January, but it would be a different blue. It would be a colder blue, while this blue, this October sky blue would still warm the heart.
The boy looked up from his study of the leaves. There was a girl walking the opposite direction about thirty feet up the path. He stopped. She was closer now. He looked at his feet. She was still closer. He looked up. She was there.
"Hi," he said. He blushed.
"Hi," she said. She blushed and smiled.

Time

2009-07-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

The clock ticked. He picked it up and wound it. Tightening the spring so it would count out his life for another day, hours, minutes, seconds. As it unwound, it ticked. His life slowly slipped away, he knew he'd be dead. He sat up in his bed and put his feet on the floor. It was cold. He yawned. His body was warm. The clock ticked, endlessly. Well, as endlessly as he was there to wind it. He reveled in that information. The clock needed him. Did he need the clock? If it stopped, would his heart also stop? Would the slow winding down of the clock mirror the slow decline of his own heart? He tried to wind the clock tighter. It got harder and harder to move the key. Finally, it stopped, it could not be wound any tighter. He pushed it too hard, and the spring snapped. He fell back onto the bed as his heart seized and stopped.

Spring

2009-07-19T20:08:00.001-07:00

Spring was definitely here. There was still a slight chill, but all the accouterments of spring had arrived. There was the warm wind which carried the smells of warming earth and blossoming flowers down the hills to the lake which still had a rim of frost around it. The boy and his dog stood on the edge of the lake, looking at the tire swing attached to the gnarled old tree. Soon it would be summer and many hours of of many days would be spent swinging into the lake, engaging in the bonding all boys do, the all-powerful "dare."
"I dare you to do a flip!"
"You're on!"
And if ever a boy chickened out on a dare, he would be teased mercilessly, at least until the next boy failed to live up to his dare. All that was several months away, an eternity it seemed to him. So now he stood by the side of the ice-ringed lake, with snowbells and croucuses beginning their short flowering season, too soon to wilt in the heat that was to come.

Radio waves will continue into space long after we're gone

2009-07-19T19:13:00.000-07:00

The faint sounds of a transistor radio could be heard wafting through the empty building. The tinny sounds seeming out of place somehow, almost too boisterous for the silent surroundings. It was a lively swing tune, full of brassy horns and trumpets. A single male voice crooned along, extolling the magnificence of being in love during the spring.
His voice echoed in the empty halls, bouncing around the rooms, devoid of people but not furniture. The old couches and chairs and tables and desks all sat, as they had without occupants for many years, the dust in thick layers on them, and in dancing motes in the sun light that made it in through the dirty windows. The song faded. It was ending. It was soon replaced by another piece, this one much the same, although slower, and with a female singer. She was sultry, smoky, and was probably on the piano as she sang.
He could see her in his mind. She was beautiful. He turned the handle of the faucet and soon the sound of running water echoed in the emptiness as well. He didn't know why he tried to warm it up. There'd not been warm water in this building for years. He splashed his face, the water trickling down his scruffy beard and back into the sink. As he dried his face with the threadbare towel, the song started to change again, but the radio went silent. The whole building went silent. The whole world went silent.

The train

2009-07-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

I wrote this on a train in Japan, coming back late at night.

It was dark outside as the train flowed over the tracks, clacking as it went. A man sat in the third car from the front; he was the only passenger. The cityscape flashed through his reflection in the window as he gazed with eyes glazed by tiredness at the pinpoints of light streaking by. The scrolling cityscape slowed and stopped as the train drew to a halt. The doors opened and a single passenger got on. She wasn't particularly beautiful, nor was she ugly. She was the kind of a woman who got prettier the longer you looked at her. Her clothes were nondescript, but there was still something about her. He could not look away and she eventually felt his eyes on her.
Their eyes locked and the train rolled onward into the night, the brightly-lit train car an island in the dark.

Winter

2009-07-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

Ahh. The blog. Anyway, I figured I'd bestow upon you another piece of genius. This one was written on the plane returning from Japan.

Snow was falling, like it normally did. It was a good snow, with big puffy flakes that spun lazily down, each a work of art, before being assimilated into the growing mass that began to coat the ground. It was the kind of snow that would make magnificent snowballs or snowmen, depending on your fancy.
The trees around the field had long since been stripped bare of their leaves by the changing of the seasons and the wind. Now, however, there was no wind, giving the whole scene the muteness that only occurs in midwinter. The haybales seemed as sentinels in the field. These had not been sold or used, so now they sat, forlornly, being covered by the snow.
The boy, bundled against the cold, dragged a cord of wood on the sled that was attached to his mittened hand with a vice-like grip on the rope.
It was so quiet the boy swore he could almost hear the snow falling. His face, ruddy from the cold had the expression of a man on a mission. His blue eyes were fixed on a point far off in the distance that only he could see. The bit of downy fuzz on his cheeks and chin was not as warm as he had hoped or claimed it was.
The snow slowly filled in his tracks across the field as it continued to fall.

Summer

2009-04-26T20:50:00.000-07:00

It was hot. Looking down the road, the waves of heat rippled up off the pavement, causing the air to shimmer. The sounds of a cicada occasionally cut the heavy air, bringing some movement to the stifling day. Even the normally active boy was almost motionless, siting on the porch with an icy lemonade close at hand.
He surveyed the lawn that he had just mown, grass clippings sticking to his arms and legs. Reaching down, he picked up the lemonade and pressed the cool glass to his forehead, the almost too-cold sensation sending chills through his body.
The storm door opened behind him and the smells of home wafted out. His mother's baking, his grandmother's cooking, the smell of dust and age and books that belonged to his grandfather, the scent of fresh and youth that was his sister, and suddenly a large presence behind him that smelled of leather and tobacco and aftershave and all the scents that the boy associated with maleness and his initiation into manhood. His father sat down next to him, setting his own lemonade within arm's reach and pulling out his pipe and tobacco pouch, and with it, the sweet scent of good tobacco. He carefully packed the bowl, worm smooth by the passage of years and the gentle handling it had received and struck a match, waving it over the bowl. As he gently inhaled, the ember slowly grew and and produced the smoke that conjured images of strength and protection in the boy's mind. Nothing was said; nothing needed to be said.
The sky gradually clouded up, a storm of summer forming on the horizon and moving swiftly in, bringing rain and scrubbing the air clean. It passed quickly as those types of storms often do. In its wake it left a verdant sparkling world which smelled of fresh-cut grass and clean summer rain.
The boy drew in a deep breath, heavy with all the smells surrounding him and smiled.

blows off dust

2009-04-08T21:02:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, the good ol' blog.

I've not used this for quite some time. January 20th, by its reckoning. It's most likely correct.

Welp, I've got it, I might as well use it. However, most of my life seems trivial now compared to the adventure I was having just a few short months ago. I guess this is the way of things. They come, they go.

I'll most likely be using this to post random thoughts that flit through my head. This means that some posts will be many paragraphs, and some (most likely more) will be a few lines. Quips, quotations, short vignettes, etc.

I had a date on Saturday. A real date. For the first time in over a year. My last real date was December of 2007. This most recent date was a double date. One of my friends set it up. It was him and me, and our dates were two Japanese girls. Quite a good time was had by all, indeed. I just wanted to share that news.

Now, something that I wrote on the plane over to Japan.

It was one of those too-warm days in autumn that bespoke of the summer that has so recently slipped by. The breeze gently stirred the leaves that had mostly changed but clung tenaciously to the trees. The surface of the lake mottled gently under the insistent breeze that slowly pushed the lone canoe across the water. At first glance, the canoe seemed empty, but an arm appeared over the edge, moving in the lazy arc of an exaggerated stretch as the boy in the canoe awoke from his doze and gazed at the fluffy white clouds that scuttled across the almost too blue sky. He yawned, stretched again, and carefully sat up before grabbing the paddle that had lain next to him. He dipped the paddle into the water and with practiced ease, urged the craft into motion.

As you can probably guess, I like to make images with my words. I'm a terrible painter and artist, so instead, I make you see what I can see in my head.
So, please, leave thoughts. Love you all,

Return to Normalcy?

2009-01-20T18:49:00.000-08:00

So it's been a little over a month now since my return. Japan has now started to seem surreal, much like home seemed surreal when I was there. I find that I ask myself, "Was I really there?"

Yes, yes I was. It was an incredible experience. It will shape the rest of my life, I'm sure. Even now, I find myself launching into a story that starts with, "When I was in Japan..." with some sort of obscure and rambling anecdote following. I had an interview about Japan actually. She wrote everything down. I think it filled three or four notebook pages.

So things have settled back into my normal life. I go to class, do homework, call friends, go out, you know, all that good college kid stuff. But then I realize that this is my last year. No, not even a year, 6 months. I graduate in June. Weird.

I finally have my big computer back. This thing is huge compared to the computer that I've been using for the past 4 months. However, my car broke. Transmission. Balls. You win some, you lose some. So it goes, as I've become fond of saying. My father called me on that saying. He asked where it was from. I told him. He was suitably impressed. This, of course, launched us into a discussion of literature. Both he and I think Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse 5 are necessary reading. I added Sirens of Titan, but that one is optional. He mused about passing the made up title of something about Literature Expert or something silly to me. I'm slowly becoming my father. This isn't a bad thing, I suppose. He's healthy, happy, and about to get married actually. Weird. I'm his best man. I should start to think about a speech.

When I was talking to Dad, I told him of my job prospects. He said that it was truly unfortunate that I happen to be entering the job market at roughly the same time as he had 30+ years ago in the mid-seventies. He started to ask questions about the jobs; I didn't know how to answer. I told him what I could, but I'm just starting this real world person stuff. He agreed that this was the time for me to have an adventure. I'm single, with no real prospects, I'm used to living in small spaces, I don't have that much stuff. He figured that as long as I have enough money to pay the bills, buy food, and have some left over for a little bit of entertainment, I should be golden.

It's a little romantic to be able to tell people, "I have no idea where I'll be in 9 months." It's also incredibly nerve-wracking. Oh well,
So it goes.

The Return

2008-12-15T19:02:00.000-08:00

I'm back in America now. I need a few days to recover. It feels good to be home.

Po-tee-weet

2008-12-07T16:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took the JLPT. It went decently, though I don't know if I will pass. In all honesty, I don't particularly care, I guess. That's a crappy attitude to have, but I'm just worn down by this point. Worn down by all the work, trying to communicate my thoughts in a different language, and having to listen to all the drama and whining from our group. It is the same conversation, day in, and day out. It's normally about 5 specific Japanese guys who live in our dorm. It's quite frustrating, and I'm glad to leave that part of my daily life behind.

Well, it's now Monday for me. There are no classes today, it's a random holiday for the University. The rest of the world continues as normal, but the University doesn't have classes. Japan seems to have a lot of strange, random holidays for being the hardest working country in the world. Sure, you can say, "It must just seem that they're random to you, but I bet they make perfect sense to the Japanese." I'll give you some of that. I'm gonna pull out the academic calendar and go through and highlight some of the holidays we have.
University Foundation Establishment Day : 12/8
Coming of Age Day: 1/12
Respect for the Aged Day: 9/15
As mentioned in a previous post, we get the Equinoxes off. So 9/23 is no classes.
Sports Day: 10/13
Culture Day: 11/3
University Founding Day: 11/19
There are plenty more, but those were just what was on m calendar.

I got a twitter. www.twitter.com/jfriesinger Now I can annoy the internet on a whole new level. For those of you not in the know, a twitter is an internet tool that operates on the simple premise, "What are you doing?" So you update it when you feel like it. Things like "I'm going to study in the library" and other helpful things to let people know where you are and what you're doing. It's very helpful if you're into that kind of thing, and I am. However, a majority of my updates have been along the lines of "Still in Japan" or "Update: My life is trivial" Click the link for the full list.

I've been reading through the archive of Questionable Content, one of my favorite webcomics. (found at http://www.questionablecontent.net) Jeph Jacques is a very funny man. On his site, there is a link to Vagabond Jewelry (www.vagabondjewelry.net) which specializes in the forging of copper. I found it interesting and was soon purveying the wares displayed. I would like to buy a cuff to hide my MedAlert Bracelet. I don't want to stop wearing it because that seems foolish. I do however, get tired of people asking what it is, or what's on it. So If I could just have something to cover it up the majority of the time when I'm out, that would be ideal. My favorites are "Navel" and "Unchained."

I probably should get started on my stack of homework that the senseis decided to grace us with in spite of our gigantic test yesterday. I'm looking forward to seeing you all again,

そろそろ時間です。

2008-12-04T02:10:00.000-08:00

(Soon, it is time.)
So it goes.
Monday and Tuesday were my Shogakkouhomon. It's hard to believe that something I've virtually dreaded my entire time here is done. It was almost painless. Almost. I only had to present on Monday, and my class was pretty good. They were enthusiastic and would answer my questions, and seemed to have a good time. Monday in general went well. Tuesday also went well, up until the point when I was assigned to help in the class full of little shitheads. They didn't pay attention, and they didn't answer questions. Oh well. Such is life, win some, lose some. I probably built lots of character.

Even though I'm coming down to the last week of my stay in Japan, even the last few days of class, the pace has become almost frenetic. I had my last Vocabulary class yesterday, and my final for Conversation today. The final for listening was last Thursday. I got a 93 and some change. I was pretty happy with it. The sensei's seem to be genuinely sad that Jessie and I will be returning in a little over a weeks time. 10 days from today, I will be home.

As I was saying, the pace has increased. We learned several new grammar points in the past two days, and even as I sit here, there is a worksheet that needs to be done before tomorrow. Will it get done? Most probably. No class tomorrow, though. Thank goodness for small favors, I suppose.

The JLPT is Sunday. I have to take a train to get to my testing center. It's rather inconvienent. It's at the very end of one of the subway lines, and a 15 minute walk from the station. Oh well. It will be over soon, I suppose. (For those interested, it's official name in Japanese is as follows: 日本語能力試験　transliterated: Nihongonoryokushiken Fascinating, isn't it?)

I guess that's it. Po-tee-weet.

Weekly Update

2008-11-28T22:44:00.000-08:00

After the veritable flurry of blogs of last (two weeks ago? Time is strange here), I gave it a miss for a while, being all blog-ed out. Now, however, I am back and refreshed and ready to write some more. (?)

Not too terribly much has happened since the last post. Classes, homework, just the daily grind. Honestly, the days start to blur together because of their sameness.

However, this weekend, Dan Leech made an appearance. Dan is an OU grad who is studying on a Fullbright grant near Tokyo, and decided to come visit us and hang out. Dan is a lot of fun. Thursday, John went to meet him at the train station while some of us went to go drink in a club room until Dan met us. Then we continued to drink in the club room. It was a good time.

Friday, I don't think anyone had classes, at least I didn't, but I was awakened from a hungover sleep by my phone ringing with Mom on the other end wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving. After she let me go, I went back to sleep for a couple of hours.

When I finally rose, I had a leisurely morning of talking on the computer, taking a nice long shower, and then getting dressed. Dan took a shower in the dorm, too. He had stayed in the club room the previous night since there aren't many hotels around here. But, anyway, a group of us went down to a local ramen shop for lunch. This place has great ramen. Unfortunately, Jessie and I (the other 3 monther) had to go early to look at King-sensei's car to make sure our bags could fit. He'll be driving us to the airport instead of us having to worry about shipping bags and navigating the trains and such. It's much better this way.

After looking at King's car, we had a little while free. Then, we went to Nagoya Dome at 3. When I say 3, I really mean that I was ready at 3, when I was told we would be leaving, then we waited for 20 minutes on someone, then caught the bus, then waited at the train station for more stragglers. If there is one thing I can't stand, it's having to wait on people. I'm normally a patient kind of guy, but if someone says, "Be ready to go at 3," it means you need to be ready to go at 3. So we didn't end up getting to the dome until around 4:30. Anyway, we went shopping. The dome contains an extremely large shopping mall. I only bought one thing, but I blew money in the arcade trying to win an Elmo head for Grandpap. I didn't get it. Came close, but the crane cheats.

We met some people in Fushimi for dinner. At the Hard Rock Cafe. It was a going away party for Jessie and myself. I say "a" because I'm sure there are many more to come. The food was delicious, if slightly pricy, but that's Hard Rock for you. Since it was a going away party, Jessie and I got balloons. Then we got dragged up to the stage to dance to "YMCA" in front of the entire restaurant. Jessie was embarassed, but I rolled with it. It was a good time. We bought some souveniers in the gift shop, then retired to a nearby bar for some drinks. Many people were to be out the whole night. The trains stop around midnight. I however, did not want to be out until 5 in the morning when the trains started again. So I returned. On an incredibly full subway car, I might add. We were literally packed in like sardines. From the subway to the railway, and from the railway, I walked home from the station, finally getting into my room around 1:30. The doors locked at midnight, so I had to knock on a window and ask someone to come open the door for me. I called Dad, talked to some friends for a little bit, and finally collapsed into bed. All in all, a good experience.

I'll be home soon. I'm excited and sad.

Flitting Thoughts

2008-11-19T02:42:00.000-08:00

So as my time here in Japan begins to draw to a close, I realize I haven't really posted any real "thoughts" about the whole thing. Rather, most blog posts have been concerned with give you the what and the how and the when etc., than with give my analysis of the situation. Well, I've had a drink and am feeling somewhat inspired right now, so shut up and listen.

Everything shapes what we are. It is a fact of life. Many times we do not realize how we have been shaped until long after the fact, when we go back and look at old photographs and say wistfully, "I remember this. This is when..." and so on. I can't tell you how Japan has changed me. I don't know yet. But this experience has become a part of who I am. I will forever look back at these three months I have spent oh, so far from home, and say, "I remember this. This is when..."

I am a product of my experiences. Without them, I would not be who, or what I am today. Because of this, I am reluctant to do this, and so on. Some good, some bad. So it goes. Po-tee-weet.

I have a test tomorrow. I drank anyway. Just one beer. Enough to relax a little. I've been tensing up a lot lately. I can tell because my shoulder hurts all the time now. I weigh 90.5 kilos. That's 199.5 lbs, for our American visitors.

I wish I hadn't broken my heart so much. Or had it broken. Whatever. People ask about this girl that I kind of had a thing for over here, and I tell them, "Nothing has happened. Nothing will happen. I can't do it." I just can't do it right now.

So now I sit here at this desk where I have spent so much time during my stay, steadily typing away at my tiny computer, listening to music and recording my thoughts.

Do I wish I hadn't had some of the experiences that I have had? Well, sure. I've regrets, like any adult. I wish I weren't broken. I wish I weren't so stony and at the same time so soft. Nevertheless, they now shape me, as they have shaped me. You live, you learn.

I miss familiar touches. Someone tried to move me around yesterday, I had to surpress the urge to flatten him. I had to surpress an urge at dinner tonight to reach across the table and throttle someone. I'm sick of a lot of people I'm living with. I told him to never touch me again. I don't like to be moved. Especially by people I don't really like. It messes with my brain. I want a hug from my Dad, my sisters (all of them), my friends, my grandma, my mother. I want a decent handshake. I had one this past weekend from my host dad.

It's gotten cold. Fast. Dropped to around 40 degrees today. Finally. People bitch. People always bitch. All the time. I hate it. I have to hear the same thing, day in and day out.

Japan is strange. It is full of invisible walls. There are things you can do, and things you can't do. Simple as that. In America, society is very open, with very few restrictions. Japan is incredibly restrictive.

I'm out of ideas. No, no conclusion, no neat wrap-up at the end of the 22-minute episode where everything returns to normal, Po-tee-weet.

Homestay, etc.

2008-11-16T00:55:00.000-08:00

So this past week has been ridiculously busy with no end in sight. Jesse and I are going to be incredibly busy almost right up until we leave. Which sucks. However, I do have good news. I just sa-no, I can't do that. That's just retarded. I'm sorry everyone.

Yesterday was our middle school visit (not to be confused with our elementary school visit). We had to wake up super early on a Saturday morning to go visit some stupid middle school before our homestay, which could not have come at a worse time because of the sheer amount of work we have to do, and talk to middle schoolers in English. So we're all bitching a little on the bus, with things like, "Man this sucks!" "Man, this is so early" and other such inspired and witty commentary. When the bus pulled up some of the students saw us pull in and all started waving and yelling, "Hello!" What followed was possibly my very best couple of days in Japan.

For this middle school visit, everyone was placed in classrooms, with several foreigners to a room. While we were wating for the day to start, we were sitting in an upstairs room of this giantic Soviet-esc building. Really, it looked like something straight out of Stalinist Russia. It did not bode well. It turned out to be really fun, though. Sitting in the library, I think it was, there was old 1940's music playing. I heard "Take the A-train." It was surreal. I was placed in a first year class, so the kids were around 11 or 12. The first part of the day we talked a little about ourselves and they talked a little about themselves, and it was a general get to know you, let's ask awkward questions time. We had lunch and then reccess. I don't know the last time I had recess. It was amazing. We played dodgeball. I was awesome. In the afternoon we played games that the students had made. This was also fun. There were three groups, one group had a board game, one group had a card game, and the third group had a chopstick relay. After the afternoon session finished we all went down to the gym and sat with our classes and had a closing ceremony with people saying how much they enjoyed their time at the middle school, etc., etc. After this, the foreigners went back up to our little welcome room and had a closing ceremony of our own where we wrote messages to our class, talked about the day, and then had a short little closing ceremony of our own. This was quickly followed by host family introductions.

We were all down there in a group, wondering who was our family. I spotted a couple of girls who looked the correct age for my family which was 15 and 18. Lo and behold, when my name was called, they were my family. And ya'll, the 18-year-old was hot. Not just pretty, but smokin' hot. Her english is also excellent so if she reads this (since I gave you my blog address, Saki), I'm going to have to ask you to not translate that last part to your family. Thanks. Annnnywaaaaaaay, back to the story at hand. My family consisted of 6 people, 4 of whom met me at the middle school. It was the Shibata family, consisting of a mother, father, two teenage daughters, a 10-year-old son, and a grandmother. Mr. and Mrs. Shibata along with Saki (18) and Risa (15) (who had just gotten out of school at the same middle school) met me at the school, introduced themselves and told me that it was very nice to meet me. I told them that I had made sure to memorize their names and that it was very nice to meet them as well. I even showed them the sheet that the CIP had given us with their names and ages on it. They thought that was very funny. Thus begins awkwardness, I thought, but I was wrong, since Saki's English was so good, she was able to translate when I didn't understand or couldn't explain something in Japanese on my own. These people gave so much to me in the 24 hours I was with them, I couldn't even begin to explain how welcome and at home I felt with them. They live in Kasahara, a suburb of Taijimi, the city right next to Kasugai. Their house is a very nice, middle-class house. They have a dog. His name is "Pakku." I asked Saki about it, him being her dog and whatnot, and she told me it was for a hockey puck, because she likes hockey so much. They asked me if church was okay, and I told them it was. We didn't end up going, but I think it meant a lot to them that I was willing. The family except for Saki is Buddhist. Saki is a Christian. It is the opposite of my family, I told them a little later. Saki had to go to church anyway because she was on the worship team and had to be early to sing and such. So we piled into the van to take Saki to the church, and the rest of us (except for Obaachan, she stayed home) hit the batting cages. It's been at least 10 years since I've hit a ball with a bat, folks. I think I tried to hit about 60, that seems right. Three times in the cage at 20 balls each.

While we were waiting for our turn in the cage, I noticed something: It was a right-handed cage. I told them this might be problematic for me, being a lefty and all. So we moved down to a switch cage to bat. I'm still sore, but it was worth it. After the cages, we went to the mall and window shopped for a while, they asked me questions about myself and my family, and I asked them standard polite questions. At one point, we were in the toy section and I saw a Nightmare Before Christmas toy. I asked Risa if she had seen this movie (this is Japanese, FTR):
"Yes, but it was a long time ago"
"Did you like it?"
"Yes!"
"Would you like to watch it? I brought it with me. It's in my bag."
"Really? That's cool!"
"Yes! We can watch it in Japanese, too. I don't understand everything, but I have seen it many times and remember it."
and she runs off to ask her mother if it's okay to watch the movie after we get back from dinner.

About this time, it's time for us to go get Saki from church, so we go to pick her up, and I go in. It was mainly foreigners with a smattering of Japanese people. I soon realized it was won of the more...how to put this...open? Dad will know what kind of church makes me uncomfortable, and this was one of them. And I'm done talking about that. People's religion is none of my business.
After church we went to Yakiniku, or grilled meat. At this restaurant, there is a brazier in the middle of the table and you put pieces of meat and vegetables on it. It was really delicious. I mean, really delicious. I had a bit of everything, beef, beef tongue, pig intestine, pig skin, squid, chicken, regular pig and other such things. They kept putting food in my little bowl and I kept eating it. I could not finish everything, though. This was soon to be a theme. Full of meat and other such goodness, I waddled back to the car, and we all went back home.

After everyone had gotten comfortable, I got out my tiny, tiny computer to show them some pictures. I had forgotten my digital camera, unfortunately, so I have no photos from this trip to post yet, nor was I able to show them photos from my travels. They thought Bethany was very pretty, and Dad looked cool. I mostly showed them pictures from Hawai'i because that was what I could find on the internet that had my family in it. I also gave them their gifts which were various and sundry little things, in addition to an OU coffee mug. They got some lanyards from OU and pens and pencils from the John and Annie Glenn house. They were thrilled. We then proceeded to watch Nightmare. I finally hit the hay around 11:30 on an incredibly comfortable futon.

Sunday dawned cloudy and rainy. I got up around 7:30 and took a shower and tried to eat everything at breakfast. Unfortunately, and Dad can attest to this, I don't do well with big early breakfasts. There was so much food, and I couldn't eat a whole lot without getting sick. We lingered around the breakfast table, drinking coffee and talking for a while. I learned a little more about them, and they a little more about me. I wrote my information on a piece of paper and gave it to them so we could stay in touch. I promised to write them as often as my schedule would allow.

Unfortunately Saki had her part-time job and so could not be present for the next part of the adventure. We did, however, pick up Obaachan (grandma), and she came with us to this historical villlage. It was fun, but I didn't understand a whole lot. They picked out a present for Kelly. When I say picked out, I mean they bought it. For me. To give to her. All because I had asked Risa what something she would want would be, since Kelly and Risa are the same age. So we walked around, did some shopping, and my family treated me to another meal. This time of soba noodles, for which this village is famous. (Sidenote: Every village in Japan is famous for something. Some little niche is filled. If you mention a town, chances are someone will say, "Oh yeah, they're famous for -----"). Again, I couldn't eat everything, but I gave it a run for its money. I made sure to eat the stranger things on the dish. An entire pickled fish, some other pickled bits, and so on. After lunch was a little more shopping, and I made sure to get a picture with the (almost) entire family. We headed back to Kasahara.

We had a little time left, so we returned to the house before I had to head to the middle school to get picked up. Taiga (their 10-year-old boy) and I played video games. He seemed to really enjoy it. I did too. Video games are the ultimate equalizer. If you enjoy them, it doesn't matter what your culture is, everyone can gather together. そろそろ時間です。(As they say in Japan.)Too soon, it was time for me to leave, and so leave I did. I said my good-byes to Taiga and Obaachan, and even Pakku. Risa, Mr. Shibata, and Mrs. Shibata came with me to say good-bye. We got our picture taken in front of the bus, and I hugged Risa and Mrs. Shibata good-bye and shook Mr. Shibata's hand and told them I would write them often, and try to return as soon as I could. Despite my misgivings about the whole thing, it was great. I could not have asked for a better time.

I'm glad when I'm wrong like that.

Two Posts in One Week? He's Mad, I Tells Ya! Mad!

2008-11-11T05:33:00.001-08:00

Just some thoughts in this one, rather than my weekly list of misdeeds and misadventures.

Quick note to Dad: The Risk of Being Alive by Brian Hancock. Don't buy it. It may be a present. You should still read it sometime. You'd enjoy it.

This Sunday will mark 4 weeks until I leave for home. As I have mentioned before, time here is so funny. Some nights I'll look up from my work and it will only be 7:00, while other nights I am scrambling to get things done before 11. I feel like I do the same amount of work every night, but I differ wildly on my sense of time. I'm starting to go a little crazy having almost every moment of my free time planned out. I'm a free spirit, man, I have to wander when the mood strikes me. Unfortunately my schedule and transportation situation do not permit me such freedom. The yoke of Japanese University life does not rest easy on my shoulders. The trip to the mountains would have been good for me. I would have gotten a break from everyone and everything, but that's how my chips have fallen this time. I seem to have exhausted my prospects around Kasugai for wandering in and around forests, and cities don't thrill me all that much. The concrete jungle, if you will, holds no attractions for me. I want to walk and feel dirt, reach out and feel trees, I want to be able to bend over and scoop up some earth and smell it. I finally got my birthday card from Grandma today. It was apparently missent to Thailand. It says so right on the envelope. How you confuse Thailand and Japan, I do not know, but it was done. This card has a picture of a compass and a map on it. How I wish I had those two things.

If you would have asked me when I was a child, what I would be doing at this point I would not have guessed this. Not in a million years. Where will I be in 10 years? I haven't the foggiest. I hope I'm happy. I love my dad. He's perhaps the greatest influence on my life. I love to tell people how much like him I am, how cool of a guy he is. How I hope when I'm 55 I'm still doing as well as he is. However, I don't know if I'm cut out for his type of job. A suit everyday, calling on offices day in and day out. Then again, he travels a lot. Almost every day a new place. Sure, it's in the same general area, but I think he has the wanderlust, same as me. Maybe I even got it from him. He is my father, after all. Dad, when you read this, as I know you will; this is for you: Let's go somewhere. I don't care where. I want the outdoors, I don't care when we go, it could be snowing and windy and I would still go out. Nothing can stop the Hurst men.

I made a list today to make sure that I have everyone's present. There are still a few that I need to get. I realized as I was making it, I have gotten myself remarkably little. Beyond food, I don't have a whole lot of things for myself from this trip. Most of my money has gone to gifts. I'm fine with this. I miss my family. A lot. I often wonder if I'll come back changed in any significant way; it is 3 months, after all. However, it's only 3 months. It doesn't seem that dramatic when you look at it in a wide scope. It sure feels a lot longer here on the ground. I haven't done all the things I want to do, and won't get a chance to. I'm only 22 though, I still have a long time to get things done. I might end up back here. By "here" I mean Japan. No more university for me, thanks very much all the same. Missing you all,

2008-11-08T18:23:00.001-08:00

Has it really been a week already? Well, almost a week. Close enough for government work.

Not a whole lot has happened really in the last week. We had class 4 days this week, though I only had it 3 because of the way my schedule works out. No classes on Friday is pretty nice, I have to say. The biggest news was the election. It caused some tempers to flare amongst the more outspoken members of the group. I kept my mouth shut because it's really no business of mine what others believe in. Tuesday (for you, I guess, because it was already Wednesday afternoon when we heard the news) sparked an e-mail from our guy here in Japan. He's been doing this study abroad program for 16 years, so he knows quite a bit about group dynamics. He basically told us to shut out pie-holes and mind our own damn business. I thought it was good advice. As I said previously, our group is beginning to fracture a little bit, with everyone wearing on everyone elses nerves. However, some good has come of this. A few of us have reached across the aisle, as it were, to make friends with the WVU guys, who, despite being akin to retarded monkeys, aren't all that bad.

Friday I went to Nagoya on my own. My first totally solo train ride. It went well, with only a moment of hesitation at the end. I purchased a set of speakers for my computer. They're pretty nice and would have cost me 2980 yen, but I had enough points on my rewards card that I got them for free. So really, they only cost me the 1200 yen to and from Nagoya, which is something I can live with. Friday night we snuck a few Japanese into the dorm and had a little party in the second floor lounge.

I finally pulled my sorry ass out of bed around 10 on both Saturday and today. Saturday I did nothing for the whole day. It was a wonderful feeling. My roommate and I just listened to music and sat around. I got caught up with some people, did a little reading, etc. That evening a large group of Americans and Japanese went out to shabu-shabu. Shabu-shabu consists of a pot of boiling liquid into which is thrown various varieties of vegetables, and sundry meats. It was fantastic.

The homesickness has been getting pretty bad lately. I find myself missing a lot more things and wishing for such and such to happen. It's tough. I have a little more than a month left, and still so much to do. This next weekend is the homestay, the weekend after is another school trip; this time to a pottery factory where we will make our own piece of pottery. I will probably make a tea bowl. Not too long after that school trip is another one, this time our Shogakkohomon. Our elementary school visit. It's the big thing, the thing I've been dreading for quite some time. Will I be able to memorize my speech? Will the kids think it's interesting? What if I forget everything? The typical pre-performance jitters most likely. I hope. Sincerely hope. But I miss simple things: french fries, my own bed. Speaking of my own bed, I've been waking up in the middle of the night not knowing where I am. It's strange. Beer. I also miss good beer. Japanese beer is different, sure, but the novelty has worn off. I finally found a "stout" last night. It was lackluster at best.

It's finally getting cooler here. I've broken out my colder weather gear. Finally. Though, the trees here might be retarded. Some of them are already bare, some in various stages of color, and some still green and clinging to their leaves. I miss proper trees. The ones that all turn at the same time, in a brief flash of glory before turning brown and dropping off and causing that wonderful smell of wet leaf mold that so characterizes fall in Ohio. Perhaps that's what bothers me the most. The lack of familiar smells. I rely very much on my nose for cues. There is nothing here that smells like home. Sure, seperate smells are familiar, but nothing really smells like fall or smells like home, and so on. The slow trickle of changing leaves, coupled with the Japanese obsession with landscaping leaves very little oppurtunity for the leaves on the ground to rot.

On the lighter side, I have a shedding problem. My hair is all over the linoleum floor of my room. I know it's mine because my roommate doesn't have that much on his entire body. It's kind of funny.

Love you all,

Uhhh...Halloween, Toyota and School Festivus

2008-11-03T21:13:00.000-08:00

So today is the 4th? That seems right. I haven't updated my adventures for a little while because I got all blogged out with writing about Hiroshima and Kyoto. The past week wasn't any less busy, either. With tons of homework to do every night, not to mention meeting with Japanese students and just trying to keep up with everything, I can't even begin to think of getting ahead. To make it worse, my nightmares have started again. I don't remember what most of them are about, but I normally wake up sweating.

So this past week was Halloween. Some of the Japanese students threw the exchange students a Halloween party on Wednesday. No one seemed all that into it. At least not like back home. It seemed as though it was simply to humor the Americans who have gotten used to having fun on a random day at the end of October. I talked to some of the Japanese students, and Halloween is getting more popular in the more urban centers, but out here, in Kasugai, not a whole lot happens for it. I was a lumberjack. It was okay. Afterwards was nomihodai at a nice bar. I drank far too much, and stayed up far too late. Worth it, though.

Friday was our trip to Toyota to watch car manufacturing. I know how cars are made, and I can see the exact same thing in America. It is not why I came to Japan. Enough said about that.

So I didn't get to go to the mountains like I had hoped. The weather up there was just too bad. I guess I'll just have to come back. While a disappointing development, it did allow me to attend the School Festival, which occurs once a year for three days. It is the biggest thing the school puts on, I liken it to a fair. Families with small children from the community come and everyone has a good time.

Saturday, walked around the festival for a while, but I soon tired of it and several of us decied to head into Sakae to do some shopping in the shopping district there. It was fun. More presents were purchased. The will be shipped back. They are not to be opened. Sunday, I went back to the festival. Like the good little boy I am, I was not content to just enjoy the fesival. I had to participate. Spur of the moment-like, though. While walking around the festival, I saw my conversation partner carrying a sandwich board and announcing what his group was selling. We had a brief conversation, and I took the sandwich board with a promise to walk around and then return to his group's tent. So I did. I stood and hawked his food. The tent next door were friend's too. I stood and hawked their food. I did damn well. Business picked up. I was an oddity. A foreigner? Speaking Japanese? Selling things? I've gotta see this. And so on. So I worked for a couple of hours until I tired of that. I told them I would come back and help the next day as well. And so I did. And it was fun again. I went to a third tent that I had promised to visit, this one selling African food, and helped them for a while. Soon, some of my other Japanese friends chanced by. We sold food together, with lines like,
"If you want to be big and hairy like Ike, buy these!"
"Ike eats these every day to be strong!"
and so on. It was incredibly fun, and we actually managed to sell the stand out completely. Every single thing. I bought the last cup of tea. I got a bowl of soup in payment, that was it. I didn't want anything, I just did it to have some fun and help out my friends. All in all, a good weekend.

Time here is funny. It seems to fly by during the days, but when you look back, you say, "Was that really only two days ago?"

The group is starting to tire of one another's company, I believe. Tempers flare more easily, more conflicts arise. I'm trying to stay in the middle. It's comfortable here. Only a few people really annoy me. These things happen.

Unfortunately, since I didn't get to go hiking this weekend, that was it. There will be no more chances. Once the weather turns sour in the mountains, it stays bad until spring. Oh well.

I love and miss you all,

Kyoto, Spiders and Grunts

2008-10-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

So last Friday and Saturday was the school trip to Kyoto. I believe the qualifier "school trip" is very important here. Since it was a school trip it was very rushed and regimented, with little free time, and a good chunk of time spent on the bus being talked at in keigo the polite language of Japan. There are many levels of keigo, with everyone of them being most incomprehensible to me. So! To business! *toasts* ha, just kidding. Seriously though.

Friday we left the school bright and early, on the bus by 8:25 and gone by 8:35. It took us about two hours to get to Kyoto, with our first stop being Kiyomizudera.

That's me somewhere around it, with it in the background. Anyway, this temple is noteworthy because it was constructed completely in the Japanese style, i.e. no nails. That's right, the whole temple is constructed with joints.

Also this temple is famous for water flowing from a certain waterfall which is supposed to grant health to those who drink it. Yes, I drank it. Sure, I feel more healthy. I bought a souvenier cup from which to drink it.

So we broke into small groups and wandered around for a while with the condition to meet at another temple by a certain time. During this time we could have bought souveniers, but that was made clear only in Japanese, and seeing as how I'm not that good, I didn't understand, and so bought no souveniers. Damn. Other oppurtunities will arise though!

I'm going to compare this trip to an EF trip in Western Europe with the word "cathedral" being replaced with the words "temple" or "jinja(shrine)." You can only look at some many in a day before becoming jaded. That was this trip. It was pretty and all, and yes, I did buy souveniers, but I'd rather just show and tell in person than on here. Mainly because I'm lazy. Anyway...onward!

So another temple, this one boasting the largest temple gate in Japan. It was very pretty and we caught the end of a service in the main hall.

After this temple was the ryokan or traditional Japanese inn. We had dinner, sang some karaoke, and hit the public bath for a good end to the day.

Saturday dawned somewhat cloudy, much like Friday, but soon turned towards sun. Our first stop of the day was Kinkakuji, the Golden Temple, called so because of a layer of gold leaf which covers most of its surface.

Ta-da!

This was followed by another temple on the outskirts of Kyoto. Pretty, lots of pictures taken, blah blah blah.

Jaded? A little.

Another shrine? Yes. Souveniers, pictures, etc.

Back on the bus to Chubu. End of trip. I'll tell you guys more later.

On a different note, I've been thinking about things. Spiders. Spiders are everywhere. Not just small spiders, but large green spiders that look incredible deadly, but probably aren't. Seriously though, I now understand why there are so many spiders in the Zelda games. They have extremely large, tough webs. It's scary.

On another, different note, I enjoy that an acceptable response to a question is a grunt. A grunt. Or some other, different noise. I will miss it when I go back home. The conversations with Dad will go like this:

"Jon, did you take out the trash?"
"Nnn." (In Japan, this is an affirmative)

"Was that a yes or a no?"

And so on.

All for now. Miss you all.

Hiroshima Trip Day 3: Miyajima Island

2008-10-22T05:33:00.000-07:00

Up at 6:30 Sunday! It was a day for mountains! Specifically Mt. Misen, the very same mountain that the Kobodaishi climbed over 1200 years ago. The Kobodaishi was the man who brought Buddhism to Japan, and so this mountain is considered very holy. In fact, Miyajima is one of the three most scenic spots in Japan. It's the place with the red tori in the water. That is actually part of Itsukushima Shrine, founded in the year 1168 by Taira no Kiyomori after his initial victory over the Minamoto clan, as related in The Tale of the Heike. We were extra lucky because that day there was a wedding! It's good luck to have a wedding there, and it's good luck to witness a wedding there. Also, a baptism! Extra lucky! So we wandered around there for a bit, got a group photo, I purchased a couple of good luck charms, it was quite nice.

Finally, time for my mountain. I had told Dr. Thompson that I wanted to climb the mountain instead of taking the ropeway with everyone else. Why? Well, I'm crazy like that. So, after the shrine we all walked over to the start of the trail up the mountain with a brief stop at a souvenier shop. I bought one of the peaked straw hats that are traditionally worn by pilgrims in Japan. More on the hat later, though. So, hat purchased, and put on, I was ready to start. There were photos of me getting ready to start up the mountain, wishes of luck, etc., and then I was on my own.

The hike started out not too difficult, wide stairs, spaced decently far apart, gentle slope. It got worse. Boy, did it get worse. Those stairs got smaller, closer together, higher, more uneven. My legs started burning about 20 minutes into the hike. They would not stop burning for the rest of the day. I met other people climbing up and clambering down the mountain. I lost count of the number of times I said, "Konnichi wa" that day. Many, many times, I'm sure.

As I was climbing the ungodly number of stairs up this mountain, an idea began to blossom in my mind. I should write something on this hat. After all, I'm going to wear it all the way up. Surely that is good luck. So during my climb, I thought about what I would write on it, with nothing definite coming to mind. So I climbed, and climbed, and climbed. Those who have gone hiking know how mind-numbingly boring recounting the hike can be, so I'll just throw some pictures up here to let you see what I saw.

And so, after an hour and a half of arduous climbing, I reached the top. Sweaty, panting, and disgusting, I mounted the last few stairs up to the tip-top of the observation tower. The view was spectacular, and worth all the stairs, and panting, and sweating.
I called Dr. Thompson. "Dr. Thompson? It's Ike, I made it to the top!"

"Wow! Already? Did you get anything to eat?"

"No, not yet. When will you guys get up here?"

"----------"

I lost the call. That's fine, though. They know I made it to the top, and am unharmed. However, I don't know what I'm supposed to do next. So I start to head down a different path. It took me to a temple. Again, more on that later, after I meet the group. I end up trekking another kilometer to the ropeway station. My legs were still burning from all the stairs, and there was no end in sight.

So I met the group, and we trekked back over to the temple. This is the temple where the 1,200 year old flame is. I drank some of the water, which is supposed to be holy, just like everything else on this mountain, and purchased some more good luck charms, this time as gifts. I'm not saying for whom, though. I told Dr. Thompson about my idea for my hat. He thought it was a great idea. He asked one of the attendents if he was a priest. The attendent said no, but went to go get a priest. The priest took my hat, and went away for a bit. When he came back down, there was a saying and the temple name, and the year on my hat. This was more than I wanted, but really cool! The saying was one of the Kobodaishi's sayings (remember him?). It translates to "One way, two people." Apparently while I was climbing, the spirit of the Kobodaishi was climbing with me! Pretty cool stuff.

So, I took a group of people back up to the top. My second time up there. (I haven't had a real break, yet, remember?) This time though, I finally got to eat. I had a beer and a bowl of udon. It was delicious.

Obligatory pictures all around, etc., etc. and back down to the ropeway. From the ropeway to the town was about a five minute walk. We did some shopping, bought some food, and killed just enough time to be right on time for the 4:30 ferry off the island. From there it was train to train to train to train to taxi back to the dorm. I almost collapsed into bed.

Hiroshima Trip Day 2: Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum

2008-10-20T04:39:00.000-07:00

I woke on Saturday bright and early and ready to start the day (ha!). No really, I was pretty excited to be in Hiroshima and so was up fairly early. Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day, with big puffy clouds if there were any, the sun was shining bright, and the sky a clear blue.

We left the hotel around 9 to catch a street car to 原爆ドーム. Genbaku Do-mu. Atomic Bomb Dome. The site of the most destructive bomb ever used on a real target. Where the the largest number of people were killed at once. Well over 100,000 died from the blast and fire. Heavy stuff. I almost lost it as soon as I saw it.

Dr. Thompson has a very close connection with the bomb. His baby sitter was 8 months old when the bomb was dropped. She only survived because her mother did. Mrs. Tanimoto (her mother) is now 92 and spent most of the day with us. Dr. Thompson's babysitter is a spritely 63 -year-old. Still full of life despite all the hardships she endured. Her name is Koko Kondo (born Tanimoto). She is married to a minister and has two adopted children. She is sterile because of the radiation.

Koko gave us a tour of the Peace Park before we went to a private room downstairs and listened to her for almost 2 hours. She talked about what happened that day, relayed to her through her mother only recently because the memories were too painful to talk about. Mrs. Tanimoto's story is in Hiroshima by John Hursey, so I won't tell it here, I just encourage you to read the book. What is truly important is the stuff not in the book. Koko said after she was old enough to understand some of what happened, she wanted revenge. She said, "I am a good person, my family are good people, Hiroshima is full of good people. The person in the B-29 must be the bad person." And she swore to get revenge. There are a couple of other things that she said, but to be honest, I've forgotten. It was very emotional. She swore that she would do something to the pilot if she ever met him. She would bite him, or punch him, or kick him. She would get revenge. In 1955 her father, the Reverend Tanimoto, was on This is Your Life. She and her mother were flown out secretly to appear on the show. Also at the show was Capt. Robert Lewis of the Enola Gay. She knew that she couldn't just go up and kick or bite or punch him while she was there, so she just stood there and glared at him. Thinking how much she hated him for dropping the bomb. He went on. He started to cry and say, "We didn't know, we didn't know what it would do." Koko realized that she shouldn't hate the man who dropped the bomb. She said, "I realized I should hate the war itself." After the show, when Capt. Lewis was just standing there, little 10 year old Koko Tanimoto walked over, took his hand and held it. She said, "He was a big hand. He was a warm hand." (allow her her grammar mistakes). That was the most memorable moment from her speech for me, at least. She went on to talk about the rest of her life. She has done many things, been many places, promoting peace. She is truly remarkable. I can tell you more in person, but to convey it through this medium is far too difficult.

After listening to Koko for two hours, we got some lunch with her and Mrs. Tanimoto. I had her and her mother sign a bookmark. Then we went into the museum.

There was no resentment, just an ernest desire to move on and never have this happen again. It talked about the history of the city, this history of the bomb; just the facts in the first part. The second part was the most heart-wrenching thing I have ever seen. Little school uniforms torn, burned, bloodstained. Tiny lunch boxes with their contents turned to charcoal. Watches stopped at 8:15, bottles melted and steel girders wrenched; the list goes on and on and on. Koko and her mother were there to point out where their house and church were in relation the hypocenter of the bomb. Again, words fail me. The final part of the museum had video testimony from some of the survivors. I couldn't watch. I wasn't feeling to steady on my feet. I went outside and sat on a bench and fought back tears for about half an hour.

We all had to do our own thing for a little bit after the museum. It was tough, perhaps the most difficult thing I have ever had to see.

We went to Hiroshima castle, and had dinner at a nice restaurant. That's Hirosima castle. Well, a reproduction at any rate. Still cool. I got to sit with Dr. Thompson and Katherine Marshall, and share the meal with them. It was quite pleasant. After eating we had free time, so I continued to hang out with Dr. Thompson and followed him to a bakery called Anderson's. It is actually an offical Consulate of Denmark. Crazy Danes. After Anderson's, I was tired and worn out so I went back to the hotel and went up to the bar for a couple of drinks. I sat at the end of the bar, drinking beer and looking out the window at the moon over the water. It was a good way to end the day.

I hit the hay early, as Sunday promised to be a big day, too.

Hiroshima Trip, Day 1: Friday

2008-10-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

So last weekend was Hiroshima, and since it was such a large trip, I feel it needs several posts on this little magic box called the "computer."

I had one class on Friday at 11:10. It was the standard fare for class, except for the fact that we were talking about the details of the automotive manufacturing industry in nearby Toyota. It's difficult to understand that process in English. In Japanese it's nearly impossible. We were talked at for an hour and a half regarding the manufacturing process and how the "just-in-time" system is so awesome, etc etc. I just wanted out.

After class I had lunch with Miho and a couple of other friends. She wished me a good trip and told me to take lots of pictures to show her. I had already had all my bags packed before class, so all I had to do was go back to the dorm and meet everyone at the bus stop. We got on the 2:00 pm bus to go to the train station where we took the local train into Nagoya. In Nagoya we had to change lines from the local line to the Shinkansen line. That should ring a bell with everyone. The Shinkansen is the fastest train in the world. It travels at about 240 km/hr. If you do the math that comes out to FAST mi/hr. I took a short (about a minute) video to show you the countryside whizzing by.

The girl sleeping is Meghan, my "Shinkansen buddy." We were pretty tired.We changed trains in Shin-Osaka to finish our journey to Hiroshima station. At Hiroshima station, we had to get on another local train to go to Miyajima-guchi, where our hotel lies. We hit around rush hour on a Friday, so most of us had to stand for a good part of the trip.

We arrived safely and checked into our hotel, then quested for food. We found okonomiyaki. (remember that stuff? They put noodles in it in Hiroshima!) It was quite delicious. I was at a table with Katherine Marshall, the director of Education Abroad office. She came with us on the trip, and really enjoyed herself. After dinner, we closed the official functions for the night and adjourned to the bar. I'm not posting what went on as it might be compromising to our faculty member. We ended up retiring around midnight. Saturday was going to be a big day.

Misc. Shenanigans

2008-10-11T19:50:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Sunday again, I guess that means I should update this so you all don't think I'm dead and sell all my stuff. This past week was pretty hectic; we had a lot of homework and a lot of classwork, with not a whole lot else going on. Dr. Thompson showed up last Monday, and brought a bit of America with him. None of us really realized just how much we missed home, until he showed up and reminded us that America actually exists, that it's not some obscure rememberance that we all have. We met with Dr. Thompson on Wednesday to discuss Hiroshima, which is next weekend. We'll be spending all day Saturday at Peace Park, which is ground zero the atomic bomb. Sunday we will be going to Miyajima island, the site of a very famous shrine, and where a 1200 year old flame is still burning. The flame was lit by Japan's first emperor, Kammo. Apparently you can drink water heated by it, and this water is supposed to have mystical properties.

(quick break in the action: I just heard the retarded boys from WVU out in the hall and the only words from one of their mouths was, "That's hot" as a response for at least 5 sentences.)

This past weekend, the OU students with with the English Language and Culture Association to Ena, where a traditional onsen is located. On the bus ride, I got teased because of my plethora of earrings, but it was all good-natured ribbing. More of a, "wow you have a lot of earrings" than anything bad. A few of the girls that were around me seemed to enjoy poking them to make me jump. After arrival and going over the rules and dinner, it was bath time. Several of us did go into the bath, which requires you to be completely nude, but some of us took a miss on it. I went into the bath because, well, when in Rome, as they say. It was a nice bonding experience for everyone who went. (No, grab-ass and towel-snapping did not occur. Horseplay in the bath is incredibly dame (bad)) Yesterday morning there was a brief hike, and then breakfast, which was incredibly traditional Japanese food. I should have taken a picture of it to show you, but alas, I thought of it too late. It was Japanese pickles, rice, eggplant, salmon, nori and miso. Not the most appetizing, but still delicious. After breakfast there was a "get to know you" exercise in the gym, all in English, followed by free time. During free time, we decided to teach a group of Japanese kids that were hanging around how to play kickball. I was a captain, and my team won. By a lot. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Free time seguewayed into lunch which was closely followed by a short class, in English, with the Japanese students. It consisted of simple games and the students interviewing us about Japan. Easy stuff. We were supposed to leave almost immediately after the class, but the bus was incredibly late; about an hour and a half late. I didn't mind, it gave me a chance to talk with the Japanese students some more.

When we got back, five of us went to an okonomiyaki place. Okonomiyaki is a type of Japanese pancake with almost anything in it. Mine was pork and kimchi, and it was delicious. It was three of us Americans and a couple of Japanese students who had gone with us to Ena. One of them, Miho, has to commute an hour and forty minutes to get to school. She lives in Gifu, one of the neighboring prefectures. She also happens to be adorable, a plus in any book, I think.

After Okonomiyaki, we returned to the dorm and hung out for a while. I hit the hay around 10:30 or 11:00. The previous night at Ena, I had gone to bed around 1:30 am, "slept" on a futon on a tatami mat floor. It was less than comfortable and my shoulder was killing me the next morning when I woke up for the hike at 7:00. So last night I slept from around 11 until 9:00 this morning. It felt pretty great.

I looked at classes for winter quarter today. I'm almost done. This is scary to me. Especially since I'm not sure what I'm doing when I graduate anymore. Winter quarter (tentative) is as follows:
Intermediate Japanese II
Intermediate Thai II
Symphony Orchestra
Women in Buddhism
Greek Archeaology
Bringing my credit hours to 18 for winter. After that, then, I will need only two more courses: another random Tier II and my capstone course, then I can graduate. When I talked to Laura at the end of spring quarter, she said that I could have a couple of easy quarters and then graduate. I told that I still wanted to do Thai and Japanese and Symphony so it wouldn't be easy at all. I wish that I had the time to take some other courses that didn't count for anything, but that's what I get for switching majors. That is, perhaps, the biggest regret I have about college. Sure, I've made many mistakes, but I wish I would have switched my major earlier. Although it was probably starting out ChemE that made me realize how much I didn't actually like it.

Today is my turn to cook dinner. We're going to have fish soup with carrots and potatoes and bread. James and I went down to the Super to do some grocery shopping. The super has a little section where you can buy pre-cooked things, and a little area in which to eat them. I bought several types of baked goods, including some sort of cinnamon bread. It was amazing. I miss baked goods.

This week we have a quiz and two tests. Both tests are on my birthday. The sensei's may be getting a little too much enjoyment out of that joke. I don't want tests for my birthday, quit saying they're my presents! Then to Hiroshima on Friday night. Tests on my birthday, then to the atomic bomb site. It's going to be a cheery one this year. Oh well, them's the breaks. I did get a package from Mom about a week ago. I'm waiting to open that on Thursday, on my actual birthday. I also got a card and letter from Grandma, which is definitely appeciated. It was nice to get news from home. I miss all of you, but I am having a lot of fun, fo sho. Love you all,

The Roller Coaster of Life

2008-10-05T04:00:00.000-07:00

Well, more bad, more good.

A group of us when to an Autumn Festival in Arimatsu, about half an hour away by train. Many of us wore yukata, a type of cotton kimono worn in the summer. This town, Arimatsu, is famous for its tie-dyeing technique called shiraboshi, and was actually founded for the express purpose of dyeing clothes in this manner. It's a very cute little town, and I might have to go back to explore some more on my own.

I kept glimpsing myself in windows of stores and the like, and everytime I thought, "Richard Chamberlain?" For the unenlightened, he was the actor who play Blackthorne in James Clavell's Shogun miniseries produced by PBS many years ago. Those who have seen it will hopefully have the same thought I did, and those that haven't: watch it. We also got to make our own tie-dye head-towels, so I have that as a little souvienier.

I got to talk to Jamie Hoff today, which helped to make my day even better. She's in Indonesia for another half a year, and only two hours behind me here, so I hope to talk to her even more. Terry McCord dropped me a line today to, telling me that being rejected by the Peace Corps isn't the end of the world, and that he got the same rejection letter 33 years ago.

Who knows what I'll do now? Definitely try again, yes, but...oh well. I'll worry about it later.

Bad news time: No mountains this weekend? The guy I was going to go with cancelled on me because of a shortage of cash. These things happen, but I will climb those mountains even if I have to sleep under a tarp wrapped in blankets. I will let nothing stop me.

Love to all,

Some good, some bad

2008-10-03T23:16:00.000-07:00

I think I'm starting to get the hang of most things here. Which is good. Classes occupy most of my time during the week, which helps the time pass quickly. It's a nice change of pace from the first week when we had no classes and nothing to do and were bored all the time. I got my conversation partners this past week. They seem pretty cool, I'll be meeting them for lunch on Wednesday. Hopefully things go okay.

Mountain climbing is on for next weekend thus far. I'm pretty stoked.

My roommate and I bought track suits. We look like the Russian mafia. Terrifying I know.

I went out on an excursion today and found that lookout I tried to find a couple of posts ago. There are several shrines at the top. I took a panoramic picture from the top of the lookout. I'll post it sometime, I guess.

(That's it right there.)

Bad news time.

I got turned down for the Peace Corps. I don't have enough experience, so in this time of competition that can't consider my application further.

Balls.

Musings

2008-09-27T02:33:00.000-07:00

Japan is one of the most modern countries in the world in some regards. However, that seems to be only what you see on television. Just from my short stay here, I have noticed that it seems backwards in some ways. There are wires everywhere. Despite the fact that everyone has a cell phone nowadays, and there is all this talk about the "wireless revolution" there are still wires everywhere overhead. There are no buried wires in Japan. One of my friend's says that it's perhaps because of the Japanese mentality of "If if ain't broke, don't fix it." Regardless of what the reasoning, the dichotomy is still a bit unsettling.

It's started to settle in just how far from home I am. I've found myself wanting certain things from America: a decent-sized burger, a regular pepsi, sandwiches (crazy, I know), an American beer that doesn't cost 6 bucks a bottle, the list goes on. So I've been a little down these past few days. However, last night we went to karaoke and had a blast. I sang "Pink" by Aerosmith and Jet's "Cold Hard Bitch." It felt good. There was also a rendition of Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit" which took me back to middle school. Evanescense was also sung, giving me an oppurtunity to explain to the Japanese amongst us about emo subculture. It went something along the lines of: "Emo people are very sad and so they cut themselves." The response to this was, "So emo and cutting...onaji (same)?" "Yes, yes they are." After karaoke a group of us split off to go into the city to visit a gay bar and go drinking. I would have joined them except that they weren't going to be back until 5 this morning. I took a miss because I ingested far too much alcohol on friday night and had a massive hangover all day Saturday. The Nagoya group had fun, though.

I miss you all, a lot. Loves,

Wanderings

2008-09-23T03:46:00.000-07:00

I had my first real "solo adventure" today while I was trying to find a hiking trail using only King-sensei's directions. Not surprisingly, I was unsuccessful and just ended up wandering around aimlessly, even into the next town. However, everything turned out fine even though I never found the trail.

I took a bus to the train station on the advice of King-sensei and proceeded to not find my way. I crossed the river like he said to, but after that things were less than clear. So I just walked around and got stared at for a couple of hours. On my way back I was waiting at a crosswalk for the light to change when a random woman with a parasol said hello to me, followed by, "Welcome to Japan." We had a nice conversation in English and Japanese as I walked back to the train station to take the bus back to Chubu. Her English was excellent, my Japanese was poor. She invited me to visit her in her home sometime and I told her politely that I might. Although truth be told, I had already forgotten her name, so that makes it far more difficult to find her, but I think that it will be okay for me to not follow up on her invitation.

I have already prepared myself better for the next trip. I have a map now. It appears that there are some areas which won't require me to spend the 200 yen to take the bus to the station. Also, I told King-sensei of my aspirations of climbing a mountain while I'm here, and he is in the process of putting me in touch with an OU grad who is currently in Nagano, not far from the mountain I want to climb. There are two, actually, Tate-yama and Tsurugi-dake, and both of these have religious significance with one representing heaven, and the other, with its crags and volcanic features, representing hell. The trip would be a two-day 18km trip over these two mountains. 6 km the first day and 12 the next. Kashima-san seemed surprised when I told him that it was 18 km and told him that it wasn't that far. Distances are different in Japan, I guess.

I talked to dad today. It was nice to hear a familiar voice. I also finished and submitted my Peace Corps application. Scary thought. Something that I`ve been working towards for such a long time is now coming to a head. Crazy.

Adventures of a Baka gaijin (stupid foreigner)

2008-09-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

Walking around with Kotaro this weekend, I realized something that probably the Japanese don`t even notice. There are an incredible number of ads. Everywhere. All the time. Bright colors, attractive signs, cheery music, etc. All. The. Time. Even on loop. I pondered what it would be like to work in a store with annoyingly cheerful music on loop. The results were grim. I wouldn't last a shift.

It has been starting to get tough. I don't know

how to say what I want to say, and it gets incredibly frustrating. However, everyone is so incredibly patient. If I don't understand, they speak more slowly, use smaller words, or offer me a dictionary.

There have been a couple of times when I've wanted to break down. One was after coming back from Nagoya for the first time, and just being so "bo-ke," or "stupid tired" that I wanted to crawl into bed and not get out, ever. That passed, luckily and I made it a few more days before it happened again. When I tried to call Dad using my computer and he didn't pick up, it was tough. I just wanted to hear a familiar voice, speaking in english. Sure, when we're all together here, we speak english, but these people aren't my family. At least not yet.

On the hilarious side, here's a picture of me sitting at my tiny computer:

Funny, isn't it? I've actually not been taking that many pictures. I keep forgetting I have a digital camera now. I do have some, and I don't know when I'll put them up, maybe tomorrow. We have a holiday for the Autumnal Equinox.

I went to the Center for International Programs today to do some homework, and ended up talking to Oya-san about hiking, and she lent me a book on hikes in Japan. I don't know if I'll be able to do a big overnight trip becuase of time and equipment constraints, but Kashima-san helped me do some research on Tate-yama and Tsurugi-da-ke. Like I said, everyone is so incredible nice and helpful. I feel a little out of place, actually. Getting stared at while walking around is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it's an ego booster, but on the other hand, I have different fingers...sorry, on the other hand, all that attention makes me really self-conscious.

Sunday, we went to a multi-cultural event in one of the older districts of Nagoya to a Yokiso, or traditional style house. The house was owned by a man who had built up a department store chain and had wanted to encourage multi-culturalism in Japan. Pretty cool stuff, neh?

We got caught in a downpour of epic proporsions. My poor shoes were still wet from going out in a typhoon to buy beer, and then they were soaked again. It was nice, minus the mosquitos the size of dauchshunds and the rain. We talked to many nice people, sometimes in Japanese, sometimes in English. We got to see a traditional kimono dressing ceremony, which was interesting, if slightly boring, and also an ocarina performance. Yes, that's right, ocarina: it's not just for little boys wearing green trying to save the world.

After the party, we had some free time to wander around a nearby temple and street fair for some sort of temple festival. The temple was very large and very nice. I want to learn more about such things, but my Japanese just isn't up to the task yet. It's one of my personal goals now, in addition to so many other things.

That's a part of the temple. I didn't take many pictures, because I hope to go back in better weather.

I dont know if I'm actually going to lose weight here or not. Everything is just so delicious, and the Japanese grandmas they have in the kitchen of the cafeteria here keep us incredibly well-fed. I need to start going to the gym. I definitely will if I can get a chance to go hiking on these mountains.

Anywho, enough rambling on my part, the forum is open for discussion.

Missing you.

Live from the tiniest computer ever

2008-09-20T03:36:00.000-07:00

Howdy all!

I purchased a new computer, and so I am coming to you live from Japan. This thing is quite tiny. In fact, it may be the smallest computer ever manufactured. The screen diagonal is around 8 inches. I`m having trouble typing it`s so small. This whole is due in part mostly to my new friend, Kotaro. He agreed to help me look for a computer in Nagoya on Thursday. Today Kotaro met me outside my dorm at 10 this morning and one of his friends drove us around Kasugai. We checked out a couple of stores but I ended up not buying anything. We had lunch and then Kotaro and I went into Nagoya to "Big Camera" where I purchased this tiny, tiny computer. He then proceeded to show me a shopping district in Nagoya. I know where I`m getting most of your gifts. We ended up walking around for several hours today. He even helped me set up my computer! The generosity is astounding.

Currently there are some people hanging around, so I`m going to say good-bye for now. Love you all.

First Thoughts

2008-09-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

The flights went smoothly, which was nice. No delays, no problems, everything on schedule. Disembarking at Nagoya went smoothly. Immigration, customs: no problem. We were met at the airport by the people who were supposed to meet us, and everything was good. It was about an hour and a half drive to Chubu from the airport, which was passed in the usual "let's get to know each other" manner that has become a staple of my life.

There have certainly been adjustments to make. Fear of doing something wrong, appearing impolite.

One snag in the plan. My computer broke. I've been told it's probably something with the motherboard or BIOS. This is why I've been remiss and didn't update yesterday. My current plan is just to go down to the local electronics store, Hard-Off, (I kid you not) and buy a cheap computer to limp through these three months and fix my computer when I get home in the winter. I should have enough cash for this, so no worries, family.

Yesterday was the first full day in Japan, and the first one I've spent this far from home for ten years. The weather is hot and humid, with rain seeming to always threaten. Our placement test yesterday was not as bad as I would have predicted; we OU students seem to be among the best prepared.

We toured the campus yesterday. It's extremely compact. Afterwards we visited the 100 yen store. That's right, there's a dollar store equivalent. Returning to the dorm around 5:30, we had to register our fingerprints so we can unlock the door.

Dinner was amazing. There was so much food, and all of it was delicious.

My roommate and I ended up falling asleep around 9 at night and waking up around 5:30 in the morning. He remarked how much like old men we seem.

That brings you mostly up to speed. I'll post more thoroughly when I get a computer of my own. Right now I'm using my roommate's.

I miss you all.

Notes on a small town

2008-09-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

As I run around getting things ready, I realize that this is the most I've interacted with the community in, probably, years. Sure, I've lived here during breaks and such, but I've not really been a part of the community since I graduated high school. Most of my time has been spent in Athens. But now, I've gone to see the doctor, gone to the pharmacy to get my prescriptions for three months, gone to the bank to get traveler's cheques and yen for the first few days in Japan, and gone down to the John and Annie Glenn Historic Site to get things for my speech to the elementary school kids. Thus far, not one person has failed to wish me a good flight, or told me to keep in touch, or asked me to bring in pictures when I come back. Everyone has told me to have fun. Everyone has shaken my hand and treated me like an adult. It's a transition that has taken some getting used to: the transition from "Alan's boy" to "Jonathan."

I'm also starting to get sick of the smell of paint. From the moment I wake up until the moment I sleep, I smell paint. The basement was painted with oil-based so it reeks of that. Even my freshly washed clothes smell like fuel oil. The new house smells like latex-based paint, which is worse in some regards, since I'm allergic.

It still doesn't seem real that I'm going to be thousands of miles away for an extended period of time.

I should probably pack.

Thoughts before setting out

2008-09-08T10:18:00.000-07:00

It's just under a week before I leave for Japan, and I'm not really all that nervous. Or terribly excited. Maybe the reality of the situation hasn't really sunk in yet. Who knows. Anyway, this blog will be a way for me to keep in touch with people from back home and anyone who has the patience to read about my life. I'll try to keep it updated with details, photos etc., but no promises on any regularity.

It's strange, really, to not be going to class alongside all my friends, and maybe that contributes to the surreality of the situation. Also, it is rather tough to try to move into a new house and get ready to be out of the country for three months at the same time. I keep looking for things in the house in which I've lived for the past 19 years, not finding it, and having to walk over to the new house and search through the boxes in my new room.

I'm just starting to realize how much New Concord has shaped my behaviors. I've gotten used to running down to the grocery store, bumping into several people I know, and having to explain why I'm not in classes, and then answering the obligatory, "Well, what are you going to do after you graduate?" One part of me gets frustrated at having to answer the same question time and time again, but there is another part that enjoys that I have so many people interested in my life and respect me for daring to leave this small area. I will be both glad to leave, and miss seeing everyone.

Enough chatter.