06.07.11 I'm in Love with Osaka

Osaka is probably the coolest city I have ever been to. It was even better the second time around.

Since we planned to spend the whole day in Osaka, Bea, Chan, and I met up around 8:00 in the morning and went to the Nara train station. There, we bought Osaka day passes, which basically let us use the subways and trains as much as we wanted, as well as get into many major attractions for tree. It also gave us discounts on restaurants and other areas. Armed with these extremely convenient passes, we left for Osaka by train.

Our first stop was the famous Osaka castle, which stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the skyscrapers surrounding it. The first thing we saw was the giant outer moat, which was beautiful in its own right, but as we traveled through a series of gates and winding walkways we realized there was a lot more to be seen. Apparently, Osaka castle is well known for the huge stones that were used to build it (and the famous samurai who lived there, of course). In a way, it was similar to the pyramids of Egypt. No one really knows how the stones were carried there or where they came from. They were humongous! We got to go inside the castle as well, and at the very top you could see a lot of Osaka. Unfortunately, there were a ton of elementary school kids running around so we didn't get to enjoy it to the fullest. Even so, it was very interesting and I was glad we got to see it.

From Osaka castle we traveled to the harbor where we rode on Osaka's biggest ferris wheel. From the top there were buildings as far as the eye could see. After our ride, we quickly ate lunch before riding the Santa Maria around the harbor (a sight seeing boat.) Truth be told, it was actually pretty boring, because Osaka harbor isn't really that pretty. We only got to see construction sites and industrial ships.

After our relaxing boat ride, we set out for Shinsekai, which literally means "new world." It used to be a very rich part of Japan until its "bubble economy" collapsed. Now it is the "ghetto" part of Osaka. Smack dab in the middle of it was Spa World, a huge building containing 19 different types of onsen (hot spring spas), each one inspired from a different part of the world. We got in for a bargain thanks to our Osaka passes, and enjoyed soaking in all of the spas and saunas for over two hours. Of course, I couldn't take pictures inside for obvious reasons, but it was absolutely amazing. I will definitely miss going to the onsen when I go back to America!

By the time we left Spa World, it was dark outside, which meant Osaka was just starting to come alive. Every restaurant in Shinsekai seemed to be a kushikatsu restaurant, and of course, Osaka is famous for kushikatsu so we had to eat some! Kushikatsu is basically deep fried food on sticks that you dip in a special sauce. Apparently every restaurant's sauce is different so you have to try them all to see which one you like best. We chose a restaurant that we could get a discount at and ate to our heart's content. My favorite kushikatsu was avacado!

Once we had eaten dinner, it was time to go to our last stop of the night: the floating garden observatory. This observatory is one of the tallest building's in Osaka, and is an extremely popular place for couple's to go on dates. Since we were there while the Tanabata (star) festival was going on, there were even more couples than usual. We went all the way to the 35th floor (I felt my ears pop in the elevator!) and then took an escaltor and several flights of stairs to reach the rooftop observation deck. The atmosphere was definitely romantic-- it provided the best view of the city, and the thousands of lights that seemed to stretch endlessly in every direction really looked like a sea of stars! To say the view took my breath away would be an understatement. I have never seen anything else like it!

We ended up taking the last train so we returned to Nara around midnight. We really went all over Osaka and got to see some amazing things! This blog is only a summary of the day so it doesn't really portray all of the nuances and emotions of the trip. Even so, I hope people can see from the pictures just how magical it was. NYC has got nothing on Osaka.

06.04-05.11 Sick

I didn't post yesterday because I was feeling pretty crappy. My throat felt like it had shards of glass in it all day. Initially I woke up with the intent of going to English Cafe, but quickly decided that was a bad idea since it would require talking, and talking hurt. I did, however, go to soccer practice in the blazing heat. We didn't start on time because a bunch of freshmen were using the ground for a dodgeball tournament. Apparently it was field day or something. I remember those from middle school. Fun times. In any case, it was probably good that we started late because it was awfully hot. My throat didn't feel any better after four hours of practice either (surprise, surprise), so I showered, ate, and went with Bea to buy some medicine at the drug store. I discovered that medicine in Japan is fairly expensive so I don't plan on getting sick again any time soon. Once I had some meds in my system, Bea and I popped into ESS for free talk and musical preparation. I'm not enjoying the musical as much as I thought I would because the script is somewhat lacking, but I am going to do my best for everyone else's sake. We went to McDonald's afterwards, but even that wasn't that enjoyable because my head and throat were throbbing. I retired early and went to bed as soon as I got back to my dorm, but was woken up by a text message.

 It took a while for me to get back to sleep, but I woke up feeling much better. Church went extremely well. I actually felt rested, and although my throat still hurt, I kept up a steady stream of medicine and fluids so I was okay most of the time. Yoonkyung and Hana both came late because they overslept, but I was extremely glad to see them. The sermon was easy for me to understand, too, so I was really happy about that.

After church was over, Yoonkyung went with me to Softbank so I could put more minutes on my phone. I realized that I had run out of my plan when I couldn't send text messages. Woops. When that was taken care of, we took a long bike ride to a giant supermarket so we could buy all of the fixings for *drum roll* tacos! And no, I don't mean tako as in octopus, but real, Mexican tacos. The two of us made them together (complete with guacamole) once we got back to Yoonkyung's dorm. Of course, they couldn't match my mom's, but I think I was too happy to care. They were delicious! When Yoonkyung, Hana, and I were full of yummy goodness, we spent some time vegetating and watching TV. I returned to my dorm having done no homework, but with my throat and heart feeling 100% better.

This week is sure to be jam packed with adventure so I don't have time to be sick anymore. I claim victory!

06.03.11 Americano

I blame Yoonkyung for gettting the song "Americano" stuck in my head. Other than that, the blog title has nothing to do with what I did today.

Waking up at 11 AM was probably the best thing I did all week. I was able to skype with both friends and family as I got ready for my one class of the day. At 1 PM I went to my Sports Law and Politics class. Yoonkyung ended up not coming because she wasn't feeling well. We shared our reports in class, which was somewhat awkward for me since I had written mine in English. I think Inoue sensei understood what I was saying though, and he was able to explain my main points to the class.

After class had finished I went to run a few errands. This included buying more stamps, paying my electric bill, and buying a few things at the grocery store that I needed . I met with Yoonkyung in her office when I got back. She gave me a brownie that she had bought for me. Although it wasn't as good as the brownies I've had in America, I was really pleased that she had remembered my brownie craving and thought to buy one for me. Because my throat has been bothering me, Yoonkyung took me to the school store to buy some cough drops. I really need to buy some medicine, but I keep forgetting when I go out. We also stopped by the International Programs Office so we could do our monthly sign in. While we were there the people working in the office told me that one of Nara's students would be going to UNCG next semester and that she wanted to meet me. They gave her my contact information and after exchanging a few text messages, we decided to meet on Monday of next week. I am really excited to meet her!

Around 6 PM I said goodbye to Yoonkyung so I could meet up with Ena and Asami. Together, the three of us went out to eat at a traditional Japanese restaurant. Everything was delicious (even though I had no idea what I was eating), and the waitress even complimented me on my Japanese and asked where I was from. Once we had eaten our fill at dinner, we went to another restaurant for dessert. I had a delicious apple and caramel parfait. Yum! The best part of the outing was the fact that I found myself chatting easily in Japanese and understanding almost everything that was said. It surprises me how much I have improved in only two months! I know I get down on myself a lot, but today was one of the few times that I really felt proud of what I have accomplished. I am trying to make more plans with Ena. She suggested going to Universal Studios Japan, and I know that Yoonkyung has mentioned it a few times so I hope we can all go soon!

 



Entrance to the restaurant

 

 

Ena!

My dessert!

I decided to take a break from Konami today since I am tired and starting to catch a cold. Now I'm debating on whether or not I should study before I go to bed. Maybe I should just take a rest. I think I've done enough for one week!

06.02.11 You Can Sleep When You're Dead

Getting up today was extremely difficult. I want to strangle whoever decided that the best time for us to take out the garbage was between 7-8 AM. Anyway, I went straight back to sleep after I had taken out the trash, but 10 AM came all too quickly.

We finally had Japanese today. I learned that my teacher's father had died, which was why we didn't have any class last week. I felt bad for her, but she went on with teaching without any indication that she felt upset about it. When class was over, I ate lunch with Melanie and Rafael before going to Vivre. I met Yoonkyung there and she helped me find the text book that I have been borrowing from the International Student Center so I could finally buy it. Now I don't have to worry about returning the text book. After stopping for coffee at Tully's I went to my volleyball class. My team came out on top in every game today, which made me happy. I always sweat profusely in that class though, so I looked like I had jumped in a swimming pool by the time I left the gym. (And no, that isn't an exaggeration.)

From class I quickly ate a snack in my room before going to ESS for musical practice. Kana had me edit the English script that they came up with last week, and today we finally assigned roles and practiced our parts. I am sharing the role of Sebastian with another person, which means I really don't have that many lines, but  I'm not that upset because I still get to sing. : )

ESS finished around 8:30, so I hurried back to my room, changed, and met Yoonkyung and Bea so we could go to Konami. I ended up swimming in the pool for about an hour and felt pretty good, albeit hungry, afterwards. My last task of the day included writing up my mini report for Inoue sensei's class. I have been extremely lucky so far because all of my teachers have allowed me to write my assignments in English, but I want to at least try to write my volleyball report in Japanese. That isn't due until later this month so I have more time to prepare for it.

Today was jam packed with activities, but I still have a million things on my to-do list. I don't think it would bother me so much if I wasn't tired all the time. I don't get a break, even on the weekends, so finding time to do everything I want is difficult.

Oh well. I'll sleep when I'm dead!

06.01.11 Twenty-One Days...

...until my 21st birthday! Yep, it's already June. Scary, isn't it? My time in Japan is flying by. It's actually pretty depressing.

Even though I didn't get to sleep until 4 AM and felt under the weather when I woke up, I went to the gym with Yoonkyung and Bea around 10 AM. Once there, I spent an hour swimming in the pool. Unlike in America, Konami (the gym I go to) was packed with senior citizens and older adults. Maybe this is part of the reason why the Japanese live longer than any other people!

After I had gotten my work out in, Bea, Yoonkyung and I went out to eat lunch. The restaurant we went to was interesting in that you looked at the menu outside and paid for a meal ticket from a vending machine before going in to sit down. You would hand the pre-paid ticket to the waitress and she would bring your food out to you. After you finished eating you were free to leave. Simple, right? From the restaurant, the three of us went to drink coffee at Tully's. While we were talking Bea suggested we do karaoke. Of course, I could never say no to karaoke. Because we went during lunch time and got a student discount, we only paid 200 yen (~2$) for an hour! おとく Generally, a lot of companies and big groups will do karaoke together on the weekends so that is when it is most expensive. Therefore, it's best to go on weekdays during lunch time!

Once we got our fun in, it was time to get serious. I went to Yoonkyung's office to study for a while, and then left her around 4:30 so I could help set-up for ikebana. Ikebana is another traditional Japanese art form that involves arranging flowers to give them meaning. The International Student Center paid for a professional ikebana instructor to come and give us a short lesson. Unfortunately, she was about 40 minutes late (extremely unusual for a Japanese person), so we just waited in the classroom until she arrived. It worked out well though because I was able to make friends with two Taiwanese girls and a Chinese student whom I had never met before.

When the teacher finally came, she gave us some instructions and had us arrange our flowers to express an idea of our choice. I arranged my flowers to convey my personal theme of "Ganbatte imasu." Ganbarou is essentially a Japanese phrase that I really feel embodies Japan's spirit of perserverence and diligence. I hear it everyday here in one form or another, and it essentially means: "Do your best! Don't give up!" Because I have developed a strong sense of determination to do just that while I am in Japan, I felt it was appropriate. I tried to express this by having my flowers go from smallest to tallest, with the lines being very straight and upright. I wanted this to reflect strength and a sort of "reaching" for the top. I hope I did it justice!

My new Taiwanese friends

Ikebana instructor

My flower arrangement

All the international students who took the ikebana course!

As soon as ikebana was over I rushed off to church where we were having a guest pastor from Korea. I came in late since my ikebana class went over, and as I result, I was extremely confused. The pastor would speak in Korean first, and then our pastor would translate into Japanese, but because my pastor spoke extremely fast, I couldn't understand most of what he was saying. However, I didn't need to understand anything during our time of prayer because the Holy Spirit was definitely alive and moving in the room. Everywhere, everyone was on their knees crying out to God. It was such a powerful experience, and I really dedicated my time to praying for Yoonkyung and Hana who were bent over on either side of me.

At church!

When church finished, Yoonkyung and I rode our bikes back (in spite of the rain) and stopped by a popular ramen shop near campus to eat. Because Yoonkyung had just gotten paid she treated me. : ) The two of us talked for a while and then said good night.

June is already off to a good start.

Ramune, a drink enjoyed by all-- especially children

05.31.11 Indian Inspired Day

It was definitely an Indian inspired day.

I rolled out of bed and forced myself to go to my Indian dance class. We are working consistently on our routine now so the class has become increasingly more difficult. Every week we add on a little bit more to what we already know. I think it will be amazing once we reach the end of the class. Speaking of the end of classes, apparently we are already half way through the semester. How time flies!

After class ended, I went to the cafeteria to eat lunch. Yoonkyung couldn't stay long because she had to run off to her part time job, but my classmate Rina ended up sitting and eating with me. : ) She is a really nice girl so I hope I can hang out with her more in the future. I've already arranged to meet up with Ena this Friday, but I really should make an effort to hang out with more people since my time here is so short.

Once I had eaten, I sat in the International Center's study hall (that's really the only way to describe it) and practiced writing and memorizing kanji for about an hour and a half. I can tell that I am making progress in my studies because I was able to use one of the new words I learned in my Beginner's Japanese class. Beginner's Japanese was interesting today because we were given the familiar scenario of "if you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you bring?" From there, we were asked different questions of how we would do such-and-such a thing, like what we would do for food, etc. We were also assigned our final project, which is a presentation on any subject we want to talk about. I'm not looking forward to preparing for it, but I think it will be a good experience for me in many ways. Now I just have to pick a topic to speak on! What should I talk about?

When class was over I returned to my dorm and took a nap. I think I have been stretching myself pretty thin because I am starting to feel ill again. I am developing a sore throat and have had a pretty consistent headache all day so I am going to drink lots of orange juice and try to get more sleep. I don't have time to get sick so I will do my best to fight it off early!

I woke up to a text from Yoonkyung asking if I wanted to meet her and Hana for dinner. I agreed and groggily went to meet them near the bank next to Nara's train station. From there we went to eat at a small Indian restaurant. I think I have only eaten Indian food once in my life, but it was good to try something new. Everything was delicious! I think the curry was the best part.

We left the restaurant on full stomachs and decided to walk off our meal. We ended up stopping in a bookstore where I splurged on a book about Japanese culture (in English) that looked interesting. I haven't read anything for myself in a while, so I felt it was okay to treat myself to something nice-- especially since it might help me in my studies. The three of us meandered into an arcade and played around for a little while, but we ultimately ended up back on campus. Yoonkyung and I left Hana and went to her office so we could study. Correction-- so I could study. Of course, my concentration waned in less than an hour, so Yoonkyung and I spent the rest of the time looking up places on Google maps. I showed her UNCG and my home in Delaware, and she showed me where she lives in Korea and her university.

Currently we are still planning on going to Korea together in August. I need to buy a plane ticket soon, but before I do that I need to find out when classes end. If they end by the first week of August, that would be perfect. Here's hoping!

05.30.11 PIRATES

I think I have the best Mondays out of any college student I know. Today in particular was especially awesome.

It started out with my Japanese class being cancelled-- again. It was the same teacher that I usually have for my Thursday class, which was also cancelled last week, so we think she might be sick or something. Since we were already on campus, Bea, Rafael, and I sat in the cafeteria and drank coffee. At lunch time, we ate together and had a nice conversation with a random Japanese girl sitting at our table. She started talking to us first, which I found pretty impressive. I get the impression that most of the girls at our school don't have the guts to speak with foreigners.

From lunch, Bea and I met up with Yoonkyung in our Budou class. Today we did naginata drills to music from Ponyo. Since Ghibli is the equivalent of Disney in Japan I have heard a lot of the music used in various places since I have been here. They couldn't have picked a more annoying song for us to practice to, but it was still a lot of fun. I think today might have been our last day for naginata, which made me sad, but our sensei video taped everyone doing the routine we learned so I am hoping I can get a copy from her.

After class was over with, Bea and I had P.E. The weather cleared up long enough for us to go outside for tennis. Honestly, I am already bored with tennis. Maybe because I am not that good at it and there are too many people for me to participate throughout the entire class. Next week we will do ping pong again so I am excited for that.

Immediately after class, Bea and I went to Konami. I know what you are thinking-- "You had two sports classes and went to the gym afterwards?!" Well, yeah. My sports classes aren't really that physically demanding, so I ended up running on the treadmill again and doing some ab exercises. I was able to run about 5.4 kilometers in 35 minutes-- almost as good as when I ran over 6 kilometers (4 miles) in 40 minutes on Sunday.

The best part of my day though, was when Bea and I got back from Konami. We met with Yoonkyung and Hana at the Nara train station and rode a few stops down to a mall where they had a movie theater so we could see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. We went to the fourth floor to buy our tickets, and I was surprised to find we had assigned seats. Like in a real theater, we were able to select where we wanted to sit based on a chart they provided. Although I found it strange, I really liked it because it meant we didn't have to wait in a long line to get good seats. Lucky us! Because we came on a day when women got a discount, we only had to pay 1,000 yen for the initial ticket, but because the showing was only in 3D, we paid an extra 400 yen. (I hate 3D! It's just a gimmick that makes you spend money!) Basically, this meant I had to pay about $15 for a movie ticket. Ouch! We had time before the movie started, so we walked to the food court and ate dinner. I had takoyaki (my favorite!) and then bought Baskin Robbins for dessert. Delicious! At 8:50, our movie started. I noticed that most of the previews were for English movies. I think it's interesting that Japanese movie theaters import so many American films. Maybe that's why the movies are so expensive? Or maybe it's just because no one goes to the movies that it's expensive? I'm not really sure.

English, with Japanese subtitles-- in 3D!

On the left is the theater seating chart

Movie prices

Watching 2.5 hours of Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz really made my day that much better. For someone who frequently goes to the movies, it was a real treat to be able to go today, especially since I haven't seen a film since I've been here. And you have to admit, Johnny Depp may be strange, but he is one of the best actors out there! I thought the story was interesting and much, much better without Kiera Knightley and Orlando Bloom. We all know that everyone only comes for Johnny Depp anyway, right? ; )

After the movie was over, we caught one of the last trains back to Nara and said good night. Another day has already passed--and how!

Rocking our 3D glasses on the train