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Sunday, July 6, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Nikko
So this past weekend we went to Nikko, a resort town, which is up in the mountains. It has all kinds of hot springs and old temples and stuff. The hotel we stayed in was amazing, unbelievably amazing. The mountains and views were breathtaking. Our hotel had an onsen, which is a traditional Japanese hot spring/public bath. Very cool. It made us feel like were really in Japan. The town we are in is kind of like a college town, so while it is super crazy, the real "Japan" was in Nikko. All the stuff you see in the movies and stuff. We had a traditional Japanese dinner, which was like 8 courses of all kinds of crazy stuff. This next weekend we are going to Tokyo. I plan on going to the Absolut Ice Bar where the entire facility is made of ice: cups, bar stools, walls, everything. I also want to stay in one of the capsule hotels, just for the experience. I can't wait.
Monday, June 16, 2008
This is what I have found out so far.
7:23am
6/16
Kotaro is my tomdachi nihonjin ichiban (best japanese friend).
He has been explaining different Japanese customs to me, and boy can he knock back the beer. When he wanted me to drink with him in the morning (14th) he drank two tall boys by 10am. I had a normal beer because I was still reeling from the first night.
One of our first journeys was to the grocery store. Again not as crazy as I thought. A lot less produce and a lot more fish products were the main difference. Liquor is much cheaper, but beer seems to be about the same if not more expensive. A surprising amount of english is on packaging, but I think it's like how in America we have our salsas and tortillas and what not. While they are mexican words, we (Americans) still know what they are, and even find them "exotic" which I imagine is how the Japanese feel about the American words.
I was looking for siracha sauce at the supermarket and there was none to be found. Apparently Japanese people are not super fond of spicy food which was a shock to me. I guess I am used to Texan-ized Japanese food. Oh yeah, and there are no baggers (at least at the supermarket we went to) they give you some bags when you check out and there is a little area in which people bag up their groceries.
The gas stations are cool. All kinds of ramen and soba noodles. Trying to decipher what exactly is in the package is somewhat difficult, but the msg in everything makes it taste ok. Everyone so far has been super nice. We constantly get looks from the natives.
There was a welcoming BBQ for us on Saturday. Some students and the English teacher, Steve, gave us a tour of the college. Interesting things I noticed: for the cafeterias, you buy a ticket in a vending machine and take it to the counter where they then make your food. Then you must go and wash out your own bowl. I know, crazy having to do your own dishes. After the tour we headed over to meet the rest of the English club and have some BBQ. Oh and by BBQ I mean they brought Mc Donalds burgers. They were also grilling hot dogs and burgers and what a sight that was. I'm sure grilling is not as popular as it is in America because watching these kids try to cook hot dogs and burgers using chopsticks to flip them was hilarious. The girls are much less reserved than the guys, who always seem to have a pseudo "tough guy" persona going on. I told some people we were going to have a party that night, half expecting some people to come. Later on I went and bought a boombox for the party. The electronic store, now that was a trip. Every kind of electronic everything you could want. The underwater digital cameras blew my mind as well as the fact that there is a huge market for the Minidisc audio format here. It never really caught on here in the states, but I guess the small size is the appealing part here in Japan. When I got back to the house, there were already people here, it wasn't even dark yet. I started setting up stuff and testing my new Japanese boombox. More people showed up and I was hoping for a nice little dance party. While I had fun, it would appear that most of my roommates are not down to party as much as I thought they would be. The Japanese students who came over had a great time. They brought all this food and sake, and even cleaned up after themselves. Unheard of at an American party.
Even the trash is crazy here, everything is sorted by whether or not it burns. We have 3 trash cans at the house.
6/16
Kotaro is my tomdachi nihonjin ichiban (best japanese friend).
He has been explaining different Japanese customs to me, and boy can he knock back the beer. When he wanted me to drink with him in the morning (14th) he drank two tall boys by 10am. I had a normal beer because I was still reeling from the first night.
One of our first journeys was to the grocery store. Again not as crazy as I thought. A lot less produce and a lot more fish products were the main difference. Liquor is much cheaper, but beer seems to be about the same if not more expensive. A surprising amount of english is on packaging, but I think it's like how in America we have our salsas and tortillas and what not. While they are mexican words, we (Americans) still know what they are, and even find them "exotic" which I imagine is how the Japanese feel about the American words.
I was looking for siracha sauce at the supermarket and there was none to be found. Apparently Japanese people are not super fond of spicy food which was a shock to me. I guess I am used to Texan-ized Japanese food. Oh yeah, and there are no baggers (at least at the supermarket we went to) they give you some bags when you check out and there is a little area in which people bag up their groceries.
The gas stations are cool. All kinds of ramen and soba noodles. Trying to decipher what exactly is in the package is somewhat difficult, but the msg in everything makes it taste ok. Everyone so far has been super nice. We constantly get looks from the natives.
There was a welcoming BBQ for us on Saturday. Some students and the English teacher, Steve, gave us a tour of the college. Interesting things I noticed: for the cafeterias, you buy a ticket in a vending machine and take it to the counter where they then make your food. Then you must go and wash out your own bowl. I know, crazy having to do your own dishes. After the tour we headed over to meet the rest of the English club and have some BBQ. Oh and by BBQ I mean they brought Mc Donalds burgers. They were also grilling hot dogs and burgers and what a sight that was. I'm sure grilling is not as popular as it is in America because watching these kids try to cook hot dogs and burgers using chopsticks to flip them was hilarious. The girls are much less reserved than the guys, who always seem to have a pseudo "tough guy" persona going on. I told some people we were going to have a party that night, half expecting some people to come. Later on I went and bought a boombox for the party. The electronic store, now that was a trip. Every kind of electronic everything you could want. The underwater digital cameras blew my mind as well as the fact that there is a huge market for the Minidisc audio format here. It never really caught on here in the states, but I guess the small size is the appealing part here in Japan. When I got back to the house, there were already people here, it wasn't even dark yet. I started setting up stuff and testing my new Japanese boombox. More people showed up and I was hoping for a nice little dance party. While I had fun, it would appear that most of my roommates are not down to party as much as I thought they would be. The Japanese students who came over had a great time. They brought all this food and sake, and even cleaned up after themselves. Unheard of at an American party.
Even the trash is crazy here, everything is sorted by whether or not it burns. We have 3 trash cans at the house.
Look out Japan, I have arrived.
6/14 9am
OMG
Narita Airport was surprisingly empty. Customs and immigration were easier than expected too. We got so many looks at the airport. Nothing super crazy, an airport is an airport, except for the fact they have someone at every part of the airport to help you along the way. Gotta go for now. Kotaro (an english club student) wants me to drink a beer with him.
OMG
Narita Airport was surprisingly empty. Customs and immigration were easier than expected too. We got so many looks at the airport. Nothing super crazy, an airport is an airport, except for the fact they have someone at every part of the airport to help you along the way. Gotta go for now. Kotaro (an english club student) wants me to drink a beer with him.
Are We There Yet?
5:30pm Central Time
Just woke up from a cape cod induced slumber. We still have about 5.5 hours to go. My battery on the lappy is about to run out so I am just trying to get something written before it dies on me. People are getting restless. Before I crashed, I ate a little bit of the airline food, beef teriyaki my ass, but it wasnt that bad. They just came and tried to give people these nasty wrap things as a snack, which we all decided were vintage airline food they were throwing back to. Battery almost gone.....Can't think of much else. Narita is sure to blow my mind. ^-^
Just woke up from a cape cod induced slumber. We still have about 5.5 hours to go. My battery on the lappy is about to run out so I am just trying to get something written before it dies on me. People are getting restless. Before I crashed, I ate a little bit of the airline food, beef teriyaki my ass, but it wasnt that bad. They just came and tried to give people these nasty wrap things as a snack, which we all decided were vintage airline food they were throwing back to. Battery almost gone.....Can't think of much else. Narita is sure to blow my mind. ^-^
Flying High
12:51 Central time
Mixing the mixtape on the plane. Every seat has a tv thing which has music and movies, video games and even wacky japanese tv. Coolest thing so far is the japanese music station they have, the first two songs were the kind of songs I came to Japan for. All of the announcements on the plane are in english and japanese which is cool
Mixing the mixtape on the plane. Every seat has a tv thing which has music and movies, video games and even wacky japanese tv. Coolest thing so far is the japanese music station they have, the first two songs were the kind of songs I came to Japan for. All of the announcements on the plane are in english and japanese which is cool
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