My Year in the Land of the Rising Sun

Hair Salon

2008-11-16T03:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, dear readers. Since I will be heading to Tokyo for the Midnight Mess event this upcoming weekend, I decided to get my hair done in honor of the occasion. As such, I banked on my friend's recommendation and went to the beauty salon B2C Raffine in Sannomiya, across from the Don Quixote. Armed with two friends that I dragged along with the promise of candy, I walked into the beauty salon and attempted to pick a hair color. No cut, just color. I am not rich, you know.

Going to the beauty salon in Japan is an experience, one I highly recommend since it is the total opposite of an American salon. In America, salons are get in, get the hair cut, get out establishments, but here in the land of the rising sun, they definitely take their time doing things.

After picking out a red-brown color with a lighter brownish streak, they put me in a chair in front of a mirror with magazines, and placed my friends at the windowsill to look pretty. They (being two girls) wrapped me in the standard hair cutting cloak. This was then followed by a layer of cellophane around my neck to prevent anything from touching it, dye or otherwise, and then was proceeded by yet another cloak thing, only shorter. To top it all off, another round of cellophane and little ear covers. I was boiling, and this was just the beginning.

They started with streaks, the younger apprentice doing the back while the more experienced woman did the front and sides. How do I know she was an apprentice? She asked how to do streaks, that's how. The streaks and the root dyes were done by the same two women, but when it came time for the whole head dying, the head beautician and the other experienced woman took over. After being let to sit, I realized that the clock read 8:15; I arrived at the salon at 6:50.

Shampooing. They really get into this part, complete with scalp massage and neck rub! I had my hair washed at least 3 times, and before the drying began I had an upper back and head massage. The head massage was basically her smacking my head around lightly for 5 minutes, but the upper back one was nice. That girl had a very firm grip, to put it lightly. And since my back is so messed up, extreme tension is necessary. I guess that cut back in my massage time...

In the end, after they put my hair in a cut little curl thing, they realized that my hair was not as red as I had requested. As such, the head beautician told me to come back on Wednesday to have it re-dyed, and that I would pay for it then. They are so trusting in this country...

My thoughts 2 months in....

2008-11-07T23:56:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have never in your life gone to a country where it is so homogeneous that by simply having a different eye color you can be ostracized, then this is the blog for you. Japan is all Japanese people, and as such trying to blend in while being a study abroad student is not just impossible, it's downright lonely. No one will go out of their way to speak to you, in Japanese, English, or otherwise, unless it is for some random practice on the train during your commute. Evidently, according to the host families (note the plural), I am the pretty girl in this years batch of students, which leads me to SEVERAL more issues. One, I am blond and I stand out like a sore thumb without even trying. Two, pretty white girls=easy in the minds of the chauvinistic pigs that are the vast majority of Japanese males. Three, people talk to me alright, because it makes them look good when they talk to me. They don't give a damn what I say 90% of the time.

I am becoming increasingly emo, seeing that I cannot talk openly to ANYONE but the study abroad students and the Japanese people who studied abroad in Pittsburgh years ago. The one or two Japanese people that I CAN actually talk to, I am sure I annoy with my constant asking of them to hang out with me. It may seem illogical to them, but I really don't have many friends here in Japan that are free on any day but Sunday, so actually having someone to talk to during the week is refreshing. My schedule is tight, in fact, this is my only free weekend until December.

True, I brought one of those weekends upon myself. It is free, a free 4-day weekend, actually, so I made plans to go to Tokyo and reunite with Satomi, Masa, and Awate. I like Kansai, but Tokyo people ignore you no matter what you look like or dress like, so I am missing the blending in feeling, that of anonymity. When I go to Tokyo, my good friend John will be participating in Midnight Mess, which is essentially a gothic-metal-industrial celebration of all things twisted and weird. Much like myself. Needless to say, I will be dressing for the event as a punk lolita, though I need new tights seeing as I forgot to pack a pair. John, who calls himself both Count de Sang and Chi no Hakushaku (both meaning Count of Blood), is a member of the body suspension act in addition to the singing theatrical events. I am really looking forward to this, seeing as John might be one of the few people in this world who accepts all my little insanities not only with out question, he manages to top them all and make me feel normal. A reunion with Masa, Satomi and Awate would also be pleasant, since when Masa drinks too much he talks to garbage cans, Satomi just bounces around no matter what, and Awate touches people in very inappropriate ways. Laughs galore, no?

Slowly but surely I am missing everyone back home, from Lisa, Julie and my watching of Battle Royale to Louis forgetting his umbrella and still stumbling out into the rain, bookbag and all, in order to have dinner with me. Gloria and her little....dance thing? I think? to arguing with Kevin over the dumbest things like ranking our attractiveness. Jia being Jia is something I also miss whole-heartedly. All I seem to do anymore is sit in my room, watching horror movies or reading the books they are based on. I think I am slowly becoming hikkikomori, or at least an asshole. I am not a douche bag, though, that honor has been given to a Canadian.

When I ran spell check on this, hikkikomori came up as misspelled, and the spelling suggestion was quagmire. That made me laugh.

A grand update! Epic! Gigantic!

2008-11-06T22:44:00.000-08:00

It has officially been one month since I updated my blog, but was honestly because I was too busy to sit down and organize my thoughts effectively. However, it is a Friday night, I am broke with no plans, so I might as well update with a monster of a post. And here we go...

Essentially, the entire month of October was nothing but field trips, field trips, Kenpo practice and midterms. Oh, doesn't that sound just FUN?? The first of the field trips was to Himeji Castle, one of the largest castles in Japan. I actually went twice, once with my host family and then once with the Japanese Samurai History class.

The first time was with Cole, my host family and I, and it was during a national holiday meaning we drove. And it took about an hour and a half. Ridiculous. Oh, and the place was terribly crowded and it was a kinda rainy day. But I must admit, though it was no Neuschwanstein, it was very interesting in its own special way. There were no tapestries or murals that you would see in Western castles, but you got to see how the Samurai would set up their defenses for the castle! As the professor, a very nice Russian lady who sometimes doesn't know when to stop talking, explained, some princess named Sen 千 lived in the castle for quite some time. She is apparently a very famous figure in Japanese history, but I don't study classical history, so this fact was lost upon me. All I remember was that she became a nun after her second marriage. At the top floor of the castle was a little shrine, but I sincerely believe a starbucks would be better...

Lunchtime during the two trips were vastly different affairs. With my host family, Cole and I were taken to a very expensive Italian restaurant in Sannomiya (we're talking about 30 bucks a plate) where we could dine to our hearts content since we weren't paying. With the class trip, however, we had to pay out of your own pockets, so hello cheap-ass tourist cafeteria food! I actually consumed quite a lot of icecream and udon noodles.

The only difference between the two trips was that with the class we went as a group to the gardens just off the castle grounds. The gardens were very small, very Japanese, and had a lot of slugs. The slugs were too gross so I didn't take a picture of them. The garden was nice, lots of fish and water and other things that make you really want to pee. And wouldn't know you it, they kept the bathrooms waaaay out in the front by the entrance so you had to go through the whole thing in order to use the facilities. Oh joy. But now I am castle'd out, and have no intention of ever going to another Japanese one for as long as I live. Or until this year is up. Not sure, haven't decided yet.

Next up: THE AQUARIUM! I went with a Japanese boy to this place, so everyone who knows about it pretty much screamed that it was a date. Though I do rather like said boy (and not because he is Japanese, you sick people. His personality is awesome, even by American standards), I am nearly 100% certain it was not a date. I have an obsession with penguins and he has one with turtles. It evens out into a "let's go to the aquarium!" type of situation.

The Osaka aquarium is called Kaiyukan 海遊館, and it has some baby whale sharks! Ahhh, excitement! However, the entrance fee is hefty, 2,000 yen or approximately 20 dollars. My friends who went the week before me said they were there for a few hours, more than 3. I was there for about 2, perhaps? It was not very crowded but it was very difficult to find a good spot to sit and rest for a time and still see fish from the seat. As you can see, this whaleshark here is a perfect representation of my Aunt Mimi, whose name in Japanese means ear. Yes, ear. Like the one you found in your icecream, auntie. So we hung around the aquarium and then got dinner, after which we returned to my homestay to watch some horror movies. Or, I should say, movies he found scary but I found silly and/or confusing. Oh well, I guess I am not Japanese enough, eh?

Time to talk about.... KOYASAAAAAAAN. This little trip was on Sept 28th, but it actually marked SEVERAL turning points in my life, including the aftermath in which I was introduced to a certain someone (see above). So, essentially Koyasan was a little fieldtrip to the Buddhist Mountain thingy where we were to live with Monks and eat only vegetarian food! According to Janine I have now lived out her escapist fantasy. In my mind, I went through an icy hell of a weekend. Basically, I saw what Buddhism really consisted of: homosexuality (as found in my research on the social history of homosexuality in Japan), lack of flavor in the food, and also rocks. Lots of rocks. Some of them pretty, some of them...I dunno, but they were there for a reason. Generally, they were grave markers, though the names were not often written.

Living in the monastary was definitely a new experience. We stayed in a small one called Ho-on-in, where it was just (about 50 westerners) and 3-4 monks. And the head dude and his family. And the poodle. The food was all vegetarian, and I must admit I am beginning to get sick of tofu. The rooms were seperated according to gender, boys got a big ass room x2 and the girls got smaller side rooms. I was paired with Leila, Val, Julienne and Diana, and we all huddled together for warmth since the futons didn't offer much.

One thing about staying with Julienne: her hair is so long that if she flips it forward she looks like Sadako from the Ring. And guess what she did in the morning? Yep. The Ring crawl. Last thing we all needed at 6 am before the morning chanting and meditations. And I totally fell asleep during those meditations. As in, faceplant into the tatami mat. I was OUT, and even worse, I was in the front row nearest to the head monk dude. Yeah, that was not rude at all!

Essentially, second day was free time to go out and roam around the other temples in the area. For those of you that know me well, you should know that I have less than zero interest in religion. As in, going to the Vatican has no effect on me, so why should going to the greatest Buddhist sanctuary in all of Japan have any effect? I actually was more concerned with getting my paws on some real meat. The moment they gave me the lunch stipend, I ran to the nearest restaurant and ordered some tempura udon, others got katsudon or unagidon. But hey, meat is meat and hot food is hot food. And not tofu is NOT TOFU.

There is a professor at this University named Konishi. He is very....VERY gay. While at Koyasan, he burst into the boy's bathing area and took pictures of them while they were washing. Yes, in the nude. And on the way back on the train we all were given the "treat" of seeing our fellow students in the buff. Needless to say, all the other sensei on the excursion were in shock.

Halloween was also an event to be had, for my friend's experiences please see the young brit's site: http://darlosworld.co.uk/ . As for me, I did not dress up but rather went as me. Only I said I was a whore, much like what my father said to Awate last year about me. But there was a well-dressed banana and a monkey in the mix, in addition to a hello kitty cow and a power ranger.

I just went out with Cole, Julienne, Vanessa and Stephanie to a yakitori shop (super cheap, 280 yen a plate!!) for a few hours before heading back home. I am such a boring soul, but I can't afford to go all-out smashed gaijin in the streets JUST yet. Maybe when I am in Tokyo with Awate and Masa, relive the good old days. If I could remember them. Anyway, that about does it for the blog. I could write more, but my fingers are getting tired. Until next time!

Keiko-sensei

2008-09-29T18:15:00.000-07:00

So, my sensei back at Pitt, Keiko McDonald, died on the 14th of September. Obviously, since I spent a lot of time with her, I was quite sad. Paula, the secretary of the East Asian Languages department, asked me to write a blurb for the scrapbook they were going to give to Mr. McDonald. This is what I wrote:

I first met Keiko-sensei after my first semester at University of Pittsburgh. As I walked through the office door, my first impression was that she seemed a little confused about how to use a Mac computer. A very strange first impression, I know, but it has lasted me two years. I am currently in Kobe, Japan, right now; a place I could not possibly be in without her help in writing my recommendation letters for both the program and the numerous scholarships I applied for. By requesting to have Keiko-sensei write my recommendation letters, I had to take her Samurai Films class in order for her to judge me both as a student and as a Japanese major. I agreed, only to find that the class was full. Keiko-sensei, since it was her class, managed to slip me in by overriding the “Full” label during my registration. Though Westerns and Samurai films are by no means my favorite genres of film, and barring the fact I am much more adept at analyzing works of modern art than moving pictures, I found that I enjoyed the class to a great extent. In retrospect, it may have been the reward candy that she constantly brought in her little suitcase to class. Or the interesting ways she tried to scare people out of the class. For example, her explanation of a cheetah picture chasing a jeep (or was it a rabbit?) was that she was the cheetah, we were the jeep-rabbits, and she would catch us if we left class early. Chasing us until we, the weak little beings, were overpowered by her marathon skills, and upon being caught by the scruff returned to class. I never had the privilege of witnessing this phenomenon, but I sincerely wish I could have. Even with the numerous times I dropped in on her unannounced, I never saw her angry, let alone annoyed, at anyone or anything. But she always, always, looked puzzled as she clicked around on that Mac computer, a cheetah subdued by its own method of prowling about the prey’s academic records. Needless to say, I will regret not being able to walk into that office one last time and suppress a giggle at the sight. I wish I could be there for the funeral, but seeing as Keiko-sensei put me over here in Kobe in the first place, I think I would honor her memory more by just continuing what I am doing: studying Japanese.

Classes and Baseball!

2008-09-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Time for yet another update from yours truly, the insane japanophile.

This week we took a placement test to see where we fit into the Konan University Japanese class system. In America, I am a third year student out of a book called Japanese the Spoken Language, which evidently no other schools use. Therefore, the test came into play. It was a two day affair, with listening, reading, writing and vocal portions. I tested into C-level, out of A-E (A being basic, E being extremely advanced and mostly for those who know Kanji to an abnormal degree). C level is rather...well, let's just say I learned all the grammar and most of the vocab but don't know the Kanji to save my life. 興味？？日付変更線？？？？？？ Just what are these little guys trying to say. I am seriously considering moving up to D class, just because this current one is too easy for a study abroad, however I may want to get tutoring in C-level kanji, to make sure I can keep up with the readings. I just can't handle 50 of these guys a day, it's a little excessive.

My other classes are pretty awesome. I am taking Japanese History with a Russian woman straight out of James Bond, and Japanese Linguistics with a self-loathing Japanese man. Interesting, huh? My other class is called Joint Seminar, which is where I can practice my Japanese debating popular issues with other Japanese students! Today I worked with Naoko and Sawa, and they were really cool, though they couldn't really speak English...Therefore, Japanese all the way! Thomas (the non-English speaking Frenchman) said that I speak Japanese very well, why am I not in E class? Simple: I can talk to my peers, but when it comes to teachers that is a big HELL NO.

I bought a phone. It is awesome. Very very awesome. Period. End side note and moving on to BASEBALL.

For those who don't know, YES Japan has baseball, and YES, they enjoy watching it on TV (unlike most Americans who find it boring with too many commercials). However, the real fun comes in at the ballparks. Jason was fortunate enough to score us some tickets to the sold out match between the Hanshin Tigers and the Hiroshima Cubs (I think they were the cubs, I didn't care though. I was rooting for the Tigers). I went with Jason, Thomas and the 2 Korean girls that also live at Jason's host family's place.

Walking into the stadium, I was overwhelmed but the mass of yellow and black, in addition to the vast amounts of food that the stadium was offering. I ate gyoza and a mango crepe, both of which were delicious. Jason somehow found a KFC, and woofed down a 4 piece basket. The others got yakisoba. The beer of choice of the stadium appeared to be Asahi Super Dry, which I am not a huge fan of but when in Rome, drink like them. Which is not much because they have absolutely no tolderance for alcohol. Asahi Super Dry is....well, dry. As the name implies.

A little backstory on the Hanshin Tigers: They are not the best, but they have a very strong fan following. When the win, the sports bars in Osaka and Kobe offer beer rounds at 10 yen a pint. Yes. 10 YEN, less than 10 American cents!! However, tonight the team lost and many a sports pub goer found themselves reaching for the more expensive brews. There was a point in the festivities, right before 7th inning, where everyone in the stadium began to blow up these very strangely shaped balloons. To my surprise, Yuna handed a pack of these odd items to Jason, Thomas and myself, and said to release them when the girl on the bigscreen said so. That is to say, once the commercials on the big screen stopped playing. COMMERCIALS. In a stadium with posters and marketing ploys everywhere. It was too much, me thinks, but I digress.

I began to blow my little balloon friend up, and then realized what the shape reminded me of: A condom. I will not censor this because everyone agreed. Eventually, the whole stadium was full of people waving these condoms, and children were jumping all over the ones that had a Tiger on the uppermost part. I sat there waving my orange one awkwardly, for I had no where else to put it but in my lap, which lead to some very interesting comments from the gaijin I was hanging out with, but not from the Japanese who seem to not have thought that inflating a condom could be a great joke. College humor. It never fails. See: Louis Archilla and his Rilakuma Condoms.

Looking out over the sea of condoms from Condomania (it's a real store, I have been to 3 branches in order to get a good laugh and by interesting gifts for my more twisted friends), I finally saw the girl pop up on the screen to start the countdown. The balloons were released, and it was one of the more epic moments of my life.

Getting home was an event, for the Limited Express trains were so crowded that people were literally shoved on by conductors, much like the morning rush hour in Tokyo. To me, it was not so bad, but to the others, it was the most wretched thing imaginable. I am also sure my butt made contact with a little Japanese child's face, however I blame the parents for that because I was pushed like a ragdoll to and fro with no control over my feet and their direction. Luckily, Uozaki was the third stop and that is where my host family's house is located. I walked home, still sweating from the heat of the train. My host mother laughed at the sweat pouring from my body, but then again she doesn't go to baseball games and avoids using trains, so sweat is an unknown thing, apparently.

Tomorrow I will finally go to Umeda!! I am so excited, really. Yodobashi Camera is the most amazing electronic store chain in the world, I could spend hours there floating about, and I think I will. Jason said he will come with me, and so did Zoe and Christy. I only hope to find them in the monsterous black hole known as Umeda Station...Until then, signing off.

Some Photos of Kobe

2008-09-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

KOBE, and misc. shots from on top of City Hall...

Here I am!

2008-09-05T23:34:00.000-07:00

And so it all begins, for I have finally arrived in Japan and have very nearly finished orientation.

This week began with some insanity at the airport, namely that Cole and I would have to stay overnight in a hotel near the airport in order to make the flight to Japan that would depart from San Fransisco. This actually turned into our advantage, for we met up with several other study abroad participants while bumming around the airport looking as fabulous as we can at 5 am. After a scare with a plane delay out of O'Hare, it was relatively smooth sailing, minus my ADD on these long flights. And also the flight steward thinking that Cole and I were married and creating a joke that will last the duration of this study abroad.

We had free time when we got to the hotel, and since I had spotted my favorite restaurant chain, Saizeria, in the hotel lobby, I gathered a group to go and eat for cheap there. The program gave us about 65 dollars worth of yen to get us through the week, and that it did. I still have some left over on this fine, fine, insanely hot and humid Saturday. That night I collapsed in a heap in my hotel room, and decided to stay up and meet the other two girls that I would be rooming with for the next few days. One was a British girl from Leeds, Yorkshire, and the other a Buffalo native that happens to be studying in Hawaii at Manoa. They were both nice, and so we eventually fell asleep since jetlag was overwhelming us at that time.

The next day, according to our schedule, we were to have breakfast at 6:30am. An insanely early hour, you say? Nay, for jetlag wakes us up at 5am and then left us with nothing to do for an hour and a half. Wednesday was to be the campus orientation, and with that comes hours of lectures and seemingly needless information thrust upon us. However, there was a light at the end of the tunnel, we just didn't know it at the time...

After the boring orientations, we were placed into groups of 3 ryugakusei (study abroad students) and 3 regular Konan students for the campus tour. My group really sucked, to be honest. They didn't talk and didn't seem to understand the point of taking the dumb ass gaijin around their precious campus. After this horrible showing, we, the dumb ass gaijin, were to witness a showing of 3 clubs the school offered. First was Kendo, pretty cool. Second was the Kenpo club, and I really paid attention to this one because the guy talking about his club was really cute and he knew English. Hayley has since tagged him as my Baby's Daddy, which is a lie, but she was right in that I have 9 months here and that is just enough time to make one. But little does she know I, unlike Japanese women, have birth control! Bwahaha. After this was the rock n roll club, which was insane in that they tried to mosh pit with only 5 people. After this, there was a dance off between these same rockers and the ryugakusei males. At first, it was merely a who is more macho pose off, but it slowly degraded into a pants off dance off of epic porportions. I daresay I saw a bit too much of the bassist at one point. There was also some epic, Braveheart-esque mooning going on, which always leads to a good time.

Second day was much better than the first, mostly because I was starting to get over my jetlag by this point. We scared several kiddies in the train station with our bizarrely blonde hair and pale skins. Today was the day we would get a downtown tour of Kobe with a DIFFERENT group of Konan students. I was pretty lucky, one member of my group was actually a penpal the school assigned me before I arrived here. Her name is Saya, and she is chill in my book. I also hung out with a guy named Hiroshi (also a chill guy), and a girl named Atsuko (so adroable!). They were without a doubt the chillest people I have met thus far here (besides stripper band, of couse). Of course I got their numbers, and I may go to a concert with Hiroshi soon, since we like the same bands.

Friday was the day we met our host families. As if to make us even more nervous than before, they made us wait several hours before they arrived in addition to a ceremony where we were all announced to the group. After this was a luncheon, at which some interesting things happened. One was that I met my friend's dorm support, who promptly threw my friend out of the way to come over and talk to me. I was laughing pretty hard by this point, only to have it happen 3 more times with three entirely different people. Oh well, I guess I walked into that one.

My host family is....much more preppy than I, though quite rich. I have my own floor in the house to myself, my own shower and everything, in addition to being about 20 minutes from the school by foot. Thus far they have been nice to me, but I am sure in some ways I drive them crazy since I am a bit picky and also desperately needed a cellphone, only to have immense confusion when they drove me out to the store and not buy one... Ooops. I met their nephew today, whose name is unfortunately the same as my ex. How ironic.

That is my life in a nutshell thus far, I will post some pictures later!

Soon, it begins...

2008-08-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

And so, approximately one week from today, give or take a few hours, I will make my grand arrival in Japan. I have already heard from my host family and also the University's students that were assigned to help me learn my way around campus and the city. As my friends and family know, this is not my first time in Japan, for I spent the summer of 2008 bobbing around Tokyo, pretending that I knew what I was doing. However, this time I am in a whole new city and in a host family, not apartment, situation. I hope that my flight will be relatively uneventful, but I have a bad track record with flights (one thing sums it up: British Airways from Rome to Newark. I ended up in JFK).

My expectations and goals for this trip are simple, so if anything else were to happen I would be pleasantly surprised.

Expectations:

My host family will be nice
My school will have easy enough classes that I can roam about Kobe freely without the thought of homework looming over my head
The summer will be humid and the winter very mild
I will see my friends
I will gather enough random experiences that I can transform it into a book

Goals:

Climb Mount Fuji like a champ
Attend at least 4 concerts of my favorite bands
Buy a new Gothic Lolita outfit
Go to Club Pure
Make as many friends as possible
Work out often to get in better shape

And so, it will begin on August 31st, arriving on Sept 2nd in Kobe, Japan...A 9 month span in the land of the rising sun.