iamhatmaster

So, I stand now on the morning of my last major trip in Japan for my 6 month study abroad.  I'm packed, I'm prepared, I'm ready.  But, you may ask, where am I going?  Well, to Asuke of course!  Now, I've mentioned Asuke a couple of times in previous posts, but now that it's here, I figure it's time to tell you what I'm going to do there and why Asuke is important to this trip.

Asuke is a small rural town, approximately 10,000 people, in Aichi prefecture, the same one that I am currently staying in.  Located in a natural valley, like many rural towns in Japan are, Asuke is a throwback to the old days of Japanese rice farming and traditional ways, or so it claims.  Asuke is of anthropological note because it has survived as a small village while most all rural towns have been consolidated into larger towns to augment the workforce of the Japanese economic society.  Most rural towns have been modernized, with electronic equipment and less manpower, allowing residents to move to cities.

Asuke is interesting due to the fact that the town is very traditional, in a small town kind of way, and that there is a pseudo-ranch style place, called Asuke Yashiki, which is a living cultural museum.  This is where the people live like they did back in the Edo period, farming, working materials, without technology.  Asuke uses this and several other plans to generate tourism in their small town.  By using these methods, this small town has been able to preserve its local identity while most all other villages have been swallowed by larger cities.

At Asuke, we get to look forward to a series of three homestays, which means that I will be spending several nights with several families.  To be exact, I will be spending two nights apiece with three different familes.  On the off days, we as a group will be staying at the Asuke Community Complex.  We'll get to experience rural family life, along with rural work life in this fashion.

In matter of work, we'll be doing several things.  We'll be participating in several local trades, such as basket-weaving, textile making, and (I am hoping so much!) blacksmithing.  A festival will be going on while we are there, and we will likely get to participate.  We have been told that the custom established with our predecessors in 2007 were given the honor of helping butcher a wild boar for everyone to eat, as the wild boar is Asuke's specialty.

Along with that, everyday activities may find their way into our hands.  This could involve cutting wood, cooking, cleaning, watching children, all manner of fun things.  We will be keeping a field log, and afterward are required for class to write a reflective essay on what we learned and how we can take lessons from Asuke into the American world.

So, that's the overview.  To this date, I haven't gotten an itinerary, but I'll get through some how, some way.  You guys know me, I always fumble through, probably losing things along the way!  Well, gotta finish packing and get under way.  WIsh me luck!  While in Asuke, I will have no internet or computer, so I will be blacked out from America for the next 9 days.  Sorry!  Rural Japan does have a few setbacks.

I'll post on my activities when I get back!  Stay tuned next time for the stunning conclusion to Adam's Adventures in Japan!

Adam

Time for another recap of events in the crazy, mixed up land we call Japan.  Not too long after our graduation ceremony, we began our free time here before we take our final (sob!) trip into Asuke.  Well, what do you do when the timer on the clock runs down?  You look at what hasn't been done yet and say "LET'S DO IT!"  And do it we did.

On February 4th, a Wednesday if I'm not mistaken, I left the dorm for Jinryo station around the time of 8:30AM with my friend Stephanie Hunter.  Stephanie is the youngest of the study abroad group, though she's very smart.  Many people are put off by her wild flights of fancy, but yours truly has those too, so we make a fun duo every now and then.  Well, we got to Home Base (Jinryo Station) and met up with another of our Japanese friends, Yoshida.  Yoshida is a foreign cultures major at Chubu, so he likes to spend his time around foreigners. I guess that means us? (What!  You mean we're not Japanese! Oh, wait. . . . )

Anyway, we met up with Yoshida, waited a few to see if any others wanted to tag along, got bored, and headed out for the main destination, Nagoya.  Well, at this point you may be wondering, "What could Adam possibly have missed in Nagoya?  He's been in to that city over a dozen times, each time to a new place, and he's still got new places to go to?"  Well, yes, there's always something new in Nagoya to do.  So, on with the show!

Being the old world aficionado that I am, I love castles.  As it turns out, so does Stephanie.  She's more into the dressings of the medival world, whereas yours truly is more interested in the arms and armor, but we see common ground most of the time.  Well, we decided that going to a castle here in Japan would be fun, and the most accessible to us is Nagoya Castle.  Haven't been there yet, so why not?

Nagoya castle is one of the larger castles in Japan, being 7 stories above ground and 2 underground.  There are a few larger, such as Osaka Castle, but I was impressed with it.  The roof plates are a bright green today, though since they appear to be copper, they likely did not look that way originally.  On the uppermost roof of the castle are two "dolphins" that are said to be guardians of the family.  I say dolphins with quotations because when you look at these things, they look like a cross between a dragon and a fish.  I say if it has scales, someone is not translating the word correctly.  I've studied enough biology to know that dolphins do NOT have scales.

Nagoya castle stood as one of the central points for the Tokugawa shogunate during the isolationist period, and home to the family after it's removal from power.  Nagoya houses the largest collection of Tokugawa relics from this time, and displays them with frequency at the Tokugawa museum.  Currently, they are displaying the Doll Festival dolls in preparation for Girl's Day in March.

Anyways, we spent about 5 hours here.  We attempted to scale the walls as ninjas would have done (Stephanie's idea) and almost threw Yoshida into the moat (my fault).  All in all, we had a great time, and got a lot of beautiful and interesting pictures of the whole experience.  On the way back, we came by a Noh theater, but the group wasn't interested in going there, so we came back home.  I guess Noh is kind of like opera, it takes an acquiring to like.  That and I bet the Japanese is Way over this guys head.

Now I come full circle to yesterday, February 17th.  Wow, I'm halfway through February already, when did it get this late in the year?  Between taking care of some final preparations for Asuke and finishing up matters with the CIP at school, we managed to organize another castle visit.  This time, we were heading out to one of the twelve remaining original castles in Japan.  Allow me to explain.

Many castles in Japan existed as much as 1000 years ago.  However, since these are homes for feudal lords and emperors, they are prime targets for conquering armies over the years.  Several of the larger ones were destroyed with the Tokugawa establishment of the shogunate in Japan, but many were rebuilt and some new ones during the isolationist period.  However, the bombings in World War II destroyed most all castles, since their colors and size make them easy targets for Allied planes.  So, of all 57 castles remaining standing in Japan, there are 12 which are from their original construction.

The castle we visited was Inuyama Castle (Translated as Dog-Mountain-Castle.  Don't know that it means anything, names often don't in Japan).  Inuyama is a town on the northern edge of Nagoya, and takes about 45 minutes by a few different train lines to get there.  From this point, many of the mountains in what are called the Japanese Alps become visible, so we saw several snowcapped mountains along the way.

Inuyama castle itself was built in 1537 (only 45 years after Columbus first crossed the Atlantic ocean.) and stands as the oldest remaining original construction castle in Japan.  Until recently, it has been the only privately owned castle in Japan as well.  Explanation time again.  During the Tokugawa shogunate and prior to, all castles and lands were owned by feudal lords around the country.  When the Meiji restoration took place and a more bureaucratic merchantile government took form, all castles were given to the state.  However, sometime after that, Inuyama and other were bought back from privately wealthy individuals, though for the last few decades only Inuyama has remained n private hands.  According to my sensei's the castle was sold back to the government recently.

Inuyama is a pretty castle as well, and the layout seemed like that one a lord would make.  Each floor beyond the first had a particular use, and the rooms laid out so they could be easily defended.  The castle is a hilltop castle, making it equally beautiful and challenging to get to.  A significan difference between Inuyama and Nagoya castles that I notices is that with the flatland castle of Nagoya, it is easy to get to see all faces of the castle, while with Inuyama, it was only possible to get to see two faces of the building, as the rest were unmanagable cliffs.

So, I find that I like castles in Japan.  Different from the medival monoliths that are scattered around Europe, but then what isn't in Japan?  I'll probably see more the next time I come back, but I've got a list now, so I won't be forgetting any!

Well, I've got some  last minute things to take care of.  My professor, Dr. Thompson, arrives in Japan today, and tomorrow begins our training into Asuke cultural village materials.  The last trip is almost here!

Well, until next time, this is has been Adventures in Japan!

Adam

Hey everyone!  I've been a busy boy for the past few days, and I've had myself a few adventures along the way, so now that I've got a few minutes to sit, rest, and write, I thought I'd relate the events since February 5th.

February 5th
On Friday, I got up early after a long night of watching scary movies with a bunch of friends here.  Since many students have rental cards for a local video store, we've been getting movies to watch; Since the majority of people who are watching these movies are guys, we get scary movies.  I mean bad ones too, such as Pet Cemetary and Nightmare on Elm Street.  These movies, since they are in Japan, have Japanese subtitles, but since they come from America, are still in English.  This makes them a nice learning tool.

Anyway, the next morning, the morning of the 5th, I got up around 8AM (early for me, not for most people, I know!) and was ready to go about 9AM with Thursday into Nagoya.  I owed Thursday a favor for her coming with me to Osaka last month, and this is what she asked me to do:  Thursday asked me to head to the site of a Fall Out Boy concert and hold her place in line while she went to the airport to get her girlfriend, Dana, who was flying in from America.  So, we rode together in the morning to Jinryo station, the Univerity's home base.  From there, we rode to Chikusa station, where we split up.  Thursday kept on the train for Nagoya, and I hopped onto the subway to go to Shin-sakae, where the concert was to be held.

Arriving about 10 minutes later, I made my way back to the surface (felt like a vampire!) and pulled out the map of the location given to me by Thursday.  Well, said map was not the most detailed, so I picked the most likely direction, counted the number of blocks and traffic lights I would have to cross, and set out.  Well, two blocks straight ahead was a place known as Coco Lulu, and appeared to be a club.  However, the club I was looking for was called the Club Diamond Hall.  To make sure it wasn't on another floor, I walked around the side of building.  This is how I made my first mistake.

This side of the building was named Coco Lulu Part II.  Yes, that was the real name of the second store there.  Coco Lulu Part II, unlike Coco Lulu, had pictures of what services it offered.  There were several pictures of scantily clad women with their faces blurred out.  Also, there were hourly rates offered, and at this point, I knew what was going on.  This was a love hotel!  At this point I said to myself, "Fall Out Boy isn't coming here. . . "  I headed back to Shin-sakae station.

Reviewing my map, I took what seemed the second most likely route, the opposing direction.  Hey, I can misinterpret a map from time to time, so I didn't want to take chances.  I walked forward two blocks.  At this point, I saw a parking lot, two tall office buildings, and a restaurant.  After looking at both buildings, I realized neither was a concert hall.  Strike two.

After returning once again to Shin-sakae, I found on my map the major road for this section of town, and saw it ran in front of Club Diamond Hall.  So, I walked around, found this street.  As I followed it, I came to what I thought must be the right spot.  And guess where I was.  Yes, Coco Lulu, Parts I and II.  I rolled my eyes, and looked at the map again.  At this point it occured to me that the map had lines through the major route, leading to what was supposed to be the club.  Then it dawned on me.  They were MAGNIFICATION LINES!!!

So, I went to the block BETWEEN Shin-sakae and Coco Lulu, and found, of all things, the Apollo Theater.  No, that's not a joke, that was it's name.  After reading the map's address, I believed that I was looking for what was called the Uflex building.  Well, just past the Apollo Theater was the Uflex building.  Hey!  I was getting there.  I looked inside, and the place was dark.  Well, it was still early, they could just be getting ready.  So I went inside.  Strike three.

Inside, there were steps downstairs, and that nagging idea that the club was underground came back to me.  As I decended the stairs, I was worried, since there was no light downstairs as well.  This club spot was getting pretty shady.  At the base of the staircase was a chain with a post saying the words "Danger, No Entry" in Japanese.  Fall Out Boy wasn't coming here.

So, by now I'm getting flustered, so I went to a convenience store just a few paces up the street.  Inside, I noticed a sign outside that said Club Diamond Hall.  Hey, I hadn't stuck out yet!  Getting my strawberry bread and my Red Bull drink, I headed over and looked at it.  Sure enough, on the 5th floor, was the Club Diamond Hall!  I rode up amidst some salarymen, and found the hall.  Success!  Fall Out Boy was playing here!

Now, we moved to phase two.  Thursday and I didn't have a meeting plan for this, and after realizing how random a place this Club was located at, they'd never find me.  Well, since I was only a block away, and no one was lined up, I decided to go, look for them at the station, and walk back to the Club and see if there was a line yet.  After 12 circuits, some 10 mintues a piece, totaling two hours, I finally found them.  By this time, I'd been insulted by salarymen, scared a stationmaster, and was sure that if I kept it up much longer they police would be called in to find an American terrorist harrassing the populace.

I met Dana, who is a very nice girl, and took them to the club.  They remarked at just how hard it was to find it, and laughed at my stories of wandering this shady neighborhood.  We had lunch at a curry shop, and walked around.  I showed them Coco Lulu, and they were glad I hadn't thought to stay there looking for Fall Out Boy.  I showed them the other love hotels, and various parking lots.  This was just not a nice place of Nagoya.  Why was Fall Out Boy here, anyway?  We never found out.

So, about 4PM, Dana was getting pretty jetlagged, so Thursday asked me to bring her back to the dormitory.  She said she'd stay and watch the concert, then come and get Dana and take her to a friend's house to stay the night.  Dana and I rode back, and I signed her into the dorm.  The dorm parents, Mr. and Mrs. Goto, told me in no uncertain terms to have her out by nine.  Well, at 9PM, Kasugai is a ghost town.  By the time 9 o'clock rolled around, no word from Thursday, no where to go, I had to decide what to do.  We stayed put.  About 10PM, Thursday called a friend of mine, Morgan, who loaned me his cell phone for the occassion.  Thursday was almost back, and would be there in just a few.  I told Dana, and she got ready.  About 10:20PM, over an hour later than the Goto's would have liked, Dana and Thursday headed out.  In the words of the Japanese "Shogunai"  which translates to "Oh Well!"

Day 1 was now complete.

February 6th
Yesterday, Thursday asked me to be up and ready to go by 8AM, since the Wakabiashi family, whom Dana was staying with, had to go to work.  I was up and ready to roll in time.  Thursday told me she was wiped out from the concert, which was wild and crazy.  We walked down to the Wakabiashi house, and were invited in.  Wakabiashi is a middle-aged Japanese man, whom Thursday has been tutoring in English.  I'd met him before at New Year's Eve, so I was invited inside with Thursday for breakfast.

We had croissants and fruit, and talked with Mr. and Mrs. Wakabiashi.  About 9AM, we hopped on a bus out of the neighborhood for the train station.  However, this bus went to Kozoji station, which was further away and more costly than Jinryo.  Also, the bus was more expensive, but we were committed, so we vowed to live and learn.

Arriving at Kozoji, we stopped at the Japanese equivalent of Krispy Kream, the Mister Donut shop.  The donuts were very tasty, so I had a second breakfast. ("We had one yes, but what about second breakfast?" Pippin, Lord of the Rings)  We rode the train from Kozoji into Sakae (the real Sakae, not the dark side of town).  Here, we met up with Kaio, who is a great friend of Thursday and I.  Kaio, Thursday, and I have done Karaoke on several occassions, and she speaks almost perfect English.  I was very happy to see her again, since I'm getting ready to leave soon for the homeland.

With the group complete, we took stock and headed out towards the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art.  This is part of a continuing effort of Thursday to "culture" me, since I don't much care for museums or movies or music history, what many consider the bulk of American Culture.  So, inside I took in the sights, and learned a little bit.  The museum had two features, a traveling display of Andrew Wyeth's artwork, and a permanent display of Tokugawa era (the time of the Shogun in Japan).  I think I learned a lot from Wyeth's work, since they showed his drafts of several painting before getting to his finished work.  It showed me the process as opposed to only the finished work.  I find that much more interesting than just the paintings themselves.  Also, while in the museum, Dana and I managed to disturb some Japanese people as Dana showed me her patented Stealth Three Towed Sloth Attack.  Ask me about it when I'm home, I'll explain it more.  Use your imagination for now, but needless to say, it was funny.

So, with the museum done, we made our way to one of our favorite restaurants, Shooters, for lunch.  Thursday and I have gone weekly for almost a month now to Shooters.  There are two reasons behind this: the service is both in English and very fun (Juan and Jim are awesome guys!), and they serve American food.  So, Dana, Kaio, Thursday, and I all had a great time there, with nachos and club sandwiches and Mountain Dew.  Yummy!

From here, we felt that we had to educate Dana in one of the cultural activities of Japan: KARAOKE!  We made our way towards Fushimi, the next district of Nagoya, to find a karaoke shop.  On the way, we stopped at a manga shop, and a piano store.  The pianos were on par with most artwork I've seen in Nagoya.  We arrived at the Karoake building, and booked a room for a couple hours.  After singing, dancing, and partying, we were sore throated and tired.  But, as always, we had an amazing time.  I love to sing, though I never do it well.  The girls didn't mind!

After that, we had to let Kaio make her way home, and we were getting pretty beat up from walking and trucking around town for two days straight.  We made a couple shopping stops, and then hopped on the JR train homeward.  The girls got off at Kasugai, since they were meeting Mr. Wakabiashi for dinner, and yours truly keep on riding to home base, Jinryo Station.  A short bus ride, and I was back home.

About 2 hours later, Thursday came back to the dorm, having had dinner and gotten Dana situated at the Wakabiashi home.  She gave me a package of sushi from the Wakabiashi's when she got inside, telling me that they had expected me to come along and wanted to make sure that I didn't go hungry tonight.  Japanese people are SOOO polite!  So, with some sushi to munch on, and worn out completely, I crashed, ending Day 2.

February 8th
This morning was a later start time, about 9AM.  After getting showered and geared for another day, I met Thursday and we made our way to Wakabiashi's house.  I thanked them quickly for the sushi they gave me, and we had a second breakfast with the family.  Wakabiashi is a nice man, as I have said.  He's also very knowledgeable, having taught himself English and Ancient Greek as part of his own studies, and knowing much of his own country's culture and history as well.  So, after eating and getting ready, he took us in his car out to Jinryo station. 

From here, we took a train out to Ozone, the shopping district of Nagoya.  Here, we were bound for our second museum, this one a little different.  The museum we went to was the Tokugawa Historical Museum, established by the family that served as Shogun to Japan's Emperor for over 200 years.  The family had acquired many historical materials and kept them preserved, regardless of the Meiji Restoration and World War II and other military incidents.  After World War II, they established the museum as a part of showcasing the history of Japan and the Edo Period.

Outside the museum is a large garden, featuring several bridges, waterfalls, and many flowering plants and trees.  Since Japan has had a strangely warm and mild winter, the flowers and trees were still in bloom, making it a very beautiful walk.  The Japanese also have a way with parks, making them flow and wind gracefully, which creates a refined but natural experience.  I always love the parks in Japan, so this was a fun thing to see with the Wakabiashi family, Dana, and Thursday.

Inside, the museum has everything from period arms and armor to tea ceremony materials to traditional Noh theater.  Noh is the oldest reamaining form of theater in Japan, and is done on a single stage with masked figures.  Noh plays are typically tragedies, though an occasional short comedy is thrown in.  I find Noh beautiful, the expression being subtle compared to Kabuki, and the music more pure.  Music in Noh and Kabuki is done in vocal, drum, and flute, though both styles of theater bring different musics into use in their plays.

One thing we did not expect to be at the museum was a traveling Hinamatsuri exhibit.  Hinamatsuri is the yearly Japanese Girl's Festival, and features minature girl dolls.  The dolls are giving to female children at a young age, about 1 year old or so, to protect them as they grow into women.  Where dolls come into play, so do miniatures of almost everything, and the exhibit had some of the most amazing miniatures I have ever seen.  There was everything from dollhouses to game boards to shells to clothing.  Absolutely anything that a person could want to go with a doll, along with a massive amount of dolls themselves, were present.  I found it very impressive.

From here, the Mr. and Mrs. Wakabiashi headed back to Kasugai to do some house work, and we were left to our own devices.  So, what were our devices you ask?  Our original plan was to head to Nagoya Castle, which sounded great to me.  However, two things side tracked this plan.  The first was that we were all tired, and getting more so as we walked.  The second, and by far more important factor, was that we came across a Domino's Pizza store!  Now, Thursday and myself have not had real, American pizza in almost 5 months, and were not going to be stopped from this for any force in Japan.  If an army of undead samurai invaded the city and the hopes of salvation lied with us, the city was done for, we were getting pizza!

With our tasty treat in tow, we turned our sights onto a much closer target, the Nagoya Dome.  Nagoya Dome is where the Nagoya Dragons baseball team play during the season, and is bordered by a large, populous shopping mall of the same name.  We wandered around the shopping mall for a while, and about 3:30PM we made our way back to the station to head home.  Well, sort of.

When we got to Jinryo station, we were picked up by Mr. and Mrs. Nakabiashi again, and they took us to Valor, the food store in Kasugai.  What I was only vaguely aware of was that Dana was planning on making dinner for the family tonight, and after last night it was made clear that the family would be offended if I did not attend, so I was only too happy to come along.  After gathering ingrediants at Valor, we were chauffeured back to the Wakabiashi home.  Here, Dana and Thursday, with some occassional assistance by yours truly, made an Irish dish called Shepherd's Pie.  I found it pretty tasty, and the Wakabiashi's said it was very different but very excellent as well.

After dinner, Mr. Wakabiashi asked me to do something for him when the girls got back from Osaka.  Every February the 3rd, the Japanese home endures a particular ritual in which the father or male elder dresses as an Oni (demon) and is thrown from the house.  This is to protect the house from demons and bad luck, and keeping good luck in.  The Oni is assaulted with soybeans, for reasons unknown to me, and dramatically made to leave.  As stated, this would normally fall to Mr. Wakabiashi.  However, he asked me to do it for his home this year!  I was honored, and said I would be glad to do.  Thursday said she'd be glad to pelt me with soybeans, to which I laughed.  So, come next Saturday, I will get a cape and a demon mask and get pelted with soybeans after invading the house.  Sounds like a great time!

After this, I arrived back once again at my room, and now prepare for my trip to Asuke in the week after this next week.  I'll post soon as to what the plan is for Asuke, and give some background on the location and what will go on here.

Until then, this has been another installment of Adam's Wacky Adventures in Aichi, Japan.  Don't touch that dial, we'll be right back after thies unintelligable commercials!

Adam

Quote of the Day - "I really don't think Fall Out Boy would be coming to a love hotel without a pretty good or pretty shady reason.  I'm just saying." Adam Link.

Well, a lot has happened since I last put up a post for my journal.  Last week, on Tuesday, I completed my last final of my undergraduate career.  This was also my last day of classes for the undergraduate program for me.  I have only one thing left to do before my last work is in for school, and that is the Asuke trip.  I'll get to that in a minute.

On Thursday of last week, we had a closing ceremony for the 6 month Ohio University students here.  We were each given a certificate which states:

        "This is to certify that the person named above (Adam Link) has completed the requirements of the Center for Japanese Studies at Chubu University, Aichi, Japan, during the period from September, 2008 through January, 2009.

                                                                                                                                                               President of Chubu University, Yamashita Okitsugu"
I think it'll look nice alongside my diploma from school.  These certificates were given to us by the head of the study abroad program, and we got several photographs with them and our Sensei's.  After this, we went to the Center for International Programs for sushi, speeches, and a general hobnobing.  The sushi was amazing, the speeches fastly spoken in Japanese, and the hobnobing pretty normal.  All in all, a good day.

     A couple days ago, while I've been here relaxing, another bit of good news trickled in from Stateside.  Annie's sister, Mary Jane, had a baby girl as of January 29th, 2009, named Caitlyn Jane Keffer, who is eight pounds, seven ounces, and nineteen and a half inches long.  Not only that, she's a cute little baby with bright blue eyes (from what I can see in pictures) just like her sister.  My congratulations and hopes of good health go to the whole family.

    Next, everything coalesced today so I could finish the application process.  I woke up and received a pair of emails.  The first came from Becky, a great friend and awesome professor from OU saying that she had finished and mailed my letter to school, making 2 completed letters sent.  The second email was from Ueda-sensei, asking me to come into the University to give me the final letter she had written for me.  So, I finished up my statement of purpose (thanks for the editing Momma!) and headed up.  I printed that out, put it in an envelope with the letter from Ueda, and mailed it out to the USA along with some packages heading to the house.
    
      Therefore, as of today, I have completed the graduate school application process!  Now it is up to the University to decide if they want me.  I also received a letter today, telling me my GRE scores.  I achieved a 480 verbal score (55%ile range), a 650 quantitative score (60%ile range) and a 5.0 composite analytical writing score (78%ile range).  So, with that in mind, I scored better than about 60% of my fellow GRE test takers, making me a decent scorer.  And I took the test in with only 3 weeks preparation! Hah!

     Well, that means that the vast majority of things I've been working on up to this point have been completed!  Classes are done, I'm all applied to graduate school, and now begs the question: "What do I do now?"  Well, never fear, there's never a dull moment, and I've already got plans to take care of my remaining time in Japan.  On Wednesday (that is to say tomorrow) I'm going with some friends in to see the Nagoya Castle, which will be my 4th(?) castle I've seen in Japan.  The day after, I'm going in to Nagoya to return a favor to Thursday.  Thursday's best buddy Dana is coming in from America on the same day that Thursday has tickets to see a Green Day concert, so I'm going to hold her place in line while she gets Dana from the airport and gets her safely to a hotel to sleep.  Yes, that transcontinental Jetlag is terrible!

      Friday, I'm planning to head in to Nagoya with Thursday and Dana to visit some museums and hit a few restaurants, most notably of which is the Nagoya Hard Rock Cafe.  Also, somewhere in the midst of all that, we're planning on going out to Karaoke, since both Thursday and Dana are great singers and yours truly enjoys slaughtering a few songs himself!  I digress, I'm tonedeaf, but I love Karaoke, and the girs don't seem to mind, so why not!

      Saturday, I think there's a plan, again with Thursday and Dana, to head in to Nagoya Castle (hey, haven't I been there?) and to go out shopping and to a few nice restaurants as well.  After that, the girls head out to Osaka (massive city!) and I'm back here alone for the most part.

     For the next week, I'll be practicing my Japanese and preparing for the Asuke Homestay.  On February 18th, Dr. Thompson will be flying in from America to take us through the pre-departure orientation for Asuke.  For those not in the know, Asuke is a small rural village, approximately 9000 people in size, in the western segment of Aichi prefecture.  I'll be staying in a home for 9 days with two friends, James and John, and taking part in some traditional Japanese cultural activites and exploring the life of the anthropologist.  As for the daily details of Asuke, I'm not sure yet, once I know, I'll turn it into a riveting story and put it up online.  Hopefully there will be some dragonslaying going on, but hey, you can't have everything!

    Other than that, there's not much left.  Some last minute shopping and pondering how to fit everything I have into my suitcases and still have enough room to pack my clothes.  Pretty standard.  We get back from Asuke on the 2nd of March, leaving a few days prior to the departure for America for a post of my adventures there.  Since Asuke has no internet connections, my fans will just have to wait til I can get back to civilization to write about my adventures.

     So, that's the current news.  If I have some more adventures I'll let you all know!  I hope everything is well stateside, and that everyone is enjoying the wonderful winter weather.  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Adam

Hey everyone.  I've been avoiding the grand adventures for the most part since my trip to Osaka.  Needless to say, those trips take a lot of energy out of you, and it takes a while before you're ready to tackle another one.  I suppose it was easier when we first got here, what with the massive preparations and escorts and all, we were practically guided like children through all these wonderful places.  But when you do it on your own by the skin of your teeth and the wherewithall of yourself and a good friend, you get wiped out.

That isn't to say I haven't been up to things since the trip.  With the GRE finished, I finished my online application and have moved into the final phase of the application process.  All that is remaining for me to do to complete my application and begin praying to get into the school is get my professors to send in their letters of recommendations to the university for me.  I've talk to all three I'm asking letters from, and they are all on the job to get them done for me in time.  I love my professors, without a doubt.  They all deserve medals, or at the very least, fruti baskets.

So, with the major task of completing the grad school application, I must now turn my attention to finals.  I have six finals remaining, with one completed already.  Each day of class remaining has a final in it, and seem to be progressively more difficult each day.  Next Monday I have a Japanese affairs final, Tuesday has the Composition final, Wednesday is the Reading final, and Thursday the Listening final.  So, my ability to understand Japanese culture along with my Japanese writing, reading, and listening comprehension will all be brought to a final point this coming week.  The next week, on Monday I have the Grammar final, probably my hardest one, followed by my Speaking final on Tuesday.  I took my Vocabulary final yesterday, which went well.

And with that, I've been plunging into the studies and won't likely arise for much more than a weekend jaunt here or there, as I did today.  A group of girls here in the program went to see the Japanese rendering the ABBA musical "Momma Mia!", one of whom was my travel buddy and lifeline Thursday.  When I got back from some optional classes this morning, I had an invitation to join them in Nagoya after the play for bumming around the city, and I figured I won't have much chance over the next few days to do much, so it seemed a good idea.  I made the approximatel 45 minute trek into the city, and ended at the Fushimi station, where she said to meet me, right about the time she said, 4PM.

Well, I got there and covered most all of Fushimi station in about 5 minutes, and there was no sign of here.  After a second circuit, I still had no sign of her.  With no cell phone, I have no way of contacting her, so I found a bench and sat down.  After about 40 minutes, Thursday came around behind me and said that the play went longer than she thought.  Oh well, at least we met up, I've had the unfortunate event of getting stuck in Nagoya without someone to meet before.  Not fun, see my prior posts for that adventure.

So, we set off to see a history museum nearby.  Thursday and I have a history buff component built into our programming, so it sounded like a fun thing to do.  However, since we took so long in getting there (i.e. - a 40 minute wait in Fushimi) the museum was closed.  Well, what does any pair of self respecting college students residing in a foreign country do when the museum is closed?  Um, I'm not sure, we decided to grab some food.  We made a trip to Shooters, which is a bar and grill place similar to that of Hard Rock Cafe.  Since the restaurant is operated in a major city in a very multinational district, we had a pair of non-Japanese waiters to take care of us.

Juan was the first we met, and he took care of our meals for the night.  Juan is from Spain, and speaks Spanish, English, and Japanese as far as we know.  He had a rather thick accent, and was a very humorous individual.  Thurday had a club sandwich, and I had a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich.  And let me say, any food after 5 months of Japanese cuisine daily tastes gourmet, and this was no exception.  We were very satisfied with the food and the service, so it is definitely a place to check out in Japan.

After we met Juan, we met Jim.  Jim is a fellow American, though I didn't catch what state he was from.  He came over here to live with his wife, who is Japanese.  Jim took care of our bill, and he and Juan were very funny together.  Thurday, having sampled the mixed drinks and such, was having a great time and fueling the humor herself.  At one point, as we were sorting out the tabs between Thursday and myself, Jim said "I have no clue what this Spaniard is saying, this obviously isn't the bill we need."  We broke out laughing, and all around had a good time.

After that we did some small shopping and headed home.  I'll probably be glued to my books and papers for the next few days, but if any random adventures crop their way into my days here over the next few weeks, I'll be sure to put in another installment of Adam's Adventures in the Land of the RIsing Sun.  Hope all is well stateside,  miss you all, time is drawing closer for me to come home, things are starting to wrap up!  Take care everyone!

Adam
 

As was indicated in my graduate school post a few weeks ago, I'd planned to take the GRE here in Japan in order to give myself a shot at getting into graduate school.  When I went online to register for the test, there were about 3 locations I could choose to take the test in.  Osaka, Tokyo, and Tokyo (2 test locations in Tokyo).  Wanting to avoid the capital city, I chose the closer destination of Osaka.  After that, I began preparing.

For those who don't know, the GRE (Graduate Record Exam)  is designed to rate a student's current capability to sufficiently understand the English language, perform high school level mathematics, and cogently analyze arguements and create persuasive statements.  The math and language are handled in a multiple choice format, composed of analogies, antonyms, sentence completion, and math problems.  The argument and persuasion components are handled in the form of essays, one for each style of question.  I personally find this a rather lackluster way of rating someone's ability for graduate school, and think the test should be reformed or removed.  But, since I don't make the rules and only follow them, I happily paid the fee and took my test.

So, step one in getting to take this test is getting from my city, Kasugai, to Osaka.  Shouldn't be too hard, hop on a train, hit the right station, walk to the site, take the test.  Simple?  Heh, wishful thinking.  As I looked for directions and asked my sensei about this trip, I found that there would be a lot more to it in the process of getting there than meets the eye.  So,  I continued to research, found the street names and such, and asked my friend, Thursday, to come along.  She agreed, since we don't have classes today, and I was willing to pay for her trip to join me.  (Thanks for the idea Mom!) We met at 8AM yesterday, and headed down to the bus station here on campus.  The bus is a cheap and quick way to get to Jinryo station, our base of operations for the JR train lines.

Once at Jinryo, we went to the opposing side of the station.  According to our sensei, there was to be a box that sold discount tickets for trips to different locations, including Osaka.  Well, as it turned out, this thing wasn't as easy to find as he made it out to be.  We walked to the post office, right near by, and past, and saw no box.  Thursday asked a passing couple if they knew where the ticket machine was.  I'm a little more hesitant of asking random people where things are than she is, but she gets the job done faster.  They told us we had passed it, and pointed it out to us.  We had passed it, mistaking it for a cigarette machine.  We got there, and looked at it, and saw the Nagoya to Osaka train.

"We should get the ticket to Nanba, I think.  King-sensei said it was cheaper and the better way to go." Thursday said.

"Nanba?  Is that in Osaka?  Are you sure?" Doubting Thomas that I am askes.

As we stumbled about this question, the same couple we had asked a few moments before drove up and showed us the difference between the two tickets.  The Osaka tickets were for the Shinkansen (bullet train) and about twice as much.  The Nanba tickets did go to Osaka, and were the limited express train.  Thank you Japan for your polite people!  We grabbed the tickets, which came out in a little brown envelope suitable for a detective mystery story, and headed back toward Jinryo.

"You were going to do this by yourself?  You'd be halfway to Gifu by now, wondering where the stupid machine was!"  Thursday says to me.

"That's probably true, but who would have thought buying tickets for a train would feel so shady."  I replied.  We laughed.

After that, we had to hop on a train to Nagoya.  Nagoya was in the opposite direction, but it was the place we had to get our connecting train at.  Once we were there, we had to plumb the depths of Nagoya station, finding a second basement level that housed these express trains.  We got our tickets, grabbed some lunch, and headed down to the train.  We boarded about 10AM, and rode the train out into the west.  Let me say that the scenery between Nagoya and Osaka is very beautiful, with wide plains, snow-capped mountains and valleys.  So, after a couple hours on this nice train, in airplane style seats, we arrived at Nanba station.

Now, Nanba station is in Osaka, but is in a different district that that of Osaka station.  So, we hopped off, looked around and found a map of the subway system for the city.  As we were looking a Japanese woman asked us in English if we needed help.   She was a train clerk and was there to help passengers get to their proper destinations.  Her English was better than most I've encountered, and she pointed us to the right track we needed.  However, she said we had to get off at the Umeda stop.  Why Umeda?

Thursday and I debated if we should be getting off at Umeda, or ride to Shin-Osaka, which connects quickly to Osaka station.

"Let's trust the Japanese people who do this for a living Adam."  I've learned that arguing with some women is equivalent to asking a bee not to sting you as you swat at it.  Best not to, especially when they have a track record of being right.  Makes it more fun, too, when they're wrong!

So, we get off at Umeda, and walk up to the street level.  Looking behind me, we see the station is named Osaka Station.  Point to Thursday and the Japanese woman.  Umeda, as it turns out, is the name of the street which is in front of the station.  Odd.  I'd heard the name before, I thought.  Regardless, I was running low on time, 12:30, and pulled out my directions for walking to the test site.

"Thursday, you're gonna hit me for this one.  Check out my directions for getting to the test site."  I handed her my paper.  My 2nd direction states as thus, "The street in front of Osaka station is Umeda.  Turn left onto this street and follow forward."  Yep, that's what I'm capable of.

"You jerk!  Why didn't you show me this about an hour ago on the train?"

"Didn't think about it.  They're walking directions after all." She rolled her eyes and swatted my shoulder, and we moved on.

We headed out, and arrived with 15 minutes to spare for my exam.  Thursday headed out into the city, finding places to go.  I headed to the 7th floor, and took my test without a problem.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I had one little glitch.  The first thing they asked me as I entered the door was if I had my passport.  Mmmm, no.  My sensei's and advisors said that once we had our alien registration card we shouldn't use our passport, since it is a more sensitive document.

"Do you have anything else?" I have a face I've learned from my mother which came out there for a second, where my eyebrows furrow and I drop my head forward a little and frown.  I luckily carry all my ID's in my card case, and placed my OU student ID, my Chubu ID, and my Ohio Driver's license on the table.  They looked at the four cards, and took my Alien card and my Driver's License.  Right, the Driver's License.  Why not?  So, that went off without a hitch after that point.  From the preliminary scores, I did about 70 percentile range, with my strongest component not yet graded, my writing.  I think that's good enough to get me to grad school, so mission accomplished.

About 4PM (2AM in America) , I met up with Thursday, who was sporting a new MP3 player (her last broke a few weeks back).  We walked around for a few minutes, and headed towards a building next to the station.  This building was actually a very odd thing.  It was a multistory mall with a Ferris Wheel on the top of the building.  Right, only in Japan would you think to build a Ferris Wheel, not on the ground, but ontop of a building.  So, we rode the elevator up and hopped on.

This was actually the second Ferris Wheel that Thursday and I decided to tackle.  The first was in Sakae (suburb of Nagoya) on Christmas Eve.  This one rose about 150ft (I think, not sure) off the building, giving a view of all of Nagoya around you.  The Ferris Wheel we rode yesterday dwarfed this one, and rose us about 320 feet above the 7th floor of this building.  Wow!  Now, on to Osaka.  From the top of the Ferris Wheel, we could see the entire city.  This requires a bit of perspective, though.  In the distance, probably between 7 and 10 miles distant, were mountains from west to north to east.  In EACH direction, at the base of these mounains, were buildings.  The buildings ran from there to where we were, everything from beginning to end was part of this city.  It was just immense, awe-inspiring that this city was a big as it was.  I've never seen a city of the size from that height, and it impressed me substantially.

So, after our ride we hit up a few stores, an arcade, got some pictures at a photo booth to commemorate our insane trip, and made our way to the station.  The trip back was uneventful, leading us to get back to Nagoya around 10PM, and Kasugai about a quarter til 11PM.  By this point, the bus we rode in the morning had quit running, so we walked the mile or so home to the dormitory, getting in about 11:30 PM. 

And that catalogs our massive day of traveling, adventure, and oddity.  We came out a little wiser for the experience, and I'll be putting pictures up soon to show you all what I mean of this city.  Hope all is well at home, I've got to finish up this whole graduate school application process while preparing for finals over the next few weeks.

What will happen next time in the adventures of Adam in Japan?  Stay tuned to find out!

Adam

Hi Everyone!  I know, I know, I've not posted in a while, and I've been meaning to post about New Year in Japan.  Needless to say, I'm a little busy with graduate school applications and school work, and trying to avoid my annual winter depression bout.  I love snow, but grey skies and constant bone piercing cold isn't necessarily on my highlight reel for a time of the year.  But enough complaining about what is far beyond my control, at least until I invent that doomsday device that controls the weather and brings the world to its knees (Mwahahaha!)

So, New Year's Eve in Japan.  Well, in lieu of the standard party and drinking bonanza that my friends think necessary, being OU students and all, Thursday and I decided to follow a more worldly approach and did New Year's the Japanese way.  After all, we're in Japan, why not?  Thursday and I went to a friend of her's for the beginning of New Year's Eve, whose name is Waka.  Waka and his wife were willing to let us come into their home, and gave us the traditional Japanese meal of Soba noodles.  You can get soba noodles around the year in Japan, but they are specifically called for only on New Year's Eve.  The long noodles are supposed to represent long life and good health.  The dish is eaten with lots of soy sauce and served cold, which was very delicious.

After that, we bundled up and headed out again.  The second thing that the Japanese do on New Year's Eve, almost as soon as it hits midnight, is go to a shrine.  Depending on which is either more important to the family, or simply the closest one, the Japanese always go to a shrine.  As a whole, Japanese are consumed with the concept of purity of spirit and the expulsion of bad luck and evil spirit.  Many customs built into holidays around the year and throughout the Japanese life are concerned with purifying the body and soul.  Whenever you enter a shrine, you must first purify your hands and mouth with water. Needless to say, it's very important here.

So, off to the shrine.  We arrived just before the crowd hit, and were able to reach the shrine fairly quickly.  About 10 minutes after arriving, there were about 200 people in line to reach the shrine, so we were glad to get there when we did.  Just next to the shrine was a bonfire, being tended, as is typical, by a large (relatively) Japanese man with a big stick.  Why is it that whenever there's a fire, there's a big guy with a stick to poke at it in arbitrary and often inconsequential ways?  Oh, wait, because it's fun!

After giving a New Year's prayer at the shrine, we recieved some free sake, again to purify the body.  Sake is seen as holy water in Shinto, and has a powerful internal purifying effect when giving by priests.  It is used in Shinto wedding ceremonies, and most other ceremonies relating to new beginnings.  So, our shot of sake in hand, we gathered around the fire.  Thusfar, I can't complain.  What chemist doesn't enjoy seeing rapid oxidation of carbon based polymer systems?  (Yes, I'm a nerd, but it's what I do. . . )

Now, what could make this night better?  That's right, throwing things in the fire!  Hey, not me though, I was the safe one this time around.  The Japanese buy talismans each year, and keep them at home to protect from bad luck.  After a year has passed, the items are then burned, to release the bad luck stored in them and purify them, so the next batch can do the same.  So, there were dozens of people tossing items in bags and things into the fire, which brought no end in delight to us.  Kids burned bad tests to pray for a better year of studies, adults burn talismans protecting homes, old men burned shriveled trees for absolutely no reason that I know of, what's not to love!

Let's recap then night then.  We ate a delicious meal, went to a shrine and prayed for a happy New Year, drank some free sake, and watched a large group of Japanese intentionally burning things.  Sounds like a party to me!  After that, Thursday and I headed back to the dorm, called home (from the Future!) and watched a movie before hitting the hay.  I think the Japanese have found a good way of doing New Year's, though next year I look forward to the good old fashioned American way (You owe me a party Ryan Hodges!)

So, until my next adventure (which is soon!) I bid you all farewell!

Merry Christmas!  I've been out and about in the big city of Nagoya this Christmas, an interesting way to spend the holiday.  I'm a little sad to say that Christmas in Japan isn't quite the holiday that it is in America, which is a bit of a shame.  But, as the great storyteller Mr. Seuss said, "Christmas doesn't come from a store.  Christmas, perhaps, means something more." 

I've found Christmas all around, hidden about in little places and in some ways that I hadn't thought I'd see in this country.  I went out with my friend Thursday on Christmas Eve into Sakae (a suburb of Nagoya) and the first thing we stumbled across was a children's orchestra.  The director had a Santa suit on, and the kids were playing Christmas carols!  There was a choir doing the songs in Japanese, but we graced them in our own way with some English lyrics.  I was just glad to hear the sounds of Christmas, as one of my favorite things is the Christmas songs at Church each year.  This is the first time without them, and I sincerely missed them, but hearing the children singing some of my favorites brought a little bit of the spirit back home to me.

Tonight, Christmas Day, we gathered, what to an outsider would be strange, amalgam of individuals.  We had our friends from Ohio, a friend from Malaysia, a friend from Australia, and a friend from Korea all sat around and watched the film Love Actually.  I personally love this movie, though it is more tailored for the current generation.  I has it's cheesey moments, sure, but the stories bring a little more of that Christmas feel home to me.

With that and getting a nice package of cookies from my niece and nephew (unbroken from the trans-Pacific flight!) made my time spending Christmas in Japan a little more like home.

So, from the Eastern Hemisphere, 14 hours ahead of you all, I wish you a Merry, Happy, Unique Christmas, and an even more pleasant and wonderful New Year.

Adam

So, just when I thought I had things well in hand and was ready to relax and enjoy the remaining time I have traveling and seeing Japan, another problem decides to come up and bite me from behind.  This time, it is something about as crucial as the JLPT, but possibly more so.

As many of you know, I'm planning on attending graduate school come August this year.  I've looked around, and pretty much decided upon the University of Cincinnati as my school of choice for their graduate program in Chemistry.  I want to do the straight to Ph.D route, which will give me a Ph.D in four years time, while letting me live at school on a stipend without paying tuition (Chemistry is good to me!),  So, I've been trying to put together plans for what I need to do once I get home.  While doing so, I found the biggest snag I could possibly have managed for myself.

The graduate school at UC accepts applications year round, and I figured as long as my application was in by May that I would get into school alright.  Well, upon further study of the UC Chemistry program, I learned that the Chemistry board reviews applications once a YEAR, and guess when that is?  You got it, February 15th is the deadline for reviews!  So, what does this mean for Yours Truly?  Right, I have to complete the graduation application for the university and college by the middle of February.

Now, that sounds bad enough right?  Coordinating letters of recommendation, transcripts, and the like from overseas, might be a bit challenging, but it is able to be done.  What would make things EVEN harder?  Hey, let's try to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) while in Japan!  Oh Joy to the World!

SO, I've got a fun process to go into.  I've registered to take the GRE here in Japan, and yes, I can do that.  I've got a study book coming, and I'll have about 3 1/2 weeks to prepare for this test.  On January 11th, at 1PM, I take the test.  Oh, one last detail.  I have to travel to Osaka, which is about 4 hours by standard train, 1.5 hours by Shinkansen, in order to take this test.  Lovely, no?

Well, that's what's before me now, and after THAT, I can relax for a bit (maybe).

Other than that, I've got a few sad things to report to the general populace.  Firstly, two of my friends have returned to America.  We went out on Saturday night, and had a nice party at a local restaurant, and had a lot of fun.  Sunday morning, we said a tearful goodbye and told each other that we would find everyone once we made it back to America.  I'm sad to see them go, Jessie and Ike are good friends and wonderful people, and in many ways were essential to this group here studying in Japan.  I'll be glad to see them once I get home.

The other piece of sad news is that our family dog, Dakota, passed away this last week.  Dakota had reached 10, about the end of the lifespan for Siberian Huskies, and lived a long full life as part of our family.  Her downturn was sudden and, unfortunately, unstoppable.  I'll miss her always, especially when I come home.  Every time I've come home from school, the first one I see, always, has been Dakota waiting for me in the garage.  This will be the first time in a decade that I won't have her waiting to see me when I get home, and it's going to be hard on me most then.  I'll miss her, as much as I'd miss any old friend gone away.

So, that's the news.  Some hectic, some sad, but such is the way of things.  Hopefully, my next post will have happier news, or at least, something less panicked!

Hope everyone is well,  I miss everyone, see you soon enough!

Adam

Yes, it's true.  The manic, four week barrage of maddness has finally ended.  The preparations for the JLPT, the Shogako Homon, the Seto trip, we've had so much going on.  Well, we're coming up to the final culmination of the 3 month program.  The Japanese standardized language proficiency test (JLPT) took place last Sunday.  A little background on the JLPT.  There are four levels to said test.  Level 4 is the lowest, simplest test.  This test most anyone who has studied Japanese at the college level can pass.  The third level, which yours truly took, is more intensive, and certification for passing means the student is at about the equivalent of high school Japanese language profieciency.  Level 2 is vastly more difficult, and passing means the student is at about a college level native proficiency of the language.  Level 1 is drastically difficult, and shows that the student is a fluent reader, speaker, and listener.  As I said, I've hit the 3rd level, and may have passed the test.  I won't know for a while still, but I'll let everyone know once I do know.

But, everything we've been doing so far has been in preparation for either the JLPT or the Shogako Homon.  With these now complete, the 3 month program is nearing its end.  However, this brings about a little sadness to our study abroad group, as the 3 month students have to begin packing and getting ready to head home.  Two of our group, two friends I've gotten to know, are heading home on Sunday.  Jessie, a small and very bubbly friend, and Ike, who is nicknamed the Lumberjack, are both kind and fun people.  After 3 months together, they are friends, and I'll be sad to see them go.  But such is the nature of these trips, and we'll be sure to get together once we get back stateside.

So, what awaits us now that we've finished these two milestones?  Well, needless to say, not too much.  We have a week before the university begins its winter vacation.  We have from Dec. 23 - Jan 4th off, and I'm currently working on plans to travel for that time.  From January 5th through January 28th consist of our final weeks at Chubu as students.  January 28th is the graduation ceremony for the 6
month students, though our six months are far from over.  This is mainly due to the closing of the winter semester for Chubu, so yours truly has finished his first, and possibly only semester at school.  Somewhere in there is a whole series of exams, some seven odd exams I believe, but that's the way of it.

So, after that we have another break.  From January 29th to February 16th holds another break for us.  What I'm doing, I don't know.  I may just take time off and study, I may travel, I may go walkabout in the hills of Japan, who knows?  We have a few days of preparation once break ends, and then we have 11 days, from Feb. 20th to March 3rd is the Asuke Homestay program.  11 days in a culturally rich small Japanese town under the roof of a Japanese family.  I'm vastly intimidated, but after my last homestay program, I'll be alright.  There's a lot to do for that, and it'll go fast.  After that, we pack up, and come home on the 5th!  So, things are starting to wind down, but there's still a lot to do before yours truly comes back stateside.  I hope this helps everyone get more of an idea on my itinerary for the rest of my time here.  I'll be sure to keep taking pictures and putting up posts.  Hope all is well at home!

Adam

For those reading the title of this post and saying "Huh?" the phrase translates as thus:  Shogako stands for Elementary School, and Homon stands for visit.  So, what does this visit entail for those of you not so keyed into the everyday workings of my life?  Well, let me tell you.

For the past few months, we have known that we were making a visit to a series of Elementary schools here in the various neighboring districts of Nagoya.  Keep in mind that Nagoya is a lot like Cleveland or Detroit, with several component cities and districts.  Everyone was told upon reaching Japan that they were to participate in this program, though those of us in the OU study abroad program knew as of last May.  We were told to pick a topic that we were interested in that pertained to our home country or hometown or a personal hobby.  I decided that a simple thing like Tennis or Racquetball (the latter of which does not exist in Japan!) would not due for me, and I didn't want to talk for 20 mintues in Japanese about Cedar Point.  So, I choose, of all things, Crochet.  From a learning standpoint, Crochet is quick to learn and very repetitive, which makes it easy to memorize.  Sounded easy right?

So, we needed to plan for 20 mintues worth of time, as mentioned above.  We got approximately 10 minutes to speak on the topic, and 10 minutes to speak for an activity.  With this in mind, I bought a bunch of crochet hooks, which I would give to the kids along with yarn so they could learn the project after my presentation.  Makes sense, though crochet hooks can be expensive.  I got them at Wal-Mart without much spending of money or hassle though, which worked fine.  The yarn was cheap as well, so I was prepared before I left home for this activity (or so I thought).

Now, fastforward to our first month in Japan.  We are told to draft a speech component for the presentation.  I figured out that translating a bunch of things like "Crochet Hook" and "Single Crochet Stitch" or "Tunisian Cluster Stitch" was not as easy as I thought, and when I got the first draft back I first thought the sensei had broken her pen on my paper.  But, with two more drafts and a few dozen revisions, it sounded like the speech made sense when I spoke it.  A similar process occurred with the activity speech, and led to more bleeding pens and possible need of resuscitating my paper, but it worked out in the end.

Well, the speech was being prepared, and I'd made a few example pieces to spread around to my kids.  The first major glitch that presented itself was last week when the sensei told us how many students we had in a classroom.  I've been used to middle and elementary school class sizes near to the upper twenties, and brought 27 crochet hooks with me.  Seemed resonable.  Well, as it turned out, I had 33 students in my class.  Guess what I was doing as soon as class ended.  You got that right, I ran down to the local dollar store and picked up 6 more crochet hooks, most of which were too small for my tastes, and more yarn to boot.

Glitch number two that I ran into in preparing for this nice visit to a bunch of pre-pubescent Japanese children was that the Crochet hooks I bought were not all the same size.  Not too much of a problem right?  Well, I was giving each student a hook and yarn, and predicting the overall size by giving them a set number of stitches to make, so they would all end up with the same object at the end (approximately the size and shape of a pot holder).  However, when I ran through a couple after I realized this glitch, I found out that many were too long or too short.  So, what to do to fix this little dilemma?  That's right, I went through and ran EACH and EVERY crochet hook through the length that I wanted, so I made 33 pot holders, the proceeded to unwind them and make the yarn into balls for each one.  This took the better part of about 4 or 5 days last week once I realized my error.  I was not happy to say the least.

So, we then arrive at yesterday morning.  I get up earlier than usual (though not as early as some I know)  and prepared for my day.  We were instructed to have business attire, and to be at the bus by 8:30AM to leave.  I boarded the bus with a bunch of laminated pictures, my crochet bundles, a stack of printouts with the instructions in Japanese on them, and a set of note cards on what my speech was supposed to entail.  We rode out, everyone very nervous about their presentations.

Just a small bit of context for this, the speech drafts, activity drafts, and the presentation at the elementary school is worth about 50% of our grade in one of my 8 classes. (Yes, 8.)

We arrived, and yours truly was the first one to present in his class at the first elementary school.  So, heart in my throat, I got up and began my speech.  The kids, ages 11-12, were in sixth grade, and were a little noisy, but a few different remarks by the teacher kept them quiet enough for me to speak clearly.  I got through my speech with relatively few stumbles, tough my eyes were pretty much glued to my note cards.  Overall, I didn't think it went too poorly.  The fun and wild part arose when we got to my activity.

Now, try to think back to what 6th grade is like.  Yes, manic, crazy kids at every turn, kids bumping into each other, falling down, shouting incessantly, etc.   Well, put crochet hooks in their hands and instructions in front of them, and watch the madness ensue.  After about halfway through my speech for my activity, I had to give up on it, the kids were simply too loud and I couldn't get them to focus.  I prepared for this probability, with the instructions on the handout and all.  I had two helpers, friends from my classes, who I had showed what my project entailed beforehand, and the sensei was a quick study.  By the time my presentation time had elapsed, most of the kids had their projects started and were into their second or third row of crochet.  So, with this in mind, I would rate my performance about a solid B.  I'd seen some better, though they have a higher proficiency of Japanese than me, but for my class and for my speech, I think I did pretty well.

I spent the rest of yesterday and the majority of today being a helper for my classmates presentations.  We had everything ranging from Irish Music and musical chairs, to Halloween and drawing on pumpkin shapes.  I think everyone had a lot of fun, and I think the kids enjoyed it.  I was terrified going in, but as is usual with these forced activities, I think kindly on them afterward.

Well, now that the first of our major projects for this study abroad trip has been completed, I have to prepare for my next major milestone.  On Sunday we take the standardized Japanese proficiency test (Nihongo no ryushiken), which rates our ability of Japanese based on our current level of proficiency in grammar, vocabulary, Kanji, reading, and listening.  After a couple practice tests, I feel stronger on it, but I am worried that without major cramming, I won't pass my test, so if no one can find me over the next few days, that would be why.  Wish me luck!  I'll let you know how it goes!

Yes, you heard it right, we did Thanksgiving today here in Japan, a country with neither pumpkin pie nor turkey.  How, with these obvious deficiencies, were we able to attain such an outcome?  Well, that's an interesting story.

About 3 weeks ago, one of the girls from West Virginia, Allison, decided to ask everyone if they wanted to do Thanksgiving here in Japan.  We were all curious how we were going to pull this off, and were willing to say that we wanted it.  Allison got in contact with a turkey company in America and arranged for a 16lb frozen turkey to be sent across the Pacific (last flight?) for us.  We received the turkey earlier this week, and he was thawing out until today.

Around the beginning of this week, we began prioritizing who would handle what components of the meal and cleanup.  I offered to help make potatoes and stuffing, which are my two good works with Thanksgiving meals.  Other people took up different tasks, and we settled in for the long week we just experienced.  About 2 days ago, we were having an argument about how the stuffing should be done.  I wanted to have the stuffing inside the turkey, like I do at home, and others wanted it outside the turkey, and some said we shouldn't have it at all.  Since I was making it, and I knew how to do it, I offered to work on the turkey with Mark, my roommate, who was handling the turkey to begin with.  About yesterday, and some more bickering, it came down that Mark had other things he wanted to do today, so I took over cooking the turkey myself.

Last night, I went to start on the stuffing and realized that the turkey was still frozen!  Uh oh!  We hauled him out of the fridge and sat him in a bin of cold water overnight to thaw.  I worked up the bread for the stuffing, gathered my materials for the next day, and got some sleep.

So, fast-forward to today.  I woke up early, fought around my cold, which has been lingering for a few days, and got our early morning breakfast.  We then gathered up our supplies, hefted the 16lb bird, and made our way across campus to the second dining hall.  Let me explain why this was necessary.  Our kitchens in the dorm do not have ovens, and even the cafeteria on our second floor does not have an oven.  In order to cook this big bird, Allison scouted around and found a cafeteria with an oven they were willing to loan to us.  This one is up on the main campus, which is about 10 minutes walk from here.  So, we headed out about 9:00AM this morning.  When we arrived, we introduced ourselves to the kitchen staff, who were a little leery about letting foreigners into their kitchens.  But, with Allison's strong Japanese skill and my rugged good looks (just kidding!) we got to work.  I prepped the bird and the stuffing, and handed him over to the kitchen staff for cooking.  Once he was in, we came back to the dorm.

Back here, I went to work helping a friend who was making pie crust for pumpkin pie.  My buddie Thursday had found a specialty shop with pumpkin filling for pies and was working on getting the crusts made up.  Between cooking the giblets for stuffing, making pie crust and filling, and coordinating everyone's cooking (since the others were working on the other meal components) we were pretty busy.  I headed up to campus about 3 more times, once an hour, to baste and check on the bird.  At about 1:45PM, the bird was done and ready to come back.  We put it onto a cart we borrowed from the international center, and hauled him back to the dorm.  Not more than 30 min later, Thursday took her pies in to cook.  We coordinated it well enough that everything was ready for the start time around 3:30PM.

So, Thanksgiving Meal consisted of: Turkey, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, stuffing with and without celery, corn, green beans, pumpkin pie, and cinnamon sticks.  Everyone was very happy with the food, and everyone complimented me on how good the turkey tasted.  I was very happy that everyone liked it, it's only the second one I've made and the first one I've done on my own without aide.  We were especially happy that we could share our holiday with our friends from Malaysia and Australia, who were excited to have both turkey and pumpkin pie.  So, remember, on Thanksgiving this week, that regardless of where you happen to be, you can have your turkey and eat it too!

DAY 1
I'm sure that only two people, my mother and my girlfriend, were aware I was due to spend a weekend with a host family in Gifu Prefecture this weekend, but such was the case.  For those lacking a Japan prefectural map, the city is about an hour northwest of the university, probably the most central point of the main island.   We woke up EARLY Saturday morning, and climbed on a bus bound for Tajimi-shi, in Gifu-ken, and a moderately sized middle school called Kasahara Jr. High School.

A quick word about the Japanese schools for the uninitiated.  Kindergarten starts around the age of 3 and goes until the student is about 6 years old, when they enter elementary school.  Elementary school runs six years, from 6-12 years old.  Middle school is a 3 year run, from 13-15 years old.  High school runs from 16-18, another three years, and most all Universities in Japan are 4 year programs, same as America.  The elementary, middle, and high school levels attend school for 8 hours a day, from 7AM-3PM approximately, 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday.  The high school is chosen much as students choose which college, and getting into high school requires a series of exams, culturally known as "Examination Hell".  These are like the profieciency tests from America but on a much more massive scale.  Many kids spend about 2 years in study and work through middle school preparing for these tests so they can get into a good High school.

So, we arrived in Tajimi-shi around 9AM, and were greeted by several English speakers that work as teachers and English translators for the school.  Kasahara middle school is part of a school system which specializes in teaching children English.  All schools in Japan teach English, but strictly as a class.  However, Kasahara teaches ALL classes in English, outside of those such as Japanese language classes.  This, combined with a strong staff of native English speakers, makes for a very strong English system for the school.  Kasahara is one of six schools equipped with this English program in all of Japan, making it very good.

We met with our "support" staff, those native speaking people, and then were herded into a gymnasium full of screaming adolescent Japanese children.  Let me tell you, I was shaking in my not so small boots.  We went through each person who came to the school that day, which included people from all over the world, and introduced ourselves in both English and Japanese.  Yours truly skipped a couple beats, but the students responded well enough.  Were then broken down into our repective classes and the children SWARMED us, grabbing their respective classes and leading them to the different homerooms.

I arrived in Homeroom 2C, which means that they are second year middle school students in the third homeroom class.  The guests for the class included yours truly, my friend Lee Phooi who is a Malaysian Chubu exchange student, Arvi Estaban, a Canadian, Kotchakorn, a Thailander, Michael Mathiote, from Zanbia, and Priyanka, from Shri Lanka.  So, we are did cover a lot of the world with just six people, and we are all strong English speakers.  We started by breaking the homeroom into six groups, one for each class, and having each of us sit and introduce ourselves to the group of kids.  The kids introduced themselves, in English, complete with nicknames, likes, dislikes, hobbies, the whole thing.  After each child took a few second to introduce themselves, all eyes fell to me.  I introduced myself, talked about my home and my university, showed pictures of my family and my puppies, and talked about my hobbies.  After about 5 minutes, the teacher had us change groups, and we repeated the process.  After about 30 min, we had been shuffled around the room and met a wide array of children.  Very fun!

After this, we returned to our original groups.  As it turns out, our groups were given our first names and found Kanji that they thought represented our names pronunciation and were cool.  A quick note.  Foreigners are not supposed to use Kanji in their names.  The specific characters for each name are chosen by parents with their pronunciation in mind, and are a component of naming their children.  For a foreign person to pop in and pick their own is taken as disrespectful.  However, since they know foreigners like to try, they decided to give us our Kanji, which was very very cool.  My Kanji spelled "A-da-mu" means "Peaceful-calm-dutiful", and I felt very honored to have been given Kanji.  One student in each group brought in a calligraphy set, and demonstrated to each guest how to draw their own Kanji for them, and then we got to take a stab at making the Kanji ourselves.  Needless to say, the student who did mine put me to shame!

After these activites came lunch.  We got a bento (box lunch) from the teacher, and had a go with more Japanese cuisine.  Personally, I liked the food, as we had salad, rice, tempura (battered and fried shrimp, fish, and vegetables), and fruit.  After that we went down the stairs and outside for recess.  Let me tell you, I had completely forgotten about recess!  We played a game where there were shapes drawn in chalk on the ground and we had to run between them without getting tagged.  If you got tagged you stayed out and tried to get people running.  We ran through a few games of this, and then headed back inside.

Once inside, we moved to the next part, which the kids were very much looking forward to.  Each guest was to present and coordinate a game for the class!  So, the very first thing, they had yours truly get up and give everyone a game.  For those who know, my fallback game is always 40 foot arm.  I love this game because it is easy to learn, kids love it, and it is easy to explain!  For those who don't know the rules of the game, the group imagines that my arms are 40 feet long.  When I move my arms, they have to move away, either left, right, up, down, or freezing in position.  See, simple huh?  The kids loved it, which was the main goal.

Michael followed me and we played a game he called "Impembo".  In the Zambian language, Impembo is lion.  He took two blindfolds, two masks, one a gazel and one a lion, and two students (all twos, how strange. . . ).  He blindfolded and masked the two students, and had the rest of the class sit in a circle.  The kids said the word "Impembo" long and low when the two were apart and very loud and fast when they got close to one another.  So, by doing this, the students were able to have the lion catch the gazel.  It was a lot of fun to do.  Priyanka had the last game, which was something like "Red Rover".  The kids divided equally around a line across the room, and one student would take turns crossing the line to tap a student on the opposing side.  However, if the members of the opposing side were able to hold onto the student who crossed the line before they got back over, the student who was tapping is out.  But, if the student tapped someone and got back without getting captured, the tapped student was out.  We took a few rounds, and the kids loved it.

After games from us, it was time for activities from the kids.  We went back and returned to the group setup.  Then, we went from group to group doing each groups chosen activites.  My first group played something like darts, with a suction cup arrow shot from a toy gun at a dry-erase board with a bullseye drawn on it.  The second group did a fishing game.  We were given a small net to use, and if you got it too heavy, the netting would tear.  We fished out small plastic animals and bouncy balls.  The kids thought it was great!  Third, we had a group that showed us how to play with a traditional Japanese toy, much similar to the ball-and-cup toy.  The toy has three cups, large, medium, and small, and a spike top.  The large and medium are opposite of one another, the spike over the top, and the small cup on the base of the handle.  The ball to be caught was on a string attached to the toy.  But, yours truly showed off his crazy skills and quickly landed all 4 points, sometimes in a single shot, to amaze my students.  I was just SOOOO cool!  After this game, I was led into the hallway, where the kids had a string across the hallway at my waist height, their shoulders.  Using a small paper balloon, we bounced it back and forth, scoring points if the ball hit the ground.  Lastly, I went back into the class, and the group had made a Japanese sweet, called Mochi, for us to try.  Mochi is a cooked rice cake, about the consistency of Jello but as sticky as glue.  They put some traditional Japanese toppings on them and had us try them.  Not bad, but probably an acquired taste.

With that, we headed back to the gym, where the kids gave us a grand farewell.  We all had a great time, but now was the time for meeting the host family with which we would be staying.   And once again, I was shaking in those ever so big boots of mine.

I was greeted by the majority of my host family in the middle school after classes.  The girl to whom I was assigned is Yuka Fumihiko.  Yuka is a 13 year old student at Kasahara, and is very shy.  Her mother, Hideko, and father, Fumihiko, were there to get both of us and take us home.  The final member of the family, Yuuki, is a high school student.  We stopped at the supermarket and got food for the morning, and my Japanese ability, what I would say is a poor to modest level right now, was put to the test.  Surprising myself, I communicated fairly well, and was able to discuss a lot of topics with my host family.  Last night, we had a good dinner, and then I spent about an hour describing my home, my school, Ohio, and comparing much of that between Ohio and Japan, all in Japanese.  Hideko has some English ability, but they were instructed to speak to me primarily in Japanese, since we were out of school.  After this nice discussion, I went and had a shower and bath, and then sat and talked with Yuka for about an hour.

Yuka is a very interesting girl, who likes music, and reading.  She's somewhat atypical because she doesn't like anime or manga, which are staple Japanese hobbies.  She is an exceptional artist, and has a very funny laugh.  I talked to her about my classes, my family, and the like, and went through my camera, showing her my adventures here in Japan.  She wasn't very talkative, but I felt that she understood me, and was enjoying the discussion we were having.  However, as it was getting late and it had been a MASSIVELY long day, we both headed out for sleep.

DAY 2
I was woken about 7:30 this morning, and ushered into the dining room for breakfast.  Japanese breakfast consists of rice, miso soup, eggs, and fish.  We had salmon.  After breakfast, got ready to head out.  The family decided to take me, and Yuka I believe, to Fukuyama, a modest sized city about 45 minutes north of Tajimi.  The first sight we went to was Fukuyama-jo, better know to foreigners as Fukuyama Castle.  Being a castle fan, they were willing to take us there, and I'm pretty sure that Yuka hadn't been there before either.

The castle was built in the early 1500's, and renovated in the 1930's.  The castle is open to the public daily, and has all 4 stories accessible.  We walked through the whole thing, which is currently surrounded by maples going through the autumn change.  This made for some amazing photos, which I will post online as soon as I can.

One thing that Fukuyama Castle is known for is the massive repository of early Japanese firearms.  These are much like the muskets used in the Civil war, ranging from hand pistols to rifles, to hand cannons.  Most of them are housed in the gallery of the Castle, but once a year, they are taken out and used in a firing demonstration.  That's right, November 16th, the one day this year when this was going to happen, was the day we came.  Seven men and one woman, in full samurai armor, complete with swords and banners, lined up with varying size rifles.  They showed the crowd the manner by which they are loaded (no bullets, just powder), and demonstrated the firing several times.  The group did a simultaneous firing, a down-the-line-firing, and several individual firings.  All were very impressive.  One man hefted the hand cannon, which had a bore about the size of a fist.  When he fired it, he had to spring on his feet to withstand the recoil!  I thought this was very cool, and the family thought so too.  Fumihiko, the dad, told me it was the first time he had seen a gun fired, and I'm pretty sure the others were too.

After Fukuyama Castle, we went back  into the town of Fukuyama and had lunch at a local noodle shop.  So far, with my sampling of Japanese cuisine, I've take a liking to Udon, which is fried noodles put into a stock along with fish and vegetable.  So, I was treated to my favorite Japanese food, and ate, for the first time, Japanese style.  Western style eating centers around sitting in chairs around a table.  Japanese style eating centers around eating while sitting on cushions around a table. Mostly the same, but I've never done it before.  I did my best to observe my table manners, which in Japan are not what we would normally thing of as table manners.  Elbows of the table (standard), slurping the noodles (shows the cook that they did a good job cooking them), and lifting my bowls of rice and miso when eating them (only these two bowls are lifted, the rest has to stay on the table).  Very fun, and very tasty.

From here we went to a kind of novelty item of Fukuyama.  It is in a workshop of Fukuyama that almost 80% of all the plastic display food for Japanese restaurants is made.  Outside of almost any restaurant is a wax recreation of the food served by the restaurant, and much of it is custom made.  This workshop, called Gujo-Hachiman, makes, as I said, almost 80% of these items for any restaurant in the country.  Yuka and I were allowed to participate in an activity hosted by the group where we chose three items and made them into a tempura version.  Yours truly chose the shrimp, the mushroom, and the green pepper.  First, a cup with melted light yellow wax is used to dripple into a basin of warm water.  This makes a ripples effect which looks much like the battered food after it is fried.  Then, the item to be coated is pressed into it, and the pliable wax is worked aroun it.  This makes a very resonable representation of a fried shrimp, pepper, and mushroom.  Yuka was laughing during most parts, and directing me when my Japanese failed.  So, all in all, we had fun here.

About this time, we had to head back to Tajimi.  We got back around 3:30, and we had a quick bit of coffee and cookies.  The family made me a CD with all the pictures they took today on it, and also gave me a present of snacks from the various shops we visited.  Thanking them profusely, we rode back to the middle school.  After a great number of short speeches (the best kind), we got all the guests and host families together for a massive group photo.  We needed panoramic to get everyone!  As I was moving with my family toward the bus, I gave Yuka one of each of the American coins and an American 1$ bill.  She was very excited to get these, which I could tell by her not being Japanese and trying to refuse them.  At the bus, we got one last "family" photo, and I shook hands with the parents, gave Yuka a hug, and boarded the bus.  Everyone was ecstatic from their homestay time, and I was too.  For something that scared me silly going in, I had a great time.

But alas, all good things must come to an end.  I've got homework to finish up for tomorrow, a speech to practice for tomorrow, and a series of exams this week to prepare for.  Coming up at the end of the month, I have my elementary school presentation, followed promptly by more tests for my classes.  Mingled in with this, I have 2 practice tests for my Japanese language certification test, coming up at the beginning of the second week of december.  These two practice tests are scattered over 6 days between this week and next week.  After that, there is a series of parties and ceremonies for the 3 month students who will be departing Japan on Dec. 14th.  Granted, we have only 2, but the University gives them the same treatement they give us when we leave in March, and they deserve everything we do.  SO, needless to say, with my regular homework mingled in, I'm going to be one busy student over the next 3 weeks.  However, the workload winds down after the certification test, and won't be difficult until final exams in January.  But, enough of my long winded writing, I've got to hit the books and practice practice practice.

Hope everything is going well back stateside, hope everyone is safe and going to have a good Thanksgiving.  We are having a turkey airmailed here from a company in America, just for Thanksgiving, along with the traditional Thanksgiving foods.  I am really looking forward to that.  Next weekend we go to Seto, which is a major center for Japanese ceramics.  I'm looking forward to that a lot as well. I'll post to let you know how it is!

With love,
        Adam

Hey everyone!  I've got a few spare minutes, so I'm putting up my post about the Toyota City trip we took on Friday of this week.  Before I get too deep into that, everyone remember that with the time change, I'm now 14 hrs ahead, and since Japan does not observe daylight savings time, I will remain 14 hrs ahead until my return in March.  Just thought I'd pass that on.

Ahh, Toyota City.  A city built around a car.  Truth be told, it is exactly that.  The Toyota group owns the major percentage of the buildings of the city, and the city contains (If I remember correctly. . . .) 18 different factories.  These factories produce all the major lines of Toyota cars, from the Prius (Beep beep!) to the Tundra.  We got three tours on our trip, one of a Toyota factory making 4 different cars, one of the Toyota car museum, and one of the Toyota museum of technology.

The first museum we visited was the Toyota history museum.  I actually found this place a lot more fascinating than I had originally thought.  It reminded me a lot of the Henry Ford museum.  There were three levels, each with different cars and motorized vehicles of different eras.  There were several cars I found fascinating, not the least of which was the Royles Royce Phantom III, ("I even like the color") whose older model was featured in the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".  The car itself is a lot larger in life than I thought it was, though I didn't like the color myself.  There were several interesting exhibits, including one that looked like an evolved motorized wheelchair designed to replace cars in the distant future.   There was also, and I am not even close to joking, a hood ornament section, which canonized the various decorations used by the Toyota group that graced the hoods of cars for the past century.  Very odd, yet very cool.

The second place we visited was the production line for the Crown lines, which are only available in Japan.  The welding of the frame pieces today is done all with automatic welding robots, and looks a lot like the scene from a science fiction movie.  The produced cars proceed out from the welding rooms and are gradually constructed by hand.  The Japanese use a system here which they have dubbed the "Just in time system", in which the component are made on a need now basis.  Only the needed parts are created, so very little waste is produced.  This goes a long way in providing a cheaper vehicle and less waste to harm the environment.  The Japanese are very ecoconcious, mainly due to the lack of resources, which arises from having so many people on such a small space of islands, most of which is mountainous.  So, being ecoconcious here is almost a necessity, not a luxury.  One of the other fun things we noticed in the production lines was that there were various American childrens songs being played around the factory.  According to our tour guide, the different songs indicated different conditions, such as trouble (the Fur Elise) or a lack of parts (Itsy Bitsy Spider).  We found this rather interesting, and in a way humorous.

The last place we visited was the Toyota technology museum.  The technology museum champions Toyota's research into next generation technology, bent on creating a safer, cleaner, more luxurious future (Yea, I should write a flier for them).  The majority of the museum was dedicated to Toyota's experimentation with robotics and non-petrol based vehicles.  The science of hybrid and electrical cars was explained in great detail, though yours truly already knows a great deal about both Hybrid and Electric car technology.  Give it 15 years, and we'll be ready to see most of America in either a Hybrid or Electrical car.  However, the crowning entertainment of the day was a demonstration of robotics.  Two robots, Robina and Concero, performed for the people.  Robina responded to questions in both Japanese and English, and demonstrated the ability to recognized objects and paths, allowing it to navigate around a small maze.  These technologies are useful in the realm of homecare, being able to navigate a house and respond to questions.  The second robot, Concero, was not able to move about, but was able to do something much different.  Concero plays the trumpet!  We heard a thrilling round of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" done in a Jazz tone.  I'm not sure what this proves, other than Toyota's engineers had way too much time on their hands.

After this, we made a hasty retreat back to the university.  I'm heading to class soon, glad for the long weekend and the many hours of lost sleep I was able to catch up on.  I did have an adventure or two, however, an will share those soon.  Hope all is well, remember to get out and vote for the next President of the US of A today.  Personally, I'm pulling for Obama, but that's just me.  I know that any election is merely chosing the lesser of two evils, and given my options, that's who I'd pick.  But enough of politics, that little bit is too much already for me.  Hope you all are doing well, hope everything stays that way if it is going well.  Miss everyone back home!  Will post again soon!

Adam

Hey all!  I've got a long weekend this time (no classes Monday!) so I'm going to take the time to update my journal for the Kyoto trip (last weekend) and the Toyota City trip (today).

Time for the history professor to take the stand.  Kyoto was once the center of Japanese government in Japan.  The components of the city's name (Kyo and To) in the Japanese script translate more directly to Government Place, and this is Kyoto known as the capital city of Japan.  Before the Edo Period of the Tokugawa Shogunate moved the capital of Japan from Kyoto to Edo (Now known as Tokyo, or the western capital in direct tranlsation) the city had stood as the home of the Imperial family for almost 800 years.  The city itself has many facets which make it unique, many of the religious and many of the buildings.

The first sight of Kyoto that our adventuring group witness is considered one of the more amazing sights in Kyoto.  The temple of Kinkakuji is one famous throughout Japan.  The original building was built in 1397 (yes, almost a century before Columbus sailed the Atlantic) and was built with gold paneling around most of the building.  The building shines like a golden toy, but is 3 stories tall.  In 1950, an eccentric monk, who fell in love with the building and decided that the only way for him to reach his perfect state of being was to see the building in flames.  The building was put to the flame by this monk.  After the building was alight, he attempted suicide from the waterfalls near the temple, but survived the fall.  The building was rebuilt by 1955, and has undergone ready repair since.  Once seeing the building in person, I found it very ostentatious, and seem somewhat "Non-Japanese".  The Japanese, as far as I have experienced, enjoy simplicity and harmony when it comes to temples and natural environs.  However, the building comes before the introduction of Bhuddism to Japan and shows the nature of the Japanese from that era.  Very interesting to see, regardless.  The building is surrounded by a lake, which like the Washington Monument, mirrors the building perfectly in the morning light.  Needless to say, I have some powerful landscape images I took from that morning.

The hotel we stayed in had a lot of fun activities that we had the luck to experience.  There was an outdoor bath (yes, segregated by sex) and was very enjoyable.  We had a traditional Japanese meal, which was something like 6 courses, and included dessert.  About halfway through, our tour guides and the hostesses turned on the Karaoke machine.  Once again, we took centerstage and sang the night away.  Between the two, we enjoyed ourselves.  We were also provided with some nice yukata, which actually fit me, and were allowed to wear them around the hotel and surrounding area.

We also got to do some shopping in the tradional shopping districts of Kyoto, which reminded me a lot of Miyajima's shopping areas.  I managed to pick up some fans and omamori, both of which are considered some of the nicests gifts from Kyoto.  But, with everything, we were tired on the way home.  We visited several temples, most of them Bhuddist.  We have seen so many in the past few weeks, though, and many of them lost their appeal.  One of them, which we visited on the first day, is another one that has stood over several centuries, and has many buildings connected by courtyards and an impressive bamboo forest.  Another, we saw another Japanese wedding!  We seem to have that kind of luck on our trips.  The bride and groom had a similar dress to that which we saw earlier in the Hiroshima trip.  But, it was impressive none the less.

The total of the trip took two days, and on the way home from Kyoto, on the second day, we stopped at a place in Kyoto where a traditional Japanese snack, native to Kyoto, is made.  We watched as they were made, got to sample some, and had a general fun time passing around the snacks.  They aren't quite pastries, as they aren't baked.  However, they have the consistency of, well, I'm not sure.  They are kind of like raw dough, but thin and chewy, with flavors worked in and folded to contain different pastes.  Tasty, but a little odd.  Enjoyable none the less.

So, that is the gist of Kyoto.  I'm taking it slow this weekend, and am enjoying the days off.  We've been out and about weekend after weekend, and it is nice to get some time to rest and recoupe after all the travels.  I'm finding the language is coming in clearer now, and at the 7 week marker, I'm finding that the culture shock is fading and the language is starting to come easier.  Let's hope that this is the beginning of an epiphany in the realm of the Japanese language.

I'll post soon (i.e. tomorrow) about the trip to Toyota City.  It was a short, but fun trip.  Let you know all about it all soon!  Hope all is well Stateside!  Take care everyone!

Adam

Hey everyone!  Sorry it has been so long since I last posted an entry.  I've been either too busy or out of town to sit long enough to write anything.  But, that's not to say that I don't have anything to write about.  I, along with the other Ohio University students, went to Hiroshima this last weekend.  The trip was three days and two nights, and had many different sights along the way.  We left after class on Friday by about 2:30 PM.  We rode the bus to the Jinryoo station, and then rode the train from there to the Shinkansen station.  This leg of the trip took about an hour between the bus and the train.  The Shinkansen, for those who are unaware, is a high speed rail system, also known as a bullet train.  Riding it was like being in an airplane on the ground!  The acceleration and decelleration were smooth, and the ride took almost three hours.  We switched trains midway, at Shin-osaka, and arrived at the Miajima station around 6:00.  We rode the train out of the Shinkansen station and arrived at the Miajima station around 6:30.  The hotel we stayed at is about 10 minutes walking distance from the train, and overlooked the Inland Sea of Japan.  We dropped the bags we had at the rooms of the hotel, and then headed out for dinner.

Dr. Thompson, our sensei from OU who was visiting Chubu along with our Head of the Study Abroad Office, Catherine Marshall, took us to one of the famed Okinomiaki restaurants abutting the hotel.  So, what is Okinomiaki?  I'm glad you (I, me?) asked.  Okinomiaki is made on a hot flat grill, and consists of a layer of egg, like an omlette, a layer of lettuce, and then a layer of noodles which have beef and bacon mixed in.  The layer is fried egg down and built up, then flipped and grilled again, while sauces and garnishes of radish and onion are added.  The dish is served hot on a grill that is built into the table you sit at, making it a very hot dish.  The taste is sweet, and savory at the same time.  I recommend it to all who are feeling adventurous.

After Okinomiaki, we went back to the hotel, where our group gather for a celebratory "toast" (ask me about context) and then went to bed.  Day 1 Complete

Day 2.  We woke up around 8:00 AM and had a buffet style breakfast in the lobby of the hotel.  Once we finished breakfast and gathered the bags we'd need for the day, we made a trip by railcar to downtown Hiroshima.  The railcars are similar to that found in Los Angeles, though not exactly identical.  We arrived at what is now known as Peace Park, and one of the necessary places for any foreigner visiting Japan to see.  Peace Park contains monuments that honor those killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.  The first thing seen upon entering Peace Park is what is called the Dome, and is one of the few buildings that remain which remain unaltered from the bombing.  The Dome was originally the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, and is now a shattered ruin.  The dome is left as it was after the bombing so that future generations may remember what an atomic blast is capable of.

After seeing the dome, we met with Koko Kondo, who was 8 months old at the time of the bombing.  Koko's maiden name is Tanimoto, which some will remember from the book named Hiroshima by John Hersey.  Koko is Reverend Tanimoto's daughter, and is a current survivor among the people living in Hiroshima.  Koko and her mother both visited us and were willing to show us around Peace Park.  There were two major sights there that I feel must be related, though I have many more pictures of different monuments from the site as well.  The first we saw was a mound of grass surrounded by a guardrail.  The mound contains the ashes of almost 70,000 individuals who lost their lives to the atomic blast and the subsequent radiation.  These people are either unidentified or their families were unwilling to collect the remains after the bombing.  The second we saw was an arch that was built over a stone dias, and inside the dias lies a book.  The book contains the names of all those who were confirmed as living in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing, and were known to have died or had died afterward.  When you look through the arch you can see another monument, a flame (second backstory forthcoming) which commemorates those lost to the blast.

After seeing these sights, we went to the Hiroshima Peace Museum, and had lunch.  While there, Koko and her mother signed our books of Hiroshima, or various items for us.  They signed a bookmark for me, which has another context (geez, this is a long story!)  After we had lunch, Koko showed us to a room rented for us to use and told us about her life growing up in the aftermath of the bombing.  The stories were powerful, and there were many (yours truly included) who cried at the stories.  I can relate them in person, but they would take many more pages of this to post, so ask me and I'll talk about it.  One thing that was powerful for us is that Koko brought with her the clothes both she and her father were wearing when the bomb hit Hiroshima.  Her mother kept these items and preserved them.  After this we headed upstairs and toured the museum itself.  The museum depicted the events of the bombing as they happened, and showed the end results of the bombing.  Most of the group was moved by this experience, both Koko's stories and the museum's portrayal of the destruction.  I know that it is a memory that will never leave me.

After the museum, we had a few hours to use up.  We left Peace Park around 4 that afternoon, and headed for Hiroshima Castle.  Hiroshima castle was a very pleasant sight, and is a replica of a traditional Japanese castle estate.  The grounds are surrounded by a pond (moat!) and have a large amount of ground near the castle itself.  The castle is the better part of 6 stories tall, and has floors open to the public up to the 4th floor.  From here, we took pictures of the sunset over Hiroshima, which was amazing!  As a fun thing, I bought and had engraved a pendant with my name and the date, which has a picture of the castle itself on it.  So, I'll flash that around when i get back. (Bling bling?)

After the museum we had a massive dinner, consisting of many foods which I didn't know and could probably never name again, but I enjoyed every last bit of it!  We were sprung from the dinner and allowed to shop around the Hiroshima arcade, which was almost 8 blocks of city streets with nothing but shops and stores.  This was an amazing place!  I visited many stores, and found a few gifts for people back home, and overall had a wonderful time with it.  Around 11 o'clock, my travel buddie, Thursday, and I headed back to the hotel.  Once I was back, I took a hot bath (really long day) and then crashed for the evening.Post an Entry
Day 2 Complete

Day 3  Another early morning, around 8 AM, and another buffet breakfast.  We checked out of the hotel right around 9AM, and met the ferry to Miyajima for another day of insane adventure.  We got to see the sunrise over the inland sea, which I would rate as one of the more amazing sights I've seen.  It is comparable to seeing the sun rise over Kelley's Island from the ferry.  Photo opportunity!  Once we arrived, we made a direct course for the Shinto temple.  The Itsukushima Shrine is one of the primary Shinto temples, and houses some of the more powerful Kami (Shinto gods).  Just after we entered the temple, we were passed by a wedding train!  The groom wore a customary hakama and haori, and the bride had on a very very elaborate kimono.  They smiled at us as they passed, and we snuck a few photos of them as they passed.  From here we passed towards the main shrine, and found another ceremony in progress!  There was a family being directed by a priest, and the mother appeared to have a new infant with her.  According to Dr. Thompson, the ritual is similar to that of a cristening, though I'm unsure of the similarity.  We stopped and purchased some omamori, Japanese talismans.  Each one is said to have a purpose, and contain prayers written by the priests and wrapped in specific cloths. We then gathered for a group photo on the outdocking, which faces Miyajima's Torii gate.  The Torii gate is about 40 feet tall and can easily be sailed though by most small boats.  Impressive!

After the temple, we made a brief detour to see off one of our group.  He decided that, being a frequent climber, he was going to hike up Mt. Misen and meet us later.  After seeing him off, we went to a small restaurant, which was right near where our own Dr. Thompson lived as a child.  The proprietress still recognizes him, and was glad to serve us.  Many had the fried oysters, which are a local delicacy.  Yours truly had Udon noodles (DELICIOUS!).  As we left, she gave all of us a traditional rice spoon, which are said to have been invented on Miyajima and thus are a local souvenier.  We then went and rode the ropeway from the base of Mt. Misen and rode as far as it would go.  From here, we got a great view of the inland sea and the whole of the islands that surround Miyajima.  Flat Stanley made a cameo, and we proceeded up towards Mt. Misen.  Here we met up with our hiker, and stopped at the famous Bhuddist temple that resides in Miyajima.  This temple houses a 1200 year old flame, which was lit by the first emperor of Japan.  This flame was used to begin the flame that burns in Peace Park now. (side story complete)  After visiting the shrine and purchasing some Bhuddist omamori, some headed up to the summit and some of us went back towards the city.

Well, I was wiped out (it had been a long weekend) and headed down the mountain.  I browsed the shops of Miyajima, which are like a tourist's nightmare, because they contain almost EVERY possible Japanese gift a foreigner would want to give when he got home!  I found a kimono for my niece, a sword for myself (dull blade, mom, display only) and purchased several other gifts for friends and family.  After spending a nice chunck of money, and completing most of my shopping list then and there, I headed for the dock.  We headed back about 4PM, and from there made our way back, using the same method as arriving, to Kasugai.  Since we got back after the bus had stopped, however, Dr. Thompson had prepared part of our cost to pay for a taxi, which brought us back to the dormitory.  Mission complete!

One last note.  When entering and exiting a taxi in Japan, do not close or open the door yourself.  They take care of themselves, and can be broken if done manually.  Good thing to note.

SO that was my trip.  It's been a work fest ever since I got back, and I'm still wiped out, even as we prepare to head to Kyoto tomorrow morning!  Ya ta!

I hope everything goes well back in the States.  I know elections are coming soon, though I'm not registered as an absentee.  I know, my bad.  Oh well, what happens happens.  Give me an email, let me know how things are going!  I'll post soon after the Kyoto trip!  Have a good time everyone!

Adam

Hello Everyone!  Well, we've been back from Ena about a day now, but I've either been too tired or too busy to write about it, so here's what went on.  We left Chubu by bus around 5 PM on Friday.  We had two buses, both full of Japanese and American students.  It took us around an hour and a half to reach Ena, which is in Gifu prefecture.  So, it was a fun ride.  Not too much happened outside a few humorous jokes, so I won't bore you with that.

Once we got to Ena, we dropped our packs off and headed to dinner.  We had a bento box dinner, along with miso soup and rice.  A bento box is typically a square container, plastic or wooden, with several compartment sections for different foods for a meal.  Our bento had several Japanese foods I didn't know, but found interesting, and a few things I did know, like salad and fried chicken.  I managed to have some conversation over dinner with a Japanese student, who goes by Kaz.  I'm getting better at my speaking Japanese, but it is still difficult to say too much.

After dinner, we enjoyed something not often found in America, a communal bath.  Most bathing in Japan is not showering, but actual baths.  When groups travel to places like hotels and retreats, there are often communal baths, and this place was no exception.  Many foreigners find this experience awkward and strange, and I wasn't much of an exception.  However, I knew the procedure for bathing and managed to get through the whole experience without much discomfort.  Outside the awkwardness, we had a good experience with the communal bath.

After our bath, we headed back to the common room for a few minutes and then went to see a movie in the adjoined building.  We got to see a film in English, called Mr. Baseball.  This was about a baseball player who is traded to a Japanese team and then has to adjust to Japanese lifestyles.  The movie starred none other than Tom Selleck, and was a wholeheartedly funny movie.  I recommend it to anyone who is curious about how foreigners adapt to Japanese life, or just want to see Tom Selleck in a bathtub.

After the movie, we spent the remainder of the night talking to each other and playing various card games.  We taught the Japanese students a few games, and learned a few of theirs.  We had particular fun playing Egyptian Rat Screw, or ERS.  The Japanese thought the game was very fun, and yours truly had the fastest hands on the night, winning many of the games we played.

The next morning, we had a small breakfast and then went to the attached gymnasium to play some get to know you games.  They were a lot of fun, and ranged from asking questions to a game reminiscent of one I played at Templed Hills, involving a parachute and lots of running.  Those who know understand it is hard to explain, and those who don't, don't worry, it was fun.

After we got done with this, we had free time.  Some went to hike around the lodge, some of us went to see another movie.  Since I was tired from the night before, and I had no desire to watch Pretty Woman.  So, those of us left in the gym decided to teach the remaining Japanese students how to play kickball!  We actually found out that most of them played a similar game in their early schooling, but called it "Basekick".  I was a little perplexed at the translation, but if it got the idea across, sure, why not!  We played approximately 4 innings, with yours truly pitching.  All in all, it was a very fun experience.  After kickball, we were lazy and sat around, talking, laughing, the usual. 

About 1PM we headed to classrooms, which were the same rooms we watched movies in, and had a few English-Japanese language activities.  We played a guessing game, where the Japanese students asked us questions in English, pertaining to a predetermined object, and we had to guess said object.  All in all, pretty standard.  We then did a small interview, where we asked different things about each other, and then had to pass them around a circle, each person having to describe the person they interviewed, passing the information around the circle until you ended up introducing the person you were talking to to themselves.  Sound confusing?  Good, it was.  After this nice little interview game, we sat down with a list of questions, and the American students were asked by the Japanese students about their different ideas about Chubu, Japan, the Japanese, the dorms and the food, so on and so forth.  This was very interesting to me, as I had to really think about my preconceptions of the University, the dorms, and the people here.  I found that my preconceptions were exceeded by the real thing, which makes me happy, in a way.  The real experience of Japan is better than what I thought it would be thusfar, so I think that makes for a good experience, no?

After this, we went outside, took photos, and sat around waiting for the bus.  Unfortunately, the bus was over an HOUR late getting there, and we were all getting a little worn.  By the time we got back, it was nearing sundown (aka 5:20) and we were all getting a little tired.  So, we got some dinner, and many of us headed to bed.

So, overall, I give the trip a good review and consider it a nice place to relax and have fun at.  We all, i think, had a great experience and made a lot of friends with the Japanese students.  Other than that, its back to studying for me!  I've got 3 quizes and 3 lesson tests this week to prepare for, on top of my standard homework sets, so it is going to be a week of secluded study.  Wish me luck!

Adam

P.S. - I am going to post a few weeks of pictures, including this weekend, up on Facebook, so give it a look!

Hey All!  While I have no new adventures to post this time, I thought I'd put up what trips our group will be taking, since our next few weeks are covered with trips to destinations all over Japan.  Here's what it looks like:

This weekend - Retreat to Chubu's Ena Lodge.  This will be a single day trip, and include such nice activities as traditional Japanese bathing, late night movies, hiking, language activities, and other fun items.  The trip will start after classes on Friday and continue until mid-afternoon Saturday, so it will be quick, but fun!

Weekend of the 17th of October - Hiroshima Trip!  We will travel by Shinkonsen (bullet train) and spend three days and two nights in one of the largest and most well known Japanese cities.  Hiroshima was rebuilt following the fall of the atomic bomb, after radiation containment and eradication was completed.  The city is a thriving metropolitan area, and also is home to Miyajima, a large island overlooking the city and the inland bay of Japan.  We will tour both city and island, with the help of a guide who survived the atomic blast.  She was one year old when the bomb fell, and many in her family have memories and stories of the devestation and the rebuilding of the city.  We will also tour Peace Park, built to commemorate those lost in the war.  While this trip will be educational and informative, there will be much shopping and sightseeing.

Weekend of the 24th of October - Kyoto Trip!  We are to travel by Kyoto (means of travel as of yet unknown to me) and visit the former capital of Japan.  This ancient city is home to what is known as one of the three great wonders of Japan, a large and breathtaking temple.  (Hiroshima and Kyushu hold the other two sights.)  We will spend three days and two nights here as well, and explore the city and the various shrines therein.  One of the other great sights of Kyoto is one of the largest Sakura parks in the nation.  Sakura are Japanese cherry trees, and blossom into brilliant pink flowers every spring.  These are considered by the Japanese to be one of the most beautiful and wonderful events of the year, and several holidays commemorate the blooming of the Sakura.  While we will not see them, the park is a great sight any time of the year, as is the city.

When we get to November, I will post the trips of that month and the activities we have planned.  So far, these appear exciting and a one in the lifetime opportunity.  One last thing!  My niece, Rylie, has a project for school called Flat Stanley.  This is a colored cutout of a person in a suit, and is sent to the student's relatives around the country and around the world.  Flat Stanley has found his way to Japan (What a coincidence!) and will be accompanying me to Hiroshima.  Part of the project calls for the relative to fill out information about the city they are in, and about the things that Flat Stanley did while staying with them.  Climbing to the top of Miyajima and taking a picture of the inland bay of Japan from one of the most amazing points in the WORLD would qualify, no?  After that, Flat Stanley will make his way back State-side (courtesy of an envelope class plane flight) with a picture of his adventures and a description of his activities.  I think this will be something that no one else can match, eh?

That all there is!  Hope all is well on the other hemisphere.  Future-land is feeling the same economic downturn as everyone else, so don't think i'm being left out!  Stay safe and have fun everyone!

Adam
 

Hey Guys!  Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but there has not been anything interesting to report.  However, Sunday rectified that problem.  I woke up late for once, since we don't have breakfast on Sundays, and our group gathered for another daytrip.  We headed down to the train station (Jinryo station), and traded a couple trains before ending up in Arimatsu.  The city which houses the Arimatsu house is celebrating its 400 year anniversary of founding.  Think of it, when the first colonists were coming to America, this city was founded.  When America became its own nation, this city had already been in existance for more than a hundred years!  Crazy!

Arimatsu is known for its texile industry, and we got to sample some of the wears of the city.  For those of us who wanted, we got to wear a "yukata" or casual kimono, and the girls got to wear less elaborate than normal kimono.  Once dressed, we had a few pictures taken, and then
were set out on tours around the city.  We came to a streetfair that was a part of the autumn festivals.  Autumn has several festivals that commemorate a good harvest and a good year.  Once seeing the street fair, we headed up a LONG staircase (inclined steps, felt like climbing a large hill)  we came to a Shinto shrine.  For the uninitiated, a Shinto shrine differs from a Bhuddist shrine in many ways.  The Bhuddist temple we visited about two weeks ago had a small shrine before the entrance for incense, whereas the Shinto shrine had a water basin.  Both are to purify the body before entry.  The Bhuddist shrine featured several old artifacts and a rather large rendering of none other than the Bhudda himself.  The Shinto shrine had a lot of statues of animals and several signs written in traditional Japanese script.  The shrine itself is dedicated to a man from the founding of the town, who was known for his calligraphy.  The people who travel to the shrine pray for improvement of their calligraphy and good grades on the feared entrance exams that middle school students face.

So, traveling around, us in yukata, looking a little out of sorts, we got some street food, and then headed to another area which was designated for the making of the famous textiles.  We had a chance to make a few designs into a small towel, and then we were taken to a dying facility.  Once there, a master dye-man (I honestly cannot comprehend what title you give to such a person) showed us the method by which he dyes the materials.  Coincidentally, we saw a 20+ year old movie in class today, and noticed that the man dying materials in the Arimatsu section was the SAME GUY!  Apparently he is a true master, and is apparently unfazed by the passing of time.  The only difference we noticed was that his hair had greyed in the intervening years.  Otherwise, he seems the same person.  Good Japanese living?

After a little more wandering, we returned the yukata and headed back to the university.  Another adventure in the books!

Hope all is well back home.  Getting a little homesick, but will fight on!  Perseverence, patience, and study!  Talk to you all soon.

Adam

P.S. - I placed a set of pictures up on Facebook for everyone to have a look at.  If you don't have an account, don't bother, just email me and i'll send them to you!

A traditional means of recreation in Japan is found in the Karaoke bar.  While a few of our group have already went out and found a few places with karaoke, I hadn't joined in until last night.  We went out to a more upscale place called MUSE.  It took about 20 minutes of walking from campus, in the dark, to get there.  We had to go in the dark because the place didn't open until after 6, and guess when sunset is here in Japan?  Ha!  That's right, 5:30PM.  So, the majority of our study abroad group from Ohio went, along with our single Australian exchange student and a few of Chubu's students.  All in all, twenty of us ended up heading out to the Karaoke.

We arrived and the Japanese students went about finding us rooms.  We ended up getting two larger rooms, with us scattered to and fro between the two locations.  We had drinks and had two big screens for the karaoke music and words.  There were two microphones, so we could duet or back up whoever was singing.  We went through a wide medley of music, running the gambit from Aerosmith to Linkin Park.  The only song that we did not know were the Japanese songs, and some of them we knew as well.  I suppose the only song that was failed at for the evening belonged to myself and my roommate (Mark) trying to sing "Shut Up and Drive" by Rihanna.  Not a pretty result, but we had some laughs.  We got pictures of many of the girls singing and the guys attempting to sing (my donedeaf self included!)  We ended up staying at Karaoke for almost 2 hours.  by about 9:30, the majority of the group was getting ready to leave to go bar-crawling in Sakai, another nearby suburb of Nagoya.  I was in the group that decided not to go, as going would entail not getting back to the dorm until morning since the trains stop running at midnight and the dorm locks permanently from 12:00AM to 6:00AM.  An entire night without sleep while drinking and running around a foreign city didn't sound good to me, so I meandered home.  Those of us that came back sat down and watched a movie before heading off to sleep.

That's it for the latest chapter of Adam's Adventures.  We now return to our regularly scheduled program: When Gerbils Attack!

Adam

P.S. - Tank Girl has to be one of the worst 80's movies ever made.  If you haven't seen it, don't!  If you have, my sincerest condolances.