japanigans!

Hey people!

It’s been awhile since I’ve last written. I’ve been keeping myself pretty busy and really enjoying my life in Japan. This post probably won’t go into much detail, but I’ll give an overview of what I’ve been doing.

At school, classes are going well. IJ400 is progressing smoothly. I’m learning a lot and doing reasonably well for the amount of studying I’ve been putting into it (which could definitely be more). About two weeks ago, we had a project in class where we all went to interview the owner of a shop in 覚王山 (Kakuōzan), an area about three subway stop away from the school. My group had a fruit store, and the man in charge gave us all free 梨 (nashi - pear). They were really good but, the store is supposedly one of the most expensive fruit shops in all of Nagoya, so it really should be good. Aside from that, the class has been the same thing pretty much.
The rest of my classes are pretty dull, too. However, today in Tea Ceremony, we were supposed to go on a “field trip” to a tea house to look at it, but the teachers forgot that today is 勤労感謝の日, (kinrō kansha no hi - Labor Thanksgiving Day). So, most places are closed because it’s a national holiday. My university just doesn’t believe in giving us days off, so we were still in school.

Outside of school, I’ve just been going out with friends. Mostly we hang out around Nagoya. I won’t go into detail of going out to clubs, bars, and karaoke or the debauchery involved, but I’ve definitely been having a good time, and I’ve made some really good friends here.

This past weekend, I went on a trip with my friends Kate and Jeff to Kyoto. Kate had a friend from Nanzan who studied abroad at her university and invited us to go with her and her friends to see the 紅葉 (kōyō - lit. “red leaves” but means like the changing trees, or fall colors). We were originally planning on driving with the Japanese kids up, then saying goodbye to them and staying the night to go to Nara the next day, but because it was a 3 day weekend we were unable to find a hostel that wasn’t full, so we just went back the same night with them. But, it was definitely a fun day. The weather was really nice, and the leaves were changing. I think leaves change differently here, though. In America, when I drive home from school and see the mountains, they seem to all change at once and have a nice eruption of color, while here they seem to all change slower and at different paces. So, while it was still beautiful, it was a little lackluster in comparison to what I’m used to. However, I forgot my camera in my rush out of the house in the morning. So, I need to swipe pictures off Facebook from my friends camera’s.
My favorite spot in Kyoto was the 清水寺 (Kiyomizu-ji - Kiyomizu Temple). It’s a temple built into a mountain with support beams that help hold it up. It was really pretty and there were a lot of beautiful views of Kyoto. We were also there at sunset so it made the view even more gorgeous.

So, there’s a brief overview of the past three weeks. I will definitely try to update more. But, I have been trying to keep myself pretty busy and make the most out of my time abroad.

You know you love me.
xoxo

Hey people!

It’s been far too long since I have last updated. Lots of things have happened since my last post, so I’ll try to be as brief as possible and just highlight the exciting parts.

School has been going well. I am enjoying my classes. I still feel like I am doing far too little work before I go to class, but when I am there I seem to be just about on par with the rest of the class. It’s kind of strange, but I’m not really complaining because, as most of you know, I am extremely lazy. IJ400 is going smoothly. I think it’s pretty easy so far. We have three midterms in the next three days though. On Thursday, I only have a seven-minute oral exam. And, because my student ID number is 001, I am one of the first to go. So, I need to wake up and go to school by 9:20 still. More time for my Thirsty Thursday Circle, I suppose. My other classes are good, too. I have to write a paper in Literature for next week. I am actually looking forward to it because I haven’t done anything at all challenging since I’ve been here. Foreign Policy is a breeze. And Tea Ceremony is awesome. We get sweets and tea every class.

Outside of classes, I need to think about all that I’ve done. I guess I’ll just put the more exciting things.

I’ve become friends with some of the other exchange students here. These two other girls and I formed a little club on Thursdays called the Thirsty Thursday Circle. Because none of us have class in the afternoon on Thursday, we spend our time walking around Nagoya and enjoying some refreshing beverages. It’s a really good time. I’m pumped for this weeks.

A couple weekends ago, my hostmom and I went to Gifu which is the capital of a prefecture north of Aichi (Nagoya’s prefecture). (The other prefecture is Gifu Prefecture, easy ne?) We started off in a ladies fashion festival thing, where lots of stores were having sales and stuff. It was kinda boring, but seeing all the Japanese ladies going nuts over dresses and stuff was kinda cool. Then, we went and walked around the Gifu Festival. Festivals here seem to be basically the same in regards to food and vendors, with little differences depending on the theme of the festival. This one was in honor of Oda Nobunaga who was the man that laid the groundwork for uniting Japan in 16th century. (It gets more complicated than that, but that’s a brief overview of it. I won’t give you a history lesson, even though I totally can and would love to if there’s any interested parties.)  After we walked around the festival for a little while, we went off to Mt. Kinka, the mountain in the middle of Gifu-shi. I took this cart thing (called a “rope-way”) up to the top. Then I walked to the Castle where Oda lived for awhile. Then I took a long walk down the mountain to see this pagoda. It was a really nice walk with lots of nice aerial views of Gifu.

We had a typhoon last Thursday, though. The wind was really strong and it was raining pretty hard on Wednesday night, so the school called and told us that we weren’t going to have morning classes. But, when I woke up on Thursday it was a beautiful and sunny day. So, I got a day off school for nothing. Although, my circle meeting was postponed because of it. We’ll just have to make up for it this week.

So, instead Karen and I met up and discussed our plans for the upcoming fall break we have at the end of the month. Karen was thinking of going to Okinawa for it, but we did some research and found out that going to the Philippines for a couple days was actually cheaper. So, we went and bought two tickets for Manila! We’re going to spend our break in the sunny Philippines. It was kind of spontaneous, but I am really looking forward to it. When else in my life will I be able to spend a long weekend in the Philippines?

This past weekend was pretty low key. I’ve been feeling a little sick. I think it’s just a cold. But, I did go out on Saturday night. A couple friends and I went out. We went to a Thai restaurant. One of my new friends had spent a year in Thailand during high school, and she wanted to go find a Thai place because she misses the food. The restaurant was kind of expensive, but the food was really good. I just got this chicken in cashew sauce thing. It was good.

Yesterday, Karen invited me to go to a barbecue that a Japanese student invited her to. This girl had gone to Dickinson on a summer program, and was really outgoing and friendly. So, Karen, another girl from the dorms, and I went with her to her house. This girl’s house was HUGE. She had this shrine thing for her grandparents in her living room on an elevated platform thing that was probably the size of my room here. And the actual shrine was all gold plated and extremely ornate. They said it was the biggest one in all of Nagoya. It was pretty impressive. The food was amazing too. Lots of beef, chicken, vegetables, and squid. The squid was probably the best squid I’ve eaten since I’ve been here. We all kept saying how full we were, but the mom would just bring out more food and we’d keep eating because it was so delicious.

Well, I know I’ve done more. But, that’s about the gist of my life in Japan so far. I’ll try to update more. Until then, you know you love me. xoxo