Now where do I begin? I can't remember where I left off before. I think it was just yesterday, after my first class. Somehow, this week feels like it's been going on for the last year. It's probably just getting used to the time difference and things like that (13 hours ahead in the summer and 14 in the winter).
Anyway, after I wrote my blog yesterday, I ended up going to the mall with a few other people (about 20 minutes by bike), where I spent too much money again. I guess it was all things I needed, except for the piano sheet music book that has music by Joe Hisaishi (a composer that does the music for nearly all of Hayao Miyazaki's movies; Hayao Miyazaki made Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, etc.). The best part about the mall is that they have a 100 yen store (as in everything in the store is basically only about $1, maybe a couple cents more; that's where I bought my new Japanese slippers and other things I needed, and a cute little bento box). So far, it's not too hard to buy things. I mean, all you really have to do is look at the cash register thing to see what it says and hand over the money. Although, in the grocery store and probably other stores, if you need more than one plastic bag to carry your items, you have to pay another 2 cents or so, depending on the store. I highly recommend bringing your backpack. After all that, I went back downstairs to study, after dinner, but of course I ended up just talking with people. Well, actually, the other person and I were helping an English student with their homework, but somehow they got off topic and I started talking with someone else who'd arrived somewhere in there and ended up getting a new app for my phone to help me learn new vocab, called Anki.
Today class was a bit easier, I think. Well, I wasn't one of the few having issues speaking very fast and keeping up with what the professor was saying this time. Or maybe that's just because it's Friday. In any case, I think it's easier to understand another language if one doesn't overthink it. In my last year or so of studying languages, that's what I've discovered, anyway. Still, it's a bit difficult to speak, especially in longer sentences. Anyway, after class, we had cooking classes that were held in various rooms (mine being one of them), in groups of four, led by volunteers. It's a good thing there was at least one Japanese student with us, because the volunteer didn't speak a lot of English. That meal was really, really filling, so all I had was a bit of gyouza for dinner (called baozi in Chinese, since it's actually a Chinese food). So after the cooking lesson, a few of us ended up going to a thrift store that's a bit farther than the mall. That's where I bought 6 CD's for only about $16. Then three of us broke off from the group halfway back to stop at the 7/11 convenience store (and I tried milk tea, which is the best thing ever!). Unfortunately, my card didn't work at the ATM there; it said it's temporarily unavailable. Hopefully one of the other many ATM's will work...Well, but then we ended up also stopping at a bookstore on the way back, which was really more like a manga store. Now, I really like a certain...genre, though that's not really the right word for it, since it could be any type of music. It's more the way they dress, I think. Anyway, it's called visual kei, and oshare kei. It seems to be the only type of Japanese rock I can find on Youtube. Anyway, they had magazines in the stores as well, and I found one with a poster and a CD in it that was a bit expensive, but I bought it anyway. Then the cashier gave me a bunch of free folders and a few keychains, which was great. I gave a couple to my roommate, though, since I had doubles. Thinking back on it, though, I hope it's okay that I did it. I'm not sure if it may have been rude or something, going by their culture...
Well, I think today was the most fun so far. For one thing, I finally wasn't exhausted by 7 pm. Though it may help that I finally ate something more than just a banana and something like yogurt for breakfast without eating anything until dinner...In any case, I feel like I'm finally settling in a bit. Though they said in the JCMU handbook that we'll probably be excited and happy for the first few weeks because it's all new, and then we may start feeling homesick and frustrated at not being able to communicate and all that due to culture shock before finally really settling in, but I feel like I've gone through all of these phases in the last few days. And then, I am really excited to be here, but not to the point that it's overwhelming like it sometimes can be, if that makes sense. I also don't really feel like I'm in Japan yet, despite already having to have to try and communicate with the people. Which reminds me, I may often feel overwhelmed and incompetent in my class, but moments like yesterday give me a bit more confidence. What happened was we were at the mall, and one of the people in our group couldn't figure out if something was laundry detergent or not and was trying to figure out how to ask the cashier if it was. Well, I couldn't actually ask if it was detergent, but I was able to ask something along the lines of "Can we/you/I wash clothes with this?", which made enough sense, because we got an answer. It made me feel better that, at the very least, I know enough to just barely get by. I think. Also, be prepared to laugh at yourself, even if you're not here learning the language, but are just at your high school or college learning it. It's all a part of learning the language: you have to make mistakes, be corrected, and laugh at the silly mistakes.
Well, now that I'm off topic again, where did I leave off...? Right, I was going to share a few pictures. It's time for a bit of a "lesson"! Not really. It's more fun and interesting than that, I think. So, first picture.
Anyway, after I wrote my blog yesterday, I ended up going to the mall with a few other people (about 20 minutes by bike), where I spent too much money again. I guess it was all things I needed, except for the piano sheet music book that has music by Joe Hisaishi (a composer that does the music for nearly all of Hayao Miyazaki's movies; Hayao Miyazaki made Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, etc.). The best part about the mall is that they have a 100 yen store (as in everything in the store is basically only about $1, maybe a couple cents more; that's where I bought my new Japanese slippers and other things I needed, and a cute little bento box). So far, it's not too hard to buy things. I mean, all you really have to do is look at the cash register thing to see what it says and hand over the money. Although, in the grocery store and probably other stores, if you need more than one plastic bag to carry your items, you have to pay another 2 cents or so, depending on the store. I highly recommend bringing your backpack. After all that, I went back downstairs to study, after dinner, but of course I ended up just talking with people. Well, actually, the other person and I were helping an English student with their homework, but somehow they got off topic and I started talking with someone else who'd arrived somewhere in there and ended up getting a new app for my phone to help me learn new vocab, called Anki.
Today class was a bit easier, I think. Well, I wasn't one of the few having issues speaking very fast and keeping up with what the professor was saying this time. Or maybe that's just because it's Friday. In any case, I think it's easier to understand another language if one doesn't overthink it. In my last year or so of studying languages, that's what I've discovered, anyway. Still, it's a bit difficult to speak, especially in longer sentences. Anyway, after class, we had cooking classes that were held in various rooms (mine being one of them), in groups of four, led by volunteers. It's a good thing there was at least one Japanese student with us, because the volunteer didn't speak a lot of English. That meal was really, really filling, so all I had was a bit of gyouza for dinner (called baozi in Chinese, since it's actually a Chinese food). So after the cooking lesson, a few of us ended up going to a thrift store that's a bit farther than the mall. That's where I bought 6 CD's for only about $16. Then three of us broke off from the group halfway back to stop at the 7/11 convenience store (and I tried milk tea, which is the best thing ever!). Unfortunately, my card didn't work at the ATM there; it said it's temporarily unavailable. Hopefully one of the other many ATM's will work...Well, but then we ended up also stopping at a bookstore on the way back, which was really more like a manga store. Now, I really like a certain...genre, though that's not really the right word for it, since it could be any type of music. It's more the way they dress, I think. Anyway, it's called visual kei, and oshare kei. It seems to be the only type of Japanese rock I can find on Youtube. Anyway, they had magazines in the stores as well, and I found one with a poster and a CD in it that was a bit expensive, but I bought it anyway. Then the cashier gave me a bunch of free folders and a few keychains, which was great. I gave a couple to my roommate, though, since I had doubles. Thinking back on it, though, I hope it's okay that I did it. I'm not sure if it may have been rude or something, going by their culture...
Well, I think today was the most fun so far. For one thing, I finally wasn't exhausted by 7 pm. Though it may help that I finally ate something more than just a banana and something like yogurt for breakfast without eating anything until dinner...In any case, I feel like I'm finally settling in a bit. Though they said in the JCMU handbook that we'll probably be excited and happy for the first few weeks because it's all new, and then we may start feeling homesick and frustrated at not being able to communicate and all that due to culture shock before finally really settling in, but I feel like I've gone through all of these phases in the last few days. And then, I am really excited to be here, but not to the point that it's overwhelming like it sometimes can be, if that makes sense. I also don't really feel like I'm in Japan yet, despite already having to have to try and communicate with the people. Which reminds me, I may often feel overwhelmed and incompetent in my class, but moments like yesterday give me a bit more confidence. What happened was we were at the mall, and one of the people in our group couldn't figure out if something was laundry detergent or not and was trying to figure out how to ask the cashier if it was. Well, I couldn't actually ask if it was detergent, but I was able to ask something along the lines of "Can we/you/I wash clothes with this?", which made enough sense, because we got an answer. It made me feel better that, at the very least, I know enough to just barely get by. I think. Also, be prepared to laugh at yourself, even if you're not here learning the language, but are just at your high school or college learning it. It's all a part of learning the language: you have to make mistakes, be corrected, and laugh at the silly mistakes.
Well, now that I'm off topic again, where did I leave off...? Right, I was going to share a few pictures. It's time for a bit of a "lesson"! Not really. It's more fun and interesting than that, I think. So, first picture.
This is the view from my apartment window, of Hikone Castle (which I'll be visiting both Sunday and Monday, I think). This is one of only four castles in Japan that are so old (this was made in the 1500s or 1600s, I believe), that are also the original build. I've heard it has a nice garden to go cherry blossom viewing in the spring, and I guess it's becoming more popular to view them here.
The top picture is of my room, farthest away from the entrance. To the right is the door to my room, of which I'll take a picture later, once I've figured out how to make my bed once and for all...The sheets are a bit different, so I'm not really sure how it works, though I think I may have figured it out today. Anyway. The middle picture is the other half of my room. To the left is the door to my roommate's room, and on the right is the entrance.
A quick lesson: in Japan, you absolutely do NOT wear your shoes past that ledge. When entering a home, you must take off those shoes and put on your inside shoes (probably Japanese slippers, since that's what the Japanese use, anyway). Actually, I think we usually just go barefoot in the rooms, and probably in homes as well, but either way is okay, I think. Within the two buildings that make up JCMU, you need to wear inside shoes. This is because of the Japanese concept of the outside being dirty and keeping that from being inside, which is clean. I believe that comes from the native Japanese religion, which is Shinto.
The bottom picture is of the water temperature controller in the kitchen, for the sink. If you want warm water from the kitchen sink, you have to push the green button to turn it on and then increase or decrease the temp. About 38-42 degrees Celsius (somewhere a little below and above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively). There's also a similar one in the shower to control the heat (which I couldn't figure out for the first couple of days, so I ended up taking cold showers). 38-40 degrees is usually comfortable for a shower, too.
A quick lesson: in Japan, you absolutely do NOT wear your shoes past that ledge. When entering a home, you must take off those shoes and put on your inside shoes (probably Japanese slippers, since that's what the Japanese use, anyway). Actually, I think we usually just go barefoot in the rooms, and probably in homes as well, but either way is okay, I think. Within the two buildings that make up JCMU, you need to wear inside shoes. This is because of the Japanese concept of the outside being dirty and keeping that from being inside, which is clean. I believe that comes from the native Japanese religion, which is Shinto.
The bottom picture is of the water temperature controller in the kitchen, for the sink. If you want warm water from the kitchen sink, you have to push the green button to turn it on and then increase or decrease the temp. About 38-42 degrees Celsius (somewhere a little below and above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively). There's also a similar one in the shower to control the heat (which I couldn't figure out for the first couple of days, so I ended up taking cold showers). 38-40 degrees is usually comfortable for a shower, too.
Today, as the three of us were coming back from shopping, we decided to stop for a bit on the shore of Lake Biwa (Biwako in Japanese). Really, we're surrounded by mountains, even on the other side of the lake. In the first picture, you can see JCMU--it's the the green-roofed building.
So of course I had to do a picture posing like that at least once...(In the first picture). JCMU is in the background again in the first picture with me in it. In the second picture, you can see a Shinto shrine that was nearby on the shore where we stopped. Well, I'm pretty sure it's a Shinto shrine, anyway.
One last "lesson": Japan is much more environmentally aware due to its being such a small country (the size of California, give or take) with so few resources. Because of this, we can't use too much electricity per month, since it's so expensive. Really, just make sure to turn off any lights or anything you're not using, and if you do use the air conditioner, don't use it for long; it uses up a lot in even just an hour.
Another result of few resources is that their way of handling garbage is a LOT more complex than just throwing it all into one bag and burning it like we do in the US. Each city has their garbage bags, marked with the city's name, probably, I think. They have multiple types of bags. So far, I only know of two, maybe three, but I think they may have more. One is for burnables, which is basically for raw foods and containers that can't be easily cleaned of the food or anything. The other kind we need in our rooms is for plastics, which is pretty self-explanatory. However, bottles and cans and things of any kind have to be thrown into their own bags. Bottles, for instance, have to have their label peeled off and thrown into the plastics bag, and then the bottle goes into a different type of bag. And that's only the little bit I know of their system, because I think it's even more complicated than that.
Right, so tomorrow, I know two of us and my roommate are going to explore Hikone and take pictures and do whatever, really. Of course, we're not going until the afternoon, so we can finally catch up on sleep. It's really nice, too, that class has been review so far, so I don't have to study much yet. We do have a bit of homework this time, but it probably isn't too hard.
Anyway, I think that's it for now, so I'm going to head off.
One last "lesson": Japan is much more environmentally aware due to its being such a small country (the size of California, give or take) with so few resources. Because of this, we can't use too much electricity per month, since it's so expensive. Really, just make sure to turn off any lights or anything you're not using, and if you do use the air conditioner, don't use it for long; it uses up a lot in even just an hour.
Another result of few resources is that their way of handling garbage is a LOT more complex than just throwing it all into one bag and burning it like we do in the US. Each city has their garbage bags, marked with the city's name, probably, I think. They have multiple types of bags. So far, I only know of two, maybe three, but I think they may have more. One is for burnables, which is basically for raw foods and containers that can't be easily cleaned of the food or anything. The other kind we need in our rooms is for plastics, which is pretty self-explanatory. However, bottles and cans and things of any kind have to be thrown into their own bags. Bottles, for instance, have to have their label peeled off and thrown into the plastics bag, and then the bottle goes into a different type of bag. And that's only the little bit I know of their system, because I think it's even more complicated than that.
Right, so tomorrow, I know two of us and my roommate are going to explore Hikone and take pictures and do whatever, really. Of course, we're not going until the afternoon, so we can finally catch up on sleep. It's really nice, too, that class has been review so far, so I don't have to study much yet. We do have a bit of homework this time, but it probably isn't too hard.
Anyway, I think that's it for now, so I'm going to head off.
Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that--if after the coordinator contacts them and they agree, which they probably will--then I'll move in with them for the semester on the 21, a Saturday. It's about two weeks from now. The coordinator says it's an older couple who've done a lot of home stays and are very flexible and understanding. That's probably for the best for me, since I don't know a lot of Japanese yet. Well, but only the father speaks a bit of English. They do have two daughters, but they're both moved out already. They'll probably visit sometime, though. I wonder if they know any English...But no, I know enough Japanese to do small talk and to just barely get by; I'm here to learn; and I'm in the country where they all speak a different language, so I can't expect them to accommodate me. Rather, I have to play by their rules--their culture, their language. This is all perfectly fine by me. I just haven't been too exposed to a lot of it yet, so having a host family will be good. The only thing is that I'm worried about the commute (6 min walk to the station from the home, 7 min ride by train, and 20 min by bike; I can walk and bike pretty fast, though, so it's probably even less than that). At least this way I'll experience riding a train. And it's really only a total of about 30 min, to begin with. I just hope that typhoon hits before I'm with my host family, if it even hits.