After settling into my apartment we started off bright and early the next morning with free donuts and juice for the first days breakfast! It was yummy... donuts taste like pocky here. My professor, Marc Thomas, doesn't really think that we should be sitting in a classroom the entire time we're here, so he did minimal classroom time and a lot of field trip type stuff and free time to explore on our own.
So far I've been to Hiroshima and Miyajima once, Kyoto a few times, Otsu a couple times, Tokyo twice and I currently live in Hikone. Hiroshima is beautiful and obviously has a lot of history and emotion there. Hiroshima's message as of today is peace and they want the world to be full of peace and love. Everyone there and at Miyajima was really nice. You can pet deer and see the Torii gate in the water at Miyajima. Miyajima is a sacred island with many beautiful things on it, I suggest that anyone who gets the chance visit it.
Kyoto is a place of cultural and academic status. It's very beautiful there and you will see many women in kimono walking down the busy streets. Kyoto is a somewhat short train ride from Hikone, but when I move to Otsu it's a train stop or two away, so even closer.
Tokyo... is, well, Tokyo. It is different. It's a big city full of homeless people and crime, but it is FAR nicer than any big city you will visit while in America. Just avoid the love hotels and red light districts and you'll be just fine. People are still pretty nice there and are more likely to acknowledge or point at you because you're a foreigner... and in my case wearing a lolita dress and have blonde hair. Shibuya in Tokyo is the place to go for general fashion and clubbing at night, but if you want Lolita or anything specialty like that, you have to go to Harajuku to get it, which is technically part of Shibuya, but about a 5 minute train ride away (160 yen). Tokyo is HUGE and is easy to get lost in, but there's maps everywhere and it's much more common that people know English, so you'll be fine no matter what... just don't jay walk, you'll get hit by a taxi most likely.
Otsu and Hikone are quite close to eachother and less heard of. Otsu is the capitol of Shiga Prefecture. Hikone is a smaller city that has a lot of farming and such, but also shopping and stuff along with an old castle from back when samurai and such were around. I have yet to go to the actual castle, but I've seen it in passing several times, and you can see it on the mountain from where I'm currently living. I'll be moving to Otsu for my second program in a couple days. Just to give you an idea of how far Otsu and Hikone are from eachother, it costs about 900 yen to get from one to another, so it's kinda far, but not by much. It might take 20-30 minutes by local train to get from one to another. It takes around two or two and a half hours to get to Tokyo by Shinkansen. I want to make it very clear that that is by the Shinkansen... that's like a plane, but it's a train... the fastest train. Scary fast.
I'm not sure what else to write while I'm on right now... it looks like Erika has FINALLY returned from her excursion of the day and we have a project to write a proposal paper for that's due before we go out for Karaoke fun times!
If anyone has questions go ahead and ask, it'll make it easier to know what to write on here. I don't care whether I know you or not, this is a public blog for a reason.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Hello~!
My name is Tori and I live in Japan. Only until August 22nd of this year. So, not that long. I've been here for two weeks, and I feel like I've been here much longer. This entire blog is going to be dedicated to me describing, explaining, and elaborating on how my experience over here is. My friend, Erika, who will be leaving at the end of this month is also allowed to post, but I'm not sure how much she actually will.
Okay, so... let's try to start at the beginning...
I arrived from my ump-teen hour succession of flights that started bright and early at 7am in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the USA. We left Lansing, Michigan, where I normally live, at 3am, so that I could be there at 5am to wait for Erika and get through security. We flew Delta, which was cheaper, but also a lower quality airline, so less awesome than what we've heard from our classmates who took Japanese airlines. Once we got through security and on the first plane from Grand Rapids to Detroit we just kinda dead-panned the entire hour or how ever long that took.
Once we got off the plane in the Detroit airport we were severely tired, starved, and confused. We thought we had at least 45 minutes to get to our next flight, which we thought couldn't be too far away. Upon further intense examination (reading a ticket) we found out we had hardly 15 minutes to get to a Gate 76 or so. We were at 3. We didn't realize we could take a shuttle there, even though we kept talking about the tram we saw, so we ran. We did get to use the moving walk-ways to speed us up, though, and we sang Nyan Cat while pretending to be in a Sonic Level. I made the speed up noises when we went over the moving walk-ways. 8B
We somehow made the flight to Seattle on time, though we didn't have time to change seats to sit next to each other. We ended up able to SEE each other, but to interact otherwise was near impossible. Erika sat next to some beefy guy who was bro-ishly invading her seat with his broad-shouldered, muscly girth. I sat next to a Chinese guy who had just graduated from MSU with a Chemical Engineering degree and was on his way back to China because he had gotten a job there. Him and I got along pretty well... and he quizzed me on my limited Japanese(He was tri-lingual). He seemed impressed that I even knew how to introduce myself, so that was good, I guess? The guy on the other side of me didn't talk much until half-way through that flight. Turns out he was a fashion designer. And here I thought he was just a silly, tired old man snoring his way to Seattle. He was fun, too, we talked about dresses.
The third and longest flight we DID have to wait a little bit for, so we went to a little Japanese food place at the Seattle airport and shared a big udon bowl. Then we sat with some Japanese school kids on the ground of the airport after we changed our seats to be able to sit next to each other. Everyone on that flight seemed to be Japanese except for a few other people. I sat next to Erika and this Japanese guy (who seemed to know absolutely no English). The Japanese guy kept falling asleep and sprawling out all over the aisle next to him and my stuff and me. I was not pleased with Mr. Plane Neighbor. Funny thing was, I saw him several times on the trains later in Japan. We just gave each other strange looks and then went back to holding the train handles and trying not to fall down. Ugh... what to say about THAT flight, though? It was the longest, most boring half-day of my life. I swear. They played the crappiest movies imaginable. I was falling asleep, but waking up every fifteen minutes feeling panicky or getting hit my Sleepy Neighbor-chan. I tried to play video games, since I brought my PSP and DS with me with all the actual game cards, but I was too exhausted to do ANYTHING but listen to music and eat periodically. The last three hours I just stared at the clock and counted down minutes until it was over while Jack Black got tied up by some elves or something.
When we finally got off the plane we had to wait in a somewhat long line to get through customs/passport & visa inspection and fingerprinting. It was easy once you got to the window, but until then you just WAITED and hoped you filled out everything right so that you don't get turned away. After you were through there you just picked up your luggage and headed towards the exit. Stupid me packed WAY TOO MUCH. You hear me mom? TOO MUCH LUGGAGE. ;_; I had to mail one suitcase to myself and take the other one on the various trains and taxi with me to get to JCMU. And that was with my Professor and family friend, Marc Thomas', help. I'm thinking of mailing the extra suitcase home early with souvenirs and things I discovered I don't need, because it'll be much less of a hassle than trying to get two big suitcases through a series of trains to Osaka and then to check in.
So, anyways... Marc picked Erika and I up from the air port, along with another classmate and now friend of ours, Sean. We took, as I said, a series of trains and a taxi to get to the JCMU center that I'm currently staying at. My current apartment is bigger than I thought it might be. The bed is not a futon, and is quite comfortable, and the tub is deep and I can take mineral baths. -u- I'll post pictures with captions of my apartment later. I think I'll finish this story later, also. It's getting later here and I want to actually have fun tomorrow. I have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off this week to do whatever I want! My classmates/friends and I are all going to hang out tomorrow and go to karaoke later in the night. And I get to sleep in~! 8D This'll be the first time to do that since I've gotten here.
I'll try to post more tomorrow, so that I can summarize my whole trip up to this point. Hope someone enjoys reading this. :nod:
Okay, so... let's try to start at the beginning...
I arrived from my ump-teen hour succession of flights that started bright and early at 7am in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the USA. We left Lansing, Michigan, where I normally live, at 3am, so that I could be there at 5am to wait for Erika and get through security. We flew Delta, which was cheaper, but also a lower quality airline, so less awesome than what we've heard from our classmates who took Japanese airlines. Once we got through security and on the first plane from Grand Rapids to Detroit we just kinda dead-panned the entire hour or how ever long that took.
Once we got off the plane in the Detroit airport we were severely tired, starved, and confused. We thought we had at least 45 minutes to get to our next flight, which we thought couldn't be too far away. Upon further intense examination (reading a ticket) we found out we had hardly 15 minutes to get to a Gate 76 or so. We were at 3. We didn't realize we could take a shuttle there, even though we kept talking about the tram we saw, so we ran. We did get to use the moving walk-ways to speed us up, though, and we sang Nyan Cat while pretending to be in a Sonic Level. I made the speed up noises when we went over the moving walk-ways. 8B
We somehow made the flight to Seattle on time, though we didn't have time to change seats to sit next to each other. We ended up able to SEE each other, but to interact otherwise was near impossible. Erika sat next to some beefy guy who was bro-ishly invading her seat with his broad-shouldered, muscly girth. I sat next to a Chinese guy who had just graduated from MSU with a Chemical Engineering degree and was on his way back to China because he had gotten a job there. Him and I got along pretty well... and he quizzed me on my limited Japanese(He was tri-lingual). He seemed impressed that I even knew how to introduce myself, so that was good, I guess? The guy on the other side of me didn't talk much until half-way through that flight. Turns out he was a fashion designer. And here I thought he was just a silly, tired old man snoring his way to Seattle. He was fun, too, we talked about dresses.
The third and longest flight we DID have to wait a little bit for, so we went to a little Japanese food place at the Seattle airport and shared a big udon bowl. Then we sat with some Japanese school kids on the ground of the airport after we changed our seats to be able to sit next to each other. Everyone on that flight seemed to be Japanese except for a few other people. I sat next to Erika and this Japanese guy (who seemed to know absolutely no English). The Japanese guy kept falling asleep and sprawling out all over the aisle next to him and my stuff and me. I was not pleased with Mr. Plane Neighbor. Funny thing was, I saw him several times on the trains later in Japan. We just gave each other strange looks and then went back to holding the train handles and trying not to fall down. Ugh... what to say about THAT flight, though? It was the longest, most boring half-day of my life. I swear. They played the crappiest movies imaginable. I was falling asleep, but waking up every fifteen minutes feeling panicky or getting hit my Sleepy Neighbor-chan. I tried to play video games, since I brought my PSP and DS with me with all the actual game cards, but I was too exhausted to do ANYTHING but listen to music and eat periodically. The last three hours I just stared at the clock and counted down minutes until it was over while Jack Black got tied up by some elves or something.
When we finally got off the plane we had to wait in a somewhat long line to get through customs/passport & visa inspection and fingerprinting. It was easy once you got to the window, but until then you just WAITED and hoped you filled out everything right so that you don't get turned away. After you were through there you just picked up your luggage and headed towards the exit. Stupid me packed WAY TOO MUCH. You hear me mom? TOO MUCH LUGGAGE. ;_; I had to mail one suitcase to myself and take the other one on the various trains and taxi with me to get to JCMU. And that was with my Professor and family friend, Marc Thomas', help. I'm thinking of mailing the extra suitcase home early with souvenirs and things I discovered I don't need, because it'll be much less of a hassle than trying to get two big suitcases through a series of trains to Osaka and then to check in.
So, anyways... Marc picked Erika and I up from the air port, along with another classmate and now friend of ours, Sean. We took, as I said, a series of trains and a taxi to get to the JCMU center that I'm currently staying at. My current apartment is bigger than I thought it might be. The bed is not a futon, and is quite comfortable, and the tub is deep and I can take mineral baths. -u- I'll post pictures with captions of my apartment later. I think I'll finish this story later, also. It's getting later here and I want to actually have fun tomorrow. I have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off this week to do whatever I want! My classmates/friends and I are all going to hang out tomorrow and go to karaoke later in the night. And I get to sleep in~! 8D This'll be the first time to do that since I've gotten here.
I'll try to post more tomorrow, so that I can summarize my whole trip up to this point. Hope someone enjoys reading this. :nod:
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