Blog-Bloggy-McBloggington.

I took 135 photos today on the trek from my dorm to Suita campus. I was going to post them here, but just go over to Tumblr to look at the bulk of them. I didn't post them all, mostly because I hit my daily upload limit, but I'll post the rest tomorrow or sometime in the future. Have I mentioned I hate the "home room" class that we're required to go to? Seriously. I got up and did this:

-walked 15-20 minutes to the station,

-sat on the train for 15 minutes,

-walked 15-20 minutes to campus,

-was at "home room" for EXACTLY fifteen minutes and then it was over. Then

-another 15-20 minute walk to the station,

-15 minute train ride,

-15-20 minute walk to the dorm.

Spent over $3.00 on train fare for basically no reason. They literally gave us a sheet that they read verbatim off of. They could email this crap to me, but no.

It's Japan. There are rules.

Actually, a lot of people have started to skip the class and they're not being shy about it, either. However, after the debacle we ended up in after even ASKING IF IT WAS REQUIRED, I am lax to miss anything that is even remotely mandatory. There is some fun stuff coming up, though. Next Thursday, after my Introduction to Japanese Legal/Political System and Culture class, we are having a big party at some karaoke place. The "cover" charge is ￥3,000, but that covers food and unlimited drinks ("grown-up" drinks, too) as well as karaoke for like three hours. It's going to be so fun. The instructor said he does this every semester because the Japanese students are really shy and don't really attempt interaction with us foreigners. This is hopefully going to help them loosen up (and if I know anything about the Japanese and drinking, it will work), and help us all become great friends. Or something. Anyway, I think it'll be a lot of fun.

Also, in early May there is going to be something called ICHO Festival which, according to the handout we were given at home room today, will feature "exhibitions, movies, lectures, concerts, sports, foods, etc." and a note that "You will enjoy Icho-SAI" (emphasis mine). It seems like a command more than a suggestion. YOU WILL TOTALLY ENJOY THIS OR ELSE! We will write your home institution and tell them you're not being a team player, or something. Anyway, I am hoping it'll be fun. There is also Golden Week coming up, and I so far have no plans for Golden Week which is a little disconcerting. I should have made my own plans, but will probably end up either coming up with something on the fly, or be dragged off by some group somewhere. Either way, hooray, spring break!

Later in May is something I am really excited about; an overnight bus trip to Mt. Koya (click the link, the wiki page has some great pics). It's a mountain, obviously, and there's a Buddhist shrine at the top (perhaps more than one?) and we'll have the opportunity to meet with the monks and visit the shrine(s) and temple(s) and OVERNIGHT BUS TRIP YAY! It's also free, which is really quite nice. I am excited to go and take pictures and bring back stories and blog-stuff for you guys.

For my Osaka in Modern Japanese Literature class, we are also going on a field trip to see bunraku, traditional Japanese puppet theatre. That should be a lot of fun, and more manageable now that the class has shrunk in size. In fact, all of my classes shrunk in size (is it me?? :P), especially the law ones. My final class on Thursday went from being almost full to having maybe 12 students in it. That's okay though, because I think we will be doing a lot of discussion in that class. This class in particular makes me wish I knew more about law, though, because I am basically going in with very rudimentary knowledge and so I often don't know the answers to simple questions. But this is good, because I'm cramming in all my law classes at once so by the end of it I should be a total legal eagle or something (writing "legal eagle" is hard. My brain kept going "leagle eagle" or "leagal eagal" -- Doh!).

I just think it's neat that even if I never planned a single thing on this trip (which is NOT going to happen, believe me), I will still get to go out and explore Japan with my fellow studentss.

I did register for courses today, finally, after shuffling things around quite a bit. The schedule is still a total mess, but at least now the classes will count (well, most of them) for credit at A&M. Today was the deadline to register. Of course, last night I reminded my other OUSSEPians (our program is called OUSSEP) not to forget their registration sheets because the deadline was the 25th! So, of course I promptly left mine sitting in a binder in my dorm room. -facepalm- Well, to be fair, I am blonde so I get a blonde moment every now and then. Luckily, Toyono-san (one of the program directors) was able to get me an extra copy and I filled it out and dutifully handed it in. My actual schedule is like this now:

DAY	TIME	COURSE
Monday	12:15-1:15	My favourite: "Home Room"
Tuesday	8:50-10:20	Japanese 200
Tuesday	2:40-4:10	Topics in Japanese Law
Wednesday	1:00-2:30	Japan: Society & Ideology
Thursday	8:50-10:20	Japanese 200
Thursday	10:30-12:00	Osaka in Modern Japanese Literature
Thursday	2:40-4:10	Introduction to Japanese Legal/Political System & Culture
Thursday	4:20-5:50	Topics in Comparative Law
Friday	8:50-10:20	Japanese 200

As you can see, my schedule is all over the place and most days I end up on campus with only two classes with huge gaps between them or even just one class (MONDAY AND FRIDAY, I'M LOOKING AT YOU). Thursdays are absolute HELL, though. The good news is that my law classes have a lot of overlap, and so I think taking them simultaneously will help me in each class in its own way. I may learn more about a topic in one class that we're covering in another class or vice-versa, and be able to implement said knowledge during discussion or in my research paper(s).

Well, that's about all that's going on. I had meant to buy a tennis racket today because we have a tennis court, but I ended up getting off at the wrong station (Yamada station has a sporting goods store, whereas Minami Senri does not) and I figured, I'll be at Yamada again soon, so no worries. I did pick up some bread and milk. I pack lunches to school because I'm trying to spend a bit less money on superfluous things. I have had about as much Japanese food as I can take, anyway. Sandwiches are inexpensive, easy, and do not require refrigeration as long as you eat them within a couplefew hours. I also pack some frozen edamame (helps keep the sandwich cool and thaws out by lunch time). I bought some delicious strawberries today, so I think I'll take some of them along as well.

Yes, I'm eating carbs, but I'm trying to steer away from the sweets (trying... I am so trying) and to eat more fruit/vegetable matter if I'm going to be consuming carbs. For example, I restocked my "snack" cabinet with the strawberries and some minneola tangelos. I had meant to buy some sweet potatoes today but I completely forgot I was going to do that and bought regular potatoes instead. Breakfast is panfried potatoes with 2 eggs sunny-side up. Dinner this evening was sausage, stir-fried with cabbage, red and yellow onion, zucchini, carrot and bean sprouts slapped on some rice. I buy my rice in pre-made packages that you just have to microwave, and try to eat them 1/2 a package at a time. The sausage I got was on special and it's really quite flavorful, especially if you put it in a pan and let the edges caramelize a bit.

When I get back to the states, I want a Texas Roadhouse 12-oz sirloin steak ASAP. I miss steak and meat in general and delicious, low-carb goodness. I actually miss my morning protein shakes. It's just not feasible here with the amount of money I have to spend. Plus, the meat here is totally different. The bacon is more like sliced ham, it's very low fat and therefore doesn't give off those delicious bacon drippings which are so handy to have to make other meals more flavorful. I also want a heaping platter of Mexican fajitas. I hate to say it but thus far, I am not tremendously impressed with Japanese food. It's not that I hate it or anything, it tastes good, but it all tastes the same. Granted, I haven't had any sushi or sashimi yet (SO. EXPENSIVE. GAH), but everything else is the same. Meat, egg, cabbage. Hah, that's what I had for dinner. Anyway, I want some parillada or something. I want SPICY food.

That being said (or as Andrew would say, "MIND YOU"), if I had the option to turn this 1 semester stay into a year, I would do it in a heart beat. I like Japan, and it's so beautiful here right now despite (or likely because of) the rain. It's already April 25th and one month has almost completely come and gone. After this it's just May, June, and all of July and then I'm going home. I'm 1/4th through my trip!! I miss my family, my friends (and my cat, of course), but I feel like this trip is so short. I am just now used to things and already I'm 1/4th of the way done. Incredible, just incredible.

Anyway, it's time to get ready for bed. I have classes early'ish tomorrow. I hope everyone is doing well and I love & miss you all (except you, Andrew. I don't love or miss you. BUAHAHAHA just kidding!)

<3 <3 <3

T U M B L R

Broke down and got a Tumblr site today, lots of things already uploaded from today!

http://jennifermoyes.tumblr.com

Have I mentioned that I love nominhodai? Because I love nomihodai. M, K, and L (Lindzi, who is, unfortunately, an Aussie [haha Lindz, I'm just kidding]), Minji and Kukhwa (you've heard of Minji before, Kukhwa is her friend and also from Korea) went out to do nomihodai and have some dinner. I know I've already blogged about nomihodai, but last night was quite a lot of fun. I am really enjoying hanging out with the girls.

Dinner was interesting. I decided to try some new things. I randomly ordered a drink off the menu and ended up getting something called a Gin Orange Sour (I think), which wasn't as sour as one would expect. I also ordered pork heart, which comes grilled and skewered on a stick. Then I saw something I absolutely had to try. Sakura niku (桜肉), which is... are you ready for this? Horse sashimi. Yes, raw horse, which looks something like this (not my photo).They call it Sakura Niku (cherry blossom meat) because it's pink, or something. Looks like beef to me.

Well, I wasn't blown away by it. It didn't taste like anything I'd ever had before, and I've had raw beef before. The flavor is difficult to describe. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. Most sashimi is flavorful enough to stand on its own, flavor-wise (tuna, I'm looking at you), but the flavor with the horse sashimi was just kind of bland. It actually came with horseradish (IRONY!), crushed garlic and chopped green onions, which it needed because there isn't much flavor coming through. No one else at my table was willing to try it (more for me!), but Meaghan did try the pork heart, which was excellent. It didn't have the texture that organ meat usually does (somewhat grainy, chewy, etc.); it wasn't the same texture as regular pork, to be sure, but it didn't come across like liver or anything. It tasted very good. I would order it again. The horse sashimi, perhaps not - not because I didn't like it, but because it was 500 yen for an order of four slices and I don't like it enough to go out of my way to find it/pay for it. I'd rather get any other sashimi, flavor-wise.

After dinner, we did karaoke because somehow Lindzi had never done it, despite having been to Japan what - three times, now? Everyone gets really excited about karaoke. When we got to our rented room (karaoke here transpires in individual rooms which you rent by the hour, which have the TV and all the things you need for karaoke set up for you), Minji and Kukhwa literally squealed with excitement upon entering it. Adorable :D We sang a mish-mash of Lady Gaga and Disney songs (I'm serious - we sang songs from Mulan [this one's especially ironic] and Beauty and the Beast, as well as Telephone, Poker Face oh, and Single Ladies by Beyonce). Lindzi sang My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion, which I will never forgive her for. There was a Japanese song in there somewhere, too, but I don't know it. It was really fun! I like that karaoke is more private here than in the states. In the U.S. if you want to do karaoke, you sing in front of the entire bar/club/restaurant and everyone can hear how awful you are. Here, only Minji, Lindzi, Kukhwa, Kathryn and Meaghan had to suffer through my singing.

Also? All the Single Ladies is REALLY hard to sing. Props to Beyonce.

+3|-| 1|\|+3R\/\/3|35

I HAVE TEH INTERWEBZ! Or, in normal-speak, I now have the internet in my dorm :)

Train --> Rain --> Bus --> Tardy

This morning, Meaghan and I decided to set off on an adventure to figure out the bus system. Thing is, our dorms are farther away from our campus (Toyonaka) than the other campus (Suita). The train to Suita is only ￥150, but the train to Toyonaka is ￥280. That minor difference adds up to almost $50 USD over the course of a month. So, to conserve money and also to figure out the bus system, we decided to take the train to Suita and ride the (free) bus from there to Toyonaka. It takes more time this way, but the walk is a bit more challenging (HILLS) and good for one's health, so I figured, "Why the hell not?"

The skies outside my dorm were blue and had small fluffy clouds, so I left my umbrella AND my jacket in the dorm. The temperature outside was quite nice; cool, but not cold. We walked to Minami-Senri station and I grabbed something from the bread shop (CARBAHOLIC) for breakfast. We took the train and then walked another 15 minutes or so to Suita campus. That's when it started to rain. Then it started to pour. Then we realized we were at the wrong bus stop, so we went to a different bus stop. There was no bus there, either, and a bus schedule showing a bus coming only once every hour or so. So, we went to the International Students Assistance Center (or whatever it's called), but they didn't open until 8:30, so there was no one there to help us. So, we trudged back through the rain to the original bus stop. We saw a bus across the street, but it was letting people off so we thought if we ran to talk to the bus driver, we'd probably miss it, so we waited. And waited. The bus didn't leave, so we decided to go ask! Of course, just then, the bus pulled away. But, I thought, it might be going to the stop we were just at! So, we dashed over there. No such luck. The bus stopped near the co-op and just stayed there. We saw another bus but had similar results trying to track it down. Finally, we went to the co-op where the original (and now "out of service") bus was at, and asked the driver where the stop was for the bus that went to Toyonaka.

He gave us directions (we were WAY off) and we found the stop, now soaking wet, and caught the bus. We were over ten minutes late for class. BUT! Now we know the bus, so we can take it to-and-from with ease. Plus, I think this is the first vehicle I've been inside of in WEEKS, and they drive on the left side of the road here, so that was kind of interesting. :)

Anyway, I only have two classes on Tuesdays now after doing a bit of shifting around. The sad part is my first class is the earliest class of the day, and my second class is the second-to-last, so I have a huge gap between the two. Oh well, homework time! Then two classes wednesday, then four classes on Thursday and one on Friday. Oh, and one on Monday... It doesn't add up to seven, but it's complicated. I am taking seven classes, just trust me on that. Well, eight if you count my beloved "home room" class.

More Umeda!

Saturday, we (being M, K, & myself) went to Umeda which was kind of an adventure. The idea in my head was to go to Umeda, check out HEP 5 (a huuuuge shopping center, in fact most of Umeda is shopping) and explore a bit. Then once 8:30 rolled around, we were going to meet some people from my dorm at a specific restaurant. We had, admittedly, a poorly drawn map to help guide us to the restaurant. I wasn't really worried about it though, because getting lost in Umeda sounds like fun to me. You can't ever really get lost, because as long as you can find a train station ("eki wa doko desuka?") you can find your way back to a familiar place. We went to HEP 5 and found it relatively easily. This guy greeted us upon entry. HEP 5 has multiple stories and a ferris wheel on top. We rode the ferris wheel (which is 106 meters above the ground at the highest point) which was quite fun up until the point where Kathryn started talking about how we'd totally die if something went wrong (thanks, K!) which made us all a bit worried. Still, the view was nice for the most part (if a bit overcast); you can see Osaka Castle from up there as well as a good chunk of Osaka-shi (Osaka City).

We explored the mall and found a shop which sells some foreign stuff. I was taken in by a bag of Old El Paso chips and a jar of salsa and I almost bought it if it weren't for the fact that it was horrendously overpriced and Old El Paso isn't really that good. So, I bought a Ginger Ale (a dicey buy because some ginger ales are just awful, and this one turned out to be one) and K picked up a can of Dr Pepper. The last can, in fact. I had been tempted by it, just for the sake of nostalgia, but I don't really even like DP so it wasn't a big deal to let her have it.

We then toured the remainder of the mall in search of a perfume shop, specifically. I left all my perfume at home because I didn't want it to explode on the flight over and was just really missing having something to spritz on to freshen up my room or myself. I found a shop that sold make-up and perfume almost exclusively, and probably smelled about 60% of their stock in search of something I'd like. I found some Juicy Couture, which I remember liking, but it was ￥9,000 (over $100 USD) whereas in the states you can get JC for like $60. So, I was like "nooo thanks" and after smelling about 43,187 other perfumes finally found one that I like. It's by Britney Spears (SHUT UP) and it's called Radiance and I like it okay? Besides, it's not as if Britney Spears actually has anything at all to do with the inception, creation, marketing and even aroma of this perfume. So, I have perfume now, yay.

Then we got lost looking for the Mexican restaurant and passed an area that, while I'm not fully certain if it was a red-light district or not, featured large images of naked ladies. We were led by some helpful Japanese to the shopping district which housed the Mexican restaurant (what? I want to see how the Japanese interpret "Mexican food"), but were disappointed to find out it was not open until 5. We wanted to eat something, so we swung into a yaki niku (grilled meat) place, where they bring you a small charcoal grill to your table and you cook the raw meat yourself on the grill. I had some riceballs wrapped in meat and some chicken wings. We tried to keep it on the cheap side and not eat too much, since we were planning on meeting others later. After that we wandered around a bit more and found a little place for a couple of drinks and/or coffee. The girls had cocktails and I had a beer and we relaxed and watched the crowd for a while.

After that, it's a long drawn out tale of getting lost in Umeda trying to find the restaurant with no success. Being lost and/or not meeting our goal seemed very stressful for K. We ended up having dinner at Yodobashi Camera (which is actually a huge electronics mall that has a food court up top) and then took a long walk to the train station home. By that point, I was pretty tired. I had planned on Sunday to head to my hostel and pick up a pair of shoes I left there. The hostel is also in Umeda, so I probably should have done it on Saturday, but I didn't feel like dragging M & K all the way to the hostel. So, instead I said, "Let's go Sunday and we can explore the area around the hostel." Well, that didn't happen because I was sick as a dog on Sunday and even M didn't feel very good. I stayed in my dorm and just rested, relaxed, drank hot tea, etc. I got several "mystery" medicines from helpful dormmates which did help, but in the end I asked Yuki to write down the name of a cough medicine so I could go pick some up. I got that, along with some Vick's cough drops, from the kusuriya on Monday. They really, really helped. After our "home room" class Monday, Lindzi (an Aussie who is in K & M's dorm) and I ended up going to my hostel.

We checked out Umeda again, had some soft serve at a place called "Sweden" (a Japanese ice cream shop - I had sakura ice cream, which was delicious), I finally had my first experience with Japanese "Italian" food (it was good!) and I got my shooooes back finally. Yay. I also picked up a small gift for Yuki because she has been REALLY helpful in helping me adjust and find things I need (medicine, Takarazuka tickets, the post office), as well as she basically filled out my internet application form for me... Yeah. I picked up some cute cookies from a gift shop in Umeda. I hope they're as tasty as they are adorable. On the way home I got a couple of groceries at Minami Senri station, and then got rained on all the way home.

The weather in Japan is simple:
Does Jenn have her umbrella?

Yes ---> Blue skies, sunshine.
No ---> Dark skies, rain, really cold wind.

Well, that's pretty much my weekend. Golden Week (sort of like "spring break" I suppose) is coming up at the end of this month, and I'm sure there will be all kinds of shenanigans to be had.

The Bank Account Post

I don't think I posted about this, but I wanted to get this all down before I forget about it. Our first month of rent is due on the 27th, and for some reason, it can only be paid at a conbini (convenience store). We actually tried to pay it at a yuubinkyouku (post office/bank), but we were told it HAS to be paid at a conbini. That wasn't a complete waste of time, though, because I now know there is a yuubinkyouku much closer to my dorms than either of the train stations (it's at the Pikoku). It's good to know I can drop off letters there or deposit/withdraw from the bank. Anyway, after the first month's rent is paid, the remaining months will be automagically deducted from our bank accounts, so we had to get bank accounts. Really, if it weren't for this and the fact that internet came out from our accounts, I probably wouldn't have got one. Every time I change money from USD to Yen, I lose money.

We had sort of put off opening our bank accounts because we had to have our alien registration cards first, and there was a delay on when we could do that. Once done, we attempted to find the yuubinkyouku at Minami-senri station, only to find that 1) they were ridiculously busy and 2) they were closing in ten minutes. We decided to try for another day. Then things were busy with orientations and classes, but finally we were able to make it to the bank early enough to open our accounts. I am sure we were a pain in the ass to them - three gaijin showing up at the same time, with no clue how to open a bank account or even fill out the appropriate paperwork. It's worth noting that the yuubinkyouku is REALLY tiny. It's probably 1/8th the size (if not smaller) than a small-town post office. In fact, I'll try to snap a pic of it next time I'm there so you can see just how itty-bitty it really is. There are four clerks (if I recall correctly), three of which handle banking and one which handles post.

They split us into two groups, K on her lonesome with one clerk, M and myself taken off to the side by another clerk. Things like this are stressful, because you spend the whole time trying to figure out what's expected of you. We hit a roadblock when they wanted us to put our address down - in KANJI - which neither Meaghan nor I are tremendously confident at. Kathryn, however, was able to do hers just fine. There's a reason she's our fearless leader, y'know... Anyway, the guy that was helping us put our addresses in for us. We filled out the form as best we could and signed them, with instructions that our signature on each form should look exactly the same (keep in mind that Japanese people use hankos for their signatures, and a hanko always looks the same because it's a stamp).

We were then instructed to wait, and after about 10 minutes they came back out with our "bank books" which is a ledger for keeping track of expenses. It's not a checkbook though, because I guess no one uses checks here. I had no money to deposit at the time (was waiting for my money to transfer from ING to my credit union), so I was pretty much done. M was in the same boat, but Kathryn wanted to make a deposit. Then I realized that I had to pay for one of my health insuranceseses (because I have like fourteen of them now - well, okay, maybe just four, whatever), so I got that taken care of at the bank. They are also mailing us a bank card which is a debit card, as I understand it.

So now I have my bank book, and the other day I deposited 40,000 Yen into the account (about $480 USD, we are seriously getting screwed on the exchange) because any day now the cable company will try to withdraw to set up my internets, and I seriously don't know what happens if you bounce a check in Japan.

I don't want to get deported or anything.

Another post that has nothing to do with Japan:

I have been reading Less than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others by David Livingstone Smith and I would like to share a piece of this book with you. I have talked, briefly, in some Facebook posts and perhaps some other things posted elsewhere about the act of dehumanization, and how it's a necessary component of some of the most atrocious acts committed by man, so when I saw this book, I just had to read it because I haven't seen much on this subject. Nothing I am reading here is a surprise, really, but it's interesting to see the mechanisms of dehumanization laid out in a scientific manner. Anyway, here is the quote I wanted to share:

"When a group of people is dehumanized, they become mere creatures to be managed, exploited, or disposed of, as the occasion demands. Throughout history, propagandists have exploited this to serve their political ends. There's no better way to promote a war than by portraying the enemy as a bloodthirsty beast that must be killed in self-defense. And there is no better way to whip up enthusiasm for genocide than by representing the intended victims as vermin, parasites, or disease organisms that must be exterminated for the purpose of hygiene. The architecture of our minds makes us vulnerable to these forms of persuasion. Images like these speak to something deep inside us. If you still believe that you are the exception, and are immune from these forces, I hope that by the end of this book you will have embraced a more realistic assessment of your capacity for evil."

Now, I am going to put a little warning here. It's 10:17PM after an extremely long day, and I've been reading this book for probably two hours; I am deeply moved, concerned, upset, and depressed by the information in this book (though I was already familiar with much of the content, as we all are, because Livingstone Smith draws from the breadth of human history for his examples). I am weary, and I am going to spend the remainder of this post rambling. You don't have to read this. It has nothing to do with Japan, or Osaka, or school or anything relevant to everything else I have posted to this blog. Still, I feel it needs to be put out there, to the world, because I think it's important. That being said, you are totally excused from this post and I won't be offended if people don't read it. Here we go...

What is the solution to the issue of "race," which is then inexplicably intertwined (even in situations where "race" is a misused term, such as the "Jewish race") with dehumanization, violence, genocide and hatred? Is it so wrong to acknowledge differences from one to another? If one acknowledges a difference, is that acknowledgement then racism? I would like to posit that it is not inherently racist to acknowledge differences, however that acknowledgement of differences is so often used in conjunction with racism, that it is difficult for us to separate the two. However, would our world be better if we completely disregarded those differences? Are we even capable of such a thing?

Humans have an instinctual need to categorize everything. We have "big trucks" and "small cars" and "dress shoes" and "casual clothes." Nearly everything - if not everything - in our entire world is placed into a category; even things which are completely intangible (such as emotions) are categorized. This categorization is the key element to the concept of "race." And yet, the categorization of "race" is not always correct. One can be darker or lighter skinned and yet genetically belong to a race that is lighter or darker than oneself (and thereby assumed to be a member of a race that you don't belong to). If we were to completely ignore the concept of race, would racism be hampered at all? And if we decided not to acknowledge race, would that then force us not to acknowledge other differences? Height, weight, eye color? Or would discrimination simply take place in different venues?

In some schools which have heavy gang populations in the U.S., students are required to wear uniforms and are not allowed to wear bandanas or anything that is traditionally used to distinguish members of gangs from each other. In these situations, students employ different methods to differentiate themselves from other gangs such as oddly colored shoelaces, types of accouterments (bracelets, necklaces), etc. Just because uniforms are required and "gang paraphernalia" is outlawed doesn't mean that the students don't find another method to tell each other (and each other's alliances) apart. Would not the same thing happen if the concept of "race" were somehow magically abolished or disallowed?

Within humanity, there is always a concept of "us" and "them," and for most of human history, the most overt difference was skin color, and yet we are fast coming upon an age where we know so much about our differences that there may soon be other ways to discriminate (a'la the film Gattica). I want to note here that while people of different races are genetically similar (or as I like to say, we are made of the same "stuff"), there are of course mutations and aberrations within genetics that, while perhaps not visible to the naked eye, can cause individuals both within and without the same race to be different (predispositions to heart problems, diabetes, color-blindness, etc). These are things that we are increasingly able to detect, yet are still somewhat in the realm of science fiction at least as far as discrimination goes. So far.

My natural inclination is to believe that education is the solution, however there are innumerable instances in both long-past and recent history that disprove that theory. Some of the most "learned" men and women of our - and in fact any - time have been unapologetically racist and/or discriminatory. Even our highly-vaunted "founding fathers" were slave holders (a group of our society who deemed a particular race sub-human enough that they could be subjected to the same treatment as livestock, if not worse).

In Livingston Smith's book, he talks about how slave owners in the United States frequently referred to their slaves in subhuman, animalistic terminology (vermin, disease, predatory animals, etc). However, he points out that many slave owners were willing to at least copulate with enslaved women, and in this case, if they truly believed their rhetoric, that would make them proponents of bestiality. The same thing happened during Nazi Germany, where there are verified cases of Jews being raped (or coerced, in some situations) by Nazi soldiers. Clearly, there is some cognitive dissonance going on here. These people "believed" that the Jews or blacks were subhuman so long as it was convenient to allow them to overcome the innate nature to empathize and sympathize with other fellow human beings (in order to enact incredible cruelty and violence against them). However it was easy for them to simultaneously believe that the same peoples were human enough to find attractive, or to at least wish to sexually humiliate and dominate them. I don't want to get too far into the issue, but let's just say that it's not normal behavior (and is in fact, exceedingly rare) for a person to desire to copulate with an animal, be it for personal pleasure or to dominate/humiliate the creature.

So again, what is the solution to the problem of discrimination? It is a scary time we live in because I see the same rhetoric that was used against the Jews in Nazi Germany used against Muslims. Aside from that, several genocides have happened just within my lifetime, with even more in less than 50 years before my birth. Sudan, Darfur, Rwanda, Pol Pot, WWII, etc. The machinations of the ganjaweed, the Hutu, the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge; those very same machinations are put into play day in and day out for political ends. I would like to believe that humanity has the capability to redeem itself, however I am probably wrong. It would certainly explains our desire to have an external redeemer, a "savior" which peoples have conjured up throughout history to offer salvation for the many, many sins that we seem doomed to repeat.

Don't be a part of the problem, be a part of the solution. Racially speaking, there is absolutely no biological difference between you and I, between us and someone half a world away, between a tribal man of the Amazon or a powerbroker in a New York sky rise - regardless of gender, race, creed, genetics, we are all people made of the same stuff. It is unfortunate that the faculties that give rise to our great and varied civilization are the very same faculties which allow us to commit atrocities and to build such cognitive dissonance that we allow ourselves to believe things that are factually incorrect. I literally mourn for our (human) race because the path we are on is the path to the apocalypse and I, not being one to believe in any particular savior, don't see any redemption in it.

Hanami, etc.

Hanami is the flower viewing festival. You may be familiar with it, they do something similar in Washington D.C. every year. Hanami is a very popular thing to do. We were invited to go to Kyoto for hanami, but it seemed like a lot of trouble and it'd been a long week, so we decided to stay in Suita-shi and go to a nearby park (Minami Koen - "Minami park") which is about 4 blocks from my dorm (1 block from K and M's dorm). So, last Sunday I went to the park about 1pm... I spread out a blanket (the hostel had a "freebie bin" where people had accidentally left stuff and a brown throw blanket was in there, so I acquired it), and set down my goods. A six-pack of Asahi lite, a bento, and myself. It was cooler early on in the day, but the clouds cleared and the sun came up. I ended up getting a very slight sunburn (by the next day it was completely gone, thankfully). People in the park were playing volleyball or soccer, and there were food stands set up too selling takoyaki and other Japanese foods.

We had a pretty good turn-out. The "gokai group" almost all showed up, and I taught the Korean girls gang signs (west siiiiyeeeede haha, I'm ghetto). We had a few guys from the middle east and Africa (Turkey, Iran, Algeria, etc.), and some other people that I'm not too familiar with. With everyone there we had about fifteen people all sitting together on various blankets or tarps. I made friends with a group of older Japanese folks behind us, and they kept offering us more. More beer, more drinks, more food, etc. They gave us onigiri, shrimp shumai, shiokara (which I wasn't a fan of, but kept eating because they seemed really impressed that I would even eat it) among other things. I didn't know what shiokara was and now that I'm reading the wiki, I'M surprised I ate it. Anyway, all the Japanese people were pretty drunk and slurring, so sometimes it was harder to understand them than it would normally be, but they were nice and we all had a good time.

I am still sick. There is an outbreak of measles in the dorms. I am pretty sure that I've had measles before (and chicken pox, too), but I'm not 100% sure. Guess I ought to find out. I don't think I have the measles because even if I've never had them, I had to go through a battery of vaccinations to go overseas when my dad was in the military, plus the shots you have to get just to attend public schools. So... I am pretty sure this is just a cold. I don't think you can get the measles twice.

Takarazuka (wiki here) shows are starting soon, and I am uber hyped about it. I am still trying to decide which show I want to see, either this one or this one. On the trains they have posters advertising the Takarazuka shows, and I really, really, really want to snag a few of them. I think professor Suzuki (in whose Gender Studies class I first learned about Takarazuka) would like to have one or two to show her class, plus I want one for me, and I think one Miss Clarissa Sanchez wouldn't mind having one also (wish you could be here to go to a show with me!).

Now that classes have started I'm learning that I'm going to have to switch my schedule around. Some of the classes that I got approval to take aren't being offered this semester, so I have to reorganise things and figure out which classes are being offered that will count for credit at A&M, and then take those. The nice thing about classes here is that you can take two weeks of courses before you even have to register, so you get to see the syllabus, meet the professor, and get a feel of the class before deciding which ones you want to take. I want to take back as many credits as possible, obviously, so I have some research to do.

Anyway, that's what's up lately. I have to head out to class now, have a good day, all.

The Medical Check-Up.

So, every student entering OU has to do a medical check-up upon entering University. I wasn't sure what it would entail, and I was becoming nervous because 1) DO NOT LIKE HOSPITALS and 2) DO NOT LIKE BEING NAKED IN FRONT OF STRANGERS and usually medical check-ups involve all of the above. They also gave us this thing called a Pee Pole with directions to pee into it the morning of the exam. Yes. Carry your urine around with you all day. No, not going to happen. They don't tell us what the urine is for, though I imagine it's for a drug test. Or perhaps pregnancy test. Or perhaps both. That's a big difference between the U.S. and Japan. My urine might just be refuse waste, but it's my urine and you can't have it without telling me what you're going to do with it. In the U.S., I would have to sign a form consenting to whatever kind of test they were going to do on it. Here, they took my pee and I have no idea why. Anyway, I carried the (empty) Pee Pole with me to campus this morning and then utilized the device right before heading to the medical center. So yes, for five minutes, I had pee in my pocket. Love it.

M & K went also, which was good because I really needed the moral support. They had us fill out a pretty standard questionnaire (family medical history, personal medical history, any problems you want to discuss, etc.) Didn't ask if I was pregnant or lactating, though, which is standard in the U.S. We turned in our forms and they gave us a card. The card we would carry on our persons through the various examinations, and the doctors would insert it into the machine before running anything. All the outcomes of each examination are logged on that card. So, we turned in our pee pole, our questionnaire, and got our cards. On the sheet that we received during oritentation (the one that informed us we had to take a medical exam), it read that during the medical exam we would have to be completely naked. This had me in a tizzy, but in the end, nothing could be further from the truth. They said we could wear a plain t-shirt during the chest x-ray (no logos or print on the shirt) and in fact, if you didn't have such a shirt, they provided one for you. That was the most intrusive part of the entire check-up, and it wasn't intrusive at all.

Anyway, we were herded to a line to enter a tent which was connected to an RV where our chest x-rays would be taking place. We entered the tent (boys in one, girls in another) and were able to remove our bras under our shirts. They took our bags and such, and then one by one, we took off our shoes, slipped into 'house slippers' and went into the bus. The doctor showed me how to stand for the x-ray, I was completely clothed - t-shirt, jeans, everything, totally comfortable. He took the x-ray then there was some confusion. It's no secret that I'm a big girl, and apparently their machine was not built for folks like me, so they moved me to a different bus with different machinery. This was fine except during, they had me wait and I had no idea why I was waiting. Was there something wrong? Did the x-ray have bad results? Did my pee test have weird results? I took some medicine this morning for my cough that one of the Korean girls gave me, and it was in modern medicine packaging so I was sure it was fine, but still. What's wrong?! Finally they took me to the other bus (after letting me put my overshirt back on - I had worn a white undershirt specifically for the x-ray today) and there they brought someone who spoke English who explained to me that actually, the machinery in the second bus was very old and so they wanted me to come back on a different day to do the chest x-ray inside the medical building on-campus, where the machinery was much newer. Whatever.

After that it was height and weight, then blood pressure, and vision test. They told me that everything was good; my urine test was good, my vision was good, my blood pressure was good, etc. So now I have a clean bill of health, well save for the x-ray, which I'll come back for on another day. In the end, the check-up was absolutely no big deal and I feel a little silly for worrying about it. Still, I am in a different country and culture and one can never be sure what a "medical check-up" will entail until you've actually done it.

For now I am going back to campus because I feel like crap. Maybe I should have told them I have a cold. I would kill for some Chloraseptic spray right now, my throat hurts. Waaaaaah :(

The first day of school:

(This post was written on 4/12/2011 after a very long day)

I learn something new every day in Japan. Today, for example, I learned that Tuesdays are going to suck. Not because of anything related to Japan, but because of my class schedule. I am taking 7 classes spread out over three days. Monday and Wednesday are clear. Tuesday is four classes, with a break between for lunch. I am on campus from about 8am until after 6pm. It's just totally draining. And uh, actually, Thursdays are going to be just as bad. The decent thing about the Japanese classes, though, is that all of them but my Japanese Language course only meet once a week for 90 minutes. Most classes I've attended in the U.S. meet 2-3 times a week for 90 minutes or more depending on the course. And then on top of that, many have an hour long lab that meets once a week, also. So I will be spending less time in an actual class room, which will make it easier (I think).

This should net me 12 hours, because the classes here are only worth 2 credits each except for the Japanese language class, which is worth 4. However, I have already taken this level of Japanese, but I feel I need a refresher course. My kanji is positively atrocious, and I am really out of practice. Even after spending a week in Japan, I have such little interaction that is unique with Japanese speakers that I haven't really improved much. I hope that I can interact more within the class which will then encourage me to interact more outside of the class. Anyway, so the Japanese Language course doesn't count so that leaves six classes at two hours a piece and voila - twelve hours.

Anyway, this is my schedule:

Monday

12:15p - 1:15p

"Home Room" (GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!)

Tuesday

TIME	COURSE
8:50a - 10:20a	Japanese Language 200 Level
10:50a - 12:00p	Philosophical Thinking & Japanese traditions
2:40p - 4:10p	Topics in Japanese Law
4:20p - 5:50p	Japan's Relations with Asian Countries after the Second World War

Thursday

TIME	COURSE
8:50a - 10:20a	Japanese Language 200 Level
10:50a - 12:00p	Osaka in Modern Japanese Literature
2:40p - 4:10p	Introduction to Japanese Legal/Political System
4:20p - 5:50p	Topics in Comparative Law

Friday

8:50a - 10:20a

Japanese Language 200 Level

Tuesdays and Thursdays are SO LONG and it irritates me to no end that I have to go to campus Monday for the "home room" class and NOTHING ELSE and that my Japanese class meets on Friday - all of the other Japanese classes (including another level 200 class) meets on Tue/Wed/Thurs. I mean, I would still have to go to campus on Wednesday for just one class, but it wouldn't cut into three day weekends. Bleh. I wish I had more control over my schedule. This is normal though, because I am getting so close to graduating. You start to run out of classes that are offered that actually count, because not all classes are offered each semester.

AGGGH! GET YOUR DAMN TEA POT! Someone's teapot is screeching that it's done and it's just on the outskirts of my subconscious, such that I didn't consciously notice it until it was already driving my subconscious crazy. Can't you use the stupid microwave to heat your water? Ugh, okay, it's finally stopped. It was going on for at least two minutes and it's like nails on a chalkboard to me. I feel kind of bad though because just now I went down the hall to move it off the burner only to be intercepted by a girl literally running to the kitchen to take it off. So now I feel like a jerk. I spend most of the time feeling like a jerk, for various reasons. Oh well. C'est la vie, no?

Anyway, my Japanese teacher seems to be pretty cool. He's funny; he asked us which track we were in (1 or 2) and when someone said "track 1" he said "No! No 'track,' -- "TURAKKU!'" haha. He also said Americans all call him Otari, even though his name is Ootari (I think the way to write it for us would be Ōtari). He said "Otari" in a faux American accent. "Otari, Otari, Meestar Otari!" Then, "But you have no choice. That's like here, the Japanese can't hear your name, so say it in katakana, even if it's disgusting!" My name in Katakana is "ジェニフアー" which is like "Jyenifua." So yeah, it's pretty 'disgusting', heh.

He also said his son failed all twelve of the entrance exams to University and they were like 12,000 Yen each (over $120 USD), so "Now I'm broke!" He just seems pretty down-to-earth and easy to relate to. He also speaks in Japanese most of the time in class. He said, "Eigo ga kirai!" ("I hate English!"), so it's good listening practice. I get the gist of most of what he's saying, though much of it is through context clues. And lord have mercy, my kanji needs help. I wish there was a course dedicated just to kanji, like if you learned 25 a week or something in a class, at the end of fifteen weeks you'd know 375. Wait, that's like nothing, nevermind. You need to know like 2,000 Kanji to get anywhere. Bleh.

I was worried that the style of teaching here would be so markedly different than what I'm accustomed to so I was relieved to discover that my Topics in Japanese Law class is taught by a westerner (an Aussie with wild hair, at that). He said it would be less lecture style and more seminar style. I will totally eat my words later I'm sure, but I was relieved when he handed out a nice, thick packet of reading assignments and told us we had a research paper due at the end of the semester. It made me feel right at home. People were complaining, which I thought was strange, because the paper only has to be ten pages - DOUBLE SPACED. Come on guys, that's like nothing. Literally. Like nothing. If you can't crank out five pages on a topic, how can you even begin to claim that you've researched it?

The other classes I think are more Japanese-style, being taught by Japanese lecturers. Most of them use attendance for 50% of our grade, and then at the end of the class we'll have one exam or one paper. That is some seriously scary shit, don't mind my french, because you have one shot at not failing and if you mess it up, there is no recovery. I remember teachers in the U.S. talking about this superiour style of learning in other countries where there's no "hand-holding," and it's much tougher and we should be grateful that we are in the U.S. type of system (or at least not in graduate school, hah), but I don't really feel like it's hand-holdy, at the undergraduate level, to test more than once in the entire semester. I don't expect a professor to tell me if I'm falling behind, but the tests allow me to know myself if I'm staying on top of things. Plus, it's impossible to tell how a professor will test until you've taken one of their tests! I've had classes where I bombed the first test but then I knew the testing style, and did well in the remainder of the class. So, I don't know, I guess I like tests more than I thought. At least most of the classes will have papers at the end and I seriously rock at writing papers :)

After school, we went to CoCos for dinner which is like a Denny's except it doesn't suck. I'm not intentionally seeking out western-style food, but the other recommendation was Italian and I have yet to be able to bring myself to eat Italian food in Japan. I mean, we passed by an Italian restaurant and looked over the menu, but it all just looked awful to me. I am sure it tastes good - it has to taste good, right? But things here are different in ways you just don't expect. Prime example - K ordered an ice cream sundae after our dinner at CoCos. It was supposed to be a brownie ice cream parfait. It was served in a tall sundae glass, with banana slices, whipped topping and really rich brownie pieces. It looked like it had more brownie bits in the bottom, but they turned out to be coffee gelatin. Think of like, a really strong espresso shot, that's what it was. Espresso shot flavoured gelatin. K almost lost her lunch, heh. I didn't think it was so bad, but I've been drinking coffee pretty regularly for a while now and I get the impression that most of the coffee that K drinks is frappuccino-style. I had a bit of it but it wasn't anything that special; it's just not what you'd expect, not in the bottom of a sundae, not anywhere. Coffee gelatin, really.

Speaking of eating non-Japanese food in Japan, we are seriously considering going to Umeda because we heard tell of an actual MEXICAN restaurant there. I feel in a way like it won't be as good as what we're used to. I think that even if it was spot-on and delicious, it just wouldn't feel like home. We'd be psyching ourselves out to not like it as much. Still, I'm sure the Japanese have put their own spin on Mexican food and I'm interested in seeing what it is. There's also a group going out this Friday to an American-style bar (I'm not really sure what that entails, but I'm going to find out) and sometime after the 16th, I am going to a Takarazuka show, come hell or high water. They look so glamorous and interesting, I just have to go! I've been wanting to see one since I found out they exist, and I likely won't get a chance to do it again anytime soon if I don't do it this trip.

I also want to go to Senri-Chuo because I'm told they have a Hankouya there. A hankou (the "ya" at the end makes it a store; I.E. "sakana" means fish, "sakanaya" is a fish store; "hon" means book, "honya" is a book store. Pretty simple...) is a rubber stamp that usually has a person's family name on it (family names are in Kanji, so they are usually only 2 kanji -- very short). In Japan, you don't sign your name. You don't have a personal signature. Instead, you have a hankou with your family name on it and you stamp it in all the places that we put signatures. Now, I'm gaijin, so they let me use my signature, but I have to sign it exactly the same way every time, and I'm worried that could be problematic. Furthermore, I think it'd be a great souvenir. Now, my name in Katakana is kind of a mess. Even my family name becomes "モヤス" (Moyasu), which I don't really like. Plus, it's three characters. But I had an idea (that I think is pretty clever, actually). My first name, of course, is Jennifer. Jennifer comes from Guinevere, which is Celtic for "white wave." So, I think I will get a hankou with the kanji for "white wave" on it, and that will be my signature. I think it's going to be great to have one.

Well, I am out of things to talk about. Throughout the day I keep thinking "Oh, I should blog about that!" but by the end of the night I can barely remember half of it. It's for the best, though, it's 10:30PM here now and I am ready for sleep. Such an Obaasan (old lady)!

The dorm post:

Let's go on a tour of my dorm! Nighttime pictures mostly, because again for some reason I have a problem taking pictures of things while people are watching.

So, here we are, outside the dorms:

To the left and right is bicycle/motorcycle parking. Cars aren't allowed, though visitors do park there occasionally. Let's step inside, shall we?

This is the entryway, to the left there is a security guard (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), and from about 8a-5p M-F there is a woman who works the front desk to the right. Her name is Yuki and she's very nice. She helped me fill out my internet application. Her English is very good, so it's helpful for us dirty gaijin to have someone there to help us acclimate (or accumulate, as K says, because she's apparently more ESL than Yuki is) to Japan. Yuki's also the only person to call me Jennifer chan, which makes me giggle inside because I may very well be older than her. Well, probably not, but maybe much closer to her age than most people there are. Straight ahead is the common area, and to the left of that there's a large kitchen (which is always cleaner than the other kitchens) and a dining area.

Here's a shot of some spirited conversation that I wasn't privy to, and our vending machines. We can get coffee and cokes any time we want through the machines, so that's pretty convenient at least.

To the right is a hallway which leads to my side of the dorms, so let's head that way!

In the hallway there is a sign that says something about fire:

Let's hop in the elevator:

And head on up to the fifth floor. You could always take the stairs if you want to, but come on, do you really want to deal with these all the way up?

Here we are on the fifth floor. We have bathrooms:

Communal sinks:

The sinks' location is right in the hallway, though, so they are kind of awkward to use. I have started brushing my teeth in the shower just to avoid the sinks. PLUS the sinks have motion-sensor water taps, so you have to perpetually keep a hand in the exact right spot to keep the sink going, which is a pain when you're trying to rinse off a toothbrush or something.

We have a shower room too, with individual shower stalls complete with opaque doors and everything, but I didn't want to try to take a picture of it for fear I might be perceived as doing something inappropriate. Taking a pic of the restrooms was risky enough.

Here's our disgusting kitchen:

And our hallway, which was apparently painted by someone who is either completely colourblind or enjoys inducing seizures in others:

Ah, here's my door (room number blurred out to protect the innocent):

Well, I'm going to post this now, but I can't seem to find a picture of my actual room. So, I will take one and edit that into this post later.

I am on campus today; Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to be my busy days on campus. I hope everyone is doing well, and I miss you all. Wednesdays will be freebies, it's looking like, but I'll have one class on Friday. Taking a total of 8 classes, which will amount to 18 hours - woo hoo! Wish me luck :)

Edit: here are the pics of my room. See how much tidier it is? Small spaces and me work well together, for some reason... This shot is looking in:

And this shot is from the bed:

Fantastic, isn't it? There's a bookshelf to the right that I'm actually using as drawers, and on top of that bookshelf is an air freshener I bought to try to improve the aroma... >.>