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... >.>

4/9/2011

(This post was written on 4/9/11)

Yesterday was pretty laid-back. All the exchange students had to meet at the Media Center or whatever building on the Toyonaka campus to receive orientation on how to use computers and the internet. It was actually the most informative session we've had so far, in my opinion, because we learned how to access our school e-mail accounts and how to register for classes and view our grades on-line. This is something I could likely figure out on my own (much like how to get around on campus, which classrooms are where, etc.), but for this particular instance, I feel there is a real benefit in just having someone show us where everything is at. After that one meeting they actually let us go for the remainder of the day. I wish they'd had that meeting the day before, when we had other reasons to be on-campus, but perhaps they thought it was too much for one day, or a bit overwhelming. It's all somewhat overwhelming anyway.

M signed up for a host family ("hosuto famiri," haha, just kidding) so she went to the Suita campus, so K and I parted ways with her. We spent about an hour on our laptops, basking in the warm glow of the internets, and then had lunch at Don Don which is a udon/ramen/rice bowl/noodle bowl place on-campus. Lunch was 300 Yen which is probably the cheapest lunch I've had so far. Tonkatsu udon, mmm! Then we took the trains back to Yamada station and checked out the mall there, including a Japanese Toys R Us and a bread shop. I cannot overstate how much they love bread here in Osaka. I don't know about the rest of the country, but there are bread shops (patisseries, paneria, whatever you want to call it) everywhere and they do all kinds of things with bread. You have your mochi (red bean paste) bread, your doughnuts which are innumerable in flavor, style, and variation (fried bread, unfried bread, soft fluffy bread, chewy bread, bread coated with stuff, dunked in chocolate, stuffed with things, etc.), there are lots of savory breads like bread with zucchini and cheese baked into the top, or one with salmon, cream cheese and garlic cloves baked into the top. There's so much more I can't even really describe it all, so I should just go snap some pictures of a bread shop. Everything looks so delicious.

After our time at the center we went back to our respective dorms. Minji invited me to meet her and some others from the Go Kai Group (what I'm referring to our bunch - we are all almost exclusively from the 5th floor and "go kai" means "fifth floor") for beer in the commons at 7pm. I went and had a couple of beers and it was fun to talk to the girls, but by 8:30, I was totally wiped. I slept until 9AM this morning. I had the foresight to cover the windows with one of the blankets, which is important because the damn sun comes up at 5:30 AM here. Yes, I know, "Land of the Rising Sun" and all of that. Your rising sun can stuff it, you guys need some Daylight Savings Time, for reals.

I had heard rumor of a grocery store that was closer to our dorms than the ones at Yamada or Mina-Senri stations, and so I asked around and the ever-kind Minji led me to the store. It's called Peacock ("Pikoku" - this time, I'm NOT kidding) and it's about three blocks from our dorms. Well, technically, it's closer, but we'll get to that in a moment. To get the Pikoku, you go left out of the dorms, down one block, swing a right. Swing your next immediate right and go down another couple blocks and you're there. Pretty quick and easy, especially compared to the 15+ minute walk to either Yamada or Mina-Senri, both of which are almost completely uphill the way back (Yamada being a much steeper incline). There was a couple of ladies selling produce outside the store so I picked up some things, and then we went inside. The beer at Pikoku is much cheaper than at the station grocery stores (by about 300 Yen for a particular brand I like, which is more than $3.00 USD difference for a SIX PACK). I bought some more veggies and stuff to cook, as well as some milk, cream cheese, Coke Zero (there is no "Diet Coke" here to be seen), laundry detergent, an onigiri (stuffed rice in the shape of a triangle that's wrapped with seaweed), Yakult (a yogurt drink, you can get it in the states at the Asian grocers and some regular stores), and some kind of veggie patties that you can drop in oil and fry up.

It's very hard to do LC here, also. Meat is really, really expensive. I did pick up some chicken that was on sale, I think it's creeping up on its expiry date, so I brought it home and immediately put it in the freezer. When I cook lately I've been making stir-fry with egg and then eating it with a side of kimchi, but I can see that getting old pretty quick. I have tried almost everything that I wanted to try here though, so that's not really an excuse anymore, but the meat dishes tend to be the most expensive (you can easily spend over $10 on a very "fast-food" like lunch, I'm not talking full-service restaurant but a quick sit-down-eat-get-out sort of place). For the stir-fry I try to augment it with inexpensive beef or pork and then egg, but it's difficult. That being said, I am walking what is likely several miles on most days, so perhaps that will help balance things out.

Today is Saturday, and I've reserved this for a day to decompress. I don't really plan to go out or socialize too much, but rather hole up in my room like the hermit I am and play some Dragon Age II. Sometimes it's important to get some alone time in, even if that time is spent slaying imaginary dragons and bandits. I hope everyone is doing well. I will do the Umeda Sky Tower update next, unless something really interesting/frustrating happens :D

Well, I quit writing this hours ago and I'll pick up now. I spent several hours in my dorm playing games and/or watching episodes of shows I'd downloaded onto my laptop. Then I was bored and felt like it would be nice to get out and explore the city a bit on my own. People here are far too nice to let me venture out alone (for example, Minji and the grocery store)... When I was downstairs I ran into Ildako, who is from Hungary, and she inquired about my plans. We ended up venturing out together and just picked a random station off the Hyanku (sp?) line and went that direction. We explored more suburban/tightly packed neighborhood areas and got to explore a Buddhist shrine.

The Buddhist monk/shrine caretaker allowed us to tour the grounds and even go into the temple. He explained that yesterday was the Buddha's birthday, and gave us a bag of puffed rice as a gift from the Buddha. He showed us how to pray to the Buddha and explained a lot of the figurines, paintings, calligraphy and the likes to us. I didn't catch most of it, but Ildako's Japanese is excellent, so she translated for me. It was a really neat experience, and I'm glad we did it. After, we had okonomiyaki at a restaurant and then headed back. Oh! We also poked our heads into a pachinko parlor. SO. INCREDIBLY. NOISY! And smoky, but mostly noisy! I couldn't imagine spending hours in a place that was so loud, you'd lose your hearing.

Came back to the dorms, got 9 free minutes of wi-fi and now debating whether I want to pay 200 Yen for an hour's worth of wi-fi. It might be worth it, but I don't think I'm going to. I'm starting to forget what the internet is for. I used those 9 minutes to check my Facebook, and it feels like things have really slowed down. Sometimes I can't check it for over 24 hours and it feels like there are still very few updates. I wonder what was so fascinating about it to begin with. If I had wi-fi, I could Skype, but the only place to tap into it is in the study lounge, and there are people here working on things, so I think it'd be very rude to try to hold a conversation over Skype.

So, I guess I will post this next time I'm on campus. Oh, there is one more thing I did want to tell you about, though. I think my little group got into some trouble. There is a "home room" thing every Monday on the Suita campus that was on the calendar where it showed us what classes we could register for. We weren't sure if it was required, so we asked. They said it was part of the program, but we were still confused. Why? Because we have no classes on Monday, and no classes at all on the Suita campus. All of our classes are on Toyonaka campus. Anyway, I suppose we sort of pressed the issue, but we were looking for clarification. To me, it doesn't make sense to make us pay $6 to take the stupid train to a campus we don't even have classes on, on a day where we don't even HAVE classes, to go to what will likely amount to a pointless class. The lady even told us, "Well, you can socialize with your friends." or "Maybe you could take classes on Monday just for fun." We had explained that none of the classes on Monday would count towards our major and frankly, I am going to be taking like 8 classes so I really don't think I should cram a 9th into my schedule. I'm not completely insane.

Anyway, in the end they told us they would ask whether we had to go or not. I figured that was a "no" because in Japan, pretty much anything other than "yes" means "no" (such as "maybe," "perhaps," "it's a little difficult," etc). They don't want to tell us "no" outright for some kind of cultural thing that I'm not 100% clear on (I think it involves saving face), but I figured that was a no so we all made plans to go on Monday. Then we got an e-mail today from one of the A&M program directors that said he was told we were skipping some of the required meetings. We have absolutely not skipped anything, despite how sorely we may have wanted to (and believe me, we have wanted to). We have gone to every single meeting, meet-up, orientation, symposium and/or whatever that we were told OR asked to go to. So now it's like, so frustrating because we of course look like we're making trouble for A&M and disregarding OU, but at the same time, we have done everything we've been told to do. Pffft.

It's Japan. There are rules.

4/8/2011

(This post was written on 4/8/2011)

The end of another exhausting day. Well, almost. In a few minutes I'll leave to head to JASSO International House 1 to talk with Meaghan and Kathryn about which classes we are going to take. Most, if not all of our classes will be the same, mostly because they all had to be approved through A&M to begin with. Today was so long it's difficult to describe in mere words. By 4pm, we were all absolutely exhausted.

This morning, I met M & K at their dorm and we walked to the station, rode the train and then switched to the metro. Or something. I'm not real clear on the different lines. We then walked from the station to the Toyonaka Campus, which is where all of our classes will likely be at. We sat through an informative session on the library, and then were taken on a library tour. After that, we were taken on a very thorough tour of the entire Toyonaka campus. I had thought I was supposed to go with one group, and started to follow them, but was gently grabbed by the elbow and guided back to the main group by a woman saying, "Jennifer! I want you to meet the BSP people!" I think she thought I was trying to "escape." Hell, I shouldn't even put "escape" in quotes because that'd be what I was doing, if I tried to get away. All of these meetings and seminars and informative sessions are suggested (which means required), and any attempt to deviate from the proscribed course is curbed.

It's Japan. There are rules.

I think I actually hurt our tour guide's feelings when I said I didn't want to eat lunch where everyone else wanted to. "Do we all have to eat at the same place?" She said no, but I could tell she sort of wanted to say yes. However, she's a student and therefore doesn't wield as much power as the administration. I ended up going with the group if for no other reason than M & K were going there anyway, but there is a restaurant on campus called Don Don that was pretty inexpensive (you could eat for <200 Yen if you were really careful) and that is an absolute steal. I've been eating out since I got here due to a lack of cookware/dishware, and it's expensive and I wanted to get a cheap meal in. At the restaurant I got some kind of egg... thing... They do this things with eggs where scramble them, then cook them out in one big strip, then fold the egg onto itself so it's one neat little pile of eggs, sort of like a folded sheet, if you can imagine. Then they put sauces or mayonnaise or whatever-the-hell on them. It's alright. Takoyaki's alright. I do like okonomiyaki, but I want to try it with some different toppings.

Anyway, after lunch we were invited to have takoyaki and okonomiyaki with the BSP (Brothers and Sisters Program - sort of a very loose association of students who work with the international kids and are international kids themselves, in many cases). But M, K and I still didn't have our alien registration cards, so we politely declined. We also wanted to hit up the Multimedia Center or whatever and use the internet to check our respective myfacespace or whatever accounts. We ended up having to move to the library for a reason I'm not entirely sure of (a guy came into the computer room, said some stuff in Japanese, and everyone else started packing up, so we followed suit). Then we went back to the station, back on the train, back to Mina Senri station where we finally got our Alien Registration temporary papers, which is a relief. We'll need them to get bank accounts.

We also hit up the 100 Yen store to buy some pots, pans, dishes and the likes, then the grocery store for some actual food to cook. By the time we were done there, I was positively exhausted and battling a stomach/headache. We sat for a few minutes to recoup, then trudged back to the dorms - a 15 minute walk with several bags of groceries, and a heavy backpack. At the dorms, I made my first meal in the kitchen. I sort of just made some kind of ghetto stir-fry. Meat is really expensive. Well, good meat is really expensive. I bought zucchini, cabbage, carrots, green onions, mushrooms and bean sprouts and tossed that in a pan with some oil, then augmented it with some shrimp bits and some sort of mystery meat that is likely very thinly sliced beef. I also dropped a raw egg on top for good measure once it was done (the egg cooked from the heat of the food) and added a side of kimchi. That's probably how I'm going to be eating most of the time, because anything too complex is impossible with my crappy dollar store cookware.

Now I'm in the dorm. I'm really tired, but at least not hungry anymore. My feet are sore. My head hurts. I am perpetually dehydrated, thanks to the climate. Soon I will be meeting M & K, but to be honest I just want to go to bed. It's 6:01 pm.

4/7/2011

(Note: this post was written on 4/7/11)

Yesterday was our tour of Osaka University's Suita Campus and our program orientation. We were on campus for most of the day (from about 10am-4pm). We got to meet other people in exchange programs (either ours or those similar to ours), and they went over course registration, credit hours and the likes. It was informative, but much of the information overlapped and was repetitive, so it was boring at times. The tour of the campus took about an hour, and most of us had not eaten breakfast so by that point people were a bit grouchy and hungry. The "tour guide" was a fellow OU student who was in a school organization that volunteered to help out. I feel sort of bad for her because people weren't really listening after a certain point, and then we passed a vendor selling pastries and pretty much everyone dropped off the tour and bought something to eat. Lunch was obentos at a cafeteria, and then it was back to more orientation meetings.

After, Meaghan, Kathryn and I went to one of the International Student organisations and were able to use their internet to access FACEBOOK. Oh happy day! I had about nine e-mails from real actual people in my gmail inbox, four messages in my Facebook inbox, and multiple post updates and responses. It was good to touch base with the world again, even though by that point it was about 1AM in the U.S. and most people were asleep. I got to shoot out some e-mails though, and post that I wasn't dead on FB. Then we headed back to our dorms, but on the way there we were intercepted by some fellow International Students - one of which is actually also from Texas A&M. They asked where we were going and then invited us to nomihodai, which is where you go to a restaurant, pay a set amount, and have 90 minutes to drink as much alcohol as you possibly can. I am not even kidding. They require you buy two food items as well (probably to offset the cost of nomihodai), but it still ended up being about 1700 Yen per person, which at about $21 USD is a pretty small amount for ALL YOU CAN DRINK. Plus, it would have been cheaper for me but we ended up all just splitting it up evenly (the food items I chose were pretty inexpensive, and some people ordered more than 2 items).

Apparently many people were either intimidated by the idea of nomihodai (some are under the legal drinking age of their respective country, be it 20 or 21 - in Japan, it's 20 but I have yet to see anyone carded), or some simply didn't want to partake. We were then a group of about 15 people, so the indecisiveness got old pretty fast. At nomihodai, if you don't want nomihodai but your table does, you can't stay. I think they are afraid that not everyone will pay for nomihodai but then the drinks will be shared. I was frustrated because I thought it was pretty apparent when we were invited that this would be nomihodai­, and so why would you come if you can't handle it? At one point, someone suggested we just not do nomihodai since 3-4 people didn't want to. I was like, screw that. The majority of us want to do it, so let's do it. After about 20 minutes of debate, the group who didn't want to do it decided to leave which in all honesty was probably for the best. We will have time to hang out with them later, I am sure.

So, we did nomihodai. I had kimchi and chicken for my meal and the vast majority of my drinks were Gin & Tonic, which seemed to be the favourite at the table. I did have some whiskey, sake, and umeshu (plum wine?) too. We won't talk about volume because frankly, it's none of your business, but I feel confident that I got my money's worth. After 90 minutes we were all feeling pretty good and much more at-ease than we had been when trying to organise the event. We had people from all over the world at our table and some were quite fun. There was Jasper, who is from Amsterdam and a pretty cool kid; there's Yuan who is from Korea and was surprised that I love Kimchi... He got really wasted and started sitting on Yuuki's lap (Yuuki is the other kid from A&M, and also? He's a he, heh). Yuuki's girlfriend was there so it was all in good fun, but man Yuan must've been wasted. There was a guy at the end of the table from Denmark and so I learned that to toast in Denmark you say "skoal!" Which is a pretty cool-sounding toast. There was also a girl from Canada who is really nice and I enjoyed talking to her, though she was wayyyy at the end of the table. She got us into the umeshu.

After our time was up (90 minutes), we paid the tab and someone mentioned karaoke, so we decided to go do that, too. It was my first time at a Japanese karaoke bar! We rented a room and sang for about two hours - with more drinks, of course. Afterwards, Meaghan and I raided a Mister Donuts because they are the embodiment of awesome, but Kathryn decided to go back to the dorms early. It was a nice walk back to the dorms. The evening was pretty quiet and the temperature was nice, and Meaghan and I took our time and just chatted along the way. The cherry blossoms are in bloom and are quite a site.

There were plans in the works to go to Kyoto for hanami (flower viewing festival), but the other girls and I decided that sounded like too much trouble, so we're going to do hanami on Sunday at a local park. It'll be fun!

The Ōsaka-jō Post

So. We have free wifi in the dorms. Only accessible from the 2nd floor, in the lounge area, but it's here. It's REALLY slow. Too slow for Skype or gaming or the likes, but just fine for blogging and Facebook. Sure would have been nice if someone had TOLD me that, oh I don't know, maybe when I was lamenting that because I didn't have internet I had no way to tell my parents I'd arrived safely at the dorms. Thanks, guys.

But enough about that, this post is about Osaka Castle (Osaka-jo). I finally got the pictures uploaded. Osaka castle was only about a 15 minute train ride from the hostel, so very easy to get to and an absolutely worthwhile trip. As you approach Osaka castle, you start to get glimpses of it through the trees. It's a stunning building, crafted by only the most worthy artisans and gilded in gold.

Getting closer, you can start to see more detail:

The first impression I had upon reaching the outer edges of the castle grounds is how massive and immense the walls are that surround the castle. I can't imagine trying to lay siege to a place like this because not only is it surrounded by a moat, but there's these building-thick stone walls that are unbelievably tall. You can't really get a sense of scale from this, but believe me, the walls are massive.

First you have to cross a bridge (which would of course be an excellent choke-hold to pick off your enemies from inside the castle during a siege) to get through this wall:

So I know in that shot you're not really getting a sense of how big these walls are, but just trust me, they're massive. Not only are they pretty damn tall, but they're incredibly thick. These walls will be here long after we're all dead and buried. Actually, perhaps this will give you some sense of size; the wall is behind the line of trees and you can see the man walking to the right:

Once you get over the moat and across the bridge and past the wall, you're greeted by this gate:

Which has massive wooden doors that probably take ten men to close. Seriously. Massive. The Japanese do not F around.

You walk up a ways more and climb about a bazillion stairs and finally, you're almost there. This is Osaka castle from behind:

Obligatory cherry blossom pic (though I am told they are not as impressive this year as they usually are):

The Emperor now doubt enjoyed the fact that from his perch, he could survey much of his territory:

Did I mention there are yet more walls?

Seriously. Not fun for invading armies.

There is this really awesome tiger at the top of the castle and when I was snapping pictures, this little old Japanese man kept insisting I get shots from specific angles so as to highlight the best parts of the castle. He was sweet. Anyway, here's the tiger, you can see it mid-upper right:

When you go 'round to the front of the castle there is a sort of park or fairground area. There are shops and stands which sell food, drink and souvenirs. There is a koi pond and traditional park area and it's just so peaceful and pretty. Here's a shot I took from the other side of the koi pond which summarizes it better than I could in words (even though I just did):

I went inside, of course, and there is a museum of sorts there that talks about the history of the emperors during certain eras. You can go all the way to the top floor and there is an outside area there where you can see the entire city and take photos. There's also a gift shop. The photos aren't great because of the sort of chain-link fence enclosure to prevent people from falling off, but I'll toss a couple up anyway:

There is some really neat stuff inside like samurai armor and battle standards and the likes, but most floors didn't allow photos to be taken at all, so I can't share that. Here's some nifty stuff that I was able to get shots of, though!

This is our tiger friend who is on the outside of the building, alongside a Koi that is also on various points of the building:

It is the museum's 80th year anniversary, so they put up this tile thing-that-I'm-too-tired-to-remember-the-name-of:

And there are some samurai helmets you can try on for photos (for a small fee, of course):

I went back outside and there is a small well that baka gaijin have put money into as if it were a wishing well (it's not):

I don't know what was in this pit but it probably wasn't good:

I should have taken more shots of the grounds but by that point I was just ready to relax. I ate takoyaki in the park and drank Asahi beer. The weather was glorious and it was a very relaxing and interesting trip. If you go to Osaka, see Osaka castle, it's worth it.

Oh, and bonus points if you can figure out what the hell this dude is doing: