Japan – Valpo Voyager

Tag: Japan

Part of one of the display cases full of replicas of the crepes they were selling with their rank in popularity as the number. There were three whole display cases.

Shop ‘Til You Drop- One day in Tokyo edition

Last Friday I took a night bus from Kyoto to Tokyo to save money. As convenient as the shinkansen is, it’s rather expensive. So my friend and I arrived at Tokyo Station at about 7:30am on Saturday morning. We first visited Meiji Jinggu Shrine since it was the only thing open at that time of day except one donut and coffee place in the station. That’s one of the things that doesn’t cease to surprise me about Japan. Nothing except bars and restaurants are open past eight and nothing opens earlier than nine or ten in the morning. Even on a Saturday in Tokyo, the most densely populated city in the world. Eventually things started opening up, though. First we walked Omotesando Hills, a high-class, almost exclusively brand-name shopping district. After that, we headed toward Harajuku’s Takeshita Street, the youth fashion district of Tokyo.

It really was something. From lolita to grunge to used clothing, Takeshita-dori has it all. It would take several days to properly investigate every store, but even just walking through and looking in only a handful of stores was really cool. A lot of it was less expensive than I was expecting, though I only bought a really cute headband from BODYLINE. There are also several places to get crepes as well as a few cafes, so we stopped for crepes at the place with the biggest line.

Part of one of the display cases full of replicas of the crepes they were selling with their rank in popularity as the number. There were three whole display cases.

I got the one called “Flamingo,” which had strawberry ice cream, strawberries, chocolate, and whipped cream. Fantastic!

After Harajuku we hopped the loop line to Shibuya, the famous shopping district where I wanted to explore the famous 109 and the shops around it. Naturally, we used the famous Scramble Crossing (after visiting Hachiko), where seven roads meet at a single intersection. Right across from the station is a seven-floor Tsutaya, a popular media vendor and rental company. I’ve never seen one that big, even in Osaka. It was incredible! They even had their own Starbucks inside. I also walked around 109 for a little, but because of time restraints I didn’t look on every floor. It did look a lot like the malls back in Osaka Prefecture, though!

109 In the background!

After spending a few hours in Shibuya, we moved on to the Udagawa area to look for my friend’s hotel. After that was settled, we moved on to Akihabara, a kind of nerd/pop culture shopping/amusement area. There are multi-story arcades house floors of crane machines as well as the arcade games. My favorite is the game where you flip a table and get higher scores for the amount of damage you do. It’s kind of like being Wreck-it-Ralph, only you just flip a table.

Akihabara at night. Even though I went there before, I was completely lost because it looks very different at night.

There’s also a lot of the prize machines where you put in coins, turn the handle, and a random prize in a little round capsule comes out. They have all sorts of prizes, but a lot of them are charms of different characters from popular anime/manga. The best one I saw was one that had “Eiga Dorobou” in it. “Eiga Dorobou” literally means “movie thief,” and he appears at the beginning of every movie in Japanese theatres that I’ve been to. Japan tracks and enforces illegal downloading much more than America does, so there’s little videos before every movie reminding viewers that it’s illegal to record the movie, etc., but Eiga Dorobou is a man in a suit with a camcorder for a head and he’s chased by the police who are men in suits with police siren lights for heads so it’s still pretty amusing. You can find the Eigo Dorobou videos on YouTube even. Needless to say, I got a little Eiga Dorobou charm. I’m actually a little disappointed I didn’t get a few more. Definitely going to be checking the “gacha machines” nearer to home for more!

After shopping and wandering through arcades for good crane machine prizes, it was time for me to hop a night bus back home. I almost missed it, however, because I had be misinformed about where the bus loading terminal was. With only a few minutes until departure, I started panicking. But I asked a man passing by where to go and he ended up leading me to where they were. He even ran to help me try to make it on time when I showed him my ticket and the departure time was only a minute away. In the end, I had to run across the entire bus terminal because of course my bus was at the far end. But the driver had waited five minutes for me so I ended up getting home alright, if a little frazzled.

Owl Cafe!

December 4, 2014 / Sarah Blackwell / 0 Comments

Japan and its animal cafes have recently become famous abroad, and ever since I found out there was an owl cafe in Osaka at the beginning of the semester, I’ve been planning to go. But other travel plans kept pushing it back and just when I thought I’d have a free afternoon, a test or quiz would get in the way. So it goes. But this week I finally made it.

That same Monday I finally made it home from the weekend adventure in Sapporo, I previously had made plans with my speaking partner, Mizuho, to go to an owl cafe. After class and a quick nap, I headed out to meet Mizuho at the train station and we left for Shinsaibashi.

It was about eleven dollars for a drink and an hour in the cafe, which actually turned out cheaper than the cat cafe I went to near Fushimi Inari a few weeks ago. It was so incredible to get to see owls up close and take pictures!

Moka-chan, who we couldn’t pet I think because she was growing her first real feathers. But she was so cute!

Barn owls will always remind me of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole books I read as a kid.

They also let us hold the owls, which was really cool. Shigeji didn’t mind at all. Actually, the lady in charge said he actually really liked people. When she held him, he’d cuddle up against her shoulder like a baby. They obviously had a really good bond. It was so cute!

Mizuho with Shigeji

They also rotated which owl got to wander around, so sometimes the owls would get quite close to us without minding. In this picture, Shigeji is only a few inches from where I’m sitting-

These two are best friends. 🙂

After our hour was up, we walked back through the shopping areas in Shinsaibashi and decided to get okonomiyaki, a famous Osaka-style dish from one of Mizuho’s favorite places.

We also stopped for a quick picture in front of the famous Glico man, which had apparently been under construction for much of the semester. I’m glad it was finished when we stopped by!

The view from our hotel room. Lake Toya, a volcanic caldera lake.

Sapporo, a Place Something Like Home

December 3, 2014 / Sarah Blackwell / 0 Comments

This weekend Sabena and I took a long trip all the way up to Sapporo in Hokkaido. We flew out on Friday night with just enough time to find the guest house we booked and go to bed. It was a tiny little place, but cozy. The owners chatted with us in Japanese, which was really cool. One of the other guests was from Osaka city, so we heard the distinctive and now familiar Osaka dialect even way up in Hokkaido, which I thought was amusing.

All the beds crammed in a small area made putting the sheets on difficult, but it was a great little guest house!

On Saturday we had a reservation at the Toyako Manseikaku Hotel quite a trek away from Sapporo, but we had enough time to wander Sapporo on Saturday morning and early afternoon. Sapporo is, of course, much farther north than Osaka and so it was much colder up there. It was actually nice, though, since Osaka was about seventy degrees (though admittedly unusually warm that day), which is unheard of back near Chicago. I hadn’t realized how much I missed the seasonal rhythm that I was used to back home until I spent time in Hokkaido. It was cold, but not too cold, so I didn’t need more than my jacket.

While in Sapporo, we stopped at a ramen shop for some Sapporo style ramen on my Japanese speaking class teacher’s recommendation- though he currently lives in Osaka and teaches at Kansai Gaidai, he’s originally from Sapporo, so I asked before going what he recommended we do. He said since it’s the off-season for tourism in Sapporo, one thing we should definitely do was try Sapporo style ramen, which uses a miso base as opposed to the salt base they use in Tokyo. It was fantastic!

Sapporo definitely felt a bit different than Osaka. Though I couldn’t quite explain how, they spoke differently than in Osaka besides just not using Osaka dialect. They also didn’t seem to be bothered by light rain as much as those in Osaka and Tokyo. In Osaka and when I was in Tokyo, it rained just a little for a half hour or so but even though it was just a drizzle, everyone put their umbrellas up. I even felt a little weird not bothering with my umbrella because everyone else had theirs. But when it drizzled in Sapporo, I didn’t see any umbrellas. Lastly, one of the most telling signals that we weren’t in Osaka was the side of the escalators and the stairs people used. In Osaka, if you don’t want to walk up the elevator, you stand to the right so people can pass you on the left. Everywhere else it’s the opposite.

Sometimes I forgot to stand on the correct side of the escalator, but this time I remembered! Even while uploading this picture, I second guessed myself on whether or not I took the picture while standing on the correct side!

After exploring Sapporo a little, we took a two hour express train ride out to Lake Toya, famous for being an onsen town. I took a Japanese public bus for the first time there since the Manseikaku was kind of far from Toya Station. Unlike the Kansai region, the trees in Hokkaido have completely dropped their leaves. That, too, felt more natural to me. Though I like that Osaka is warmer than home, it still feels really weird!! As far as everywhere I’ve seen in Japan so far, Hokkaido looked the most like home, but instead of hills like we have back in the countryside of Indiana, they have actual mountains in Japan.

Taken on the bus ride from the hotel back to the station.

Christmas isn’t really a big holiday in Japan. Couples go on dates on Christmas and maybe a few people exchange gifts but Christmas just isn’t a big deal in Japan. However, Hokkaido is also apparently much more into the Christmas spirit that the south. Maybe it’s because it’s actually cold at Christmas with the potential for snow up in Hokkaido, but for whatever reason, there were so many decorations and trees in malls, stores, and stations in Sapporo in addition to nice Christmas instrumentals playing in all of those places. Even though we had to wait over an hour in the JR station for our train from Lake Toya to Sapporo, the constant Christmas music was really nice. I’ve been missing that!

A cool little lit pathway across the street from our hotel at Lake Toya.

The Manseikaku was a really nice hotel, with a nice dinner and onsen included in our stay. It was my first time to an onsen, and I really enjoyed it- it really is very relaxing, though almost too hot.

The view from our hotel room. Lake Toya, a volcanic caldera lake.

Sunday morning we headed back to Sapporo (after having to ask a local when the bus would come since I couldn’t make heads or tails of the schedule at the bus stop), where we had a couple hours to shop at the airport, which pretty much doubled as a mall. There was even a chocolate factory! -Royce chocolate, a high-quality chocolate company based in Sapporo had a factory and shop there.

Unfortunately, our plane back to Kansai International Airport in Osaka on Sunday ended up landing a half hour late, causing us to be unable to make it home that night. We hopped the very last train from the airport to Tennoji in central Osaka at 11:30pm, but shortly after we arrived the trains shut down for the night. We used the little remaining battery on our pocket wifi and phones to book a cheap hotel about a kilometer walk from Tennoji station, checked in at 1am and left at 6:15 so Sabena could make it to her 9am class that day. Luckily my only class on Mondays is at noon. But it was still hard to get up and travel over an hour by train back to Hirakata during the Monday morning rush hour. But to be honest, it was an interesting experience. Japanese company workers have something of a reputation even abroad for working overtime so long that they miss their trains home and have to stay at a hotel like we did. Since that’s part of the culture, it was actually very easy to find a cheap place to stay for the night, which made our lives easier. All in all, a wonderful weekend!

Arashiyama at the Peak of Autumn Colors

November 24, 2014 / Sarah Blackwell / 0 Comments

I’ve actually been meaning to go to Arashiyama for about a month now but kept getting delayed. Earlier in November the forecast showed rain on the days I had intended to go two weeks in a row. Another time I had to prepare for my first speech in Japanese class. But everything worked out; the trees change colors much later here because it’s warmer here than at home. There are still lots of threes that are completely green in our city.

If there was one drawback to going this weekend, it was the unbelievable number of people. Arashiyama draws crowds year round, but autumn colors season is second only to spring sakura season in Kyoto. The trains from Makino, my home station, to the JR station in Arashiyama were incredibly packed. I transferred four times and even the subways were more populated than usual. I spent my entire limited express ride from home to Sanjo station squished like a sardine and I stood on the subway because there were absolutely no seats, which is unusual as far as my experiences go. The trains from Nijo station to the station in Arashiyama were just as packed and sardine-tin like as my first ride. It doesn’t really bother me, but it’s always interesting when I’m the only obvious foreigner packed in and as nonplussed as the locals because sometimes I catch people looking at me to see if I’m used to the trains. Three months, a trip to Tokyo, and hours on other trains into my life in Japan, I don’t feel much about trains will surprise me anymore. Unless they start running more than two minutes late.

At the intersection right across the famous Togetsukyo Bridge. There were so many people that there was a three or four block line to cross the bridge to get to Arashiyama.

People crossing Togetsukyo. On the left side, of course.

It was a bit cloudy at times, making it a bit chilly with the breeze off of the water, but it was still warm for what I consider to be normal end-of-November weather.

To be honest, none of my photography (or the professional souvenir prints you can buy in the area, for that matter) truly do the sight justice, but I feel that this one is one of the closest:

I spent several hours just walking the area. There are several temples and a monkey park I didn’t get around to visiting, but walking even some of the trails was more than enough for one afternoon.

Though I wasn’t in the monkey park, there were still signs on the mountain warning tourists about the monkeys, as they can be dangerous:

“Please be careful of the wild monkeys. -Do not approach the monkeys -Do not interact with the monkeys and do not meet their eyes. -Do not give food to the monkeys.”

It’s hard for me to describe how vast this looked in real life. Especially for someone who has always lived in the flatlands of the Midwest, mountains feel so incredibly and incomprehensibly large.

One of the temples in the Arashiyama area, far away, across the river, and halfway up the mountain.

As the afternoon pressed on, the light started to filter through the leaves, creating a stunning canopy.

I actually got a little lost trying to find the train station, but I ended up finding the bamboo forest I wanted to walk through anyway, so it turned out alright. Especially since I remembered the train station being very close to the entrance of the forest. Unfortunately, I missed a turn somewhere and ended up walking twenty minutes past the station, ended up on some side streets outside the Arashiyama area. But I had a map and my Japanese, so I found the station pretty quickly, which was just as packed as it had been when I had arrived in the morning.

The bamboo forest honestly looked exactly like bamboo forests I've seen in movies, games, and anime. It was honesly kind of surprising.

The bamboo forest honestly looked exactly like bamboo forests I’ve seen in movies, games, and anime. It was kind of surprising.

Torii as far as the eye can see- Fushimi Inari

November 21, 2014 / Sarah Blackwell / 0 Comments

On Saturday some friends and I went to Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. It’s one of the most famous in the area, well-known for its abundance of torii. The larger torii are typically bought by companies, as they typically cost many thousand dollars. They are then erected across the mountain paths, often so close together that the paths become more like hallways. It makes for an incredible walk.

However, families and individuals can buy smaller torii, also in varying sizes, that they place on the many smaller altars on the mountain.

Inari is the kami of rice, agriculture, and prosperity among other things. Statues of Inari’s messenger, the fox, are all over the mountain.

The front of the main part of the shrine.

A fox at the entrance to the main part of the shrine, holding the wish-granting jewel in its mouth.

It was a long hike to the top of the mountain. From the time we exited the nearest train station to the time we left the shrine, it probably took us over two hours, and we didn’t explore every path. The paths aren’t exactly hiking paths, though. Some are several hundred years old and wind through the mountain. None are direct. But it didn’t matter, as the scenery, torii, and smaller shrines were beautiful, especially as the fall foliage added dashes of color here and there. (Though November is almost over, it’s the height of fall colors here.)

The view over Kyoto from roughly halfway up.

Additionally, that Saturday was Shichi-Go-San, a rite of passage festival day for young boys and girls ages seven, five, and three. Pictures were, of course, not allowed of the inner shrine where the rites were taking place, but it was a beautiful but quiet festival, noticeable only by the conspicuous young children in tiny kimono. They were adorable! It was really cool to again see how ancient traditions are alive and well here.

A Time and a Place – Festivals

October 30, 2014 / Sarah Blackwell / 0 Comments

I feel like a common stereotype of Japanese society is that pretty much everyone is polite, quiet, and reserved. While this is, of course, just a stereotype, it’s incredibly easy to see where foreigners get this impression. During foreign student orientation week back when we first arrived, we were all warned multiple times that what we consider quiet is not what is considered quiet in Japan. Walls are thinner here and people live in close quarters, so average talking volume is actually really loud at night here. Even during the day, people tend to talk quietly as they walk together. Naturally, the trains are also pretty quiet, as it’s a public place and to speak loudly would be disrespectful to other passengers. It can be a difficult adjustment at first, but eventually we’ve gotten used to turning our volume down.

However, that is not to say that Japan is always this way. During orientation, we were told that bars and karaoke were a couple of places where noise was allowed. If you pass by a karaoke bar on the way home from the train station, you’ll almost certainly be able to hear the music from inside. Noise levels that surpass normal levels are just fine within these spaces.

More interestingly, I’ve found that festivals are where the Japanese tend to dispense with cultural and societal conventions on noise and behavior. Recently one of my professors invited our class to an Autumn Festival in a small district in Osaka where he did research a few years ago. This Shinto festival’s main event was the danjiri, large man-propelled and carried floats with people on top. There are two shrines only a couple streets apart from each other, which is unusual. Where the main road is a river used to be, until it was moved a few kilometers over as Osaka grew. Now the two shrines have a something like battle with the danjiri where the river used to run. Those involved with the danjiri practice all year.

Before arriving at the shrine our professor did research near, we stopped at the shrine for the other side of the street, where the miko, or shrine maidens, happened to be performing a kagura dance. After they were finished with the dance, they passed the blessing of the kami on to us. I was again struck by how much of traditional Japan is woven into modern Japan; this shrine and traditional dance were only one transfer and a few minutes’ walk from the main train line between Osaka and Kyoto.

The miko during the Kagura dance. (I apologize for the poor quality of the photo. Nighttime is not a good time for photography and most of Japan’s streets are not lit well, if at all.)

After that, we went to the other shrine, where the pre-danjiri festivities were taking place. It looked something like local carnivals back home. There were scores of little stalls on shrine grounds and on the streets nearby with games and prizes for children and fried food. Though the food was different that at home; here there is fried squid, fried manjuu (something like a donut with sweet bean paste inside), and karaage among other things. Festivals are also the only place where eating and drinking while walking is okay.

The danjiri gathered on the street at about nine thirty and continued moving around until ten, those carrying the floats reaching a solid jogging speed at times. The girls following the danjiri shouted after it and formed what I can only compare to a mosh pit when the they were not moving. A few times the danjiri would face off, only feet from each other while they tried out outdo each other with noise and the dancers on top competed as well. Words are not sufficient for what happened, so I uploaded some raw clips to YouTube.

Honestly, things got pretty chaotic after the danjiri started moving around for real. The spirit of “festival” infected the entire crowd until the cheering was deafening and I found it hard to get anywhere close to the danjiri. I did talk with some luckier foreign students that managed to get closer and were invited to help carry the danjiri for a while.

So, essentially, noise and partying don’t really happen on a large scale in Japan. But when when festivals come around, all restrictions are off because that is the time and place.

I think it's so cool that the deer don't run away. Some even bow.

History’s Place in Modern Japan

October 2, 2014 / Sarah Blackwell / 1 Comment

Recently I’ve traveled to Tokyo and Nara. One is the new capital, famous for its sprawling metropolitan landscape and population density while the other is the historical capital, perhaps now best known for cultural assets and (mostly) friendly deer.

In Tokyo I constantly noticed traditional culture jammed in between the concrete and railways, which I thought was fascinating. The most interesting to me was Meiji Jingu, or Meiji Shrine, located just a few hundred steps from Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line that circles around central Tokyo. As I stepped out of the station, it was obvious that I was in Tokyo. There were tall buildings, little restaurants jammed together in a line, and dozens of people waiting for the pedestrian green light (since people hardly ever cross streets when the pedestrian light is red in Japan). But after going down the street a little ways and turning right, I was already on shrine grounds.

Dad came to visit me in Japan! This is the torii, or gate specific to Shinto shrines, beyond which everything is considered ritually pure.

Most of the shrine complex is a dense, towering forest that is somewhat reminiscent of the forest in the Ghibli movie, Princess Mononoke. Visitors are not allowed to freely wander beneath the trees, making it even more mysterious. Moreover, the trees dampen the sound of the city to the point where you can sometimes forget that you’re right in the middle of the most densely populated city in the world. There’s also a lovely inner garden where Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken, used to go. It was really incredible to be where they were, since they were so incredibly important to Japanese history.

Entrance to the actual shrine where Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken are deified

Dad and I also went to Rikugien, or “Six Principles of Poetry Garden,” and Edo Period garden originally built by a samurai and official of the Tokugawa Shogunate under the fifth shogun. It features scenes recreated from eighty-eight famous poems, besides being a gorgeous garden. Rikugien is also in the middle of Tokyo, only two stops away from the Yamanote Line, and though you can sometimes see skyscrapers over the tops of the trees, it is still quiet and peaceful.

A recreation of Horaijima, which my Japanese friends recognized immediately when I showed them this photo

There is also a tea house where you can sit outside and enjoy traditional Japanese tea and sweets.

These delicate and detailed okashi were filled with sweet red bean paste.

On the other hand, Tokyo also has much to offer for people interested in its urban side. There are more restaurants and stores than I cared to count near Shinjuku and Shibuya Stations.

Shibuya’s famous Scramble Crossing and 109 department store.

Famous shopping district in Akihabara where most places sell pop culture items

We also went to the top of Tokyo Tower, where all we could see was city from the base of the tower to the horizon. If I hadn’t been to the little forest of Meiji Jingu and quiet Rikugien myself, I probably would have found it hard to believe that they coexisted with the cityscape in front of me.

Sunset from the lower observation deck at Tokyo Tower

The week after I went to Nara with some friends. Nara was the ancient capital of Japan over a millennia ago and is now famous for its temples and deer that, as a result of their revered status as servants of the gods, have become comfortable around people.

Five storey pagoda at Kofukuji, the second tallest pagoda in Japan and originally placed in Nara in 710

The 15 meter tall statue of the Buddha Vairocana, the largest in the world, located at Todaiji in Nara

The deer are always looking for special deer biscuits, called shika senbei, and will approach people.

I think it’s so cool that the deer don’t run away. Some even bow.

A Lifestyle Change- Day to Day Differences

September 17, 2014 / Sarah Blackwell / 0 Comments

Lately I’ve been adjusting to a new rhythm as Japan has forced me into a completely new lifestyle. At home, like many American college students, I drive or take the (somewhat inconvenient) bus everywhere. Walking all the way across campus at Valpo seems like a long hike, and though I don’t own a bicycle, I don’t think a lot of students ever go very far on their bicycles. I spend many hours a day doing homework around my classes, which occur at the same time throughout the week. I almost never bother cooking since the meal plan is sufficient.

Here my routine is completely different. My classes aren’t usually at the same time and all of my homework for all my classes can be finished in three hours or less. Usually it’s a lot less. Driving isn’t really an option here, so that leaves walking, cycling, and public transportation. Walking is actually a bit inconvenient in Hirakata, at least with the weather still as hot as it’s ever been. Any supermarket, store, restaurant, or train station is usually a twenty minute walk or more. So instead of paying bus fares, I bike all over town. I’m pretty sure I’ve never biked this much in my life. Going up the plentiful (and often fairly steep, compared to my home terrain of plains as far as the eye can see) hills was definitely hard on my legs the first week or so, but I’m getting used to it now.

At Kiyomizudera, Kyoto

I take the trains EVERYWHERE, and they’re incredibly convenient. Back near Chicago, if you miss your train, you could end up waiting thirty to sixty minutes for the next one. Here, you’ll wait a maximum of ten minutes, and the trains are always on time. My speaking partner, Mizuho, and I were talking about trains once and she mentioned how people here start getting irritated if trains are one, two, or three minutes late. She was rather surprised when I mentioned how people near chicago expect the trains to be running at least ten minutes late. Often more. Once I get off the train in the city, it’s all walking from there. It’s exhausting, but it’s nice to be able to go slowly through the city and actually notice the little things instead of driving right past.

Purikura with Katrina and Mizuho!

Moreover, my diet is completely different. A lot of the easily accessible junk food back home isn’t available here, and if they have Japanese equivalents, they’re hard to find. Even grocery shopping is different. It’s actually more of an adventure now; I can’t read a lot of food-specific kanji, so mostly I buy things based on price and looks. The other international students do the same. It’s not uncommon to hear, “That looks good. What is it?” followed by, “I have no idea,” at dinner in the Seminar House. It may not be that I don’t know the words that are printed on things, but speaking and reading Japanese are two completely different things, unlike Spanish, my other foreign language. Spanish is spelled exactly as it sounds, but the complexity of the Japanese language makes shopping quite a bit harder than at home. But honestly, it’s kind of fun sometimes, buying mystery food.

The most striking difference for me is that I’m always on the move and always planning my next outing. Hirakata is conveniently situated very near both Kyoto and Osaka. It’s also not too far from Nara. Shinkansen trips to Tokyo are expensive, but not out of the question. Dinner discussions usually revolve around either trips people have just returned from or the next trip they’re planning. Hirakata itself has a little of the small town feeling, but is also near huge bustling Osaka and the cultural bastion of Kyoto. We’re never short of things to do around here, only the time necessary to do everything!

My lovely family! It's hard to believe that I won't seem them again until Christmas time!

One Hour Until Departure- Kansai Gaidai University, Japan

August 21, 2014 / Sarah Blackwell / 0 Comments

In a few short hours I’ll be heading for the airport. In just about twenty four hours, I’ll fly from Chicago to Hong Kong to Osaka. It’s hard to believe that it’s already time to leave; the summer has really flown by. After packing, repacking, and shoving my clothes here and there, my belongings are finally ready to go. I am somewhat anxious, in both the good way and the bad way.

On one hand, I have travelled internationally a few times in the past, including a long flight to China when I was very young. I’m fairly confident in my Japanese and the staff from Kansai Gaidai will even meet us at the airport to help us get from Osaka to Hirakata, where the university is located. On the other hand, this is the first time I’m completely responsible for my own travel and the first time I’m travelling internationally without a parent or guardian. Most troubling for me is that my family will be more than the usual two hours away. If I run into a problem, I’m mostly on my own to deal with it. But that’s what being an adult is about, and while I’m worried, I’m also excited to see what I can do. I’ve been wanting to test my Japanese language skills for some time and sometimes problems are a good (if stressful) test.

My lovely family! It’s hard to believe that I won’t seem them again until Christmas time!

All things considered, I’m extremely excited to be studying in Japan this semester. I have wanted to go to Japan since I was a child eating sushi and teriyaki. I’ve studied Japan’s history and culture in class and now I will experience it firsthand. My language partner at the university and I have been messaging for a couple of weeks now and we’ve already made plans to go places and do things together. I absolutely can’t wait! If only the travel time was shorter…

Introduction: Sarah Blackwell in Hirakata, Japan!

August 18, 2014 / studyabroad / 0 Comments

Last week I finally bought my plane ticket to Japan, so my study abroad opportunity is finally starting to feel more real! It’s definitely one thing to be accepted into Kansai Gaidai University and begin to fill out paperwork for housing, etc.. Those are great things that bring me closer to my destination. However, it’s quite another thing to buy a plane ticket; it puts the paperwork into the realm of reality.

Japanese Club Spring Festival with club members Emily and Sabena, and my language partner, Nozomi. We practiced Japanese and sang karaoke, a popular pastime in Japan

I chose the study abroad program at Kansai Gaidai University because I plan to teach English in Japan after I graduate, either through Fulbright or the Japan Exchange Teaching Programme (commonly referred to as the JET Programme). Studying abroad in Japan will provide me with excellent opportunities to learn about Japanese culture, practice using the language in its native context, and get to know new people- things I’ve been wanting to do for years.

I’m probably most looking forward to making new friends and getting to know new people in Japan. From what I’ve heard from others who have been to Kansai Gaidai, students on campus are very friendly and want to make foreign friends just as much as I do.

My friends from Honduras. We still talk a lot!

I also really want to visit a lot of places like shrines, temples, and “konbini” (convenience stores- Japanese konbini are famous for their uniqueness) among other tourist attractions. And just as much as tourist attractions, I want to explore Hirakata and the surrounding area for small, hole-in-the-wall places that make the area unique; I’d love to find a little “mom-and-pop” type ramen stand or something similar that would make the area feel like home. Hopefully I’ll even find time to make the journey from Hirakata to Tokyo. It’s a long way, but it will be worth it to visit Japan’s largest city. I’ve already starting making a list of places in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto that I want to visit. I won’t have time for all of them, I’m sure, but organizing a list ahead of time will make my decision easier when I’m actually there. I just can’t help but start preparing now, even though this semester isn’t over yet!

I’m really excited to simply live in another place, despite the language barrier that I will undoubtedly run into. When I went to Honduras last year, I had been learning and speaking Spanish for about eight years, so I didn’t really have any trouble navigating or speaking to locals. However, I’ve only taken two years of Japanese and learned a little on my own. I’m sure the language barrier will affect more aspects of my life than I’m aware of, but honestly I’m really excited about it: it’ll give me a chance to really practice using the language. I’ll make mistakes when taking trains; maybe I’ll read the maps wrong. But I’m sure it will turn out alright, and very possibly turn into an exciting adventure. Even something as simple as going to the store won’t be as simple as it is at home. None of the products will be the same and I probably won’t be able to read much on the labels. Despite all this, I’m still very excited about it- these experiences will help me grow and develop as a person and prepare me for the career I’ve chosen. Not to mention I’ll have a good time!

Enthusiastic future Kansai Gaidai student,

Sarah Blackwell

Valpo Voyager

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