August 18th, 2008
This morning, Akiko and Moe took me to Kintestu station so that I could catch the Airport Limousine to Kansai Airport. Kansai is a really neat airport, because Japan basically built an artificial island so house the airport! The busride was about an hour long, and when I got to the airport, I went to the JAL counter to meet Mama and Papa. I eventually found them, and soon after Amy arrived too.
We checked in and then went through security, which was pretty lax since we were taking a domestic flight. We didn’t have long to wait in the waiting area before they started boarding our plane to Okinawa!
The flight itself was only about an hour and 40 minutes long. It went by like nothing. We landed, collected our bags, and then went to the car rental place to pick up our navy blue Mazda. After getting the rental car, Papa drove us to our hotel, the Loisir. It was a pretty fancy place, I felt so spoiled with the doormen opening t he doors for us, carrying our luggage, escorting us to our rooms on the 8th floor. Amy and I settled into our room and Mama and Papa went to the room next door.
After settling in a bit, Amy and I went on an adventure to find Kokusaidori, or International Street. It’s basically a massively long street filled with restaurants and souvenir shops. It took a little trouble, but we eventually found the place. We explored a little bit and then went back to the hotel by 9pm.
August 19th, 2008
Me and Amy went down to the lobby of the hotel to eat breakfast with Mama and Papa. It ended up being not very delicious, and pretty expensive, unfortunately. By 9:30, me and Amy boarded a Naha city bus, bound for Shurijo. Shurijo is the castle of Naha city. It’s the seat of the Ryukyu kinds. It was very beautiful, I really am fond of the vermillion red the Japanese use in their architecture.
After exploring the castle, we attempted to find a bus stop. We didn’t have any luck, so instead we walked maybe 3 kilometers back to Kokusaidori. There, we found a small restaurant in which we had a traditional Okinawan meal – taco rice! It’s exactly what it sounds like, taco fixings on top of Japanese rice. So delicious!
After lunch we walked around Kokusaidori some more before making our way back to the hotel. From there, we packed our beach things and tried to find Naminoue Beach. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find it, so we had to hire a taxi to bring us. Me and Amy spent a few hours at the beach, suntanning and swimming in the lovely algae water.
For dinner, Mama and Papa brought us to a Japanese steakhouse restaurant. There, a chef cooked for us personally, right on our table. We had a huge meal, including some crazy shrimp crackers, beef, tofu, and salad.
August 20,2008
Today, Amy and I got on a tour bus at Naha Terminal at 9am. We took a tour bus to explore northern Okinawa Island. Our first stop was Ryukyu Mura, or Ryukyu Village. We walked around a traditional Okinawan-style village and even got to see a really neat farming dance performed! It was really awesome!
The next stop was a very beautiful cliff overlooking the sea, called Manza-mo. The Okinawan sea is sooo beautiful and blue and the cliffs were so grassy and lush. It was a really pretty area.
Next was lunch, which was at an Okinawan sweets shop. Amy and I had taco rice again – yum! In Okinawa, the traditional foods are pineapple, purple sweet potatoe, and goya (a type of bitter cucumber maybe?). The purple potatoe is actually really good! They even make soft serve purple potatoe icecream!
After lunch, we continued on to the Okinawa Aquarium. We spent 2 hours there, looking and fish and whale sharks, watching a dolphin show, seeing manatees and sea turtles, and wading in Emerald Beach.
The last stop was Fruitsland, which was basically a giant garden of tropical fruit plants, but the guide pretty much ran us through there, so I didn’t have time to see anything! There were some pretty birds and butterflies too, in their respective sections.
By that time, the tour was over, which was great because Amy and I were SOOOO tired from all the walking we did!!
August 21, 2008
Unfortunately, today was our last day in Okinawa!
Amy and I met Mama and Papa in the hotel lobby at 9 and we checked out. We drove to breakfast, where we had toast and yogurt and feasted on the juice bar.
Then we continued the drive to Okinawa World. The first thing we saw there were the caves. We took something like 230 stairs while exploring the deep, wet caves beneath the park. It was really neat, and a really nice temperature too!
The cave walk took maybe 30 minutes, and after that we explored Okinawa World. We saw pottery and glass and some fruit plants. We explored some traditional style Okinawan houses and watched a traditional dance being performed. Amy got her picture taken with a python and we tried drinking a sample of habu alcohol, which is brewed from snakes. Yes, snakes. It actually tasted kind of like wine mixed with cinnamon and had a bit of a burn. It’s VERY expensive stuff and is supposed to make you healthy and energetic.
On the way back to the car rental place, we stopped at A&W for lunch. Since there is a bunch of military bases on the island, Okinawa is actually a little bit Americanized. I’ve never seen an A&W in Japan before.
Anyway, we brought back the car and then made our way back to the airport. We had a few hours to kill before our plane left, so we looked in some shops, did some purikura, and then went to sit in the waiting room.
Our plane left at 4:20pm, and the flight home seemed short. I took the airport limousine back to Kintetsu Station, and from there I flagged a cab and kind of fumbled my way home.
Japan-wide, today is a special day, where the Japanese people go to graveyards and temples to honour their ancestors. As Akiko put it, there are people hanging on her shoulders. I think it’s a feeling of guilt if you don’t go.
Akiko, Moe, and I biked maybe 3 minutes to the nearby temple to attend the morning service there. We signed in at the front gate (where Moe received a bag of sweets) and then we entered the main temple building, taking our shoes off first at the foot of the steps. We were a bit late, so we had to sit on the side rather than on the actual tatami mats. Akiko gave me a set of prayer beads and a prayer book, and I held the beads and followed along with the monks’ chanting. It’s actually really difficult to follow!
At one point, we got up from our seats and went down the main aisle. We approached the three gently steaming bowls at the front of the room. I had to sit in seiza, hold my prayer beads in my left hand, and throw a pinch of scented wood chips or something into the large metal pot with the other hand. Next, I put my hands together and prayed. Everyone who came to the service had to do this.
After, there was more chanting. Then the head priest did a sort of sermon and then the monks played some music and sang a song.
At one point, one of the helpers was taking photos, and she definitely took photos of me! I suppose it’s unique for them to have a gaijin at their temple! It was just a small little place. Anyway, the priests were adorable and thanked me for coming when I left.
This evening I went to dinner with Obaachan, Ojiichan, Akiko, and Moe. We biked maybe 5 minutes to this cute little restaurant. Japanese restaurants are so different. Instead of getting just a one-plate meal, instead we had gyoza, fried cheese, fried chicken, chicken legs, pork, onigiri, squid fries, etc. etc. After dinner, we biked to a bakery and ate dessert. I had some fruity parfait thing. It was pretty delicious.
I was looking up at the sky today, trying to figure out why it looked so beautiful today.
And then I realised that the sky looked beautiful because I could actually SEE it.
I never realised that what I usually see is smog. Today I could actually see a bright blue sky interspersed with rolling white clouds.
It was nice.
It reminded me of home.
TWO MORE DAYS UNTIL SUMMER VACATION.
News has declared that tsuyu (rainy season) is finally over. It’s officially summertime!
Just when things were going excellent one day, I am hit hard, like a punch to the stomach, with homesickness.
It’s something I never thought I’d have to deal with. There are a lot of things here that I “never thought of”. Living like this, completely immersed in another culture, is something you can’t even begin to fathom, not at all.
Reality is so different from what the imagination pictures.
I find myself wondering why I came here.
People ask me that same question all the time, and the manufactured answer is “Because I like the culture and I like history. Kimono and samurai are cool. I want to experience the culture.”
It’s true, I do enjoy learning about other cultures and kimono are probably some of the most beautiful and intricately made clothing in the world, but I don’t really enjoy Japanese culture all that much. Of course, there was no way I could’ve known that before I came here. It’s really the reason why I came. I dared myself to step foot into this completely different country and I dared myself to go far, far out of my comfort zone.
I wonder, “why did I come here?” I don’t really eat fish (I wish I could and I do try, but I just can’t enjoy the taste), I don’t really adore Japanese culture, and then I wonder what the point of learning Japanese even is, if I’m not particularly enthralled with the country. To my view, it’s a rather odd language (double negatives is something I can’t get used to).
I am a European through and through. I have never felt homesick or unhappy in Europe. I love Europe. I love that I can trace my family back to Europe. I love European food. The traditions and the languages run in my blood. I have discovered that I can’t feel that way about every place in the world. I’m simply not an “Asian person”. I don’t particularly feel drawn to Asian life.
I know that if I had waited; if I had gone in university, things would’ve turned out differently. Part of my distaste for this lifestyle comes from the fact that I’m in high school. I should be graduated now, preparing for life on my own and continuing my studies, but instead I am living an extra semester of high school in a country where teenagers are repressed and encouraged to be unindividualized. I feel that I am wasting away my mind at school. Classes are not challenging at all. In fact, I read or draw in the majority of my classes. I’m not at the point where I can understand the teachers enough yet, and they simply ignore me anyway. The only classes I participate in are my special Japanese language classes, gym, home economics, and Korean. I read books to occupy my mind, but I can literally feel my brain becoming unpracticed and lazy.
I know that I am a particularly independent person myself, and that not everyone is used to the amount of freedom I am granted. Still, no one should be subjected to being the last to know about things concerning ONESELF and being ignored simply because they’re the “underclassman”. Not to say that I’m against respecting one’s elders. I also dislike that Japanese people are so outwardly polite (bowing, taking off shoes, using honorifics, etc.) but then they go behind your back and gossip and say cruel things. Then, somehow, they are cruel to you in way that is very rude in western cultures. It is not acceptable in North America to publicly discuss another person’s weight, age, family and relationship issues, etc., ESPECIALLY when that person is not present or when they are present but are ignored! People who I’ve never even met know things about me, and some of those things aren’t even true. It’s quite a mystery to me how Japanese people can be so rude and so polite at the same time. I know a lot of this has to do with separate cultures and different values, but I don’t think that it can ever be acceptable to discuss someone’s personal business without asking them first.
Another thing that bothers me is that Japanese people tend to not challenge the rules at all. I think that rules can never be universal. There should be some give and take. Every situation is different. Then again, Japanese are so homogeneous; perhaps they’re not used to this idea.
I just feel like I should have picked a country better suited to me rather than blindly picking the one I thought would provide the most challenge. I realize now that it’s not about forcing yourself to complete a challenge, it’s about balancing the challenges and the easy tasks. My advice to future exchangers would be to really think hard about where you truly want to go. Don’t pick a country without really thinking it over. I did consider changing my country choice, but by that time I knew that I would’ve felt terrible, wondering and wondering how my exchange could’ve been in my first country choice.
I’m not really sure how I feel about life here, though. I am generally unhappy with my school life. My saving grace is my wonderfully friendly and helpful classmates. I’ve grown to love them all like little brothers and sisters. The problem here is that that’s what they are – younger siblings. They’re fun to be with during the day, but I find it difficult to consider hanging out with them outside of school.
Quite frankly, I don’t think that a year program here in Japan was right for me. Perhaps somewhere else would’ve worked out better. Many things could’ve offered a different outcome. I find that I enjoy Japan enough to consider it a place where I could stay for a few weeks or a month, to travel. It’s not a place I could consider calling home. What I enjoy most here is the travelling and the exploring. I love to visit the temples and shrines and learn about the religion and history of the country. I like to explore, to dip my foot in, but I don’t like to jump right in and completely submerse myself. Not here.
I have considered going home a few times.
The first time was in Tokyo, before I even came to Osaka. My very first week. It was only natural. I had a boyfriend and friends back home who I was aching to be with. But things got better, especially after I started school and had a routine.
Then, I was hit by homesickness brought on by graduation. All my friends in Ohio and Canada had graduated, were moving on, and here I was, stuck in Japan. It’s almost like I am stuck in my own little glass globe, not really a part of the real outside world.
I told myself that I would stick it out until September -6 months or so into my exchange; half a year. I knew that the homesickness wouldn’t last, and it didn’t. It just came back.
But then I think about it and I can picture how disappointed others would be in me if I came home early, and how disappointed I would be in myself. In a way, it would completely destroy forever the “picture perfect” exchange I had always dreamed about. I don’t go home early in my perfect exchange.
I also told myself that by September, I was almost done anyway. School ends on December 19th for me, and most of December is half days anyway. I leave Japan January 9th. Why not just stick it out to the end?
It’s a constant argument between my pride and my happiness.
I don’t want to offend anyone here, or put anyone off the idea of going to Japan. This is just my general feelings about how my exchange has gone and how I feel about Japan and why it wasn’t the right place for me. I’ve tried to offer the why as to why I feel this way. Feel free to challenge me on the subject.
(After writing this, I feel a lot better to have just written out the plain truth. Please take into consideration that I just wrote what came to mind. It’s something that I did for myself.)
On Monday two American exchange students came from Washington. They are Cassie and Henry and they’re only here for two weeks (they spent 2 weeks up in Aomori already).
Anyway, since we had tests still, we went with them to Nara today.
Mama dropped me off at Toga Mikita this morning and I met up with Cassie. We took the train together to Nakamozu, where we met up with Kawamoto-sensei and Henry. Then the four of us took the train to Namba, where we met up with Sehee and took the Kintetsu train to Nara.
It stormed pretty badly in the morning in Osaka, but luckily we had good weather in Nara.
We left the station and walked to Todai-ji, passing a bunch of deer on the way. The deer are considered “messengers of the gods” or something like that, and they just roam free everywhere in Nara. It’s pretty crazy, but after a while you’re just like “oh, there’s another deer. hum.”
Todai-ji is pretty cool, it’s the massive building with Japan’s largest buddha inside. There are also a bunch of other statues and things. It was really, really neat. There’s also this wooden beam that has a hole in it that’s supposedly the size of buddha’s nostril. I guess you have to try to go through it. I tried once, but chickened out because I was afraid I was going to get stuck. Henry tried, but he couldn’t fit. Then I tried again, and eventually I was halfway through, so I had to go all the way! It was kind of scary, especially when I thought I was stuck for a second! But I made it out, without needing any help or anything.
After that we went to lunch and had Okonomiyaki in this random restaurant that had like, elevator music playing in the parking lot. Which really went with the whole giant buddha theme.
I also had some ramune again, which was yummy….only I spilt half of it onto the okonomiyaki grill hahaha. Oops.
When we finished lunch, we walked to Kasuga shrine, which is really famous for all the stone lanterns lining the path to the shrine. Inside the shrine are some really old trees (one is 800 years old and another is 1000 years old) and then the basic shrine buildings. We all bought fortunes. Kawamoto-sensei, Cassie, and I got moderately good fortune, Sehee got limited good fortune, and Henry got good fortune! We all (except Henry) tied our fortunes to a rope, so that they can become better fortunes.
We made our way back to Nara station after that, kind of wandering around the deer and other random old buildings.
Finally, I made it back to Namba and had a nice, unexciting trip back to Komyoike.
I wish people would stop committing suicide on the train tracks because I really enjoy getting home.
Yesterday, I went to Namba. Now let me tell you this is a massive, huge, confusing train station.
I went over to where my train was supposed to be and there was nothing. I looked at the sign to see when it would be coming – nothing. There was this sign, no doubt explaining everything, in Japanese.
So I ask this nice looking old lady what the sign said and I told her I didn’t understand but that I had to get to Komyoike station. She told me that the train stopped, but she was confused too.
So this train man walks by, and she stops him for me and he babbles on something and the lady tells me to go to Sakai Higashi station.
Then two ladies come up who are also going to Komyoike, so I follow them to the platform of the train we’re supposed to take instead. But then they leave and go over toward the vending machines, and I feel awkward following them, so I call Amy in a panic and am like “OMFG HELP MEEE!!!”
So calms me down and I get on the train.
I get off at Sakai Higashi and realise that I shouldn’t have gotten off and now I have to wait for another train. So I wait and the train comes soon and I take the train to Nakamozu and then get off so I can switch train lines. Luckily, the train to Komyoike was right there on the other side of the platform, so I ran over.
I’m pretty sure it took me double the time to get home yesterday. It was ridiculous.
And not only that, but this is a regular occurance, only not usually with the Semboku line.
After school today, my homeroom teacher, Oka-Sensei took me and Sehee to a Korean old folks home in Izumi. It was just the three of us, because the other girl ended up bailing on us.
At first it was kind of awkward, just the three of us, especially when we went out to lunch. Oka-sensei is a sweetie, and treated us. I had tonkatsu and rice with orange juice.
After lunch, we drove to the home. There were were given slippers from an AUTOMATIC SLIPPER MACHINE!!!!! YES. I freaked out. Actually, I took a picture of it…Anyway, you press this button and it dispenses slippers for you.
So we went upstairs and the first thing we did was help drive (wheel?) the old people into the cafeteria. Actually, this was harder than it seems because the wheelchairs (kuruma in Japanese; funny because Kuruma can mean “car”) were rather difficult to navigate. Then we helped serve out small cakes and tea and then we had to help feed jello to the ones who couldn’t eat by themselves. That was hard. The first lady would’nt open her eyes, so I gave up and ended up feeding another lady instead.
After clearing away the dishes, they started radio taiso, which I’ve already covered a few times I think. So Sehee, Oka-sensei, and I did radio taiso with the old people. But there were also 2 new taiso songs that I didn’t know. Then Sehee was somehow convinced to go up and sing in Korean for the old people. She actually sang the national anthem because she didn’t know what else to do ahahahahaha.
Then we wheeled everyone back to gather around the TV area. I helped give out tea, while Sehee wetted hand towels. Next, we had to spoon-feed tea to two ladies, only they put this strange powder in the tea that turned it into a strange jello-syrup thing. It was gross. I wouldn’t have eaten it either.
After that was clean up again, and then Sehee got sent off to cut people’s fingernails. I sat down beside this ADORABLE old lady and chatted with her as best as I could. She was such a sweetie; kept telling me how pretty Canada was and actually spoke ENGLISH to me!!! I was so surprised that she could speak, especially because of her age. It turns out that she actually studied English in university. She asked me, “Do you go to church?”. I felt bad to say no. She was so cute though, kept saying thank you, and I promised to visit again.
In all, it was way better than I expected. I really liked talking to the old lady (I believe her name was Sato-san). Also, we met this one old lady who was ONE HUNDRED AND TWO YEARS OLD. Crazy stuff. Well, I think Japanese are the oldest living people alive anyway.
I’m not actually sure if they were all Korean or not; Sehee said that none of them really understood Korean and most of them had Japanese names.
So Mama picked me up from Komyoike today and we were driving home, stopped at a red light. In front of us was this guy on a moped, wearing a shirt that said, “GOTCHA” is big bold letters. Inevitably, Mama says,
“What does go-go-t-cha mean?”
I laugh, because her attempting to pronounce it is hilarious in itself.
“Gotcha. Hmm,” I say, thinking of the best way to explain it.
“Wakarimasu,” I understand, I finally answer.
“No, no, no wakarimasen!” Mama exclaims. I don’t understand!
“Mmm, wakarimsu,” I correct.
“Imi wakarimasen.”
“No! Gotcha wa wakarimasu!” I correct again.
“Imi wa nan desku? WAKARIMASEN!” Mama cries, what does it mean, I don’t understand!
I collapse into hysterics at this point, and take moment for myself to laugh it all out against the window.
“Noooooo. Gotcha to wakarimasu no imi was onagi,” I say, explaining it better this time that gotcha and wakarimsu have the same meaning.
“OOOOOOOOH.”
You know those arcade games where you have to pick things up with the giant claw; usually stuffed animals…?
Well on TV just now they showed a game called “Marine Catcher” where you pick up….LOBSTERS. YES. YOU PLAY FOR LOBSTERS.
Oh, Japan. What will we do with you?
