On My Way

Sorry for the lack of blog posts recently. I've been busy with packing for my trip to Japan, which I guess has now started. I'm flying down to LA to visit family for a day before flying 12 hours to Tokyo. Currently sitting in an airport using the kinda patchy wifi. Anyway, boarding starts in about four minutes so it's time to put away my laptop. Here's a picture that is hopefully visually interesting. Also, if you recognize the carpet, congratulations you know where I live near.

DIY Travel Mending Kit

Sometimes your clothes get holes in them. This can happen for all kinds of reasons such as getting caught on a nail, moving weirdly, moths, a goat chewing on them, and so on. Whatever the reason, you probably want to fix it. At home I have a sewing kit so I can fix basically anything but while traveling I will have to bring a small mending kit. These are available in stores such as AAA and JoAnn's, but I couldn't find one I liked so I made one myself. Here's what I did.

 

 Look at me trying to look legit. I'm silly, I know.

So the basics of a mending kit is thread, a needle, and some sort of container to keep everything together. I wanted to have some safety pins in mine too for when I'm too lazy to fix something or simply don't have the time.

Storage Container-something to put everything in
White Thread-most of the clothes I am bringing are light colored so this will work well. May bring black thread as well.
Safety Pins-four different sizes and a few per size.
Sewing Needle(s)-this is so you can actually sew stuff.
Magnet-something to stick the needle to so it doesn't get lost in the container.

Put everything in the storage container in some kind of order. What I did was put the thread on one side, the safety pins on the other, then put the magnet with the sewing needle on it on top of the safety pins.

Close everything up and now you have your custom travel mending kit! Throw this in your luggage and now you are prepared for most clothing problems.

Clothes to Bring

If you are traveling somewhere you are going to want to bring clothes. Well, not everyone does. I saw a girl online that just brings an empty suitcase and buys a bunch of clothes while traveling but I won't be doing that and you probably won't be doing that either. Anyway, the weather and standards for clothing are different in Japan than where I live, so I have to keep that in mind while picking clothes. Also, this is mostly for girls because the standards aren't really any different for guys except for maybe put a little more effort into how you look. Maybe. It's much easier for guys.

So I'm in the land of 55 Fahrenheit/13 degrees Celsius and raining in the middle of June. If you don't believe me, here's a picture I took yesterday out the window of a bus I was riding to a lecture. Also I had to stand in that and get soaked.

Because of this, the majority of my wardrobe is t-shirts, long pants, and hoodies. There are a couple weeks during the summer in which it gets hot enough to want to wear shorts, tank tops, skirts, or dresses, but in those couple weeks I often just wear the same few things because I can't be bothered to have clothing I don't even have a chance of wearing 9 months out of the year. It was actually hot enough to wear a skirt a couple weeks ago, but it's cold again.

Enough of me talking about how rainy it is where I live. It's frickin' hot in Japan. Humid too. I'm not from a particularly hot or humid area so this is going to kill me for a while. Eventually I'll get used to it but there will be much suffering before then. Basically the majority of my clothing would simply overheat me so I have to bring mostly lighter clothes. Things like skirts and dresses are especially helpful for staying cool.

Now to talk about how standards for clothing are different in Japan. In America, v-neck or otherwise low cut shirts are completely normal and so are tank tops. Short shorts are becoming more and more common but still not considered completely okay. Now in Japan, any neckline below armpit level is too low cut, basically nobody wears tank tops, and shorts, skirts, and dresses are often quite short. While it's not too difficult to find good shorts, trying to find shirts that have high enough necklines can be quite challenging. I went clothes shopping the other day with my mom and sister to try to find some shirts and a dress that I could wear in Japan and it took all of us to find shirts with high enough necklines (just to clarify this is about how high I like necklines anyway). All the dresses were either sleeveless, too low cut, or both. I picked out a dress with sleeves but I'll have to wear a tank top under it. Light colors will reflect more light and thinner fabrics won't overheat you as much so keep this in mind when looking through your own clothes or racks at a clothing store.

Small Things Number Twenty Two: Put Travel Alerts On Your Cards!

Despite Japan being a rather cash based society, I would recommend bringing a credit card or two with you. You can use them to get cash once there and I believe they can be used to help get you a traveler's visa. From what I have heard, a traveler's visa is what you get when you are in the country for less than 3 months and can prove you have enough money to support yourself during that time, usually that means having a credit card or two.

Most cards nowadays have the function of where if suddenly you are making purchases in a different place than expected they will freeze your card in order to protect your funds. However, that is a very bad thing if you are traveling in a different country. The solution to this is putting travel alerts on your accounts. Basically you either fill out a form, call the company, or see them in person to let them know when you are traveling and where to.

For my Discover card I just searched travel alerts and it took me a page where I could enter in the days I'm gone and where I will be. It was quite easy. It also shows me what to look for in stores and ATMs that will mean I can use my card. Pretty nifty.

My other card is currently annoying the hell out of me but I set up travel alerts on that as well by emailing the company.

Basically just make sure to do this before you try to use your card so you don't suddenly get your account frozen. Planning ahead is very important when it comes to traveling, especially far from home.

Stories From Japanese Class Part Three

Next week is finals week so soon I will be saying goodbye to my group of goofy dudes. Yesterday was our last day of regular class and next week all we have is the final, which is a brochure. Probably won't be getting up to too many antics next week but we've had a lot of fun this past week.

So we often mess around during break and while waiting for class to start. We have done everything from look up the origin of the word poopdeck to playing Cards Against Humanity. Last Monday Bulbasaur-san decided to show me a video of the Jurasic Park theme song played on a recorder but as the song started playing the teacher had us stand up to bow at the start of class. Took a couple tries to turn off the video so once again the teacher was staring at us for doing something weird.

Our final is a brochure and in the second half of class this week we were working on that instead of doing regular lessons. Three of the people at my table brought their computers but Charmander-san was just playing a game on his Nintendo. His argument was that he didn't have his laptop with him so I pointed out he could write stuff out in his notebook. To further encourage him, I picked up my notebook and shook it near him saying "ノート！” (nooto) which is notebook in Japanese. Bulbasaur-san also picked up his notebook and said "ノート！” and basically ever since that day every time the teacher mentions you need to get out a notebook we shake our notebooks at each other while saying "ノート！”...it's really dumb but that's why it's so funny.

My Japanese teacher does this thing where she will ask various questions and students can raise their hands to answer them. In an effort to be a good student I try to always raise my hand to answer one because I'm not too scared of messing up (learning is shouting out the wrong answer with confidence, folks). My teacher asked the question ”きのう、テレベで何が見ましたか？” which means "did you watch TV yesterday?" Now the other day I decided to start watching a kdrama series so I had been watching that the night before so I decided to raise my hand and answer saying that I did watch TV yesterday. However, apparently my teacher had asked ”きのう、テレビで何を見ましたか？” which means "what did you watch on TV yesterday?" Being the honest person I am, I awkwardly said kdrama in an effort to answer the question correctly but before I could get that far the whole entire classroom, and especially the teacher, were laughing their heads off. It was embarrassing but hey I did enjoy the show and as long as the teacher still has a good opinion of me I don't mind.

Look What I Got Today!

MY INTERNATIONAL DRIVING PERMIT!!! I don't know if I will be driving while in Japan but I'm going to a pretty small town so it's more likely. Getting the thing was really easy too. Just fill out the form here and bring that, your driver's license, two passport photos signed on the back, and the $20 fee. I just walked into a AAA office, told the lady I wanted to get an international driving permit, handed her everything, then wandered around looking at the travel stuff while she filled out the permit. Probably only took about five minutes. She called me back up and now I am the proud owner of an International Driver Permit that goes into effect July 1st, the day I get on the plane to Japan.

Comics Are Back!

Well I haven't done comics in a while. This sheet was actually started nearly two months ago and I just finished it today. I know a lot more Japanese now so hopefully I can start doing these more.

"What do you want for your birthday?"

おたんじょび？：your birthday? (or something like that)
ごはん：rice
CL おんがくビヂオ： CL music video
くつ下：socks
チョコラート：chocolate
When asked what I wanted for my birthday and what I was looking forward to I said I wanted rice, chocolate, and socks and that I was looking forward to being able to watch the music video for CL's "Hello Bitches" because it was age restricted. I got all of these things (and the awesome ninja candles I didn't know I needed in my life) and got to watch the music video, which by the way is just like normal American music videos.

"Kpop dance club"

ヤー and ヒェー: screaming noises
なにですか？：what?
わかりません：I don't understand/I don't know
ダンスクラブ： dance club
So I'm in a kpop dance club at my college and for some reason or another we scream a lot while dancing, especially when dancing "Oh NaNa" by KARD. One day a new girl showed up and was wondering why everyone was screaming and to be honest I don't really know either. It's just fun. There are seven girls in the group but a new girl joined after I drew the comic so I put her in the title panel because she is awesome.

"Amazing bookstore"

本やすごいです！：amazing bookstore!
私は本やに行きたい: I want to go to the bookstore.
In the roommate search process for my university, I met a Japanese girl and have been emailing her. She sent me a picture of an amazing bookstore near her house with very tall bookshelves and a plant running along some shelves and it was very すごい and made me want to go there.

"Good at bad at"

私はりょりすることが上手です。： I am good at cooking.
私は車をちゅしゃすることが下手です。： I am bad at parking the car.
This is just me practicing what we learned in class. We are starting to learn more complex sentences so I've been trying to use them. Not necessarily the most interesting comics, but they are fun to write and draw.

Gathering Supplies

So I went to Office Depot the other day to pick up some supplies for my Japan trip. There are a ton more things to get and I need to start doing that so things that need to be shipped have time to get here. Anyway, this is what I got.

As you an see, I got a small whiteboard. I really like whiteboards for studying Japanese and since I can't bring my big one I had to get a small one. For some reason the colorful whiteboards were considerably cheaper than the plain white ones so since colorful stuff is cool I got a blue one. It's magnetic too but I'm not sure how much that will help me. It came with a pretty nice whiteboard marker and I wrote a bunch of random stuff in Japanese on it.

The next thing I got was a notepad pen combo for making lists. It's memo pad style so it flips up but instead of being a normal memo pad it's extra long so I can fit more stuff in. I liked the size of it and it actually has my university on it, so that's kinda cool.

And the last thing isn't exactly related to my Japan trip but it is an aux cord because my old one is breaking and headphones are necessary for me to live (I have them on probably 70% of the time I am at home). There were normal headphone cords there but they cost $15 and since my currently one was only just starting to break I decided I would wait to get one but while waiting in line I noticed there were aux cords on one of those little bargain displays stores have. It was only $5, but the catch is that it is ten feet (3 meters) long. It isn't super high quality but it is long enough that I don't think I have to worry about it being jostled around too much (but I do usually have it mostly coiled up). It's kind of fun to have a stupidly long cord because you can mess around and do stuff like put your phone on your desk and then dance in the center of the room.

If anyone who can't read Japanese is curious what I wrote on the whiteboard, I'll put up the translations tomorrow. It's nothing that interesting, just me saying random stuff in my limited Japanese because I can.

Soooooooo here's what I tried to write: Hello! My name is Juno. This board is cheap, but I like the board. Next month I go to Japan. I speak a little Japanese. I love pickles.

Also, I was given a bunch of stuff by my orthodontist because I have to go two months without an appointment. It's been nearly three years and I still have braces. Anyway, I do need this stuff to properly take care of my braces while overseas.

Travel Tips from a Barely Adult Part Two

And I am back with more travel tips! These are things I have discovered while taking a more active role in packing and traveling and when traveling alone. Many times while traveling I got TSAPre at the airport because I was under 18 and very non threatening or something. TSAPre allowed me to get through security in as little as five minutes and not have to remove shoes or coolers or anything. Now that I'm 18, it's quite unlikely I'll be getting that for a while. I say this because my sister isn't that much older than me and as soon as she turned 18 all the times we have flown she never gets TSAPre anymore. Even when we travel in groups either just I will get TSAPre or everyone but my sister will get it. I've gotten rather used to TSAPre but I guess I'll have to get used to regular security again.

1. Check in at the airport!

This is just personal preference but I prefer to check in at the airport because it's really easy and you get a very conveniently sized boarding pass. Just walk into the airport and look for the little check in kiosks and enter in your confirmation number then *poof* out pops a lovely boarding pass. Bit easier to deal with than a giant piece of paper from your home printer that may or may not decide to work (is that just our printer? Well, the thing is 15 years old).

2. Stash your boarding pass somewhere easy to get at!

This can be an outside pocket on your bag or somewhere on your person. Pockets are useful for this but make sure the pocket is big enough and that your boarding pass won't fall out. Another thing I have done multiple times is fold the boarding pass into quarters and then stick it under my bra strap because I didn't have pockets (women's clothing doesn't have pockets sometimes and it's annoying). Also, if you do lose your boarding pass you can get a new one at the gate or something. My sister lost her boarding pass once and they just pulled us aside and got her information then printed her a new boarding pass.

3. Look up what you can and can't bring!

People have a general idea of what you can and can't bring on airplanes but sometimes you have a specific thing you are wondering about such as frozen steak, avocados, knitting needles, or rechargeable batteries (all real things I have looked up). Since I am going to a different country, I'm having to look up the regulations for what is allowed through airports in that country because it may be more strict than American airports. The TSA website is here and the website for a Japanese airline is here.

4. Make a universal packing list!

One time before a trip I made a packing list on my whiteboard and since it was a pretty good list I took a picture of it and now use that as my universal packing list. It is recommended you make these well before the time you have to actually pack because for some reason it's difficult to figure out what you need when you actually have to pack. I found a universal packing list online that I think is pretty good so you can check that out if you need ideas for what to put on your universal packing list.

5. When you land in an airport, get your bearings as quickly as possible!

If you have a connecting flight, this is very important. Figure out what gate you are at and what gate you need to get to as quickly as possible. Once you know that, figure out how you are going to get there. How are the concourses set up? Which direction do you need to walk? Some places have trains along the concourses or between concourses so if you need to use one of those figure out which train gets you to were you need to be as quickly as possible. Once you find your gate, you are free to shop around or get food or go to the bathroom or refill your water bottle. Don't try to do all that on the way there. Simply note where anything interesting is and go back there after you find your gate. Don't want to be trying to find your gate at the last minute. If you landed at your destination airport, don't wait around! Follow the crowd so you can find the baggage claim and exit. There will be signs too of course but it's easier to follow a crowd of people than it is to follow signs.

6. Get ready to go through security while in line!

Lines for regular security are usually long so use that time to get your boarding pass and ID out, drink what is left in your water bottle, consolidate luggage, and remove jackets, belts, and hats. When it's your turn to go through security, simply get your shoes off, throw your bags onto the scanner, put your stuff in one of those bins, and wait to go through the scanner. When you get out the other side, grab your bags and move, don't stand there putting everything back on. You block up the whole process for everyone if you do that. If your bag gets searched, just walk over there and talk with the TSA agent searching your bag. They are often surprisingly nice and it can be fun to talk about the stuff in your bag. One time my bag got searched and the TSA agent kept getting distracted by the cute stuff in my bag and liked how I had so many bags within my larger bag.

7. Put everything in its own bag!

Organize everything in your bag as much as you can so it doesn't just become a giant mess of random items in your bag. You an either use clear ziplock bags or more sturdy ones that you get as hand outs. I don't know if guys have an abundance of these but basically they are these sturdy bags you use for makeup or other beauty products and you often get them as freebies. I knit a lot of bags too so I have a variety of bags to organize my stuff in (well, at least I try to).

Small Thing Number Twenty One: Make Online Lists!

Twenty one posts in the Small Things series! すごいです！

Also thank you to my amazing Japanese friend for showing me the adorableness of すごいです. The reason this is adorable and cute is because すごい means "wow" and です makes things polite and you don't usually see です after すごい. Or maybe you do. I had never seen it before so when I saw it in an email I melted from the cuteness.

Anyway, I'm leaving for Japan in less than four weeks and I have a lot of stuff to organize (also finals...ugh don't remind me). To help organize everything, I have been using that lovely function that has been added to websites just in my lifetime and that is the list making function. Back when I first started using the internet much and having accounts you couldn't really be specific about lists beyond favorites, but nowadays most sites have the option for you to create custom lists. So I've been doing that. And naming all the lists Japan Things because that is how I roll.

First things first I made a list in my email that has all my flight itineraries, directions, and instructions for all my travel. Don't want to have to dig through a ton of emails to be able to find directions. Also, yeah, I still get tons of college emails. Welcome to being a high school student.

I also made a list of things on Amazon that I should get before I go but Amazon can ship some stuff to Japan so that is an option as well. This is mostly for things like power adapters and clothes drying hangers. Just general things that you might need.

And I also made a list on Etsy for more artistic things I could want like a proper wallet, face masks, and luggage tags. You can actually see some of the stuff I'm looking at in this one.

Lastly I have a list on iHerb. iHerb is nice because they can ship some stuff to Japan so if you can't get something there that you really want you can probably order it. Shipping isn't too bad but I'm not sure how long it will take.

And yes that is cereal because cereal is important. Anyway, make all the lists, both online and on paper. Lists are very important to travel. I've been making so many lists I'm starting to feel like Jane Villanueva from Jane the Virgin.