Culture Shock! Right Of Way And Other Car Stuff

So in America, pedestrians have the right of way, even when they don't. There are clearly marked areas for pedestrians and cars. If the crosswalk says a person can pass, cars have to wait for that person to finish crossing. People in cars will wave for you to cross the street before them. Oregon has particularly polite drivers, but in general in America cars stay where cars go and do their best to avoid pedestrians and cyclists. In Japan, that is not the case.

When you cross the street in Japan, make sure to look around because most likely cars aren't going to stop to let you pass unless they are literally going to hit you if they don't. Even then they will get close to you. There are no sidewalks in some places so bikes and pedestrians are on the side of the road and cars go past you. Mind you roads in Japan are narrow. However, the gutter things usually provide a sidewalk like thing for you to walk on so you won't get hit by a car. Also, if there even is a sidewalk, it's extremely common for cars to be parked on it. There isn't really that much street parking so sometimes cars either park partially in the street or up on the sidewalk. I have to walk around a lot of cars trying to walk down the sidewalk in the village I am staying in.

Another time I was walking back from the convenience store and saw a car drive out through the crosswalk. That was pretty confusing but it's a space with no curb I guess. Cars are very small here. Like I'm as tall as most of the trucks (which are the tiniest) and a Prius feels like a big car. Most cars only have two seats across in the back. We have had to fit five people in those cars before (until we found out it was illegal and you can get deported), which was a very tight squeeze.

The roads here are quite narrow and this weekend we were going up a mountain road where it was one lane with no turn outs. Lots of plants so you couldn't see much but there were mirrors set up. We were in a Prius which isn't a particularly big car but still probably the biggest car you could fit on that road. At one point the driver was trying to text while driving down the roads until the lady in the passenger seat told him she didn't want to die so he stopped. Should have gotten a picture.

I also spend a lot of time wondering "how the hell did you park there?!?" because in Japan people fit their cars into the craziest places. Like between a big plant and a garbage container, under a tiny awning where there are literally bumpers up against the wall so they can pull up as close as possible, backing into tiny spaces and missing other cars by inches, on the sidewalk, and the one that is the craziest, in my opinion, is this one:

So near my guesthouse there is this little parking lot area with three or four spots and two normal sized cars park there (and one time a small truck but that's a story for another day). They back in, like most Japanese do, but here's the catch: the parking lot is on a hill so it's a drop off and these people back up their cars until the tires are INCHES from the edge. Like the back of their car hangs over the edge. Trying to park there would give me a heart attack.

Also, people don't wear seat belts that much.

I Can Finally Understand Some Japanese

So when I first got here I had no idea what was being said to me aside from hello, goodbye, thank you, and maybe a couple other words. It's not like I didn't know more, I just never spoke or heard it. However, even if I could speak and understand all I knew, that wouldn't have gotten me very far. It was very frustrating and confusing for the first couple weeks.

A couple weeks into the program they started bringing over high school students in the afternoon to talk to us in Japanese. The first day I was the only one there, and I don't speak much Japanese. The two girls tried to talk to me but I couldn't really understand them. They tried to figure out something to do with me and ended up playing word games, but at one point they were talking to each other and one said "I like food" and I gave her a thumbs up. They both looked at me completely shocked I understood and were happy. One of the words I knew for the word game was the word for jet lag so one of the girls asked me if I had jet lag and I said yes, which also entertained them.

A couple weeks later and a lot of staring at people quite confused until they gave up or one of my friends who speaks better Japanese helped me, some of the kids in my program went to a barbecue at one of the staff member's houses. Right when I get there a guy walks up to me and asks in casual Japanese "do you understand Japanese?" I wasn't really sure how to respond so he asked my friend and my friend said no (gee thanks dude). He then swore and went on to talk to other people. Mind you I understood all of what he said 😆. Later on he handed me something and I thanked him in Japanese and he looked at me like "wait, she does understand Japanese!" In general I didn't know what he was saying but I knew what he was saying sometimes.

Last weekend I was wandering around outside in the rain and got completely soaked because I didn't want to use my umbrella. Just walking my usual path near the guesthouse and I noticed there were some (very small) fire trucks going past. From what I can tell there were two, but anyway they passed me about five times. The last time I got passed the guy pulled over and asked me if I was okay (in Japanese. The word is ”だいじょぶ” (not super sure about spelling) and it means most short expressions using the word "okay"). I said I was okay and went home. It was one of the first times someone had spoken to me in Japanese and I didn't get confused or had to think about it.

So this morning I was walking because what else are you going to do and it's beautiful here and while I was walking past one of the houses a guy came out of one and drove his tiny truck up a little ways then stopped. When he got out of his tiny truck, he said something I assume to be along the lines of "hey, there's a foreigner over there" because suddenly a whole family was looking at me. I waved at them and said good morning which entertained them. The daughter (adult) asked me if I lived in Higashiyama and how many people lived there (all in Japanese). Not a super complicated conversation but I was happy to be able to talk to people and not be completely confused.

Small Thing Number Twenty Three: Learn Katakana

In my Japanese class, many kids forgot katakana as soon as we passed the katakana test. All they knew how to write is their own names. The reasoning behind this is that katakana is for non Japanese words so we won't exactly be using it that much. It is true that you don't see katakana too much in the textbook, but a textbook and real life are very different.

Look at all the katakana on this sign! すごい！

And this menu! So much katakana when it comes to food.

When I got to Japan, I found that there is katakana absolutely everywhere. Especially in food establishments. Grocery stores and restaurants use a lot of katakana which means if you can read it you can figure out what it says even with a limited Japanese vocabulary. Luckily for me, I actually remembered some katakana and have gotten quite good at reading it since being in Japan because there is so much of it the second I walk out my front door I can practice (quite literally. There is a sign across the street that says ヤマハ). Most of my practice comes from reading the back of ingredient labels on food or on restaurant menus when I feel adventurous. My Japanese tutor brought in some clothing and food ads yesterday to test my katakana skills and I was able to read them all.

For just taking lessons, you don't necessarily need katakana, but it is beyond useful if you actually want to come here. So if you don't know katakana, get out your textbook, a whiteboard, and start writing lots of katakana. Then find some pictures of Japanese food menus (like for a fast food restaurant or something with a lot of English words) and test your skills!

Culture Shock! Door Handles And The Like

It's time for a new series! This time it's culture shock. I did a lot of research before I came here, so I was prepared for a lot of stuff but some things just came out of left field and took some getting used to.

Most doorways here are pretty short, and many of the boys in my program are about as tall as or taller than doorways. That is expected and people will tell you about that. However, the doors that aren't sliding doors (and many are) have lever type knobs verses the American round knob. This isn't the shocking part, though. I shall explain the shocking part through a little anecdote.

So I have just arrived at the place I will be staying and decide to visit the toilet room (I did my research and was aware of the separate room, sink toilet combos, and bathroom slippers). However, I hadn't found anywhere that the flush mechanism points down, not sideways. Perplexed, I decide to try pulling it towards me. It works. I go to leave the toilet room and after unlocking it push down on the lever handle to open the door. The door doesn't open. I try again. It doesn't open. I make sure the door is unlocked, and it is. Not wanting to embarrass myself by getting locked in the toilet room my very first day in Japan, I think a little bit and decide to try lifting the handle like I did with the toilet. It works.

So essentially all handles lift up here. Door handles, toilet flush things, locks, any lever type thing. In America it is the exact opposite. You push down on door handles, push the flush mechanism down, and twist locks down to lock them. After a couple days I was completely adjusted but it was definitely something I did not expect to be different. To my American brain it is more intuitive to push something down than to pull it up, but it must be the opposite. Doors also open the opposite way than expected most of the time. For example, in my house the front door opens into the entryway, the bathroom door opens into the bathroom, and my bedroom door opens into my bedroom. In Japan, the front doors open onto the porch, the toilet room doors open into the hallway, and my bedroom door also opens into the hallway. 

Also, light switches are sideways and often on the outside of the room they like. Means you can mess with your roommates by turning off the lights when they are in a room. It's great.

Things That Feel Weird To Me

 Japan is different than America in a lot of ways, and I understand that, but my American brain is hardwired for America and some things feel off even though they actually aren't. The past couple days I have been trying to adjust myself but it still feels weird. Anyway, those things are walking at night and face masks.

Ojiya is a small town that is a little old in sections and has a lot of random alleyways. In America, this would mean major sketchyville and you shouldn't be out there, especially at night. However, Ojiya is totally safe and while you do see some gangster looking guys they are about as dangerous as your average American high school boy. In America, you don't go walking alone at night, especially if you are a girl. Even in my own safe area in the country we have had people drive past suspiciously slow and had someone drive by shooting at street signs. Here you see girls walking by themselves down dark streets and it's completely safe. I understand this and night is a great time to go walking because the temperature is actually reasonable but I still find myself getting uneasy in dark areas with lots of unlit streets and alleyways.

The other thing that makes me uncomfortable is face masks. I caught a cold from one of my housemates and standard protocol in Japan is to wear a face mask over your nose and mouth as to decrease the potential of infecting others (my housemate should have done this...). So I see others wearing face masks all the time and it doesn't bother me at all but when I wear one myself I feel really uncomfortable. In America I tried to wear them a few times to help prevent others from getting sick but people will stare at and avoid you so I would always end up taking them off as soon as I was around people. Kinda ironic that people avoid you more when you are trying to keep them from getting sick. So I needed to go to the grocery store today and when I got to the doors I put on my face mask as to not breath on the groceries. It made me feel very uncomfortable even though I know it's expected in Japan. Felt a lot better when I saw a lady shopping for vegetables also wearing one. Some employees were wearing them too. They actually look kinda cute in my opinion. Still make me uncomfortable to wear and I think people might have stared at me a little more today. Maybe not, though. I recently discovered that those in cars will stare at you the most because it's not as obvious that they are staring at you.

Anyway, those are two things that are perfectly normal in Japan that make me uncomfortable because they aren't normal in America. Probably going to go walking tonight with my face mask on, though 😁.

People Taking Pictures

So I'm in a fairly small town in Japan. You could walk across the town in less than an hour and everyone knows the head of my study abroad program (like seriously I've run into people everywhere from the grocery store to the street in front of the main house to some random rural road that ask me if I know him). There is something like 11 foreigners in this whole town, nine of them students from my program. It isn't uncommon to get stared at or get pictures taken of us.

It happens a lot with our students from the English lessons. After lessons they will take pictures with either everyone or their favorite instructor. Three of the boys have fanclubs so lots of girls like to take pictures with them. When we ran into some of the kids outside of class they wanted to take pictures then too. At the Nagaoka Edamame Festival some random lady wanted a picture with some of the kids from the foreign teams. When we went to go visit a high school a class of kids who wasn't going to work with us came in just so they could take pictures with us. We ran into some of them at the festival too and took pictures with them then as well.

Then there is cameramen. During our visits to the city office and to an elementary school we had a cameraman following us around. We have been in the newspaper once or twice already. At the edamame eating contest the cameramen were all over us. Last night at the festival a cameraman saw me and Lion boy standing there watching the dancing then had us pose for a picture.

It's definitely odd to have this much attention. I'm just a normal American college student. The only day a newspaper person ever came to a place I was I had a fever and couldn't attend. I met the mayor of the city of Ojiya and I've never even met the mayor of my own tiny town. It's rare to even take pictures with my friends.

My guess is that foreigners are just so rare that people want to take pictures with us and show that we are enjoying "real Japan." Most foreigners are in very touristy areas but we're here walking around small town festivals. The younger generations in Japan are very picture and selfie oriented so taking pictures with fun crazy foreigners that cheer loudly, yell good morning at all times of the day, and do whatever weird stuff we do is fun for them. Older generations are happy we are enjoying Japanese culture and not just wandering around the crowded streets and bright lights of Tokyo.

It Rained. A Lot.

I know it's the middle of July but here in Japan it is monsoon season so in the middle of hot humid weeks you get a day where it absolutely pours. This has happened many times since I got here but today was probably the most extreme example. It actually started raining last night while we were at a festival. Nobody had brought an umbrella because it was such a nice night so we had to duck into a grocery store and buy some. I'm a bad Oregonian getting an umbrella but I didn't have an umbrella and this is worse than anything we get in Oregon. Anyway, after running home and having my shoes fill with water from all the rain, we went home to sleep to the sound of rain...and woke up to thunder and lightening.

So my housemates were going to an elementary school today but I was free (it's a long story) so I was thinking of walking part of the way down the mountain to Ojiya after I took a shower. Before Lion boy left and took the internet with him, I sent a text to the guy who drives us if he could pick me up if he got the chance and that I may walk part way like I did the day before. He arrived right after I took a shower which is a good thing because when I finally got back to the main guest house I got a text that he had sent a while ago saying it was too dangerous to walk because the rain made landslides likely. The other thing in that text is that there was a "don't go outside" warning. Apparently every five years they get massive storms and this is one of them. I knew it was a storm but I live in Oregon we get rain and storms how bad can some rain be?

It wasn't raining too hard when we got to town so I grabbed my umbrella and headed to the grocery store less than a ten minute's walk away. While there, I run into the head of the program's daughter and talk to her for a bit and run into another lady that I believe is an English teacher and also lives across the street from the main house. She spoke to me in a combination of English and Japanese so that was kinda cool. Anyway, eventually I got my stuff and started walking home. When I was getting close to the convenience store where I switch main streets it starts pouring. Like more rain at once than I have ever seen in America. There is a lot of water on the roads and it is flowing into the really deep ditch gutter things they have along the sides of all the roads here. Despite my umbrella and the ditches, my shoes still start to fill with water.

When I pass the convenience store, I notice a small ditch has overflowed. As I stop to take a picture, I notice water shooting out of the grates down the street. I take some pictures of that and continue walking.

The road starts to fill with water and I'm fascinated by it. A guy is standing in his garage so I comment on the rain and continue walking down the street. However, by the time I get to the side street the main house is on, the main street and the side street are partially underwater. I stood there for a while seeing if it would go down then try to go down the street where it isn't flooded but water is shooting out of the grates there too and the road is flooding fast. My shoes are already filled with water so I just pick a place where the water isn't too deep and wade across the road and hop onto a raised curb. The water is close to 12in/30cm deep. I have to wade back to the house and then send a message to everyone telling them the roads are flooded and Corgimama comes running downstairs because she realized I was outside when there was a "don't be outside" warning. I took off my completely soaked shoes and socks and got scolded by Corgimama before going inside for a bit then wandering out onto the porch to take more pictures.

Both streets were completely underwater for a while, a voluntary evacuation was issued in some places, and water flooded the lower floors of some houses. The roads are completely dry now but that was a really interesting experience.

Festivals

WHOO I'M IN A PLACE WHERE MY COMPUTER CAN CONNECT TO THE INTERNET!!! 
I moved and the internet sucks so bad there I have difficulty checking my email on my phone (computer won't even connect) so I dragged my computer with me to the main house today and it's glorious. Never take internet or full sized keyboards for granted. 

So yesterday I went to two festivals. One in the nearby Nagaoka and one in the town of Ojiya. They were quite different but both had the Japanese festival vibe. The festival in Nagaoka was an edamame festival and the one in Ojiya was a shrine festival so they had their own themes.

The Nagaoka Edamame festival took place in a large event center looking place in Nagaoka station. Not something you see in train stations in America but it works. There were booths selling food in a couple rows and then a big area to sit and eat. There were various activities for kids too such as taking pictures with someone in an edamame costume, sitting in tractors, or drawing. I couldn’t have most of the food and even with the stuff I could have I don’t have the language skills to actually get anything. The head of the program brought some edamame for us as well as brought me some potato fries so I was good. The other purpose of the seating area was so you could watch the edamame eating competition going on. Basically either individuals or teams of three competed to see who could eat a set amount of edamame the fastest. There were awards for costumes of teams as well so there were some really cool costumes. One guy with his two daughters made a three person edamame hat and there were a few other edamame hats, traditional outfits, two grown men in school girl outfits, a group of young girl youtubers or streamers or something, some other youtube group of guys, what looked like a jpop group, and some guys in snowboarding gear. Either the festival staff or some restaurant wanted two international teams to compete so they got six of us to compete. Most kids didn’t want to do it because it’s kinda weird in concept and even weirder in reality. By the way, I was in the wanting to do it camp. Honestly, how many people can say they competed in an edamame eating contest?

Here’s how it worked: there were 48 teams of three people and everyone competed up on the stage in groups of 8 teams. Before the competition started we made signs for our teams and my team had a professional artist in it so ours was really cute. I was team JJJ because everyone in my group had a name that starts with the letter J. You have to line up in your teams in order 15 minutes before you are supposed to compete and then they get everyone backstage and give you an option for a bottle of tea or beer. Then you line up and walk on stage when they announce your group. The rules are you must eat all the beans in the pod, you can raise one hand if you feel sick, and everyone raises both hands when all the beans are eaten. I know this already sounds weird but what is even weirder is there are hosts, judges, referees, and cameramen. A lot of cameramen. Way to make eating 700grams of edamame between three people on a stage in front of hundreds of people even more awkward. My team was dead last, but our cheering squad was awesome with their yelling and signs and everything (we achieved crazy foreigner status a while ago) and everyone seemed to love that. Apparently the commentators were saying that but I couldn’t understand anything beyond “gaijin,” “JJJ,” and our names. After that awkwardness we went on to go join the cheering squad and cheer for our next team and a couple other teams we thought were cool. All teams got called back up on stage to see if they had to compete again but we didn’t get called so we went to go get our stuff and go home. Some lady wanted a picture with us foreigners so that happened.

The festival in Ojiya was just a small shrine festival along the main street in town. There were dance and drum performances, activity booths, shrine puppet shows, lots of food, people dressed up in traditional clothes, and of course the shrine itself. Me and one of my housemates were shown around by two Japanese people that are friends with the head of the program we are in. We ran into some students from the schools we visited or the English classes and apparently some of Lion boy’s fanclub was there so they took pictures with him (some of our people have groups of kids who follow them around and take pictures with them and it’s adorable). I visited a shrine for the first time in my life and was instructed on how to properly do that by some of the program staff that were showing us around. It was a really cool experience and I hope to go to other festivals while I’m in Japan. One of the people showing us around actually mentioned that there is a big one at the beginning of August so we can go to that one. There will be a huge fireworks show there apparently.

We went to the second day of the festival in Ojiya as well. There were a lot of dance performances so those were cool to watch. Most was traditional dancing with these clapper things and one person with a giant flag in the back. It was amazing to watch and the age range of dancers was huge. There were also some incredible hip hop performances that were fun to watch. Food and activities were really cool too, not that I could have the food but the rest of the foreigner squad had some and say it’s amazing. We ran into many people from English lessons, school visits, and other adventures around Ojiya. I walked there with my housemate Lion boy and some cameraman took a picture of us and then asked us to pose together for a picture. Not entirely sure if it was a newspaper guy or what but us foreigners get our pictures taken by random cameramen and our students in English class or the schools we visit all the time. Definitely an interesting experience. Anyway, the festivals were super fun and we will definitely be going to more.

Small Interactions

So this week I have been visiting schools which means I introduce myself to the students and attend their classes and activities. In general once you give your name and sit near kids, they will start to come up to you. If you can speak Japanese, it’s not uncommon to get swarmed by kids who want to talk to you. However, I barely speak any Japanese so during these visits I spend a lot of time asking the person next to me what is going on.

I often have a difficult time understanding Japanese when it is spoken to me. My knowledge of what is being asked usually only clicks when a sentence form I know is used and I don’t know that much. In general I’m very confused when people try to talk to me and they usually resort to pointing at stuff or saying something in English. When I was taking Japanese lessons in school we didn’t speak a lot and most of my practice was written or typed. Only since getting here have I been focusing on listening to and speaking Japanese. Today I actually got to see my progress.

We were at an elementary school in the morning and I brought my poi so I could show the kids some tricks. One of the teachers at the school started talking to me and even though I understood maybe 25% of what he was saying he got some of the little kids to come over. Some of them came up and asked “それは何ですか？” which means “what is that?” and I could actually understand them and tell them, in simple sentence form, that this is poi. I would let them play with them and try to show tricks a little bit.

Once we got home from the school, we had some time to hang out before moving on to other activities. I went grocery shopping and on my way back ran into some girls from the middle school I had visited the previous day so I said hi to them and continued back to the house. I decided to sit outside and watch the kids walk home from school and after some of the usual saying hi and waving at kids a group of kids from the class I visited came walking down the road. I waved hi to them and then one of the “we’re bros” kids started saying “couple! Couple!” to me (I visited their class with a boy so now they are convinced we are a couple) which I responded to with a very scandalized no.  He then asked his friends what the name of the kid was and someone had remembered so they said his name a couple times and continued to tease me until they had passed. Sure, I was teased by a group of middle school kids but I actually understood them. Well, it was English part of the time but I’m happy to now have an ongoing joke with some kids.

Visiting a Middle School

So yesterday was my first official school visit and we visited the local middle school. It's near the main guest house where I would practice my poi outside when kids were walking to or from school and the majority of the people walking past were middle schoolers and the majority of the people who said hi to me were middle schoolers. They seem like a fun crowd.

So we were each given name tags with our names, country of origin, and a little bit about us on them. This is the little intro on my card says "I keep many animals such as cattle, goats,sheep, etc in my garden. I am studying biology at university." When you think about it it's a little odd to walk around with such information on a note card hanging around your neck but I don't know a lot of Japanese so it's useful I guess. Anyway, when we walked up to the school there were some kids sticking their heads out the window and waving at us so I waved back since that's fun. Once we got into the building a boy stuck his head out his classroom door and waved at us again so I waved back at him. In general a lot of kids looked at us and waved. We were given a tour around the school a bit then divided into groups and picked classrooms. I was paired with Lion boy, an 18 year old from the UK who speaks pretty good Japanese. We were in class 2A and the lessons we were there for were English and Japanese.

The first class was English and they had a quiz on proper use of must and must not so me and Lion boy just sat in the back and waited for them to finish. After that they played some weird board game where they would have to make sentences and it was confusing to Lion boy and I and English is our first language. Anyway, we each got assigned a group and Lion boy would do his sentences in Japanese but I just did mine in English and helped the kids with words and said random stuff in Japanese. In all honesty the teacher spoke more Japanese to me than she did to the kids and I get the feeling her Japanese is worse than mine.

Anyway, the break was the fun part. Random kids from other classes came to say hi to us and the kids ran around and were otherwise entertaining. Four boys came up to us and the one with the best English said "we're bros" in his cute Japanese accent. I've actually seen this guy before and he was the only kid to say something to me besides good morning or hello to me when I was practicing poi. My Japanese is limited so I couldn't really talk to them but Lion boy could. At some point one of the boys pointed at us and asked "couple?" and once we realized what he was asking both of us told him no ("iie! iie! iie!"). However, two other boys also asked, one even going so far as to ask us individually. I wanted to say I've only known Lion boy for four days but I don't have the language skills for that, so then I tried to say we are from different countries, and after failing at that I just held up my note card for them to read and Lion boy did the same.

Japanese lesson was poetry so they did some poetry reading and then had to write a tanka, which is five syllables, then seven, then five, then two lines of seven. I don't have the language skills to write something on a topic like summer, but Lion boy wrote a simple poem that was pretty good in my opinion. The teacher actually read it to the class and everyone clapped and cheered. It was really cool but made me sad that I couldn't interact with the kids very well. Now I'm even more motivated to learn how to speak Japanese.

So that was my first experience visiting a school! We will visit more schools throughout the week so I'll have more experiences to write about soon.

Where To Find Pictures!

I'm taking a fair amount of pictures on my trip and those are being uploaded to the Azuki Ice Cream Facebook page. So far most of the pictures are of the nearby river but I hope to do some walking today so more pictures to come 😄.

Teaser picture 😜

Teaching English

So part of the program I am in is helping teach English lessons. I've helped a couple times now so I thought I could share some of my experiences.

Group English lessons are held in the classroom on the bottom floor of the guest house I'm staying at. They are led by the girl who has been here the longest and the rest of us help. Because I'm new the lessons usually start with me introducing myself or the students asking me questions. I'm not entirely sure how much the kids understand but there was a lesson with two girls where I think they understood what I was saying pretty well. They seemed to enjoy asking the question "do you have a boyfriend?" 😆

The main part of our lesson is playing English games, which means games that involve speaking or listening to English. For example, we have played pictionary, hangman, and werewolves/mafia. Rules were explained in Japanese since the kids understood that better and us English speaking kids already know the rules. The kids seem to have a lot of fun and chat with each other in Japanese a lot which means I couldn't exactly understand them. I could understand the girl leading the game, though. Well, not entirely but enough to know what was happening. One of the hilarious things is that the girl leading the lessons would say rude things or swear a lot and the kids had no idea so all us English speakers were laughing and the kids had no idea why. Actually, one of the girls in the group of two understood. Can't get away with as much with those two.

Yesterday I was taken to a company to speak to an engineer who is being sent abroad next year. I think he's being sent to New Zealand, but I'm not entirely sure. Basically I just had to talk to him using simple English. I speak way less Japanese than pretty much anyone else in the program so I was probably picked because my lack of Japanese would force him to speak English. He started out saying he couldn't speak English but his pronunciation and vocabulary was actually quite good. We didn't talk about the meaning of life or anything but it was a fun conversation in my opinion. Talked about the weather and driving mostly and I explained the meanings of the words couple and few. Hopefully my speaking to him was helpful.

Gifts For People

So I know being a foreigner I'm not expected to know much about the whole omiyage thing, but I wanted to participate a little anyway. Essentially what I did is get a bunch of small things that represent where I'm from. There happens to literally be a store for that so I was in luck.

Made in Oregon! Also, yes, I'm from Oregon. I didn't get everything there but all were things you could get at the store. I opted against getting food items because it's hot in Japan in the summer and I didn't want anything to melt. Here's what I got:

An Oregon towel, Portland mug, snow globe, Portland magnet, Sasquatch magnet, sheep magnet, six key chains, and five or six bracelet things. Some of these are for my teachers here and the rest are for friends I have and hope to make.

Going to Grocery Stores

Since getting to Japan, I've been to grocery stores a couple times. Grocery stores aren't too different than they are in America aside from the fact that the products are a bit different and everything is written in Japanese. I'm sure you could figure it out even if you knew no Japanese at all.

While a grocery store is still a grocery store, not being able to read stuff can prove to be challenging. I'm pretty useless with kanji, I don't know that many words in hiragana, but my saving grace is that I actually bothered to remember some katakana. Katakana is the alphabet used to spell out borrowed words, which means quite a few food items will be spelled out using katakana. For example, when I went to the convenience store yesterday I was able to find orange juice because I could read the katakana (オレンジジュース）. Another example of this is there are a zillion kinds of milk and you can't always tell what it is based on the packaging so you have to attempt to read the labels to figure out what it is. I hope to get some almond milk soon so I'll have to stare at the labels until I see the word almond.

I think I really confuse all the locals with my staring at the labels of things for a really long time, especially if they see me try to speak. Basically I can't speak much of the language but I still pick up things and stare at the back and appear to be reading it. My reading comprehension is much better than my speaking ability, but I still can't read much. By the way, I don't even know where the ingredient label is on Japanese packaging. Then what the heck am I doing, you ask? Basically I'm just scanning the label for the kanji for wheat. Sometimes when you see it it means it contains wheat and other times it means it doesn't. From what I can tell, if it's in a block of other words it means it contains it but if it's in bold down below next to the kanji for egg than it probably means it doesn't contain wheat.

The thing that is probably the most different besides language is the check out process. From what I can tell, it looks like you put your money in a tray or on the counter instead of handing it to the cashier like you would in America. I'm still not entirely sure, but that was my experience today when buying ice cream. 

I Went To A Convienence Store

I know that sounds super lame, but I'm in a foreign country where I know very little of the language. Yesterday the other kids in my house took me grocery shopping because they know their way around and speak way more Japanese than me. Anyway, everyone is at a school today but I'm still in the adjusting phase so I was left at home. It's nice to be able to have the house to myself, but I also don't know how to do much. The extent of my ability to actually do stuff in this house is turning on sinks, taking a shower, and washing clothes (these things are different than they are in America so don't judge me for my lack of skill). There is a fairly nice kitchen, but I have no idea how to turn on the stove or even make rice. Even if there are instructions somewhere in the kitchen, I can't really read them because I can't read much Japanese.

Basically I was stuck in the house unable to make food and rather hungry. I know where the closest convenience store is and I can read enough Japanese to be able to find something to eat and buying stuff doesn't require much language skill so I grabbed an umbrella and made the journey.

First of all, convenience stores in Japan are really cool. They have basically everything a grocery store would have, just with less variety. I looked around and found some frozen fruit and orange juice (I wanted to make a smoothie) and then found a chocolate bar and stared at the back until I had convinced myself there was nothing in it I'm allergic to. I looked around a little more and pretended to look at stuff while watching a couple other people buy stuff to see how things work. After convincing myself it can't possibly be that difficult I walked up and bought my stuff mostly without any problems besides not knowing how to say no thank you when the lady offered me a straw.

All in all, I'm pretty proud of myself for managing to buy myself food. I'm pretty useless on my own so far but I'm learning and hopefully will have tips for everyone else who is as clueless as me!

Five Hours Confused In Tokyo

Given that I'm posting again, you may have guessed I made it to Japan. Indeed I did, that part wasn't the problem, it was the getting to where I'm staying. You get on a flight and someone else does all the work of getting you there but once you land you have to figure it out for yourself. Thankfully there is plenty of English signage and many airport officials speak good English. Anyway, here is the story of me getting to and getting confused in Japan.

So my flight took off at 1:20am. It's actually a pretty good time because you can just get on the plane and pass out, which is what I ended up doing. I fully woke up at 6 or 7am my time, which is the middle of the night in Japan. The rest of the flight wasn't painfully boring as most 4+ hour flights are. The cute Japanese lady in the seat next to me just curled up in her seat and slept most of the flight. Made me wish I was that small again.

Once we landed everyone was shuttled off the plane and with our forms we got handed and filled out on the plane waited in line with our passports. There was a family in line there where a young boy was carrying his little sister's bag and trying to convince her to take it back. It was pretty cute. A young Japanese guy directed us to various desks and when I got directed to one the guy there took my passport and forms and took my finger prints and a picture (or something like that happened). He took one of the two forms and sent me on my way.

Then I waited around for my checked bag to come through and went to customs. I handed them my passport and the remaining form. They looked at it, took the form, and sent me on my way.

Now I was in the lobby area. Mind you my flight landed at 4:30am so nothing was open. Just a bunch of tired and some not so tired people. I exchanged some money and looked around. I had to call the head of the program telling them I had arrived, but my phone didn't work and I had no coins for the payphones. Since I had to wait for some of the shops to open, I visited the bathrooms there, which are super nice by the way. I was all gross from the flight so I changed clothes and washed my face. After that I paced nervously and eventually just waited in front of a convenience store until it opened at 6am. Got some water and decided to tackle the payphones. Never used one before, but the concept is fairly simple. Pick up phone, insert coin, dial number. However, I'm in Japan and don't really know exactly how I'm supposed to dial. I just dialed the number I saw and I think it went through but I'm basing all this on the beeps I heard because I couldn't understand the computer voice because it was in Japanese. After a few tries I just sat down in a waiting area to eat some food and try to get my phone to connect to the wifi so I could at least text the head of the program. All the sudden my phone decided to work and messages came in. Apparently my dad had set it up so I could use my phone internationally for the day. I texted my parents for a while and then went to the help desk with my printed out instructions that included messages in Japanese in case I needed to ask for help. The lady was beautiful and so was her English and she helped me try to call which didn't work again, but she confirmed that it simply wasn't being picked up. I texted the head of the program that I had gotten to the airport and went to get on the monorail.

Getting a ticket was fairly easy since the kiosks could be set to English. The train app on my phone was working so I used that to figure out what trains I needed to take. The signs were fairly understandable and I also just followed a European family who I assumed was also going to Tokyo Station. There are these little walkways you go through where you put your ticket through and it gets read and pops up on the other side. That was all fine and good and I got on the monorail and sat there watching station names. Something about the monorail is that the track is at an angle sometimes. It's a little unnerving but the view is nice. Once I got to the station, I followed the family again and got confused when I got to the ticket taking thing again. I went back up to the platform and wandered around for a while until I remembered you have to put your ticket through again and then had to figure out how to get back down. Eventually I just picked up my suitcase and walked down the stairs when people had cleared out a bit. Ran my ticket through and that was all fine and good.

Now that I was in Hamamatsucho station, I had to get a regular train ticket to get to Tokyo Station. The map was easy enough to understand and I got my ticket and got on the right train. Once I got to Tokyo station, I expertly (not really) went through with my ticket and was now running around the station. I knew I had to get a bullet train ticket, but was kinda unsure of how to do so. I walked around the station a lot following signs that looked like they could be what I was looking for. Eventually I got to a ticket station where I showed the guy the printed out message for getting a ticket. He gave me the ticket and sent me on my way. Here's the thing: the ticket was in mostly Japanese. That means I had no idea where I had to go or what time this train was. Considering it was probably soon I knew I had to ask someone where I needed to go. There was a lost and found office with a guy sitting in there so I went in and said "sumimasen, doko deska?" while pointing at my ticket. That means something along the lines of "excuse me, where is this?" in super unelegant Japanese. He looked at it and pulled out a map of the station and told me where to go while drawing a map. His English was about the level of my Japanese, so the numbers of the lines and left, which was still quite useful. I thanked him and went on my way. Where he sent me had four lines, so I had to figure out which one. One of the two staircases flashed "Niigata," which is where I'm going, so I headed up that staircase. I looked at the lighted signs and one said Niigata so I looked at that one until it changed to some English. There were two trains headed to Niigata, one at 9:12am and one at 9:28am. They had the kanji for where they stopped below them so I checked it against the kanji on my ticket and discovered the train I needed to take was the 9:28am one.

Also, just so you know, this whole time I was trying to get directions using a train app and contact the head of my program, but neither worked for very long. I managed to get the one message to the head of the program but LINE kept crashing after that so I couldn't even see what he sent me aside from what I saw in the notification. Managed to get a message to my parents asking them to call and tell him which train I was on before that cut out too.

Getting on the train was the end of my 5 hours of being confused in Tokyo, but I'll include the rest of my trip too.

The train ride itself was really nice. Took about two hours. I had an unreserved seat so I just sat down and put my suitcase in front of me. A lady sat on the aisle seat (I had window seat), but she wasn't on the train for very long. Thoroughly exhausted from all the confusion, I fell asleep momentarily a few times and almost dropped my ticket but since my stop wasn't the last one I knew I shouldn't fall asleep. Thankfully past Juno was smart and brought chocolate so I was able to stay awake. The train ride had some really nice views so I watched out the window and tried to make sense of the announcements and the flashing screen. When we got to my stop, I got my suitcase down the short stairs (it's kinda difficult) and once I was on the platform a guy who was on the train with me pointed to the elevator so I wouldn't have to carry my suitcase down the stairs again. Once I got down to the rest of the station the head of my program was there (my parents had managed to call him) and while the gate didn't like my ticket a really cute guy came out and checked it and let me through. Then I was driven to the house and all was fine and good.

How To Get Through Security Fast

So I’ve flown a lot in the past couple years and in that time I have gotten pretty good at going through security fast. Many of those times I had TSAPre so that helped things a lot but even now I’ve been doing pretty well. Here is how I have gotten through security so fast on this trip.

Tip #1 Research how things should be brought on a plane

For example, anything containing lithium batteries should be in your carry on. If you can, remove the batteries and tape the poles. Blenders should go in your checked baggage, same with tamari sauce. Look up basically anything you are at all curious about. I looked up all sorts of stuff such as kale, blenders, batteries, screwdrivers, EpiPens, and more.

Tip #2 Understand how things are scanned

Belts, shoes, jackets, laptops, and tablets must be scanned separately. Liquids must also be scanned separately but for this trip all mine were in my checked bag. Usually I carry my boarding pass and ID in my hand, but when I was going through security at LAX to get on the flight to Japan the guy there told me to put my passport in my bag. While in line I put my phone and anything else in my pockets in my bag as well as took off my jacket and put it in my bag. Took off my shoes as soon as I got near the loading area, grabbed a bin and threw my laptop and shoes in there, then put my two bags on the belt and moved them along.

Tip #3 Grab and go

As soon as my bags were out of the scanner I pulled them off and put them on the ground. You can also just take the whole bin with your shoes, laptop, and whatever else in it and move away from the machine to put everything back together. The guy in front of me had a lot of baggage so stuff was starting to stack up but since I got my stuff out of there quickly so it wasn’t a problem. Once you have your stuff, move over to the benches and finish putting all your stuff back to where it was.