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.