Sunday, June 27, 2010
my blog works!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
first 2 weeks of nihon!
i been swamped with so much hw and studying that i finally have time to do this, which i dont really cuz this took forever, and i really should always be studying. Anyhoo, this blog is for family, friends, and whoever else is interested in my life pursuits and japanese culture. It would be awesome if you could spend some time checking this out and even leave some comments.
A brief intro, im a international business students, so studying abroad just made sense. Im been interested in japanese for a while, so going to japan made sense. The combination of how traditional culture is embedded in such an advanced society fascinates me. And yes, many of us love the popular culture thats been filtered into the states. My sensei recommended this program to me mostly due to how hardcore the workload is, and I must agree. Im surprised i got in. Anyhoo.........
The flight from sf to Vancouver, and to narita Japan sucked ASS!!!!!!!!Well, I arrived at 6am on June 8, 2010, and my flight took off around 1pm. First, I missed my flight from sf to Vancouver. The flight clerk wouldn’t let me on because I didn’t respond to the intercom for verification (I was in the toilet taking care of business). As a result, I spent almost an hour begging United Airlines to give me another ticket without paying $5000. Then the next flight to Vancouver they gave me got cancelled as well, because their mechanics had to do a daily inspection, which meant I wouldn’t be able to make my transfer flight. In the end, united hooked me up with a straight flight from sf to narita, NICE!!!!!!!!
The first thing i notice in japan is that none of us can read anything. Too many freakin kanji!!! But there are lots of universal signs, so it’s never too big of an issue.Vending machines are awesome, cuz they’re everywhere! Including this super random spot in front of someone’s house (lots of them have beer and cigarettes...).
The first part of my study abroad program included pickup at the airport, transportation to hotel pacific hotel, and a flight from haneda to hakodate airport. Here's Narita airport.
I met some of the other students and we all got picked up together. We passed by Tokyo Disneyland resort on our way to our hotel, which is a MUST after the program ends…….
Tokyo is so freakin huge that we just hit a small part of it. We were in the Shinokawa area. Apparently, about a 15 minute train ride from Akihabara, which a lot of people went before the night was over. Here's a pic of some of us hitting the nightlife at some random restaurant and some pics of the night scene, and my hotel room ( which is awesome!!!!!!!! cuz they provide shampoo, soap and conditioner from shiseido....and there's a wicked toilet that sprays up your butt and the seat is heated!)
Next day, we meet everyone at haneda airport in order to fly to hakodate airport. Hakodate is the town were we will be studying at. Here's a pic of a good majority of the students and some shinkansens we passed by on our bus to airport (high speed rails!)
Oh yeah, im sure you are all wondering. The students mainly consists of students from yale, harvard, standford, and a whole lot of other kick ass schools. We have a good amount of mds and phds onboard too. Bottom line, everyone is flipping smart! Im at the bottom of the food chain :(
Next, upon arrival to hakodate (visualize the island above the main island of japan, hakodate is at the bottom tip of it), we had to take a placement exam, which consisted of several parts: listening, writing, and an interview. Then we all chilled for the weekend by exploring and doing random stuff, such taking a tram up hakodate mountain and seeing the city (population 300,000, I thought it was a lot more smaller and rural. Honshu the main island is on the right).
Some restaurant mall by our hotel in hakodate
some russian orthodox church and other churches nearby
A tramstop between hif and our temple, u can see hakodate mountain.
Tramride up hakodate mountain at night, with a nice view of course, honshu would be on the right
yum!
next, we had our opening ceremony (25 aniversary for HIF, woohoo!) where we met all the founders and teachers. Then we all had to turn our seats around and greet our host families.
My hostmother is pretty sweet and pretty chilled. She won't let us help around our house (or temple). She only speaks japanese and lives by herself in a buddist temple. We have 5 DOGS AND 4 CATS!!!!!! Dogs are all alaskan huskies !!!!! My japanese sucks ass, but luckily, my taiwanese roommate (another hif student) is really advanced and he is able to translate. She tooked us out for lunch and we went sightseeing with her and her grandson. The temple we live in is pretty small, but pretty cool. I have a tatami mat room:)
yakitori with family, roommate on left, mom's son in middle, everyone else grandkids (our age)
our temple, more pics later
my room
the tip of hokkaido, honshu on left side now
mom took us up the mountain again, this time by car. If you swim towards right, go several hundreds of miles across the water, u will reach honshu, the main island.
random streetshot as we drive around
My roommate, mom, then grandson
And here's our backyard, a baseball field where schools hold their festivals and baseball games.
I live only a 15 min walk away from HIF institution, which is sweet considering that many people have to commute well over an hour to get there. So nice. Some pics of my classroom, office, and lounge. Oh, and japanese spelling is sometimes really funny ;)
my classroom with itou sensei
the hif staff/office, teachers office is in another place.
and the lounge, in all these places, we can only speak japanese.
And thats suppose to be cream, not creap :)
In addition to all the crazy amount of hw and studying we do, HIF plans a lot of stuff (the hif staff and teachers are amazing). Some pics of kyudo (i was one of two out of 30-40 people to almost hit the small and far away targets! ).
michael over here (not me, another one) got hit by an san!
and yes, i almost hit that tiny little target, way closer than the actual archers, but with assistance of sensei of course.
And the weekends, lots of sightseeing and exploring with people. So far, we went to a super crazy sports/entertainment complex, food eat outs, drinking, and general sightseeing. Here are a few pics, I will let u do the figuring out.
Goryokaku park has lots of pretty flowers
Im not a big fan of nato, reminds me of sticky sack of spider eggs......lolz
forgot whats it called off the top of my head, but u walk in without shoes, have your own room, and eat and drink!
somewhere in front of Hakodate JR station (japanese rail, central downtown hakodate). Im not flexible at all.
off the top of my head, one for burnables, pet bottles, glass, cans, nonburnables, and plastics. This is very common, and there are no trashcans around to be found ANYWHERE!
i think the nihon special is the ebi burger (shrimp patty)
and japanese version of fast food: ramen, tsukiyaki, and soba. WAAAAAAAAAy better!
Hakodate's crazy sports/entertainment complex. Bowling, basketball, batting cages, golf, arcades, curling, whatever u can think of, its there!
aw man!! and i here the tokyo ones are way more realistic!
Pachinko slots! I have no idea how they work, so i didnt gamble.
aaaaHHHHHH........my feet are tired. One of the onsens(hot springs) for feet only. They are scattered around the streets of hakodate, they are waaay too hot, but all FREE!!!!
tori, in front of some random shrine.
moo taxi!
goryokaku tower, lots of flowers, and the garden is shaped like a huge pentagon.
lucky periot, a famous hamburger chain around here. Their whale burger is famous! Its alright, but i wouldnt order it again.
random shot of downtown.
not quite the stuff we eat. Something that my hostmum hosts once a while
I hate squatting!
Hakodate park, by our temple
I like flowers! The same spot between our temple and hif, but really up close.
more flower gardens, around goryokaku park.
Stone tablet at goryokaku park.
my bike in front of a conbini (short for convenience store), never need to lock anything!
Me getting ready to compete with the morning grocery crowd. Gotta get them deals!
Now a more random but detailed paragraph.............
The study abroad part of the program is freakin ridiculous. We are not allowed to speak english while at school (i knew this before hand, but it really restricts all of us in terms of communicating, but this is great for the learning environment) I did absolutely horrible in the first week. We were all just expected to do several hours of hw and studying every night, have quizes on everything everyday, and memorize several grammar points, vocab and kanji in one setting. Im not going to lie, I wasnt prepared for this, especially considering I took a semester off. But I did place into first year intermediate japanese, which is the lowest level, lol. Since I want to do well and keep up with my ivy league friends, I asked for a tutor. I swear, the are many grammar points they expected from 1st yr of japanese that I never seen before. Argh..........
The people in japan are ridiculously nice. You don't have to ever worry about getting anything stolen, not in hakodate at least. There are no public drinking laws, and people can smoke in many random places, which bugs me. People drive on the left side of road, have 6 trashcans for recycling different things, and many other cool things I just cant think of at the top of my head. And I'm out of time, back to hw.
Questions, requests, comments, please post! :)