Week 4: Days 20-26

Sunday:
Nothing exciting... just schoolwork...

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Monday:
Today we tried to get our JR Passes exchanged at the Kyoto station... we went to 2 different places that were at the station to try and get our tickets... they checked our visas at both places (legally we aren't supposed to be able to exchange our JR Passes because our visas are for 6 months and only 3 month visas are allowed to exchange). We'll try again tomorrow...

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Tuesday:

From Japan: Day 022

Can you guess what this picture is made from? (see answer below)

After much fuss, transportation costs, and time, we finally got our JR passes exchanged! Yay! Now we can take the Shinkansen. We went back to Kyoto station today to try to get it exchanged again, but when we failed we decided to go all the way to Kansai Airport (where I came in) to the south. $20 and a couple hours later we had no trouble getting our JR passes. At the airport I saw the pictures above and took a couple of photos (have you figured out what it is made from yet?). On the way back I decided to take some pictures from the train (should give you some idea of what I saw/would have seen on my bus ride from the airport on the first day, though from a slightly different path). The last picture in the album is a video from the train. After getting back I decided to hang around with two of the people I was with and went with them to the main Doshisha University campus at Kyotanabe (a much larger campus than the Imadegawa campus I go to). It was a long trek uphill to where we were meeting with the rock climbing club. They have their own rock climbing wall(s), the building is the left one in the 2nd to last photo (the last photo being the video). Only one of the members of the club really spoke any English (I think there are supposed to be around 16 members). While the other two people I was with did some rock climbing, I declined because: 1) I was tired and didn't really want to, 2) my feet are way too big for any shoes they had for climbing, 3) I wasn't really wearing clothes for climbing. Unless I can somehow get climbing shoes that are my size here (yeah... right...), I don't think I'll be doing any rock climbing, plus the Kyotanabe campus is pretty far away (unfortunately that's where pretty much all the clubs meet).

Picture answer: used tickets (pretty neat)

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Wednesday:
Argh... starting to feel sick... everyone is getting sick... Apparently people who went to Kyoto station today to exchange their JR passes had no trouble (grrr... -_-).

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Thursday:
Bah... still sick...

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Friday:

From Japan: Day 025

Toriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Lots of fun today. After class and lunch I went with two other people to the Kita no Tenmangu Shrine Flea Market (one of three flea markets held each month, each are held at 3 different places, one at Chionji Temple on the 15th, one at Toji Temple on the 21st, and this one at Kita no Tenmangu Shrine on the 25th). This was huge. Many, many stalls stretching for many blocks featuring a wide variety of foods, arts, crafts, games, clothing, you name it. We visited the shrine and then walked around the market some more until it started closing at 4. We then took the subway & train to Fushimi Inari-taisha, a shrine famous for its many, MANY Torii (as you can tell from the picture above and the many pictures I took). It was a long climb up , but was fun. We saw lots of Torii, lots of cats, and got several good views of Kyoto, especially while the sun was setting (unfortunately my camera batteries decided to die, so I was stuck taking the last few pictures with the camera from my phone).

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Saturday:

From Japan: Day 026

Haha... yeah... awesome...

This was the Col. Sanders outside the KFC at the train station I go to every day. I think they dressed him up just for Golden Week, usually he looks normal (if you look closely, I think he is wearing a Santa suit under the armor... hehe...). Not much going on today. I took a couple of pictures outside the train station... that's about it...

Monday I'm going to Kyushu for Golden Week with 6 other people. We'll be going to Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Beppu, and Fukuoka. We return next Sunday and might go to Tokyo for a day. Stay tuned for lots of pictures and stories. I also need to get a new Picasa account since this one is full...

Week 3: Days 13-19

Sunday:

From Japan: Day 013

Argh... why didn't I bring my real camera >_<

Yeah, I know I'm late... I'll be doing updates when I can get to it :P. Alright, here's the story. I was originally told by my host mom about a week ago that she wanted to take me to a Taiko Drum/Flute concert with her English speaking friend. Then a couple of days before today she tells me that it's going to be a piano concert. So I thought it was just going to be a boring piano concert and thought there would be no reason to bring my camera... Err... I was wrong... We first go have dinner at a restaurant at the top floor of Daimaru (a largeish shopping store in the main shopping area of central Kyoto) with her younger sister (not her friend, which I thought she said) and the student she is hosting, Marilyn, from Another Kyoto Program, AKP (ok... it's actually Associated Kyoto Program). The program apparently started in August and is now ending. It takes students from various universities, Marilyn is from Smith. Both Marilyn and her host mom (my host mom's younger sister) speak English, which made conversations a little easier. After dinner we then went to the Heianjingu (the same Heian shrine I went to the first week) for the "piano concert". This was actually a special "20th Anniversary Benishidare Concert in Heianjingu". What we did was walk around the sakura filled gardens in the pouring rain at night with the lights lighting up the sakura (it was also extremely crowded). At this point I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera, it was really beautiful (you can kinda tell from the pictures). We then walked around a path that encircled a lake/pond where the piano was being played in a lit up building at one end of the pond (again... you can kinda tell from the pictures). We then stood on the bridge and listened to the music for a while before heading back. Oh, and we discovered that Daimaru has a huge bakery/breads/foods area in the basement... I'll go back one of these days and get more food... I mean pictures...

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Monday:
More kicking-myself-for-not-bringing-my-camera today. Nothing exciting at school today. We were told we would be having a dinner with Mrs. Bing, THE Mrs. Bing, as in the Stanford BOSP (Bing Overseas Studies Program) tonight at the fancy French restaurant on the 7th floor of the "kanbaikan" (one of the Doshisha library buildings), so we had to dress up nice and everything. Since I didn't know if would be rude or not to be taking pictures, I left my camera at home. Well... it seems everyone else brought theirs (I'm carrying mine everywhere from now on). We had a 4 or 5 course meal with wine and everything (this of course made many students happy). So sadly I didn't get any pictures (I'll try to find other people's pictures when they post them).

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Tuesday:
Nothing exciting today... more schoolwork and junk.
Edit: Forgot to add that we went to go get cell phones today. I ended up deciding to get a prepaid one. Thankfully another student let me use his. He didn't need it because he ended up getting a calling plan and had no use for a prepaid one. Yay free phone!

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Wednesday:
Again... no actual classes today but went to school anyway to socialize/work on schoolwork.

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Thursday:

From Japan: Day 017

So pretty...

Yay, another trip, and lots of pictures (almost 150). First stop: The Costume Museum (yay, a museum that lets you take pictures inside), which is apparently on the 5th floor of some random building (how anyone would actually find the place without knowing about it before hand, I have no idea). This was kinda a quick stop (just enough time to walk around the miniature model and take pictures (and two people to try on the costumes). From there we went to the Sumiya (a fancy restaurant/entertainment building from 1641. "It is the finest extant example of Edo Period (1603-1868) ageya architecture." (more on that some other time...) Basically it's one of the few places that has survived Kyoto's many burnings/destructions from that period. After that I had to head back home to change to go to the welcome party welcome party hosted by Doshisha University at the Kyoto Tower hotel (bah... more rain... thankfully my host dad let me borrow one of his large umbrellas so my suit wouldn't get wet). Brought my camera this time :P. This was kinda boring since everything was in Japanese... so none of us understood what was being said... so it was pretty noisy while people were talking. First each of the programs that were attending had their director speak (zzz... want food...), then we finally got to eat (lots of stuff to eat, but they were kinda slow with refilling the food, making it hard to get what you want). After eating for a bit, a student from each of the programs spoke, there were about 5 different programs including Stanford and AKP (this was a farewell party for them). It was pretty noisy while people were doing their speeches, one person tried to get more attention by yelling (didn't really help). We went with the visual approach to liven up the speech. Then the Germans tried to copy us (ok... they escorted her onto the stage, then just stood there like bodyguards, and then carried her off). I say ours was better :P. After the party some of us went to Karaoke... Took us a bit to actually find the place... which wasn't that great... no new songs... everything was from 2005... I tried to sing a Japanese song I thought I might know and failed miserably. It's also annoying when people pick lame songs like the theme from Titanic or N'sync songs >_<. Oh well, we still had fun.

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Friday:
It's Friday! Yay! Ok... nothing actually interesting to talk about...

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Saturday:
Slept till 10... walked around the central kyoto shopping area... felt embarrassed/lazy to be taking any pictures, so didn't...

4/26 NOTE: I'll try to update tomorrow since I leave on Monday for my trip to Kyushu for Golden Week with a bunch of people. Also, be sure to check out the links on the right side for other Japan blogs from people in the program.

Week 2: Days 6-12

Sunday:

From Japan: Day 006

My home away from home...

Ok... I know I said tomorrow... as in... um... Wednesday... right...
Anyway, not much to say about today. My bags arrived in the morning and I spent pretty much most of the day unpacking everything and figuring out where to put stuff. I then spent a good amount of time figuring out where exactly I was located (hadn't really spent any time looking at maps until today). Found a website that translates google maps addresses to English to find places easier. I'm HERE. I also spent a little time taking some pictures of my new home. I live upstairs while my host parents live downstairs. I took a coupe of pictures of the room to the left of the room across from mine which is kinda a storage room (my large suitcases are stored there right now) and also has a display of the gifts they have received from other students they have hosted. My host mom took a couple pictures of me outside. She feeds me a LOT of food... good food... mmm... food... I'll probably mention this again: the food here is amazing, so many different things to eat... especially the breads... cream filled bread, jam filled bread, sweet breads... Ok enough about food. I was able to figure out where I was supposed to go to get to Doshisha tomorrow, but I decided to go to bed early so I could get up early to make sure I got to school on time.

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Monday:

Sorry, no pictures today. I decided I didn't want to waste time carrying around my camera on the first day of classes since I knew I would have plenty of time to take pictures later (made a few mental notes of places to take pictures though...), plus it's supposed to rain. I got up at about 6:15am and was ready by 7:15. My host mom made me breakfast (mmm... bread...) and I left at 8 (my host mom wanted to walk me to the station but I told her I knew how to get there). Didn't really run into any problems getting to school. It takes me about 10-15min to walk to the train, about a 10min train ride (which can be literally crammed with people) from Katsura station to Karasuma station, I then just walk upstairs and down some stairs right next to where I get off and then I take the Subway there for another 10min from Shijo station to Imadegawa station where I just go upstairs, walk down the street less than a block, and I'm at Doshisha. It did take me a little bit to figure out which platform/direction to take, but I still got to Doshisha with plenty of time before my class (I thought it started at 9am, but it actually starts at 10:45am on Mondays). My class on Mondays is just Japanese. It's tougher though. We will have a quiz every day as well as listening homework, a journal (in Japanese), and workbook homework. We had a quick meeting at 12:15 and then had lunch (mmm... did I mention that they have peach juice and ice cream in vending machines next to the dining area?). I then spent some time talking with people and getting a little work done in the small Stanford center library we all "study" in. I then had to leave at 3:00 to go with a couple of people led by a couple Japanese student volunteers to get our alien registration filled out (something we are required to have done). They take us in small groups that are divided up by where we live and the closest registration office for the group. That took about two hours and then we went home (we'll have to return again in a couple of weeks to pick it up). I was back home before 6 so I could eat together with my host parents at 6. I then spent the rest of the night working on homework. Bah... more rain tomorrow...

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Tuesday:

More rain today... nothing exciting to talk about. I had both Japanese (at 9am) and my other class, "Scenes in and Around the Capital" (at 3pm), today. More work to do. The "Scenes" class is kinda boring... just spend time writing down as much as I can of what the professor says. Plus the class is pretty large (almost everyone is taking it). We have to draw a map of Japan for Thursday. Also, my computer decided that it didn't want to turn on if I took it to school, so I decided that I'm just going to leave it at home (don't exactly want to carry it anyway).

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Wednesday:

From Japan: Day 009

Man... these things are everywhere...

This little shrine is just down the street, I pass by it every day. You can find these EVERYWHERE in Kyoto. No rain today so I took some pictures (plus I have no classes on Wednesdays... hehe...). In keeping with my schedule I still got up at 6:15, ate breakfast at 7:15, and left at 8... even though I didn't need to. I took some pictures of the buildings/homes I pass every day. As you can tell, I also cross the railway tracks. Some interesting things: there is a parking area that uses some kind of contraption to allow cars to be parked on three levels, one right over the other... I still have no idea how it works... (I took a picture of it). I also took a couple of pictures of the small library we all hang out in, a pond with fish in it right outside the building in Doshisha right across from the building our classes our in, as well as a neat subway train that sometimes shows up when going home (each car alternates colors/locations, I only had time to take the picture of the one, I'll try to get the other later), and a housing map close to where I live.

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Thursday:

No pictures again today... more rain... both classes today, Japanese at 9am, Scenes at 1:15pm. Doesn't help that my umbrella leaks...

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Friday:

From Japan: Day 011

Bamboo is really hard...

LOTS of pictures today (almost 350), hooray for trips! I still had Japanese in the morning, but after that it was our first trip. Unfortunately part of the trip got canceled (we were supposed to take a raft/boat trip down a river, but the rain we have had caused the water level to be too high to travel down), so we only got to do the first part (the river ride will be rescheduled). I want to write a lot about today, but I just don't have the time (I'll let the pictures do most of the talking). We took a "Sagano Romantic Train" that followed a river with lots of great views. We then got off and took a regular train to Arashiyama (somewhere to the southwest? of Kyoto). We then walked down the the river and took some pictures at the bridge there. After that we split up and I went with about 6 other people and walked through the bamboo forest (not actually through it itself, but along a paved road). Did a lot of walking and went to a temple on top of a hill. Then tried to get to another one (unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there). Did more walking, found a little park, walked down to the river, then decided to find a place to eat nearby for dinner. Other groups went to eat at a tabehodai/nomihodai (all you can eat/all you can drink alcohol for $30 per person for 1.5hr). We decided to have okonomiyaki (mmm...). Saw a random black cat at the train station (didn't seem to care about us). Went back to Kyoto to try to find the people who went to the tabehodai/nomihodai and were apparently now bowling... took us a while but we eventually met up with them (after some of our group left). The bowling place was in a 7? story building where each floor had some entertainment thing (claw machines/picture booths/etc., electronic horse racing/bingo/etc., video games, and the top 3-4 floors were all bowling lanes. We didn't stay long since it was already kinda late.

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Saturday:

From Japan: Day 012

KFC: We do chicken... right?

I just had to take a picture of this one. I pass by a KFC (not this one) every day at the train station going to/from school and I wanted to take a picture of Colonel Sanders (all KFCs here have one), but this one was definitely special. Saturday I slept in until 9, had breakfast at 10, and decided to take a walk around Shijo and the main shopping area in Kyoto. There are SOOOOOOOOO many shops here, it's crazy. I spent about 4 hours just walking around the whole area. I started on the outside (found the entertainment place we went to last night), went around the whole area (it's pretty big), then just walked down streets inside. Got some interesting pictures of some of the shops, found a movie theater, as well as some amusing shirts. I also found it interesting that you will find random shrines in between shops (imagine walking through a mall and there is a shrine squeezed between the stores). I'll probably do this again sometime and take more pictures, which can be hard to do when it's busy (think walking through a mall during the holiday rush...).

Day 5

From Japan: Day 005

Meet the Okudas.
From the left: grandma (Kiyoko, 70), the younger grandson (12?), grandpa (Gunji, 71), me (:P), the son-in-law, the older grandson (14), and their daughter.

Sorry I haven't updated in a while... I have been really busy (classes starting and everything...). Anyway, this is a picture of my host family, actually I just live with the grandma and grandpa. As you know, I'm bad at remembering names (having it written down for me helps, language barrier doesn't), so sorry for not having the names for the rest of the family. Today's schedule ran like this: 10am-11:30 homestay orientation, 11:30-1:30 campus tour & lunch with Japanese volunteers, 2:00 host families will pick you up. I got some more pictures of Doshisha University when we got the quick campus tour. It was rather amusing after lunch... basically all the Stanford students were in one room waiting for our homestay families to arrive in another room... right next door. Yeah... 31 nervous students trying to practice how to greet their families properly while waiting for their names to be called to go next door >_< Anyway... I was greeted by my host mom (grandma), she's really nice (they have done homestays several times before, so she knows how it is, just not this program). We took the subway and the train back to their home (every homestay family shows the student the way back from Doshisha to their home so the student knows how to get to/from the University) and she helped me get the monthly pass for both routes at the stations. After we dropped off my things at the house, they took me to a "welcome C.J. party" dinner at a nice restaurant located in a hotel next to the Kyoto Station (didn't know this was going to happen/my suit was in the bags that I don't get until tomorrow is why I'm not dressed up). It was basically an all-you-can-eat buffet with really nice food. Communication, of course, is an issue. Unfortunately, my host parents don't really speak any English at all. Fortunately (tonight), their daughter, son-in-law, and the older of the two brothers do speak a fair amount of English... so that helped. After we got back, I continued unpacking some things and took a couple pictures of my room, which (like the rest of the house) is pretty small.
Tomorrow's post will be different. I wanted to do a daily blog... but it doesn't look like I'll have that much time during the week, so starting with tomorrow I'll be doing a weekly blog! Let's see how that goes =^.^=

Day 4

From Japan: Day 004

Woo! Karaoke!

Today wasn't quite as busy as yesterday. We had Extra-Curricular Activities info meeting from 10:15-11:00, Academic Orientation from 11-12, lunch with Japanese students (auditors who will be taking some of the same classes), professors, and staff from 12-1, Events and Field trips info from 1-1:30, computer orientation from 1:30 to about 3. Then four of us did some walking around, checked out a few shops, a mall, and a river (that had a lot of mosquitoes). We then had a welcome dinner from 5:45-8 with the auditors and volunteers (wish I could understand/speak Japanese a lot more than I do...). After that we dropped our things off at the hotel and a couple of the Japanese students took about 20 of us to karaoke! (I forgot to mention that there are 31 students from Stanford in the program) Everyone kept picking English songs (most weren't that great...), but it was fun anyway. Apparently some types of drinks were free (even though I don't drink), I think this was because we were large groups (they split us into three rooms). We were there until about 11:30... so tired... and I still had to repack stuff for tomorrow (they pick up our large bags in the morning to send to our homestays that will arrive on Sunday... so we needed to pack a days work of clothes and stuff for Sunday night). Tomorrow we meet our homestay families (none of us are looking forward to this :P).

Day 3

Lots of stuff happened today... I'll have to make this quick cause I'm several days behind now...
(the almost 200 photos above will probably give you some idea)
The schedule:
8:45am Breakfast
9:00 Meet with Prof. MacDougall (Program Director)
welcome and brief review of Orientation Schedule
9:15-9:45 Short Mid-Town Walk
Wings Kyoto, Youth Health Center, Museum of Kyoto
9:45-10:00 Arrival at Doshisha
10:00-10:30 Meitokukan Facilities Tour
10:30-12:00 "First Matters"
Meet staff, orientation packet, IDs, etc...
12:00-1:00 Lunch on own
1:00-2:00 Exploring Kyoto and the Kansai Region (Prof. Wigen & Prof. MacDougall)
2:00-2:30 Travel to Okazaki District by subway
2:30-5:00 Cultural Walking Tour & Discussion (Prof. Lagner)
Nanzenji, Miyako Messe, Heian Jingu
5:00- Optional entry to Heian Shrine Garden, Directions to downtown and Coop Inn

Yeah... busy... anyway we stopped by the Kyoto Imperial Palace after the facilities tour and saw lots of Sakura (cherry blossoms). Lunch is great, we are given 800 Yen a day (I got a lot of food for less than that), plus I can eat curry and tonkatsu every day! Lots of walking... After the Heian Shrine, 9 of us went and walked the "Philosopher's Path"; a pretty path with Sakura that follows a little stream and has tons of little shops to the side, we all had some Takoyaki (first time I've had it), it was pretty good. We tried to go see a temple, but it was closed by the time we got there. Then we had an adventure trying to find someplace to eat; we tried to find a place close by, but all we could find was a place in some back alley that couldn't take 9 people, some smoke-filled place to eat, and some specialty shops. Eventually some people decided to eat at a little eating place. I went with 3 others to find a place near our hotel. The place we found was really good, I had katsudon. It was a little more expensive, but it was good. More fun tomorrow (though less pictures).

Day 2

pictures

IT'S ALIVE!!!
ok... not really...
okonomiyaki is good

Yeah... I know... I'm a day behind... been busy/lazy/my computer didn't want to work :P
Didn't get up today until 3pm... so err... not many pictures today...
Got a view from my room, some pictures from dinner where 9 of us went, and the light switch activator. Really good food, I had gyoza and okonomiyaki (first time I've had it), other people got stuff like shrimp/mayonnaise/asparagus pizza. Food is sooo cheap... it was less than 700 Yen (at least I think that's how much it was... can't remember now..., about $7).
More amusing stuff on TV:
Twilight Zone/The Outer Limits - like show that had shop owners battling it out in the streets to music from The Matrix (with special effects and everything... it was pretty ridiculous).
Commercials are still great... random appearances from Tommy Lee Jones (ads for Boss Coffee) and Brad Pitt (ad for SoftBank, with brad randomly walking down the street with cars being blown past him, apparently he has done several ads for SoftBank).
Tomorrow's pictures will make up for today's =^.^=

Day 1

From Japan: Day 001

Amusing name of the day: OHNO Marine Products

Looks like I made it in alright... (even if I didn't get to the hotel until about 9~9:30pm local time). No real problems... just had some trouble figuring how to get to the hotel from Kyoto Station (ended up having to take a taxi). First, let me apologize for the lack of pictures... 1) There were signs at the airport saying not to take pictures (it may have been only for certain areas, but I didn't want to take any chances). 2) Taking steady pictures from a moving bus while its getting dark is a little hard. 3) The highways have walls on the sides (you can probably see some in the pictures) making it even harder to take pictures. 4) Lugging around two large and two smaller heavy bags in the dark trying to figure out where to go... I didn't exactly feel like stopping to take pictures (just wanted to get the hotel), plus I was tired.
The flight here was pretty boring... even though everyone has a little TV, it only shows 6 different movies over and over (I think they were Alvin and the Chipmunks, Queen Elizabeth, No Country for Old Men, Lions for Lambs, and a couple of other boring movies). We did get two meals and two snacks... nothing exciting. Took a half-an-hour to get through the immigration line (luckily we were before the huge groups from Korea). Baggage and customs took no time. Getting cash didn't take much either (glad I brought traveler's checks... they had better exchange rate, although having to pay for the checks probably evens it out).
Took me a bit to figure out how to get to Kyoto... I knew I needed to take a Limousine Bus, but was originally looking at the Osaka information rather than the Kansai Airport information. Caught the 6pm Limousine Bus to Kyoto Station, got there about 7:30. As I mentioned before, there are walls on the sides of much of the highway. Some are curved over, some are plastic (or glass?), some are higher, some are shorter... just thought it was interesting...
Once I got to Kyoto Station, I had to figure out how to get to the hotel. The instructions said to take the Subway... took me a while to figure out where I needed to go to get to the Subway (ended up putting one of the smaller bags into the larger ones so I could carry it). Went to where you go down to the subway and realized that getting down the stairs would not be practical with the amount of bags I had... so I decided to go back and grab a taxi instead. Finally got to the hotel and got my room and everything. Its pretty small but has a frig, TV, internet, and bathroom (with a bidet, but it can be used as a regular toilet... so not a regular bidet). Also, the lights turn on by plugging in a stick attached to the room key to a place in the wall (I'll have a picture up tomorrow). Took me a little to figure that out -_-. Japanese TV is very entertaining... especially the commercials... so many cute little characters (I wanted to take a picture of the little plane characters at the airport). Japanese dubbed English shows like CSI and Monk are amusing to see.