Arrival

Turns out I have internet access after all. Nice.

Anyways. There are nine of us Japan Study students here. Michiyo and Gilberto are also around for the next week or so, I believe.

The eleven of us arrived today. We took the Sunrise Izumo from Tokyo station at 10 PM last night and arrived at about 10 AM this morning. Interesting experience. We each had a solo cabin, which is effectively a bed, a door, and a square foot or so of floor space. The upper cabins were a bit larger, but I had one of the lower ones; they're stacked two high, and the staircase for the upper cuts into the lower. No dining car or anything, though we did have a small lounge area (a couple tables and some chairs) at the end of our car. Sleeping was... less than effective. Imagine trying to fall asleep during, and then sleep through, a mild earthquake. Now imagine that earthquake is eight hours long. And noisy. Tyler was apparently the only one to get any sleep.

So, hit Izumoshi station at about 10 AM. They had a bus waiting for us, so everyone stowed luggage and got on. First stop was Izumo-taisha, one of the most important of the Shinto shrines. After Izumo-taisha, we hit the shop at Shimane Winery. Wine and omiyage for sale, plus free wine samples. Not the best wine I've had, but not terrible. Outside was a soft-serve ice cream vendor. In addition to the usual vanilla, they had grape, wine, and soba flavored soft serve. I opted for the soba flavor. The three or so other Japan Study folks who tried it didn't like it, but I was a fan.

Back on the bus. Last destination with everyone was the Unnan community center (or something along those lines) for opening ceremonies. It's an annual event out here, with news coverage and people from the local government in attendance. We were introduced to everyone and went to sit with our host families. My host mother and host sister-in-law came; we talked for a bit in between ceremonies. After the usual speeches (and a good one from Tue; nice job, Tue), we got to watch a kagura purification ritual by the kagura club from one of the local elementary (middle?) schools. Definitely interesting. After that and a few more speeches (IIRC), we left with our host families for our new homes.

Before we arrived in Shimane, all I knew about my host family is that I had a host mother, father, brother, and sister-in-law. And a dog. Well, turns out that there were some interesting details not included on that sheet. Like the fact that my host father apparently runs a small Buddhist temple. Did I mention I'm going to be living in a temple for the next month? Granted, it's technically the house attached the the temple, but it's difficult to tell where one begins and the other ends. I got a tour of the house and main temple room (本堂, or hondou).

So, yeah. Traditional style indeed. I have an 8-mat (12 ft x 12 ft) washitsu  (Japanese-style room). Sliding door walls; the walls are literally made of paper. Which means that my room matches outside air temperature. And the house is on a hill, so it's relatively cold. And by "relatively cold" I mean frigid. Fortunately, I have 6 or 8 inches of blankets on my futon. And an electric kotatsu, which I'm currently sitting under. I also have an electric floor mat and kerosene (propane?) heater if need be, though the electronic ignition's broken so I get to light it with a match.

Was sitting at the kotatsu in the family room with my host father before dinner, showing him some pictures on my computer. There's some sort of PA system the city uses for news updates and the like. I was more than a little surprised when the thing switched on and I heard the news of my homestay being announced.

Dinner was with my host family and a neighboring (I think) family. It was delicious, and everyone was extremely nice. It sounds like I might be going with everyone to an onsen on Thursday. There was also mention of fishing and milking cows. Dunno about those two. Could be interesting.

After everyone left, I took the most frigid shower of my life. The air in the bathroom was cold enough for me to see my breath, and the tile temperature matched. Fun stuff. After that, dove under the kotatsu, checked email, and called home.

Anyways, it's late and I'm tired, so bed. Will probably post a bit more tomorrow with some first impressions.

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Headed out the door for my month-long cultural practicum in Shimane, a rural prefecture. I may or may not have internet access on my computer, though I should get cell phone reception and thus should at least be able to check email from my phone.

For anyone who's been depending on this blog for updates (how silly!), quite a few new pictures have been uploaded since I last posted. Updates should start somewhere in Part 2. I have another 800 images sitting on my computer I need to go through, but I won't be able to upload them for a month if I don't have a full internet connection.

What?!? An update?!?

Shock!

Anyways, let's start with yesterday. Yesterday was technically a national holiday, but Waseda decided to hold class anyways. I'm not sure about the extent of the holiday. I don't have class on Mondays or Wednesdays, though, so it didn't make much of a difference to me.

Met Dan and Rebecca in Takadanobaba around 12:30, went for lunch at a nearby Indian place. 790 yen for salad, curry, and naan-tabehodai (all-you-can-eat naan). I got the mutton curry. It was delicious, but despite being marked as "spicy" on the menu, was completely tame; I'm not sure it would pass as mild at India Quality back in Boston. Delicious, though. They're planning to make this restaurant a weekly trip, which could be quite dangerous.

After lunch, walked to campus down Waseda-dori with Dan and Rebecca, followed them to the student coop. I bought a small notepad, which I plan to write journal-ish notes in to help me keep some sort of regularity in updating this blog.

After Amy got out of class, we went to Picaso and Blue Parrot. Picaso is essentially a mini-Don Quixote (a Japanese discount store chain). Blue Parrot is an English language used book store. Both are on Waseda-dori. I bought a copy of Words in Context; it looked useful. Amy bought a large Japanese grammar tome that made her inner (and outer) linguist quite happy.

Class today as usual. Afterwards, I went to the coop and bought a A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar on Celia's recommendation. 2500 yen after member discount, and worth every one.

It's been in the high 40's to low 50's lately, which normally would be no problem. However, since my room pretty much matches outside temperature, I've been freezing my rear off. I finally asked otou-san if there was anything I could do, at which he promptly pointed out the switch for my heated floor. Whoops. We'll see if it works.

I've also noticed that Japanese laundry seems to be fairly brutal on my socks; in two months, a few of them are close to being worn down. It's a good thing I brought extras.

That's all for now. I have ideas for a number of article-ish posts, though I need to get around to actually writing them.

Blargh

I know, I know, I'm bad at updating. Pictures are up to date, though.

Sashiburi

Three weeks since I last posted... whoops. A lot's happened since then.

Let's start with the current. I'm sitting in the living room. Okaa-san's preparing dinner. Otou-san's watching TV and reading, Mio's watching TV and looking at music sheets. Oh, and humming the Sailor Moon theme song. Yousuke's in his room.

Anyways. Amy and I started dating about two and a half weeks ago, so I've been spending most of my free time with her.

Last week was the Japan Study retreat to Karuizawa; Waseda was on break for Wednesday and Thursday. Waseda owns a resort property out in Karuizawa, about a two or three hour bus ride from Tokyo. Stayed overnight. Wasted time until dinner, then we had a meeting about our cultural practicums. Then we had a party, which was fun. Then some of us went out to the field to watch the pre-meteor storm (the real thing started at something like 2 PM). Fun, and a lot less light than the city. Not quite enough for a full view, but much better. Cold, but hey.

Dinner's going out on the table. Looks like fried calamari? Yum.

Let's see. Prep work for teaching a class session at Mita High School, a public high school in Minato ward. I was partnered with Hana, a Waseda student who's studied abroad. Taught the class on Monday. Fun, though definitely nerve-wracking. I was surprised to find about a quarter of the students blatantly not paying attention. As in, sleeping in class levels of not paying attention. Should've put them on the spot, taught them how American classes work. Would've been entertaining. Ah well. Self-intro, then a short quiz about Boston and the US. After that, Q&A. Then group work; we put them into groups of 4 or 5, and they had to think about a given subject on the States (food, cities, etc.) and give a short presentation. The presentation about American cities being noisy, dirty, and dangerous was...

... dinner. Yup, it was fried calarmari. Tasty!

... anyways, that presentation was... interesting. We wound up running out of time, since they only gave us about 50 minutes. Two hours definitely would've been better. After returning to Waseda, some of us went to Shin-Okubo station and met up with some of the folks who went to the elementary school (I had class then). Shin-Okubo's a Korean-heavy area; we went to a yakiniku-ish Korean place for dinner. Fun, delicious, tons of meat. Also tried a couple of Korean alcoholic drinks, though I still have no idea what they were. Pretty good, just no clue what I was drinking.

I have a bunch of ideas for mini-articles (not so much journal entries) that I'll have to write up at some point. Though that would require me to be less busy.

Oh, and I got a haircut today. I've yet to take a shower, so I'm not entirely certain how it turned out. Seems okay, though, and 1000 yen beats the heck out of 4000. Not that I'd necessarily get a better cut at the pricier places. There's a chain of haircut shops with locations in train stations that charges 1000 yen, but they (literally) do a 10-minute cut. Amy found a place near Waseda that does it for 1000 without the 10-minute factor. I was amused when they took a vacuum to my head after the cut. They cut my hair without wetting it first, which I found rather surprising. They also touched up with a straight razor, which was nice, but I'm not sure how I feel about their not using shaving cream.

More pictures!

Pictures and captions have been added, by the way. Link.

orz

So, I'm sitting here in the SILS reading room. I came to campus after not being able to access the Waseda homepage, since I had class for period 3, 4, and 5. I pick up a bento, walk into building 11, and am greeted by a sign saying all classes are cancelled for today. Hurr.

Ah well. I wanted to go to Tokyu Hands anyways, so it's not a complete loss. And it gives me time to write my little essay for orientation. Which is due tomorrow. Bleh.

I think I slept through most of the typhoon itself. The weather's actually quite nice right now, if a bit windy.