Yesterday, myself and two classmates went on a drive to Fukuoka. The drive was about two hours of the most beautiful country-side I've ever seen. I'm from Florida, with relatives all the way up to New York and Maine. I've seen some country/rural areas. Thing is, though, most of the countryside I've seen was FLAT. Japan. Not flat. Mountains everywhere. Tunnels everywhere. I'm pretty sure the pictures are public on FB, so you can quite easily see what I mean. And there's always Google.
Anyway, scenery aside, the city itself was... Ok, lemme put it this way: if you've watched anime, you already know what the place was like. If not, think New York City and Buffalo's suburbs bumping elbows. We parked someplace where it was $1 an hour and then had to walk past a bunch of houses to get to a main road lined with huge buildings. After that we had to walk 20-30mins down that main street to get to someplace that would have been Times Square if the buildings were taller.
Here's where I need to get basic. We got hungry and had Tonkotsu ramen, which I was told is famous in Fukuoka (I still prefer Shouyu ramen). After that we kinda wandered around, crashed into some kind of event that not even my friends knew about, and finally decided on a destination when I brought up how I still needed sports gloves. So we went to the eighth floor of some building I may never find again, and I got the gloves. Then we went to a hobby store, which I'll talk about later. Finally we got some dinner and drove home.
Ok, the hobby store. A topic all its own. Again, remember, I'm from the United States. There if I say I'm an anime fan people back off because they instantly think I'm with the weirdos who scream bad Japanese and shove their hobbies on everyone else. You can't buy good anime in the US, because the only stuff that's usually sold or easy to access is stuff that's aired on TV or stuff that's been translated into English and heavily editted/censored-unnecessarily. Same with manga. So, if you want the real stuff and to engage in the culture, you need to do it online. Buy anime straight from Japan, pay to have it shipped, then download subtitles made by fans who may or may not be hunted down as criminals for making the subtitles available for free as their own work.
Now, with all that in mind, here I am, in the middle of a city I've never been to, in, again, some building I may never find again, going up the escalator. One friend is in front of me, and he knows where we're going. The other is behind me and not exactly interested in our current destination. When that escalator deposited me at the top of its track, I thought I'd cry. Plastic figures from anime, obscure and popular, EVERYWHERE. Not an exaggeration. There were even figures from American comic books and from Star Wars! There were Zone Of Enders figures! Zone Of Enders! The only people who know ZOE are people who either love mech-stuff to DEATH, people who love Kojima games to DEATH, or people who played the demo with MGS2 because why not. The friend of mine who led us there got into a conversation with an older guy about which Zoids figure he should buy next since he already has almost all of them. While he did that I picked out a BlazBlue pin for a friend of mine in the US who's a die-hard fan and geeked out over the sheer amount of shows represented in that little store. Some of that stuff I had to take a picture of, just to be able to prove it existed later!
In the end I only got the pin. I figure that if I'm going to buy some model of something, have it shipped back to the US unbroken, and put it on my shelf, I better be rich. I'm not. So I'll stick with the game it came from, where I can control the dang thing and blow up unmanned killer robots with it.
Monday, May 5, 2014
Monday, April 7, 2014
Is This The Slump? So Soon...?
I'm gonna be honest: I'm suddenly hittin' the brakes here on the mood. Kinda. It's a big enough change that I noticed the first day it happened. I left home, which had crappy cold weather, to come here to crappy cold weather. I left home knowing many names and faces and being alone, to come here and learn many new names and faces and still be alone. I left home after staying quiet to avoid bothering my "roommate," to come here and continue being quiet to avoid bothering my roommate.
Ehh, who knows. Probably just a slump til classes start. I'm just not gonna pay it any mind and continue as normal, screw the mood trying to drag me down. I was expecting this, thanks to that weird U thing for homesickness. You get somewhere new, everything is amazing, then you crash, then you level out. Well, it's not gonna get me!
So, let's see, some unique stuff for the readers. Well, I was eating alone in the cafeteria, kinda a regular thing (I get to look down the mountain at the mind-blowing city below, so no complaints), when I hear someone. In Japanese, "Are you alone, sir? May I sit here? Do you speak English, sir?" To which I respond with all yes, because why not. I was supposed to leave thirty minutes after he sat down (I was playing games with some friends, something we'd planned to do for a week). I ended up home twenty minutes late. He was so intent on practicing English. He asked many basic questions, and we never even learned each others' names. It was all opinions and tips and spelling. It was certainly an experience. When the staff asked us to leave, since the cafeteria closes at 1:30, he gave me chocolate from the school store next door as a thank-you.
Then the second shopping tour. I'd paid in advance, then learned there was a free one before this one. So, as I left two days ago on the second shopping tour, I didn't need a thing. I was just going to get out of my room, something I try to do as often as possible. One of the many reasons was possible interest in one of the female participants, but let's leave that aside. I spent most of the day on the bus, in a huge mall I didn't know existed, discussing the changes in Kyoto Animation Studio's style changes over the years, and was home before I knew it. Since no one else but a certain group leader had a camera, I took the opportunity to take pictures of that person, otherwise there'd've been no pictures of the photographer.
The mall itself was a lot like the one near me back home. The group that hosted us, taking us around town, had a game prepared for the first thirty minutes we were there. We had to find a matching image to a picture they gave us (like a picture of a certain shirt) then take a picture of the image ourselves (find the shirt and snap!). My group came in second, which I'd have to blame on half of us not really caring, since we searched fast and walked slow. We had good food for lunch, wandered around some other stores, then went home.
Now I'm just waiting for the floor washing machine to be open so I can do laundry.
Ehh, who knows. Probably just a slump til classes start. I'm just not gonna pay it any mind and continue as normal, screw the mood trying to drag me down. I was expecting this, thanks to that weird U thing for homesickness. You get somewhere new, everything is amazing, then you crash, then you level out. Well, it's not gonna get me!
So, let's see, some unique stuff for the readers. Well, I was eating alone in the cafeteria, kinda a regular thing (I get to look down the mountain at the mind-blowing city below, so no complaints), when I hear someone. In Japanese, "Are you alone, sir? May I sit here? Do you speak English, sir?" To which I respond with all yes, because why not. I was supposed to leave thirty minutes after he sat down (I was playing games with some friends, something we'd planned to do for a week). I ended up home twenty minutes late. He was so intent on practicing English. He asked many basic questions, and we never even learned each others' names. It was all opinions and tips and spelling. It was certainly an experience. When the staff asked us to leave, since the cafeteria closes at 1:30, he gave me chocolate from the school store next door as a thank-you.
Then the second shopping tour. I'd paid in advance, then learned there was a free one before this one. So, as I left two days ago on the second shopping tour, I didn't need a thing. I was just going to get out of my room, something I try to do as often as possible. One of the many reasons was possible interest in one of the female participants, but let's leave that aside. I spent most of the day on the bus, in a huge mall I didn't know existed, discussing the changes in Kyoto Animation Studio's style changes over the years, and was home before I knew it. Since no one else but a certain group leader had a camera, I took the opportunity to take pictures of that person, otherwise there'd've been no pictures of the photographer.
The mall itself was a lot like the one near me back home. The group that hosted us, taking us around town, had a game prepared for the first thirty minutes we were there. We had to find a matching image to a picture they gave us (like a picture of a certain shirt) then take a picture of the image ourselves (find the shirt and snap!). My group came in second, which I'd have to blame on half of us not really caring, since we searched fast and walked slow. We had good food for lunch, wandered around some other stores, then went home.
Now I'm just waiting for the floor washing machine to be open so I can do laundry.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Progression
Where to start... Well, to get the "me" stuff out an done with, I needed a 150 on the Japanese proficiency test to get into the advanced class. I got 210. Apparently that's really good, except no one would tell us what the highest possible score is. And I finally have a decent pillow now, but I'll get into that in a bit.
So far I can't say I have any complaints about anything. I'm not saying that because I haven't tried to find something negative, I did once I remembered that I'm supposed to be in awe of this place since it's my first time here. I guess the most negative thing is that transport is expensive. It's about $10 for a "triple ticket" to Beppu. It allows you three rides on the Oita Kotsu. If you know where to get off, you can ride the bus there, take care of business, and ride back with a ticket to spare.
Beppu itself is supposed to be rural. I dunno about any of you, but I grew up on the line between Osceola and Polk counties in Florida. We had two grocery stores, a gas station, library, some churches... Really not too much besides houses, and even those were separated by a lot of bare grass and long roads. Beppu? Yeah, no. 3-5 story buildings everywhere. Look down one street, nothing but buildings. Look down the other, buildings right up to the water. Houses, repair shops, supermarkets. Not what I would call rural. On our shopping tour, though, I didn't get to see very much. I got what I needed, my pillow, first thing. We had an hour at the first store, and I was done in about 10 minutes. Second store, then home. You can stop here if that's what you wanted to know about.
I figured that would be the end of my day. I was planning on going home, preparing for the next event on Thursday, and watching anime. Instead I spent about 4 hours having a conversation with a guy from Australia, who'd been born in Israel. Originally, it was an intellectual conversation. Then it derailed when I said, in passing, that I was Christian. I forget why I said it, or how it was related, but it shocked him completely to hear that I was able to follow science and politics and philosophy, but be Christian. I wish I could have given him the kind of "evidence" he wanted, but anything I could bring up is beyond my comprehension and explanation. How can you describe how prayer affects the world, when you have no idea how God works? It's really not for me to understand in the first place. The conversation DID, however, lead me to wonder why I carry around a small metal cross as a symbol of a religion that's supposed to be about love. After all, that cross is a device upon many were tortured and died, including my Lord himself. We moved away from the conversation back to other topics, from the purpose of martial arts to the psychology of marketing, and eventually I found that I'd missed dinner and had no time to buy breakfast... So the guy I was talking with offered dinner. He had gone shopping hungry, and had far too much food (as I saw myself). We cooked, ate, and I finally went home. So, today I'll be preparing for the events on Thursday and Friday instead, and having dinner with the students from Africa I met when I first got here.
I should probably also point out a few things... First, that Christians as a whole must be doing a horrible job of adhering to the religion if there are people who view it as negative in every way. Second, as Americans, we must be doing terrible if foreign people are shocked to find out that different states are like different countries. My conversation partner was shocked when I said I felt I was leaving home when I left Norfolk, not Dallas.
My experiences here have been very stimulating... And healthy. I feel completely different here. I'm sticking to my push-ups and sit-ups. I'm eating regularly, and not just bread and cheese and sugar (hurray for a cafeteria that serves curry, chicken, pork, rice, vegetables, soup, and all for cheaper than any meal at my home college). I'm learning again, writing again, finding new music, reading essays. I suppose the only bad thing is that I haven't learned to cook for myself yet (beyond heating meat on a frying pan, like I did last night). But that's a "yet," just like I can't walk on my hands yet. But I intend on being able to do both before I return home.
How's all THAT for progress?!
So far I can't say I have any complaints about anything. I'm not saying that because I haven't tried to find something negative, I did once I remembered that I'm supposed to be in awe of this place since it's my first time here. I guess the most negative thing is that transport is expensive. It's about $10 for a "triple ticket" to Beppu. It allows you three rides on the Oita Kotsu. If you know where to get off, you can ride the bus there, take care of business, and ride back with a ticket to spare.
Beppu itself is supposed to be rural. I dunno about any of you, but I grew up on the line between Osceola and Polk counties in Florida. We had two grocery stores, a gas station, library, some churches... Really not too much besides houses, and even those were separated by a lot of bare grass and long roads. Beppu? Yeah, no. 3-5 story buildings everywhere. Look down one street, nothing but buildings. Look down the other, buildings right up to the water. Houses, repair shops, supermarkets. Not what I would call rural. On our shopping tour, though, I didn't get to see very much. I got what I needed, my pillow, first thing. We had an hour at the first store, and I was done in about 10 minutes. Second store, then home. You can stop here if that's what you wanted to know about.
I figured that would be the end of my day. I was planning on going home, preparing for the next event on Thursday, and watching anime. Instead I spent about 4 hours having a conversation with a guy from Australia, who'd been born in Israel. Originally, it was an intellectual conversation. Then it derailed when I said, in passing, that I was Christian. I forget why I said it, or how it was related, but it shocked him completely to hear that I was able to follow science and politics and philosophy, but be Christian. I wish I could have given him the kind of "evidence" he wanted, but anything I could bring up is beyond my comprehension and explanation. How can you describe how prayer affects the world, when you have no idea how God works? It's really not for me to understand in the first place. The conversation DID, however, lead me to wonder why I carry around a small metal cross as a symbol of a religion that's supposed to be about love. After all, that cross is a device upon many were tortured and died, including my Lord himself. We moved away from the conversation back to other topics, from the purpose of martial arts to the psychology of marketing, and eventually I found that I'd missed dinner and had no time to buy breakfast... So the guy I was talking with offered dinner. He had gone shopping hungry, and had far too much food (as I saw myself). We cooked, ate, and I finally went home. So, today I'll be preparing for the events on Thursday and Friday instead, and having dinner with the students from Africa I met when I first got here.
I should probably also point out a few things... First, that Christians as a whole must be doing a horrible job of adhering to the religion if there are people who view it as negative in every way. Second, as Americans, we must be doing terrible if foreign people are shocked to find out that different states are like different countries. My conversation partner was shocked when I said I felt I was leaving home when I left Norfolk, not Dallas.
My experiences here have been very stimulating... And healthy. I feel completely different here. I'm sticking to my push-ups and sit-ups. I'm eating regularly, and not just bread and cheese and sugar (hurray for a cafeteria that serves curry, chicken, pork, rice, vegetables, soup, and all for cheaper than any meal at my home college). I'm learning again, writing again, finding new music, reading essays. I suppose the only bad thing is that I haven't learned to cook for myself yet (beyond heating meat on a frying pan, like I did last night). But that's a "yet," just like I can't walk on my hands yet. But I intend on being able to do both before I return home.
How's all THAT for progress?!
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Day 1
Well, like I said, I woke up at about 7:45. I did find out where to get money, I also found where to get food, but I forgot to buy a pen to I could fill out those forms (and by fill out I mean write my name and take them to the security office). So, let's see... The campus is separated from the dorms by a bridge you can reach with stairs or an elevator. So after getting ready, I left to find the cafeteria and eat. I gave myself plenty of time, since I figured I'd get lost, but it's basically a straight city street (well, like a city street, only about 6 blocks long and it ends as the mountain starts tilting up again). So I got there early, waited, went in, and got breakfast for, what, 300円? Ate, returned my tray, and took the walk back to change into my boots (had sneakers on because I figured that would be my only outing for the day). In the other dorm building there was going to be an information session, so I figured I should go since I had nothing else to do and I might think of some questions.
After waiting for it to start (early again), we watched a few videos, got the chance to talk to new and returning students, ask questions, and then it was basically over. I ended up going to lunch with two exchange students from Zambia. They couldn't read or understand any Japanese, so I showed them where the cafeteria was (good thing I'd gone for breakfast), and we walked back in the rain... Well, not before going into the campus convenience store. Which is, like anywhere in Japan, actually convenient. Not like the US, where they have aisles of snacks and batteries, beer and milk and soda in the back, ice, and tobacco behind the counter. No, they sold textbooks, notebooks, snacks, dinners both cold and hot, drinks, electronic dictionaries, tickets for the bus or ferry or even plane tickets, copy cards (to use in the study rooms for printing and making copies), and so on. I just got some water and a "snack" the size of a foot-long sub from Subway... For 200円.
Went home, watched some videos to pass the time, then went back to the cafeteria for dinner (bumped into the Zambian students again, ate with them, for about 340円), then bought breakfast and another snack on the way back. Watched more vids, and passed out before it was even 22:00. Today I'm up at 6:15, no alarm (jet lag?), and I have little planned for today since there are no events. Tomorrow the important stuff starts, like orientation, and so forth. I should be posting pictures later today, since I intend to TAKE them today. Til tomorrow...
After waiting for it to start (early again), we watched a few videos, got the chance to talk to new and returning students, ask questions, and then it was basically over. I ended up going to lunch with two exchange students from Zambia. They couldn't read or understand any Japanese, so I showed them where the cafeteria was (good thing I'd gone for breakfast), and we walked back in the rain... Well, not before going into the campus convenience store. Which is, like anywhere in Japan, actually convenient. Not like the US, where they have aisles of snacks and batteries, beer and milk and soda in the back, ice, and tobacco behind the counter. No, they sold textbooks, notebooks, snacks, dinners both cold and hot, drinks, electronic dictionaries, tickets for the bus or ferry or even plane tickets, copy cards (to use in the study rooms for printing and making copies), and so on. I just got some water and a "snack" the size of a foot-long sub from Subway... For 200円.
Went home, watched some videos to pass the time, then went back to the cafeteria for dinner (bumped into the Zambian students again, ate with them, for about 340円), then bought breakfast and another snack on the way back. Watched more vids, and passed out before it was even 22:00. Today I'm up at 6:15, no alarm (jet lag?), and I have little planned for today since there are no events. Tomorrow the important stuff starts, like orientation, and so forth. I should be posting pictures later today, since I intend to TAKE them today. Til tomorrow...
Monday, March 24, 2014
Arrival
Let me start by saying that I've never seen an airport like the one at Incheon, Korea. The escalators alone were cool. They didn't move until someone needed them, saving power. Just to give an idea of how much thought went into the place.
Then there's seeing Fukuoka as you come in. 10-15 story buildings as far as you can see (which is about to the huge hills in the distance).
Then getting to the dorms. I was lucky enough to have help from my host university when I arrived. I exchanged money from $ to 円, an odd process, paid for the ticket on the bus... And then had a very bright attendant stick with me after she learned I could understand Japanese. She laughed at my "cute" (horrible) English handwriting, and answered a few of my questions before the bus came. While we waited, a little girl was singing some pop song and dancing. It was funny to watch. Anyway, the bus arrived and the attendant made me promise I'd get off at the right stop, since there would be people waiting for me. The bus ride was long, and despite trying to stay awake, I fell asleep until the announcement started for where I was supposed to get off (the first stop). If I were back home, the crappy roads and crazy driving would have kept me awake... Not so here, since the roads were well kept and there were few people on the road.
I arrived and found I wasn't alone in my destination. A fellow student, who introduced himself as Dwight, was also going to my university. Two students helped us to the dorms. We got our room keys, and split up. After two students ran over the rules and public facilities of the dorm, I went back to my room, made sure I was all locked up, and passed out.
Today... No idea. I woke up at about 7:45, after having gone to bed around 22:00. I intend on finding out where to withdraw money, turn in forms I have a week to submit, and exploring the campus. And, ya know, eating. Because I did very little of that on the 34 hour trip to get here.
Then there's seeing Fukuoka as you come in. 10-15 story buildings as far as you can see (which is about to the huge hills in the distance).
Then getting to the dorms. I was lucky enough to have help from my host university when I arrived. I exchanged money from $ to 円, an odd process, paid for the ticket on the bus... And then had a very bright attendant stick with me after she learned I could understand Japanese. She laughed at my "cute" (horrible) English handwriting, and answered a few of my questions before the bus came. While we waited, a little girl was singing some pop song and dancing. It was funny to watch. Anyway, the bus arrived and the attendant made me promise I'd get off at the right stop, since there would be people waiting for me. The bus ride was long, and despite trying to stay awake, I fell asleep until the announcement started for where I was supposed to get off (the first stop). If I were back home, the crappy roads and crazy driving would have kept me awake... Not so here, since the roads were well kept and there were few people on the road.
I arrived and found I wasn't alone in my destination. A fellow student, who introduced himself as Dwight, was also going to my university. Two students helped us to the dorms. We got our room keys, and split up. After two students ran over the rules and public facilities of the dorm, I went back to my room, made sure I was all locked up, and passed out.
Today... No idea. I woke up at about 7:45, after having gone to bed around 22:00. I intend on finding out where to withdraw money, turn in forms I have a week to submit, and exploring the campus. And, ya know, eating. Because I did very little of that on the 34 hour trip to get here.
Friday, March 21, 2014
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