Friday, April 20, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Its been a while...
Sorry I havnt updated since Feb 27th. Its hard to do so sometimes because I have limited access to the computers. Anyway, where should I start. How about Spring Break. I went on a 3 day trip with students from IES(the program that got me here).
We went to Hiroshima, Miya-Jima, and Himeji. It was an amazing trip. We stayed at ryokans(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryokan_(inn)) for two nights. Hiroshima was a good town. We were staying right by the Genbaku Dome. That is the site where the Atomic Bomb was detonated. There was a museum as well that really explained in detail how horrible it was. It was devestating to see, but a very good experience.
After Hiroshima we went to Miya-Jima, which is a small island to the south of Hiroshima. It was very beautiful. There are tame deer that just wander about looking for foor, like squirrels. The mountains are amazing. We walked to the large shrine and witnessed a traditional Japanese wedding. We also were able to walk under the famous red "floating" gate. It was so amazing. We took a cable car up a mountain and then hiked to the top to get a fantastic view of the surrounding islands. There was even a random monkey that ran past us.
Finally, we went to Himeji. We took a tour of the Himeji castle, which is said to be Japan's most beautiful castle. It was very beautiful.
We also got to ride on the shinkansen (bullet train). It was unbelievably fast. Later in the week I went to Kyoto with a few friends for a day. It takes about 4 hours to get there by a normal train, but it only took a 30 mins. by the shinkansen. There, we went to a monkey park. It was amazing. There were monkies running around all over the place, right by our feet. We went to Gion(the historic Geisha district) and to a Fushimi Inari (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fushimi_Inari-taisha) That was amazing.
By the end of the week, My host mom took me to a small buddhist shop by their house to look form presents. The man that works there was actually her junior high classmate, and his son and my host brother are in the same class. The man was very nice and gave me many great items for free. He said he couldnt sell them because they were old, but he couldnt through them away because they were sacred. So, he was greatful that someone had an interest in the items, so he just gave them to me.
On my birthday, my host mom gave me a sweet rice cake with sweet red beans in the middle and a godzilla candle. They all sang happy birthday and she gave me a cool book with sketches and really cool information about things in japan. It was a lot of fun.
The next week we I had to prepare a short speech about DePaul for my class. All of the 400 level students had to present to our class and we selected our favorite 3 speeches. The ones selected had to give their speech in front of about 150 or so new Japanese students possibly interested in studying abroad. My speech was selected, and I was very nervous. I have never given a speech in front of that many people before, let alone in Japanese. I did an ok job, it wasnt perfect, but everyone understood everything and they liked it. They also asked me a bunch of questions about school and Chicago so it was kinda fun. I came to Japan to try things I normally wouldnt and this was a very good experience.
The next week (this week) was the official beggining of the school year for the japanse college students. The school is completely crowded now. Its scary. When I got here, their year was just about over, so I came during their equivelent to our summer break. Theres never really room to eat in the cafeterias but the weather has been great, so we usually eat outside on the grassy hill area. There are still some cherry blossoms left, so its really pretty. Yesterday, a friend made me and my friends go to this event called coffee hour with him. Ive been before, but this was interesting. There were about 75 or so Japanese people and only about 7 foreign students. It was a way for Japanese students interested in studying abroad to talk with the foreign studetns, and for us to practice our Japanese. So there were small groups of about 3 Japanese people that came and talked to me about whatever, and then out of nowhere, the people hosting it decided to interview me in front of everyone. It was sort of scary, but ended up being another good experience. So I ended up makeing some Japanese friends.
Today, after lunch, we went to the same grassy area to hang out with Kelly and her conversation partner Emiko. We met 2 of Emiko's friends (both of their names I already forgot) and they were cool. One of them is going to California next august to study abroad, so we all told him he needs to start practicing speaking English. It was really fun.
Im getting excited to come back home, but I really dont want to. I feel like I am now just getting used to everything here, including speaking and understanding Japanese. I dont want to leave after all of this work, it just seems like it would be a waste. My host family doesnt want me to go either. But, they are coming to Chicago in July for about 4 days! So it will be great to see them again.
I have to go now, but Ill try and upload more pictures when I have some time.
We went to Hiroshima, Miya-Jima, and Himeji. It was an amazing trip. We stayed at ryokans(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryokan_(inn)) for two nights. Hiroshima was a good town. We were staying right by the Genbaku Dome. That is the site where the Atomic Bomb was detonated. There was a museum as well that really explained in detail how horrible it was. It was devestating to see, but a very good experience.
After Hiroshima we went to Miya-Jima, which is a small island to the south of Hiroshima. It was very beautiful. There are tame deer that just wander about looking for foor, like squirrels. The mountains are amazing. We walked to the large shrine and witnessed a traditional Japanese wedding. We also were able to walk under the famous red "floating" gate. It was so amazing. We took a cable car up a mountain and then hiked to the top to get a fantastic view of the surrounding islands. There was even a random monkey that ran past us.
Finally, we went to Himeji. We took a tour of the Himeji castle, which is said to be Japan's most beautiful castle. It was very beautiful.
We also got to ride on the shinkansen (bullet train). It was unbelievably fast. Later in the week I went to Kyoto with a few friends for a day. It takes about 4 hours to get there by a normal train, but it only took a 30 mins. by the shinkansen. There, we went to a monkey park. It was amazing. There were monkies running around all over the place, right by our feet. We went to Gion(the historic Geisha district) and to a Fushimi Inari (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fushimi_Inari-taisha) That was amazing.
By the end of the week, My host mom took me to a small buddhist shop by their house to look form presents. The man that works there was actually her junior high classmate, and his son and my host brother are in the same class. The man was very nice and gave me many great items for free. He said he couldnt sell them because they were old, but he couldnt through them away because they were sacred. So, he was greatful that someone had an interest in the items, so he just gave them to me.
On my birthday, my host mom gave me a sweet rice cake with sweet red beans in the middle and a godzilla candle. They all sang happy birthday and she gave me a cool book with sketches and really cool information about things in japan. It was a lot of fun.
The next week we I had to prepare a short speech about DePaul for my class. All of the 400 level students had to present to our class and we selected our favorite 3 speeches. The ones selected had to give their speech in front of about 150 or so new Japanese students possibly interested in studying abroad. My speech was selected, and I was very nervous. I have never given a speech in front of that many people before, let alone in Japanese. I did an ok job, it wasnt perfect, but everyone understood everything and they liked it. They also asked me a bunch of questions about school and Chicago so it was kinda fun. I came to Japan to try things I normally wouldnt and this was a very good experience.
The next week (this week) was the official beggining of the school year for the japanse college students. The school is completely crowded now. Its scary. When I got here, their year was just about over, so I came during their equivelent to our summer break. Theres never really room to eat in the cafeterias but the weather has been great, so we usually eat outside on the grassy hill area. There are still some cherry blossoms left, so its really pretty. Yesterday, a friend made me and my friends go to this event called coffee hour with him. Ive been before, but this was interesting. There were about 75 or so Japanese people and only about 7 foreign students. It was a way for Japanese students interested in studying abroad to talk with the foreign studetns, and for us to practice our Japanese. So there were small groups of about 3 Japanese people that came and talked to me about whatever, and then out of nowhere, the people hosting it decided to interview me in front of everyone. It was sort of scary, but ended up being another good experience. So I ended up makeing some Japanese friends.
Today, after lunch, we went to the same grassy area to hang out with Kelly and her conversation partner Emiko. We met 2 of Emiko's friends (both of their names I already forgot) and they were cool. One of them is going to California next august to study abroad, so we all told him he needs to start practicing speaking English. It was really fun.
Im getting excited to come back home, but I really dont want to. I feel like I am now just getting used to everything here, including speaking and understanding Japanese. I dont want to leave after all of this work, it just seems like it would be a waste. My host family doesnt want me to go either. But, they are coming to Chicago in July for about 4 days! So it will be great to see them again.
I have to go now, but Ill try and upload more pictures when I have some time.
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