National Japanese Television!

Hey, so in my previous post I had a picture of me being interviewed. I have a link to the actual broadcast! Its really crappy cause my friend recorded it on his digital camera from the tv, but its still cool. He only kept the parts with my friends on. Its also pretty hilarious. They were just asking what sorts of things we like about Japan and what not. We also get Japanese subtitles! They use them just to make it funnier from what I hear. You can also see in the corner some Picture in Picture of famous japanese people watching us and laughing! Cool! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqkbOOpsvZM

PICTURES and other stuff!

If you can, please send me some emails. I like reading about what's happening at home!

Here are some of my pictures from Tokyo! Theres more from Nagoya too.

Here is the menu for Japanese Wendy's. Note the shrimp sandwich. I ate the Curry Tonkatsu(Pork cutlet) sandwich.

We went to Ueda Park for a day and saw some Chinese acrobats performing. They were all really talented. This guy had a giant ceramic pot on his head.


I think they were a family. This might be the younger sister. Those are her feet by her shoulders. She kept looking right at me, it was kinda creepy, but made for a good picture.


Heres the guy again. He balanced on top of chairs stacked at least 25 feet in the air.


We went to a few museums in the park to look at art and history. Along the way I saw an old lady with pink-purple hair. I didnt think people would believe that old lady's dye their hair crazy colors, but heres proof.


This is near our hostel in Asakusa.


Japanese people like their socks. Also taken at Asakusa.


This is just an average night in Shinjuku. Look at how insanely crowded it is.


The rest of these are from Nagoya. Theres a store in Sakae that sells nothing but robots. This guy was standing outside of it:


This is an example of what your average Japanese guy wears, especially in Nagoya. Its pretty scary.


There was a Chinese festival in the park in Sakae. This is a dancer, you can see her face in the center.


There were also Lion Dancers. The came out into the crowd. It was probably the coolest thing ever.


And finally, this little guy was just standing in the center of the pigeons, screaming. Haha, I had to take a picture.

Tokyo!

I went to Tokyo for 4 days and just got back! I stayed at a youth hostel called Sakura Hostel In Asakusa Tokyo. (These aren't my pictures, just found them online. Mine aren't transferred yet.)

Asakusa was great. There were tons of people everywhere. Most were tourists, from all over too, even from other parts of Japan. The hostel was really clean and the staff was very friendly. They liked us a lot because we spoke to them in Japanese (they all spoke English as well). We tried to do as much traveling around Tokyo as possible. The city is massive. There are various districts that each offer something different. We met my friend Masako in Harajuku. We went on Sunday and that is when all the high school kids go out and dress up in the most insane fashion ever.

We then went to a Kaiten Sushi place, conveyor belt sushi, and ate so much food. It was really great though. Afterwords we walked around Shinjuku. I have never seen so many people in my life. I used to think that Chicago during the Taste was crowded, but its nothing in comparison to Shinjuku. The next day we went to Akihabara, which is a district that has electronics. It has electronics everywhere. There are stores for anything you could want. The coolest part is that are used electronic stores so you can get everything really cheap. I was with a group of almost 16 people, so i couldn't look around at my leisure. The even better part of Akihabara was while we were randomly walking in the street, we got stopped by some Japanese people with a video camera. They were from a tv show and interviewed my friends and I in Japanese. They just asked us why were were there, and what the best parts of Tokyo were. It was so insane!

All of the food I have eaten so far as been the greatest ever. Although at the Kaiten Sushi place, Mike (the guy standing next to me in that picture) wanted to try a new sushi that looked like a brain. We asked Masako what it was and she didn't know. She thought it was uterus or something. Mike ate it and almost vomited at first. But he said it was ok. We later found out that it was fish sperm. Its apparently a rare delicacy... gross. We also ate at Wendy's. I had a Tonkatsu curry sandwich! It was a fried porkcutlet sandwich with curry, and it was amazing. After that we went to the bakery where i bought a giant Hokaido Milk bread. it was the best thing ive ever eaten.

There was alot of fun times. We were only there for 4 days, so we missed alot of stuff. On the last day we ate in Odaibo, it was great. That area is right on the ocean and very pretty.

Yes, thats a small verison of the statue of Liberty in the Background. It was pretty funny. We took the bus home at around 11:30 pm and got to Nagoya at around 6:30 the next day. The bus sucked, but it was the first time I ever saw Yamanba fashion. Heres an example:Yamanba comes from the words Yama Uba, which means mountain hag. In Japanese folklore there she is a crazy old woman that lives in mountains and forests that preys on travelers. When she gains the travelers trust, she eats them. There were 3 girls dressed just like the one in the left of this picture on the bus. Apparently its an everyday thing. They were pretty interesting.

So I will have pictures that I took up as soon as I can. Ill write again when i have more interesting things to say. Bye! Also, its lie 50 degrees here. Stay safe and warm in the blizzardy weather!

Some photos

Some photos from the Nagoya area. This is Nagoya Jou (castle):

This is a close up of the Golden Dolphins on the top of the castle.

Some Flag things:

Taken at Osu Kannon Temple. There were pigeons everywhere!! :

This is a cleansing ritual taken at Nittaiji temple. There was a festival too:

This food is Okonomiyaki, its amazing. Nittaiji festival:

Buddha statue at a cemetary in Yagoto Kashoji Temple:

This is a buddha figure at Yagoto Koshiji Temple:

Same statue from a different angle:

Cranes:

Some Oji-chan with pigeons:

Another type of cleansing ritual. They are putting their hands in the insense and smke and pat themselves with it. Taken at Osu Kannon temple during the antique market:

This random dog kept following this little old lady (Osu antique market) :

Creepy "Antique" Dolls:

One more creey doll just because:

Ok, some more updates.

First, the family is really nice. I get to eat really great food all the time. Last night my host mom made Yaki soba, fried noodles, with vegetables and meat and stuff. It was really good. I went to a temple and saw a festival. It was basically a street lined with little shops and stands selling amazing food, like tako yaki. Tako yaki is like little squishy chicken pot pies that have octopus inside and are in the shape of a ball. They`re great. I took lots of pictures, but the computers at Nanzan kinda suck and i need an administrator password to access my camera. BUT, the temple was fun.

My host family is cool. The dad, Jun, is really laid back. He loves golf and took me to Nagoya castle with Ojiichan and Miku. That was really interesting. Mayumi, the mom, is probably the nicest person ever. She studied english at Illinois state, but only uses english if I reaally dont get it. She always has stuff for me to eat. She took me to the grocery store the other day and I made grandma`s clam sauce and pasta for dinner. The family really liked it. Junpei, the son, is really quiet. He annoys his little sister just like any big brother would. He does karate and kendo, and loves videogames. He doesnt play nintendo, hes a PS2 fan... thats alright though. Miku is really cool. She helps me with my homework (Shes 8) and tells me wierd stories. She also made fun of Ochiichans scrambled eggs when he wasnt in the room one day.　Ojiichan is my favorite. Hes 70 and really nice. He always makes sure i have food in the morning and always brings me orange juice cause he knows i like it. They took me to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant last sunday and it was the best sushi i ever had.

Breakfasts usually consist of toast and hot dogs, or rice and whatever we had the night before. I have tea with most meals, and no one drinks water. They think im crazy. Lunch is at school, but I havnt tried much yet. I cant read most of the menu, so i basically get the same thing every time., Its really good though. Dinner is always amazing. Theres usually some sort of meat, rice, maybe fish, and a soup of some sort. I tried eel-pies and any food from convienient stores is amazing.

Theres engrish a-plenty here. I have a good example from my apple juice container this morning, "It is squeezed, and the flavor of the vertical fruit juice is delivered."

Bathrooms are interesting. The toilet seat is heated. Really a great thing. The shower is a little strange. Theres a big room with a large bath tub thing. Theres a shower head off to the side that you use frst. The tub has a cover on it. You shower quickly and then just relax in the hot bath. Everyone uses the same water too, so its kinda strange, but cleaner than a lake and stuff.

School is nice. The classes are good. I have 4 Japanese classes,, all of them cover something a little different. Most of the students are american, but theres some french, italian, and dutch too. Its funny when we eat lunch cause its the large group of gaijin (foreigners) among the japanese people. We always get talked about, but its funny. Its so different being a minority. Whenever the gaijin are out in public, if we see other gaijin, we instantly become friends, or we try not to notice each other. I went to the temple yesterday with an american friend, and while we were eating, we got stares from EVERYONE. It was pretty hilarious, and sort of intimidating.

Ill update when there　is more to say,　i cant think of anything else right now.

Ok. So i finally have access to a computer. I dont have much time, but, Im in japan, and alive. I met my host family and they are all really nice people. I have a host mom, dad, brother, sister, and grandpa. All of them are really nice. It is taking a while to get used to how everyone speaks, cause they dont all speak the same way. Ojii-chan (the grandpa) is the hardest to understand.

School is lots of fun so far. Its funny, cause you can easily spot the group of Gaijin (Foreigners) everywhere we go. At lunch the other day, this japanese guy came up to me and gave me a flyer for an international party and said hes studying spanish. Apperntly Im hispanic. Ill have more detailed updates later, but leave me comments!

Bad News Baseball

So, several things went wrong recently, well, not all were bad, but lots of changes. First, I received an e-mail from Nanzan Daigaku saying that my original host family, the Matsuda's, had to be changed to the Funahashi family. It wasn't explained why in the e-mail, but I learned who my new new family will be:

Father: FUNAHASHI, Jun (45)
Mother: FUNAHASHI, Mayumi (45) →hobby(テニス・いけばな・読書)
Grand father FUNAHASHI, Yoshiharu (70) →hobby(時刻表を見ること)
Sister: FUNAHASHI, Miku (8) →hobby(空手・ピアノ・工作・テニス)
Brother: FUNAHASHI, Junpei (13) →hobby(空手・ゲーム・読書)

It is almost guaranteed that I will be playing video games with Junpei, so that's pretty cool! Besides the family change, it turns out that the Japanese Consulate likes to close for almost a week for New Year celebrations. Of course, this caused me to not be able to turn in my visa application, meaning I have to wait till tomorrow to do it. This means that I cannot take my original flight, leaving on Friday, so I have to push it back to Sunday. Amanda from IES was extremely helpful with the situation and told me that the staff at Nanzan Daigaku are aware that I will be arriving late, and they will help me with orientation.

Other than that, I had a really nice dinner at People Chicago with my family on the 30th. It was delicious!

New Year's eve was great fun as well. I met Kristin at her apartment where we watched a crazy Korean psychological horror film (A Tale of Two Sisters). We went to Jameson's apartment where several bands were set up to play. We watched about 1 and a half sets and left to see Leonard spin at People. People was completely packed, but it was so much fun. Kristin knows pretty much everybody in Chicago, and just happens to have 3 friends that work at People. One of them gave us 4 wristbands that equalled $400 so we could get any drink we wanted for free. That was amazing. Kala and her gang eventually showed up which was great. I'm glad she was able to go. She was also beyond helpful when Kristin started getting "sick"... After an hour of crazy alley puking, Kristin made it home with Christian by taxi, Kala and her friends left due to the closing of People, and I was sort of stuck with no way to get home. I decided to run home, cause I was cold, and couldn't sit and wait for a taxi, not to mention that there weren't any available anywhere. I made it to Kristin's apartment in like 10 minutes though. All in all, that was probably the best New Year celebration I have had yet.

Now all that is left is the visa, and preparing for departure. I haven't even started packing, but I usually wait till the night before anyway. Wish me luck!