Not so sweet goodbye's..

So, by the end of my last semester. I was really starting to feel friction between myself and my host mother. I guess that all in all the experience just wasn't working out for me as I had hoped for it to pan out. Sure I had plenty of opportunity to practice japanese over the dinner table, and sometimes even had the chance to practice during arguments with my host mother (I'm told this is the best way to learn next to getting a girlfriend), but I just never really felt like I had ever moved into the Taniguchi family.

More or less, I felt that the family was renting a room in their house rather than trying to host me. I was never shown around, when guests were over I was either told to wait upstairs or to try and come home late, and it was just generally hard to enjoy my life at school and with friends when I was expected back home by six everyday (and if not, risked paying for a meal that I wouldn't eat). My host siblings, while fun to talk to, spent far too much time studying for me to actually build a relationship with. And not having internet, and spending most of my time in my room really made home a lonely place.

In the end, I decided to move out (after-all why should the Taniguchi's be pinching MY pennies, when I can do that myself). While I will miss my homedad, I certainly won't miss the monotonous toast breakfasts and chilly nights. Besides things are much better now (more on that later).

As the semester counted down, I sorta dropped the bomb on them at the last second. I had decided to use my refunded homestay money to go home for a month instead of trying to live with them over the break. At first my host mom argued that I didn't need to go home, but I think I showed that I was intent on my plans. In the end I got back about 650$ and got a flight for 574$, so it was most likely cheaper to go home as well.

I wish I had made the decision much earlier in the year, but seeing as to how I was in Japan, and the cost of living is so high, I just didn't really see anywhere to escape to. On my final night, there was no special going away dinner, and in the morning, no sad goodbye's, but they did give me a gift. This heart-cookie. Needless to say, it left a very sour taste in my mouth.

From what I've learned. Its quite common for other students to run into host family that seem to be much more worried about making money from hosting a student than actually hosting them. One of my friends actually just picked up and left one morning, and then showed up at the school's office, I guess I should be thankful that things didn't work out that bad, and I'm glad to see friends this semester settling in with homestays sound much better.



Oh and here is a giant penis being paraded through the streets... we'll get to the story in a few more posts. In the meantime, trying to pick class for both Sophia this semester and UVa next semester at the same time is really putting me in a bind and making me realize that I don't know what I want to accomplish in this last year. Still, my tentative UVa schedule is:

Intro To Linguistics
US Foreign Policy
Chinese Politics
Elementary Chinese
Japanese - Lost and Found In Translation
Language And Prehistory

So with the exception of Chinese, they are all high level classes... still I mean chinese, might as well be a high level class... but after having studied Korean and Japanese... how much harder could it be?

I hear the echoes of heels at night.

Girls here don't seem to think they are adults unless they are constantly wearing heels.

久しぶり！

It took awhile, but the stars have finally aligned just right to move me to blog. I guess I let things get a little out of hand. I'll give you a very fast rundown of whats been going on though in chronological order and with pictures!

After returning from Korea, a bunch of friends showed up here in Japan including homeboy-Ravi and girlfriend-Jen. Sadly I can't really remember what went on. But looking over my pictures I at least see some Karaoke (what else in Japan).



With that done, it was time for exams, this wasn't nearly as tough as I thought it would be. I think I maybe have overstudied (is that possible) considering what was expected of me, and the fact that I had solid grades going into the finals anyway. So in the end I finished off the semster with:
International Relations = A
Intensive Japanese = B

Still, to celebrate, a few friends and I snuck up to the top floor of one of the Sophia buildings. Brought ourselves a few drinks from the コンビに (convenience store)　and enjoyed the sunset over 新宿(Shinjuku).

After the semester was over, there wasn't much left in the way of things to do and time wound down as I wished some students safe trips back to their homes. Its sad that some people were only here for half a year and I won't be seeing them again next semester. Especially since, they are going back to their home countries and so my chances of ever seeing them again is pretty slim. Thats why you have to be glad for the advent of sites such as facebook, or even just the internet in general.





居酒屋(Japanese-style bar)


回転寿司(Rotating Sushi Restaurant... you are charged but the plate... and that 'just one more' mentality always ends up costing me)

Anyway, a few big bits of news to cover. Break here in Japan was from February 1st to April 11th (yes I'm still on break) and I had no clue what it was I would do for that time, so...
I moved out of my homestay (unhappily)
I returned home for a little over a month (happily)
I returned to Japan reinvigorated and ready for a new semster (happily)
I moved into a new apartment (happily!)
Friends from my school in VA are now here in Tokyo for the next semester (including Jen)
I got a job

So in celebration of me being back on the blog.. I'm going to update you on all these topics... later... maybe one update a day... who knows!

In the meantime, I'm back... thanks to everyone who claimed to actually be reading the blog and told me while I was at home...

See you tomorrow.

Here is me at a penis festival... in case you thought you weren't going to check my blog

ADanInKorea Edition

Sorry for the late update here, but anyway, I just wanted to share my pictures, experiences, and thoughts from my Christmas/New Year's trip to Korea. Basically, I took first-year Korean last year, lived together with many Korean students in my dorm, and by the end of the year had complete 3 Korean history classes. Anyway, I guess I developed a bit of an interest in the country/culture and really wanted to visit it (especially since it is so close to Japan).

Here is my host, Yeseul and her brother. I spent my first 5 nights in Korea at her house. Some things about Korea that I found surprising were 1). the cold (about -8C at the time) 2). street vendors (you can never find these in Japan) 3). the cheap transportation fees (never was more than a 1$ to ride the train around). I guess I've been in Japan too long, because it was really surprising to see people holding hands in public or even talking on the subway. As a whole Korea was a much more open society than Japan and I think that was something that I really enjoyed after these past 4 months.


As far as sights, I never left Seoul, but there was really no reason to. The city is exceptionally large and comparable to Tokyo. Karaoke, Clubs, Castles, Seoul Tower, really good food, and great shopping areas. All-in-all there was so much to do there, but I'll single out a few events with the next few pictures.




First up is Seoul Tokyo. And the view from it. Couple go up to the tower (high on a mountain in the center of the city) and write their names on locks and clip them to the fence up by the tower.



This castle was originally built sometime in the 15th century I believe. It is surrounded by all kinds of art museums and even an Owl museum. The river in this picture is made up entirely of tap water, but I didn't quite understand the story behind it.



We also visited a public bath, which was nice for all the saunas, hot tubs, ice rooms, massage machines, and the best of all, a tub full of fish that eat all the dead skin off your feet (ticklish people beware). Second is a man giving out haircuts in the subway station of all places. And then lastly is a flashy shopping district (though all these buildings are selling fake goods).




Lastly, we have some food (Korean food is generally very spicy and every food is served in a separate dish, so by the end of the meal, 4 people can easily leave a mess of 30+ dishes). Next a view of the airport on my departure day. A shady shopping area that cropped up around the US military base in Seoul (I tearfully witness a cat get run over here!) and finally a view of the city at night.

Perhaps the best part of my visit was that friends from UVa were also in Seoul and we all had the chance to visit (actually I spent my last 5 days at one of their houses there). So in all, even though I was in Korea for the holidays, having all those friends there made it feel much more like home than Tokyo could ever have.

Update coming...soon

Holiday Homesickness can hit harder than the eggnog

I guess the Christmas holiday has finally caught up with me, and in the most unlikely of places. Who'd think that a few jazz-covers of Christmas songs over a bowl of Curry could stir up so much emotion. Its all okay though, because it was quickly remedied when I ran into Chris, a friend who had graduated from the University of Virginia last year, and is presently teaching English in Japan. It was true-chance meeting if there ever was one, as Chris lives 5 hours away, and was only in the city for the weekend before he flies back to the USA. But anyway, in a city of 12 million, I managed to bump into him roaming the streets while showing my friend Kohei around the city.


Anyway, thanks everyone for your support. I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a　Happy New Year (especially those of you in VA and TX).
I am signing out for the remainder of the year and heading to Korea, so I'll get back to you when I return.

Much Love,
Daniel

Its been 3

Months that is. I must say that so far my time here in Japan has been chockfull of high and low points. Still I think I've adjusted to living here and find it hard to believe that its only been 3 months (still 7 more to go!). I guess it is true that I really didn't know what I was getting into by going abroad, but I'm glad that I decided to go for a full year, because having to leave now would be completely disappointing. Its strange, that so many things I thought I knew about Japan can turn out to be false, other things are true, and still others I had never even imagined.

In celebration of reaching this landmark, I'd like to take some time to talk about some of the things I've been most proud of during these 3 months, and what I'd like to work on for the remainder of the year (just for some reference).

I guess firstly, I'm surprised I kept this blog up for even this long, but I think I can easily add a few more entries per day. Even having to overcome the challenges are sparse internet use at home. I'm glad that I'm longer as reserved when speaking Japanese. I used to have a bit of a complex when speaking, and feared making a mistake, but now generally just go for it and see what happens. Likewise, we've covered a lot material in our class, and I'm glad to see myself keeping up with everything, still, I believe I can study much harder and really want to get as much out of this time as I can, so I'm hoping to crack down more. In the past few months I've traveled around the Tokyo area quite a lot which has also been exciting, but I hope that I'll get out of the Tokyo area in time (wallet permitting). But enough can't be said about the friends that I've met here, and already I'm saddened by the idea that at the end of this school year we'll all be scattered back across the globe (literally). I think that for every tidbit of information I've learned about Japan, I've learned twice as much about my friends countries.

Goals for the new year:
- Get a Job (you bum)
- Study up
- Snatch up an ever-elusive "non-english-speaking" Japanese friend


Lastly, here is a video of Tokyo that really nails the way this city feels, especially for me. I think it probably conveys more than my pictures ever good. This city really can overwhelm you with everything in it, and has been a huge adjustment for me, but I think its definitely grown on me.


Oh and here's a picture of me dressed like a little Chinese girl...

Look at these until I'm ready to write something!

I spent this weekend in Yokohoma with some classmates and their friends. Our first stop on this trip was Chinatown (entrance pictured above), where our main goal was to eat some chinese food, drink some bubble tea, and just generally take in the sights of "Japan's Biggest Chinatown."

From there, we walked down to the boardwalk (Yokohama is a port city) where I snapped these shots of one of the better developed areas in Yokohoma. It seemed to be a trend in this area for people to dress up there dogs in clothing and then bring them to the park. Which was unfortunate, because none of the dogs seemed too happy with the idea.

Around the ferris wheel was a very large shopping center featuring almost any brand you could think up. Also the Christmas lights in this area for extra nice. After a bit of shopping, we all returned to our friends' house and the Japanese girls who had accompanied us for the day cooked dinner for us lazy foreigners. It was especially nice of them because they live in Yokohama, so the fact that they rode the train 1 hour just to cook us dinner and then go home was a real nice gesture.
Once they left, we all threw on pajamas, watched movies til the early morning, made a few VoIP phone calls, and then called it a night.

On Monday (school holiday) we went to Fuji-Q, an amusement park located at the base of Mt. Fuji. Our assumption was that many people wouldn't be there because it was a holiday, but unfortunately it was also raining just heavy enough for the rollercoasters to be closed all morning. In the end things worked out though, and everything opened up (including the sky) and the trip became that much brighter.


And lastly, here are two of the three main rollercoasters at the park. Once is a 4thDimension coaster (your seats rotate) and the other is one of those pressure launch ones. I've probably never enjoyed a coaster as much as I did after riding the red one, and if you watch the video you can probably understand where all the adrenaline comes from. The high-speed launch one was also nice, especially with the great view of Mt. Fuji while you ride.