Note: This will probably be really long soo..... just keep that in mind
July 25
11:28pm Japan Time
So uh… I’m at the new house and the Internet doesn’t seem to be working for me. I’ll see what I can do about it in the morning or whatever.
I forgot where I left off exactly… so I guess I’ll make it quick (I’m gonna skim through a lot) and just start with waking up after the first night here. I woke up and experienced my first earthquake ever while I was still lying in bed. After that, Geoff made me breakfast J and after lounging around the house for a while, we went to have lunch at a soba place near the train station. Oh one thing about restaurants in Japan, smoking is a-ok. That’s probably one of the things that will bother me the most here. Also from what I’ve seen so far, waitresses are extra perky and willing to serve and a lot of employees at retail stores and whatnot are super polite.
After lunch, we headed to department store and bought some expensive school supplies and explore the whole building. Then, we headed over to the Softbank store (Softbank is a cell phone service company) to get Geoff a new phone charger since he lost his. We headed back home afterwards since it was so hot and humid. A few hours after we got back, dinner was ready. Oddly, after dinner, I was soooo tired that I almost fell asleep while eating (this was around 8 – 8:30).
Next day, Geoff and I went to watch Toy Story 3 in Roppongi Hills. I guess you can say this was my first trip into the city city of Tokyo, does that make sense? If I had to describe it, where Geoff lives is kind of like Queens and Roppongi is like… Midtown Manhattan? I don’t know… I haven’t been around enough to make equal comparisons. Anyways, Toy Story 3 was really really good, if you haven’t watched that yet. Mind you, though, watching movies in Japan can get expensive. Granted, if you have your student ID, it’s slightly cheaper (but not really… plus I didn’t have mine so that doesn’t really matter too much…). Buying tickets ahead of time is a plus and there are assigned seats. And, for some reason, everyone who was watching the movie with us just sat there until alllll of the credits were done and over with; it seemed that they were waiting for something, but alas, nothing resulted in their patient waiting. Why do I know? We were stuck in between groups of people (we sat next to each other of course, but there were people in the aisle seats and we didn’t want to be the obnoxious ones to just up and leave in front of the people sitting down) so we just sat there… watching words.
After that, we walked around Roppongi, though we mainly went to a discount store called Don Quixote. I bought some shampoo, conditioner, and body wash so I don’t have to be a leech and use everything up at the house that I’m staying at. I bought this nice smell shampoo + conditioner called Asience. It’s supposed to be made for asian hair and oh my gosh I have that kind of hair! Haha After that, we went home since we had to be back before 4pm. After we got home, I went with Geoff and his dad to the place I’m supposed to stay at and watch over. Mr. Willis is his name and he used to be Geoff’s middle school teacher. His dad also told me that he used to work with Mr. Willis’ brother at Tropicana. His list of things to do: feed the fish, water plants, take the garbage out (omg… crazy Japanese garbage schedules).
Then we go on to what happened today.
Geoff and I went to Shibuya around 10:30am just to check out the school and walk around for a bit. OMG so many hills… up and down… pedestrian overpasses with stairs. I think I’ll be fine though… I’ll probably find some shortcut to lessen the constant up and down. After that, we went to Starbucks and then went to some street (I forgot what it was called) that is supposed the place to be for high schoolers, young people, and the like. Oh, before that, we crossed the giant crossing in Shibuya. It’s pretty amazing see all of those people walk at the same time, but if I was a driver driving through there, I would hate it and would want to run over some people.
After all of that excitement, we went back home to have eel and this really famous eel restaurant near Geoff’s house. OMG IT WAS SO TASTY AND DELICIOUS. BE JEALOUS RIGHT NOW. Fresh eel. According to his parents, it takes 40 minutes to make from the time the order is placed. Waiting was totally worth it though.
Afterwards, we went back to Geoff’s house and then it was move in time. When we got inside the house it was… quite warm. The first thing I did was feed the fish. However… they all died. From the nature of the hot house, we concluded that the fish boiled to death. On the day we met Mr. Willis, all of the fish were swimming on top and the tank was warm, so it was kind of inevitable for them to meet their maker via boiling to death. It was really really sad since I already messed up and I didn’t’ even move in yet. Geoff’s dad emptied the tank (we helped of course) and everything started to smell like dead fish. After about 40 minutes, we cleaned the tank and saved all of the plants and replaced the water. The water was yellow when we last saw the fish alive, so I’m thinking that the fish weren’t so well off anyways… X_X. We’re planning on getting him new fish to replaced the boiled ones. It probably wasn’t the best way to start off living by myself here.
After that, I went back to Geoff’s for dinner, then came back to the house. First thing I wanted to do was update the blog, but the internet didn’t work. Ugh… I’m trying to deal with it now, but it doesn’t seem like anything is working….
Oh Glee is on...
I’ll update more in the morning.
July 26, 2010
5:25am Japan Time
First night in the house and I woke up way too early. I was planning on waking up at 6:30am, but eh I guess it’s better that I’m awake now so I can figure out what to do. Internet still doesn’t work, so I have no idea what to do. I can’t seem to make it work like I usually do.
I’m watching Gatchaman… in Japanese XD as opposed to the English that I remember watching it in. It’s quite an odd experience. The whole cartoon network is in Japanese… and Disney too… OMG OPENING SONG IN JAPANESE XD. Haha I guess I should’ve expected that… though FOX only has subtitles…
天気予報によると今日曇りで気温三十三度
With my trusty converter, that’s about 91 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s not that bad compared to the last few days I’ve been here, but I readied the self-filtering water bottle that Geoff’s dad gave me.
Time to think of what to eat… I guess I can make eggs. Yesterday after going to Shibuya, we went food shopping and I bought a few things. Not very exciting, but I think it was worth mentioning. Things are more expensive here. However, they have daily specials and three-day specials, as opposed to weekly specials that are more commonly seen in the states.
Alright… it’s time to get ready.
Bye for now!
3:20pm Japan Time
Today was pretty good. I met up with Geoff this morning at the train station J. When we go to the train though… it didn’t move for a good few minutes. According the Geoff, there was a truck that was stuck on the tracks. Some trains in Japan go through streets, so they have those crossing thingies where the arms go down. I’m guessing the truck didn’t make across fast enough, so it resulted in stopping the whole train line.
Other than that slight mishap, the day was pretty good. I didn’t get lost and the infamous morning commute in Japan that people talk about wasn’t bad at all. It’s no different than riding the 7 express train to Manhattan in the morning. I don’t know what the fuss was all about.
Walking to my school wasn’t so bad either despite all of the hills and pedestrian overpasses I have to cross over. I got to the school at around 8:40am and I had to go upstairs and wait for the level check test to start. I was one of the first people there, along with two other people from who knows where. Overall, the test was pretty easy. I mean of course there were some things that I didn’t know, but it really wasn’t bad at all. The most nerve-wracking part of the whole thing was the interview in Japanese. I mean, I think I did ok, but I know that I can do so much better. Nerves got to me, as always, but I guess it doesn’t matter too much now since I think they placed me in the advanced class. How do I know? 3 people are interviewed at a time. One girl that was in my group (it was me, a guy, and that girl) really expressed herself well (not with fluency, but you understood what she was talking about… and she talked a lot); she ended up in the same class as me. The guy, on the other hand, didn’t really fare so well; he barely answered the questions and couldn’t really make conversation with the lady giving us the interview. With all due respect, the questions were pretty basic and those that sort of strayed off general topics that pertained to Japanese and Japan were prompted by the answers given by the interviewee.
So after everything was done, we got to take a short break, so we all pretty much left and went outside. During the break, I realized a good amount of people who took the test were Italian (mind you, there weren’t that many people taking the test… maybe like 15?). And from what I could conclude with my super observant skills, there are 2 girls from China, a girl from Korea, sisters from France, an obvious Asian guy from somewhere, and a bunch of Italian people. So, I figure that I’m the only American? I guess I’ll see when I go back tomorrow morning.
After all of that, I walked around Shibuya for a bit, found a Citibank, went to the discount store to buy some things, and then took the train back home. A few minutes after I got home, I heard the door bell ring a few times. I figured that the person would go away after awhile, but then suddenly this old guy comes up to the balcony of the living room and started waving at me. I opened the window and told me something. Of course, I gave my confused face since Japanese takes time to process in my mind (especially if a stranger is talking to me). He slowly explained to me that the water would be shut off tomorrow morning at 9am until 12pm… at least that’s what my brain told me. At the moment, I’m still not quite exactly sure what time it will actually be back, but I figured that I can stay out longer and explore more tomorrow just incase.
So after that minor heart attack from the landlord (I’m guessing), I made lunch; cabbage with red onions and garlic and chicken with sweet soy sauce and rice. Nothing too complicated.
Right now I’m waiting for Geoff to get out of work so I can meet him at the station and walk to his house J. I’ll be bringing my laptop with me so I can have Internet X_X.
I guess I’ll be a vegetable and watch TV until Geoff calls me.
Bye for now!
July 27, 2010
3:33pm Japan Time
Ugh… I’ll just get straight to it. I was showering last night and then I suddenly feel something on my back. It was a giant cockroach. Thankfully, Geoff was here. I was screaming and he came into the shower room and swatted it off my back. God that thing was huge… and it was on my back X_X. UGHHHHHHHH WHY MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?
Alright… I don’t want to think about it anymore.
So today was the first day of class. I got there super early… around 8:30am and found out that my class is F4A (ahaha! F4! DYOMOUJI!!!). The class they placed me in, I realized quickly, was already in progress. Only me and this other girl I remember from the placement test were new in the class (there was some other guy, but I didn’t know him lol). There were about 20 people in my class… from all different places. I think the girls that sat in front of me were Thai, the girls behind me were from Vietnam and then that girl that took the test with me was from Italy, and so on and so forth. It’s kinda cool to have all these different people in the same class. However, people from the same places tend to stick together. I guess I kinda feel alone in the class. However, the girl who sat next to me spoke some English (I think she was in LA for a few years and then went to Hong Kong… I could be wrong. The Japanese part of my brain is really forgetful).
After the first lesson, the new people had to introduce themselves. When it was my turn, I introduced myself kinda quietly. The teacher asked me where I came from (I said it, but I guess she didn’t hear it) and I said New York. All of sudden, the whole class was pretty much like… WHOA (quietly? Lol I can’t really explain it). I guess you can say my pride for NY exploded since everyone seemed so amazed that I was from there. Mind you, the first thing they probably thing of is Manhattan since almost everyone thinks of Manhattan when they hear NY). Then some one asked where in NY I went to school. Of course I said Long Island since no one would know where the heck Hempstead was. Alas, they were still confused when I said Long Island, but the girl that sat next to me whispered きれい. I bet she hasn’t been to the ghetto that Hofstra is located near XD.
After class, I went to Shibuya 109, a giant department store that is pretty much sells anything that a trendy young Japanese girl would want (and for those who want to look like one). I could barely stay in there for an hour since it was so crowded and I didn’t know where to start.
Truthfully, everything is still a bit overwhelming. From being in Japan, the crazy streets, the dead fish, the giant cockroach, barely any English… I think I’ll be fine though… hopefully.
July 28, 2010
10:12pm Japan Time
Today’s class was good. The teacher today gave me the weekly schedule. Everyday from 9 – 9:45am we have 発音と文字と３分間スピーチ。”hatsu on” is, from what I’m guessing, is repeating some recording on a CD… literally. It’s probably the most annoying thing in the world. We have to listen and read along to a few two line dialogues for about 20 minutes. The problem I have with it is that my brain can’t register it or well, I can’t read it along with other people. The thing is that everyone reads at different paces and pitches, so having 20 some odd people saying the same thing differently (for the most part) just makes my brain turn to mush. I usually end up just motioning words or mumbling nonsense. “moji”… I have no idea what that is LOL. I’ll update when I figure it out.
Then we go on to the 3 minute speeches. People in the class are assigned to do a 3 minutre speech. I don’t know if I have to do one… no one has told me that I had to sooo… I just hope that I don’t have to do it XD. Truthfully, I don’t really enjoy this part of the class since I really have no idea what the people are talking about. I mean… maybe after like half way through the whole thing I understand what they’re talking about, but generally I see these speeches as time filler. Yes, it’s good practice for the people giving the speeches, but it’s pretty boring for the people who aren’t interested or just don’t understand.
From 9:46 – 10:30, it’s different everyday. Monday and Thursday there’s grammar, on Tuesday there’s listening comprehension, on Wednesday there’s reading comprehension, and Fridays is the weekly test. Yesterday we had listening comprehension and it was pretty fun. We had to listen to words that sound similar in Japanese. For example, 正直 (しょうじき/shoujiki) and 掃除機 (そうじき/soujiki), 昼食 (ちゅうしょく/chuushoku) and 就職 (しゅうしょく/shuushoku). It’s kind of confusing, but it’s not that bad.
Today during 9:46 – 10:30 we had reading comprehension. There was a family tree with blanks and we had to fill them in based on the paragraphs provided. Personally, I really like doing stuff like that and that’s probably why I can read/comprehend better than I can converse in Japanese.
From 10:45 – 12:15 we have grammar Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, conversation on Tuesday, and composition on Friday. Conversation isn’t too excited since we have to follow along with a set type of dialogue and then practice it for like… forever. Grammar is just grammar. What we learned today I already knew, but I looked through the textbook that we have and, well, I can safely say that I pissed in my pants cause I didn’t know most of those grammar forms. And there’s gonna be a test on this stuff on Friday? Holy crap, I need to get studying.
After class, I tried walking to Harajuku, but that failed… X_X
Nothing else exciting… OH… this one guy in my class told my teacher that he wants to have a bbq party at his house after the test on Friday. Yea… it was pretty random, but I figure that if his plans go through, I’ll go, though…. I probably won’t eat anything since the bbq will probably be like… yakiniku type thing… and that’s usually all beef or pork.
